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Do you ever look at the most successful business people and wonder how they managed to climb their way to the top? Was it luck, hard work, connections, or simply a knack for selling? While you may think that finding success in business development, especially as a Latin American, requires years and years of grinding, that doesn't have to be the case. Just take the example of Carlos Jimenez Castrillo. The Costa Rican is already the Business Development Manager of the international start-up Firstbase. He's also an Angel investor of multiple startups, and a member of the Founders Network and the Forbes Business Development Council and he's only 22 years old. We spoke with Jimenez to get some tips on how to advance in business as a Central or Latin American, fast. Perfect Your English As a Latin American, it can be hard to break into the global marketplace without a strong base in English. For Jimenez, learning English in private school proved to be an invaluable asset to have, it definitely is a benefit not everyone has but it did push his career significantly since the start. By the time he graduated high school, he explained, he "already had an advanced English level". This meant he could apply for more jobs and expand his horizons. "It gave me a few benefits like sourcing jobs, maybe from other countries," he says. Begin Working While Still in School Many people believe that in order to build a career in business, you should follow a certain career trajectory. However, Jimenez proved this isn't always the case. After graduating, he took a university course in Computer Science in Costa Rica. At the same, he began getting internships at Canadian startups where he helped founders expand into Latin America. Even though he was young and inexperienced, he proved a valuable asset for these companies thanks to his industry knowledge and perfect English. Get to Understand How Companies Operate For Jimenez, working as an intern for international startups taught him how business development teams work in other countries. It also taught him about how startups are founded, from the earliest stages of inception towards getting the first funding round. Because he had already been working on the inside of several startups, a few months after starting working for global startups, he already knew what was required to launch his own. Don't Be Afraid to Create Your Own Startup Most people would never dream of launching a startup as a teenager — but because Jimenez had already worked for several startups, he felt ready. "I decided I was relatively young and didn't want to work for someone," he says. "So, I jumped in and created my own startup." Along with several other Costa Rican founders, Jimenez created a platform that could connect Central American companies with promising investors in the US and Europe. Learn from global startup organizations Jimenez understood that business success wasn't just about launching a successful company — it was also about networking and personal branding. So, at just 18 years old, he applied to the Founder Institute, the world’s largest startup incubator, and became the youngest Country Director in the world. "It was pretty tough to get a position like this," he says. He also joined the Forbes Business Development Council of Experts. Automate, Automate, Automate Jimenez eventually joined Firstbase's business development department and quickly proved himself to be a proficient business developer. For one thing, Jimenez explains, his experience in working on the macro operations of large companies allowed him to "aim higher" with his business development goals. Plus, he always automates his processes. "My model on selling is basically automating as much as I can on the business development process, so I just focus on closing deals instead of the actual operations of selling." His model is clearly working. Firstbase is currently growing at a rate of 30 to 40% every month. Summing Up: Go With the Flow Jimenez has had a staggering amount of success in just a few years. As an entrepreneur, he's launched his own startup and invested in several other startups in Costa Rica. As a business developer, he's helped Firstbase grow at an exceptional rate and has already been promoted to Business Development Manager at the young age of 22 years old. One thing Jimenez's story shows us is that it's impossible to plan a career in business. As he puts it, "I wanted to be around startups since I first graduated. But I didn't know that I was going to be where I am right now — until it happened." In other words, the best way to find success young is to "go with the flow" rather than planning out a clear career trajectory. Follow your passions and everything will fall into place. Take risks, and learn.

How to Succeed in Central America by a 22-Year-Old Business Dev Manager and Angel Investor

An introduction to outstaffing for founders and execs of Series A startups. While it may seem a little off for a startup to outsource software development, the talent market (and the COVID-19 pandemic) definitely suggest that it is a great opportunity to gain a competitive advantage . by adding remote tech folks to your team Over the past few years, we’ve heard many stories about the failed attempts of founders to build the right outstaffing and outsourcing capabilities for their startups. And this is true. Navigating the area may be a complex and time-consuming process, so it’s better when such things are planned ahead, thoroughly reviewed, and the decision is made using accurate data. The overall market is hot right now, and prices are higher than usual due to qualified talent shortages worldwide. So I wanted to share a quick guide on navigating the process of selecting development teams for startups at the Series A stage. However, the same practice of dev team selection may be applied at other stages too, as well as at Seed, to outsource the initial product development or MVP. But Series A startups are considered to be those that already have a software development process in-house and need to boost the engineering organization by adding remote engineers. Consider this to be a quick reference specifically tailored for Series A startups. GETTING STARTED Series A startups tend to operate at a fast-moving pace, and everything that’s happening inside the company looks a little messy, and that’s okay. If you can control things — you’re moving too slow, right? So, sometimes it’s tempting to speed up the selection of a software development team, but in reality, this requires a thorough process. Let’s review how to get things in order in a comparatively fast way. The first step to get this started is to reach out to your network. You need a solid reference here that comes from your network. Reach out to your VC, partner, or angel to see if they might have a reference for you. VCs and angels usually have a portfolio of companies with different stories, and there is a chance that one of those may have built a successful software outsourcing capability and could make an introduction. Don’t give up (I know you never do) if your partners don’t have a reference. Startup founders network a lot, so reach out to your peers to see if they outsource or outstaff engineers and can make an intro or know someone to refer you to. Once you get the referral, don’t rush to sign a contract with the referred company. You may want to get more information, as well as some other prospective partners from the market. Reviewing such sites as Clutch or Goodfirms can give you a few more great leads. Generally, having more than one potential partner gives you perspective and ensures you’re getting the right fit and the best deal. Pay attention to reviews and projects that those sites are offering. Once you have a shortlist and knowledge about your options, it’s time to get the process going. RUNNING THE PROCESS A good way to start the process is to craft an RFP. Including things like an introduction, company info, project overview, proposal details, and next steps would definitely be helpful for the potential partner to respond in the best way possible. While company info, project details, and next steps are company-specific, let’s look closely at the proposal details — as this is what you want to know about potential partners. Good RFPs I’ve seen include a partner’s company overview (a.k.a. sales deck), client testimonials, case studies, previous work, developer profiles, pricing structure, and any additional information they might consider to be helpful. Engineer profiles are a great reference, but more than likely, those engineers are not available, or if they are, they won’t be available by the end of the RFP process, unless you sign a contract right away — which I know you won’t. The RFP response highly depends on your project, especially the pricing structures, and technically this is a topic for a separate article. At this stage, prospective partners share their rates per hour (unless you’ve shared the full PRD or SRS), as if you’re looking into an outstaffing type of contract — not a project-based one. In most cases (based on what I’ve heard from founders of Series A startups), an outstaffing type of contract is preferred over a project-based. The explanation for this is simple — it is much easier to work with the remote team using a monthly burn rate and an internal team that assigns tasks and things to work on. The project-based approach takes more time to process, and the remote team will have a PM who intermediates between your team and the partner’s outsourced team. You want to build an engineering organization with higher velocity. When you have all the responses, it’s time to review them and interview those who stand out. : Don’t brush off a company that hasn’t done anything specifically in your industry or domain. Many software development and outstaffing companies are industry-agnostic, and they might have a successful blueprint that can be widely adopted across industries. Tip The second stage of the RFP is the interviews. While things like warming up and “about the company” conversations are a good way to start, the things that truly matter come later during the interview. Your goal is to read non-verbal signals and understand the cultural fit and company culture. But an interview with a great sales team is not a one-way street. They also assess the same things you do. If the sales team asks you the right questions, educating you and making you think differently — this is a strong signal you’ll want to account for in your assessment. If you’re looking to outstaff engineers, try to dig deeper into how the company treats their engineers, what their assessments look like (when onboarding new engineers), and how they support or develop engineering communities. For project-based — what matters is their approach and processes for the product deliverables. If you are considering offshore engineers, remember that the company location matters too. Ask where the company offices are located and where the engineers are based. Companies with a U.S. presence would definitely be at the top of my list. Although they offer slightly higher rates, you’ll be able to sleep better at night. : It’s nice to have engineers online during your normal work hours, but it’s not really that important. Work has shifted toward a result-oriented mode; . The rest doesn’t matter much. Tip the delivery was completed — period Try asking a few tricky questions, like what if we don’t like the engineer, what if we don’t see their commits pushed to the branch — most of the time, an enterprise-grade partner has processes in place to prevent the wrong things from happening, but just look at their responses for now. Lastly, don’t forget to discuss the project timelines, or in the case of outstaffing, ask potential partners what their timelines are for allocating engineers. Also, ask for client references. A U.S. based-client could shed light on things that were left out of the conversation. After completing the interview process, you’ll have a good data set you can use to make a well-informed decision. Compare responses against your requirements and try not to be emotional here; you need numbers to make your final choice. CONTRACT Again, we’re looking into professional software development services, and a good contract can help navigate the relationship. What you’ll need here is your lawyer — because every company has a unique situation, and the lawyer can help you craft a contract that is the right fit for your company. A good contract includes things like payment terms, confidential information, restrictions on use and disclosures, trade secrets protection, non-solicitation of employees (both parties), work and assignments, IP license, representations and warranties, and termination and governing law, to name a few. If you’re looking into building a unique product, you may also want to include that the partner should have your permission to engage with a competitive company or build a similar product for other companies. This may also include unique components of your product — for example, a chat feature in a healthtech mobile app. Don’t overestimate your own lawyer skills. Get a good one, instead, to help you with the contract. You can also ask a partner for their contract draft and send it over to your lawyer for review. The PRD and the estimate can be part of the contract for project-based assignments, detailing all deliverables and timelines. MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS Congratulations, now you’re on the way to accessing global talent and gaining a competitive advantage, along with other benefits like diversity and inclusion. After you sign the contract and get the software engineers that are right for your company, a few other things that may need some attention too are the payments and deliverables. Depending on the payment terms, there could be a 50% down payment and a 50% balance payment once all-time tracks are submitted. At the end of every period (usually the beginning of the next month), you’ll receive a report detailing the work completed and the invoice. Make sure you also discuss the format of the reports — each report should include a task name, link to project tracking software, and time spent on the task for each engineer working on the project. This shouldn’t be complicated, as most project management software provides an option to generate time-tracking reports with just a few clicks. Some partners may have a flat rate per month for each engineer, rather than an hourly-based assignment. This is also seen as a good practice that simplifies reports when an engineer is on your project for a full month. Also, you can negotiate with the partner a post-payment structure, as well as NETs 15, 30, or 45, but there should always be a balance between the time of work the partner has completed and the funds that land their bank account. Find a win-win with your partner here. If you adopt good practices for remote team management, or if your in-house team is remote, you may find it pretty easy managing the outstaffed team as well. For different projects, the deliverables are tracked in unique ways, but a good practice for monitoring outstaffing engagement is to look at the daily push commits initiated by each team member. If this is not happening, make sure you or your partner are equipped with the necessary tools. For example, a partner may have an internal tool that tracks the commits of engineers. If the bot doesn’t see a commit for two days in a row, it notifies the engineer to push their code immediately and CCs the account manager to check in with the engineer. Also, a great partner will be open to sharing the best practices of remote team management that you can implement across your organization. The process of software development with outstaffed remote engineers is pretty straightforward. Your team manages the progress and keeps things under control. But you need to ensure that the outstaffed team possesses a specific skill set, is professional, communicates clearly, and is self-sustained. These things provide timely deliverables of your product. Happy outstaffing! Connect with me on . LinkedIn

The Series A Startup Guide to Outstaffing Software Developers

In the wake of the pandemic, many corporations fell into the pitfall of tunnel vision, focusing only on restrictions and limitations. A few companies, however, recognized an opportunity in an otherwise unattainable situation and sought to take advantage of it. The transformation of Clubhouse from a startup to a $1 billion business in eight months was among the most remarkable, fascinating, and brilliant growth stories in history. A Brief Introduction Rohan Seth and Paul Davison launched Clubhouse in April 2020 as an audio-only social media platform. The company’s growth was largely driven by three aspects — . Many people use Clubhouse to expand their professional and personal networks. influencer marketing, their strong ties to the Silicon Valley tech community, and their beautifully crafted products Let us begin this case study by looking at the first two months when clubhouse launched to discover why Clubhouse was such a massive hit during this time. (April 2020, May 2020) Using Their Reputation As An Advantage The founders Rohan Seth and Paul Davison leveraged their reputation and network to reach influential figures. Clubhouse accessed its market via the . promotion of mega-influencers such as Drake, Elon Musk, and Oprah Winfrey Without a doubt, an endorsement from a large influencer will draw a lot of attention to your product. It is impressive that Clubhouse managed to attract such high-caliber influencers within the first two months of the app’s release. These mega influencers brought what was still an app in its infancy to the attention of everyone in Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. All of this was made possible by Seth and Davison’s network. As well-established members of the Silicon Valley tech community and the venture capital community, Seth and Davison have created a strong network of high-net-worth individuals. As a matter of fact, no less than four technology startups have been co-founded by the duo. One of these is the Highlight application, . which was purchased by Pinterest Again, their ties to the tech and venture capital community proved useful as they managed to procure funding of , a private American venture capital firm. This investment was an impressive coup for Clubhouse. $12 million from Andreessen Horowitz Common Misfortunes Of Silicon Valley Startups To understand Clubhouse’s early success properly, we must look at Silicon Valley in its broader context. In Silicon Valley, startups often fail in their first year due to several factors such as lack of funding, investors pulling out, and hiring the wrong people. This commonly happens when the personalities, ambitions, and goals of the founders do not align. As a consequence, the company becomes fragmented and divided. On top of that, venture capital companies are known for being risk-averse and may deny companies funding when they most need it. This makes it clear that the factors that cause Silicon Valley tech startups to fail would also determine Clubhouse’s success. The founders’ network and reputation, along with their brilliant and invite-only approach, provided a successful route to market awareness and resulted in a highly lucrative investment opportunity. Intuitive and Familiar Design Social media would struggle to gain the approval of the wider community without a flawless user interface and user experience. It is common for a product to garner short-term attention, but without a high-quality design, it is impossible to maintain the same level of engagement. A key feature that sets Clubhouse apart from its competitors is that users do not need to look at the screen once they have chosen a conversation to join. This makes it extremely convenient for them because they can use the platform on the go, pretty much like a live podcast. Users have the freedom to use the app while they are driving, running, or even studying. This results in Clubhouse generating similar levels of screen time to Spotify. High levels of screen time lead to a higher ranking in the app store and, for Clubhouse, this means more downloads and, therefore, more attention from investors. Open-Networking with FOMO The second advantage of Clubhouse is its open networking structure. In essence, this means you have no restrictions in using the app. It is entirely up to you to decide where you will go and who you will meet. You can move into and out of Clubhouse rooms, observe conversations, get involved, or even contribute to the discussion. However, there are no archives of Clubhouse conversations, so if you missed the live show, you’re out of luck. For this reason, whenever a celebrity announces that they are hosting a Clubhouse conversation, it generates a lot of interest, and influencers take notice. Clubhouse uses this clever strategy to play on people’s natural fear of missing out. Invite-Only Clubhouse operates on an invitation-only basis. By December 2020, it had over 600,000 members on the one hand and celebrities running the show on the other. Now, it has over 10 million weekly active users. The platform has a very exclusive feel and is viewed from the outside as mysterious and unexplainable, which presents desperation for those who wish to be involved. As a result of their exclusivity, Clubhouse invites were later inevitably assigned a monetary value. Within a few months, members began selling their limited invites to waiting users. Summary A tech startup’s first few months are crucial to its success. In general, securing funding and establishing a viable path to market are extremely important. Although Seth and Davison’s networks may have played a significant role in the success of Clubhouse, it would be unwise to assume that you could reach this point solely based on good connections. They navigated their startup brilliantly by not repeating the mistakes of their predecessors and by focusing on their ultimate goal. Moreover, Clubhouse created an immaculate environment centered on exclusivity. Their invitation-only strategy added more mystery and attraction to their platform, and their ties to the tech community enabled them to quickly gain access to the influencer community. All of this led Clubhouse to be the $4 billion company that it is today. 11 Lessons From Clubhouse Job hunt, startup, etc. They used their network to leverage startup capital as well as influencers for their take-to-market strategy. 1. Reputation and network can expedite anything you’re taking on. 2. Influencer marketing works… when done right. This was the 4th successful tech venture by the two co-founders. 3. An overnight success takes years. 4. FOMO and exclusivity will always drive people to want to be “in”. Make something that people value, and make it exclusive. Part of the appeal of the app was the intuitiveness and user-friendly UI/UX. 5. Product-led growth is important. They didn’t launch the product and hoped people signed up. The launch and strategy were purposeful and executed flawlessly. 6. Have a strong take to market strategy. 7. Creating a community is hard, but when done right, in a novel way — it’s a billion-dollar business idea. You don’t always need to have your camera on. 8. Audio is powerful and intimate, even at scale. The nature of Clubhouse prompted moderators to make people feel welcome - a stark contrast from other social media platforms. 9. Build a product that focuses on inclusion and acceptance. Even after joining, you’re instantly notified when other members of your social network join to increase the chances of you staying with & using the app. 10. Build community into every part of the app. The process is simple, intuitive, and non-invasive. Signing up makes sense, and you don’t feel as though the app knows every intimate detail about your life. 11. First impressions matter. Regarding UI/UX and onboarding. Also published on https://newsletter.roioverload.com/p/how-clubhouse-drove-sign-ups-and .

Startup Lessons: How Clubhouse Made $1B in 8 Months

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been celebrated for its application across a ton of fields, from medicine to agriculture, science, computer programming, finance and security. For the 21st century farmer, AI can help detect crop disease, predict crop yields and spray pesticide with pinpoint accuracy. With respect to medicine and health, AI can allow scientists to analyse the genetic code of DNA to detect genomic condition, hours in advance of them occurring, and detect cancer in tissue slides better than human epidemiologists. AI is also a key driver transforming the banking industry; helping banks save time, boost their revenue and to consumers. predict hypoglycemic events bringing more accessible technology But there is one area of banking where little recognition has been given until now of the immense opportunity AI offers: that of making risk analysis easier than ever before, essentially, taking the risk out of risk analysis. Lauded a ‘gamechanger’ for risk management in finance, AI is providing banks and credit unions with the AI solutions and tools to identify potential investment risks as well as fraud - a considerable development considering that merchants lose on average 1.5 percent of their annual revenue through fraud. Risk analysis platform is one of the game-changing platforms that is “taking away the risk from investments made by banks” according to DeepRisk.AI co-founder Chaitanya Vaidya, a US-based Software Engineer and Director of Technology at SignaPay. DeepRisk.AI The online platform is the very first end-to-end risk management platform for banks, powered by patented state of the art artificial intelligence technology. Founded by Vaidya, the FinTech startup helps risk analysts make the right decision, through enabling them to make simple inputs which then produce in-depth, easy-to-read risk analysis reports. Up until now, the financial services industry’s risk analysis approach was largely based on simple heuristics, with customer intelligence gleaned mostly through focus groups and consumer behaviour surveys - which left a lot of room for error. DeepRisk.AI’s AI software, however, transforms underwriting and real time transaction data into intuitive text insights, portfolio analytics and reporting almost immediately. “We developed DeepRisk.AI to help risk analysts at banks make better decisions with ease,” Vaidya said, before adding that DeepRisk.AI will launch its latest add-on service in mid-October of this year. Called the ‘Transaction Analysis Piece’ by DeepRisk.AI’s team, the service will help provide users with daily reports on investments they are considering making. “For instance, if someone wanted to know the risks of investing in a coffee shop in a small town in Texas that was showing a large annual profit margin, the DeepRisk.ai software would take into account all of the analytics of not just that coffee shop, but all the businesses in the surrounding area, to produce a result that would not only state that it is a high-risk investment but would also list out the factors as to why it is a high risk,” he stated. “With the Transactional Analysis Piece, DeepRisk will tell our customers every day which transactions are of the highest risk to them, without them having to do anything,” said Vaidya. If the company’s success to date is anything to go by, the add-on service is sure to appeal to DeepRisk.AI users. Having initially developed DeepRisk.AI to solve the problems faced by risk analysts every day, as opposed to building a business that would purely leverage the co-founders’ AI expertise, DeepRisk.AI took off at lightning speed as the world’s biggest banks quickly realised the potential it offered to risk analysis operations. “It was actually Founders Network that deserves some of the credit for how DeepRisk began,” the tech innovator and entrepreneur said, before explaining that it was at the Founders Network events that he met other tech-based entrepreneurs and developed his entrepreneurial skills. “The CEO of Founders Network, Kevin Holmes, was also so impressed with my ideas that he immediately told me to patent it, because I was onto something big,” Vaidya said. “So, I pitched it to my boss, and suggested spinning it out into a different company. And DeepRisk was born.” Already, DeepRisk.AI has processed over three thousand merchants and is even being considered by some of the world’s biggest banks. And it makes sense. AI and risk management are perfectly aligned, with AI allowing risk managers of financial institutions far more structured analysis than their approach prior to the digital revolution: where countless hours were spent handling and evaluating unstructured data. AI solutions today can provide financial institutions with immediate, trustworthy data on customer intelligence, helping them make advised decisions, quicker. The timing is fortuitous for DeepRisk’s founders. Risk management is serious business - one that includes over 30,000 companies and in revenue every year. Leveraging AI expertise to tap into the FinTech world was a somewhat risky leap, but the risk has certainly paid off. generates $6 billion

Taking the Risk out of Risk Analysis - An AI Story

authentic nCent team fist-bump Here at nCent Labs we spend a great deal of time thinking about how to unlock collective talent and appropriately attribute value within communities. These are the building blocks of efficient incentive markets. Why We Need nGage Campus Founders The field of incentive design is both broad and interdisciplinary, touching , , and even . However, applications of incentive to is an emergent field of thought inquiry. Making enough progress to support market growth will require a whole new generation of independent thinkers. These are mainly long term issues and questions. Our “meta” solution is ! Economics Sociology Computer Science Biology design blockchain nGage We are currently laser focused on growing a founder network on college campuses. The goals for this project are: To promote an entrepreneurial “founder” driven view of technical development of blockchains in general and incentive markets on blockchains in particular To build an nCent Global Campus network that will between students across the globe, and connect mentors with practitioners implementing incentive compatible designs in the market facilitate connections and knowledge transfer To to be more inclusive of diverse backgrounds and interdisciplinary viewpoints in guiding the development of the blockchain community expand the pipeline of talent How Does nGage Work? We will get back to you with an invitation. There are special prizes for referring your friends to apply! Apply to be a Founder here . This requires you and a co-founder and 10 total members. Everyone in the group will be able to recruit new members with a unique link from our campus nGage page. The only requirement for validated members at this time is that they should submit their email on the Campus Founder page, and follow the nCent Nation telegram group ( ) Recruit your friends to join your chapter. https://t.me/ncent Post a photo of your first meeting and we will send you a box of swag. We will also cover the cost of pizza and soda for your meeting (restrictions may apply). You will also be connected with our nCent Worldwide Campus Founders Network. This will have special offers and deals on many products and services, educational and curriculum content, special dev seminars and classes, early access to pre-release tools, opportunities to be a hub for grants and other airdrops on campus, and potentially tickets to nCent sponsored meetups and events across the Globe. We also have travel grants available to help select students to attend our annual conference, Receive Swag and nCent Global Campus Resources! nSpire.network whiteboarding in progress (on blackboard) Why are We So Excited About nGage? We are fired up to get student attention about the power of incentive markets and - we know there is an entrepreneurial hunger out there and we are eager to what the community will build with our tools and platform nCent Even if there is no short term economic payoff, we think getting smart college kids involved with our platform will be mutually beneficial. This is our way of “paying it forward” and we could see a world where that positive karma results in numerous internships, startups and other opportunities for these talented students down the road We want to have numerous “use cases” ready to go when our main net launches. (Some of our current use cases include , , , and even ). We cannot possibly do it all alone. The fervor and community spirit of young people in College is unmatched and unstoppable — we want to be inspired by YOU! employee referral programs volunteering projects online auctions dating apps Learn more by emailing me directly at kk@ncnt.io or visiting campus.ncent.io . To stay in the nCent loop, hear me tweet and join our international telegram channel . — PS the .edu/student email address that refers the most people to sign up on our website will get extra swag (we are currently weighing sunglasses, water bottles, or notebooks, but if the referral count is >50 will likely be all 3!)

Introducing nGage: the nCent Labs Worldwide Campus Founder’s Program

A conversation with Rich White, founder & CEO of UserVoice about how he is building Company Culture at UserVoice Hi, this is Rama, / CEO of GoodRipple. helps you send fun positive vibes to your coworker anonymously on Slack and our other product, helps you see how your Company Values are lived weekly, so you can build strong company in real-time. I had a fascinating conversation with , Founder & CEO of and wanted to share some of things we talked about. I first met him at a event called the Summit. I am a big fan of his nuanced thinking. founder GoodRipple Avocado Culture culture Richard White UserVoice Founders Network A scrappy start in Santa Cruz and a ‘work at-all-costs’ attitude Rich was working on a calendaring solution as part of the early team at Kiko (first-ever batch of YC) and was finding that they were spending too much time to receive feedback from users and there was no good way to receive it at scale. started in that context: Build Better Products with Intelligent Product Feedback. Rich told me about the frugal and cheap way of being in the early days. The cofounders rented a place to live together in Santa Cruz (which was much cheaper than the Bay Area to live in). The early days informed one of the values today: “Frugal Not Cheap”. Rich recalled how they would drive up the 280/101 (highways) often to the famed Sand Hill Rd to meet venture capitalists and one person would drive and the two others would be working and they would switch driver/passenger roles along the way to keep working. When it was time to move out of Santa Cruz, one cofounder said to Rich that he would miss the local bus commute because of the spectacular view of the coastline which was visible during the bus ride, Rich wondered what view as he had been literally heads down working during these bus rides! UserVoice The first few employees were people with families and that impacted the culture early on As UserVoice added the first few employees to the team, a few of them had families and the working style had to change to allow those employees to contribute at work and be able to spend time with their families. The culture was one where you worked seriously heads down during the day and went home to be with family (and worked more flexibly within the hours of the day). The place may not have looked or felt as much fun as other startups some of which could easily be confused for an adult playground. In order to be super productive, UserVoice experimented with forced work from home days and no meeting days, to help everyone be more productive. This culture kind of just happened naturally given the context of the employees with families. An intentional look at Culture: Company Values written on a wall led us to discover who we are The first community manager at UserVoice also helped articulate the values of the company for the first time. There were 10 values that were written on the wall. The effect of having those values written was that people felt the values reflected them and the values were things they could rally around. However, in the process a schism in the company became clear — 80% of the company really liked the culture and 20% did not. One of reasons for the split was around what people wanted the company to be for them. 20% of the people wanted things like movie nights, happy hours, and the others did not really want that (likely because they had other preferences like spending time with family). It turns out that during the course of a few months, most of the people in the 20% group left the company. A turning point for the founder/CEO: Rich realized that Company Culture is something he needed to own, not outsource (even internally) Until that point, Rich had not seen company culture as a priority and did not own it. With the schism and its impact, Rich realized he could not outsource company culture even internally, and decided to take more ownership of culture and has been owning it ever since. The process of articulating Company Values: A collaborative process with intention set by the leader Rich talked me through how he went about articulating the culture, a few times over the lifetime of the company. He created 4 brainstorming groups of a few people with different compositions (group of people who had been at the company a long time, group of people who were newer to the company, group of women, group of people from the same office (SF and/or Raleigh), group from the executive team. Each group was asked to come up with 3–5 ideas for the Company Values. With all the ideas submitted, Rich mapped them together and reviewed them to find that only 10% did not really reflect UserVoice. He then created a ‘semi-final’ draft which he sent to the team for feedback. One value they had was ‘No Sacred Cows’ and one feedback was that this formulation could be taken as offensive by a group of people, and that caused that value to change to ‘Nothing Is Immutable’. The process was not always smooth. In the process of formulating the culture, there was a strong split within the executive team: One group wanted to have a very thoughtful approach to making decisions and another group thought they should make decisions faster. The process of intentionally creating the culture brought to the fore these two ways of thinking and allowed the executive team to explore them. A conversation ensued which resulted in the executive team realizing that both modes of operation were important — and this was captured by the value: Optimize For Outcomes Not Activity. Company grows: Company Culture has to grow up! One of the values of UserVoice used to be: ‘Have empathy, don’t be a d..k’. As UserVoice increasingly started serving larger enterprise clients, people realized that this value which while it may be well understood internally had the potential to communicate the wrong signal to clients. A better way to capture the idea was: ‘Do the Right Thing (Even if No One is Looking)’. Once Company Values were re-articulated: People felt these things matter and this served as ‘Inoculation against Future Culture Creep’ Rich noticed how once the values were written on the wall, people felt that these things matter. These were stakes in the ground. They also served as inoculation against future culture creep. As the company was passing the 50-employee mark, it became important to set the foundation for what the growing organization was going to be like. The values were published on UserVoice’s website. People who are looking to join can get a sense for whether the organization would be a good fit for them. Internally, during monthly all-hands, kudos was given to people who lived the values. Some managers would work these values into the performance evaluation. During the hiring process, the values became part of looking for the right cultural fit. Once the values were on the wall, employees started to reference it a lot in their work conversations. A company value whose meaning became perverted — Iterate on the value There was one value was being referenced, but the intention behind the value had been perverted: ‘Have empathy, don’t be a d..k’ — was being used by people to say that they felt other people were being a ‘d..k’ when these other people were simply debating ideas. This led to iteration of the values to include: ‘Don’t Beat Around the Bush’. Rich mentioned that UserVoice has had a few articulation of company values over the years — 2008, 2011, 2014/15 and plans to iterate again in 6 months from now. One question he asks in that context is: Do we feel we did not live this one? Rich’s tips to other company leaders about culture — Own Company Culture earlier! In his own journey, he wished he would have done the exercise of figuring out and writing down the Company Values much earlier. . He found that the team feel they are on a mission with clear company values. People love them for recruiting — as it makes it easier to talk about the company and who UserVoice is. Rich said not to make the company values too aspirational. His rule of thumb is 80% is who you are now, and 20% is aspirational. I asked Rich, which value was aspirational for UserVoice and how did this value play out once it was articulated. He said: ‘Win Together; ( ) Learn Together’ was aspirational and this helped the team get out of the ‘silently failing mode’ where teams were not asking for help. The aspirational value helped bring attention to how teams from different offices were not asking each other for help and were silently failing. With the value came the impetus and the right framing to fix the problem with the CEO involvement, which helped the teams get better together as a result. The founder has to own company culture Fail Who were people or what ideas influenced Rich in the context of his journey as a builder of an organization? Several years ago, Rich had come across the work of Joel Polsky, who did Fogbugz, Fog Creek Software, Stack Overflow, Trello. Joel had strong opinions about what a good working environment for engineers was and went against the flow. He was a contrarian (not just for the sake of being different). When everyone was having open plan offices, he thought that people wanted their own offices. 37 signals (now Basecamp) did this too. The standard Silicon Valley model was to have unlimited vacation and open collaboration. 37 signals thought normal working hours was a good thing (40 max hours/week and enforced 32 max hours/week for 6 months of the year). Rich says these influences gave him permission to think outside the box. UserVoice Company Values as at December 2017: Would love to hear your thoughts. Which leader do you want to hear from next?

How Rich White (first-ever YC batch with Kiko), Founder & CEO of UserVoice is building Company…

Founder Interview Disclosure: , the startup to investor communications platform, has previously sponsored Hacker Noon. AngelLoop Read parts 1 & 2 of this interview: & The Entrepreneurial Journey of AngelLoop CEO Igor Feerer How the Problem of Your Current Business Can Lead To Your Next Business David Smooke: How much information and what information do you think founders should be sharing with investors? And what pieces of information should they be sharing with investors that they’re generally not? : So, on the qualitative side, I would say founders share a lot of good news. I think good news is great and you should definitely share good news but don’t overcompensate. You definitely have challenges you’re working on and when you share a bunch of good news with investors, they find that they’re not really needed. Igor Feerer One of the things founders are not doing properly is telling their investors about the challenges that they’re undertaking. This actually engages the investor. It makes them actively involved with your company and it makes them think about ways they can help. You got to see these people as evangelists for your company. And I definitely had a lot of investors s, I’ll probably come to a similar number at AngelLoop, but I’m starting to see a lot of companies that have seed rounds maybe raise a million bucks and onboard 60 investors of their own. And don’t take these people for granted, they’re connected, they got a big network. So, let them know the challenges you are working with and watch how much love and help you get. in my prior venture On the quantitative side, things like revenue, forecast, expenses, expense forecast, cash in, cash out, all of this actually gets you a better understanding of how you’re performing against your plan. So, at the beginning of the year, you put together a plan, and then each month you come in, drop a few data points, we will show you what your difference looks like but we will also tally up all of your burn rate when you’re running out of money. These things are important to transact with investors because: (1) they want to see that you are performing, and if you’re not performing, how can they help? but also (2) they want to know that you have enough money in the bank, to give you the right amount of time to build out a team, and when you need to go and start finding investors. The general rule of thumb is at least four to six months of a reserves available on your bank account, especially when you’re going to go off and raise a new round. But the big opportunity here is showing your investors that you’re going to running out of money soon, and the reason I say that is because it actually triggers this feeling in them of wanting to help. So, I see it time and time again when companies come to that six month mark or running out of money, they tend to encourage a lot more of their investors to actively look for deals, or look for other investors for them, or come into the round as the follow in. And have you seen a lot of follow on activity from your customer? Yeah, definitely. Companies that are active, I would say, come into the platform once a month, update their figures, maybe answer a few messages from their investors. They definitely do a really good deed in building out their relationship. So, not only do your investors start to trust you more as a CEO, but they see how you’re performing, you’re pretty much capturing a lot of their attention, especially because it’s just a very noisy world. So, when they’re focused in on how you’re doing, you’re giving them an opportunity to want to follow in. So, I’ve been seeing a lot more company founders close follow on deals with the current investor board, but also these investors are helping these founders network within their own communities and raise more money for the next round. That’s great to hear… when you think about how to build, are you building more for the investor or for the entrepreneur? Or is it something where you’re building for both and kind of align your team to understand that they need to create a better experience for both? Sure. Yeah, we definitely ask founders what it is that they’re looking for. We do have a pretty good plan or at least a roadmap for them to use to succeed especially with bettering the relationships. What I would say is that investors, they’re even more at a loss than the founders. If you think about it, if you’re an investor and you have a portfolio in 10 companies, you’re getting emails sporadically, you may have lost touch with some of them. Then when you start to look at accelerators and the VCs, they need this information in order to please their other investors where or their LPs. So, we’re actually thinking about both sides of the marketplace. Investors obviously have their own needs, founders have theirs, so it’s just a matter of how do you reconcile that, and really building a collaborative environment so that both sides are happy with the tools they have — and can use these tools to help better their relationship. Have there ever been situations in your career where you over or under shared important information with investors? Well, in a lot of cases you kind of have to do that. Investors they come in different flavors, some are accelerators, some are angels, some are VCs, and they all require different variants of information. So, at AngelLoop, we built out a permission settings to allow the founder user to decide who sees what. So, it actually makes it easier, but you know, to answer your question directly: yes there’s certain information that I was asked to not share with earlier angels just because the VC at the time thought it was going to make a lot more noise. However, I still very much ask them for other things. So, asking for help, asking for X, Y, and Z, and they deliver, but I don’t think they knew I was omitting information. And then on the other side of things, you can definitely be a little more talkative than you should be. So, relaying information to investors about a bunch of problems that you’re having that might kind of be counter intuitive, you definitely want to discuss challenges, but you don’t want to sound like everything’s a problem too, so you kind of got to figure out a way to be more persuasive with your outgoing messages as well as just be thorough, but also think of the strategic side of things. Yeah, it’s an interesting market in terms of adding more transparency… but there is a large communication gap between founders and investors, and at the same time, there is that fear of over-communicating. So, what’s your general advice to entrepreneurs about who are concerned with oversharing information to investors? I mean, it’s actually basic. Just get to know who your investors are. Once you kind of get a good understanding of who they are you’ll know what information they need to hear in order to help you. So, just again, get to know who they are. Understand the kind of things they can help you with and understand the approach you’re going to take with them. Once you establish that kind of relationship, you’ll know what to share, what not to share. I do prefer transparency just because it helps to better me as a CEO, especially, when things aren’t going well, I get a whole bunch of feedback from my investors, overwhelming good feedback, but then you know, once in a while you’ll get a kick in the ass and that actually might even work much better for you as a CEO going forward. So, I would say transparency is key, but again, just get to know your investors, find out what it is or what you can share with them, what you shouldn’t. I mean, you’re a grown up now, you own a business, and it’s important for you to understand how to play that role.

Investor Management: What Information Should Founders Share With Their Investors?

Founders at Work: 150+ YCombinator Founders’ Stories

Recently, in my quest to become a better entrepreneur, I started putting a lot more energy into finding and consuming educational content about bootstrapping a business. One of the deepest wells of knowledge I found came in the form of an online community of people who are walking or have walked a similar path. It’s called , and if you haven’t checked it out then you definitely should. Indie Hackers In a recent thread, I proposed a question to the Indie Hackers community: The thread received a lot of great responses and has become my personal bootstrapping library. If you could recommend only one book for an Indie Hacker to read, what would it be? I’ve decided to aggregated the majority of the responses into a list, loosely ranked in the order of up-votes received in the thread (there were some ties, in which case I just used the chronological order). Without further ado, here is a list of 15 every Indie Hacker should read. books #15 — Start Small, Stay Small By Rob Walling http://www.startupbook.net/ Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. Rob Walling is a Serial Entrepreneur that you may have heard of from one of his many ventures. I first heard of Rob on his podcast but you may also know him as the cofounder of the widely successful conference for self-funded startups, . Startups For The Rest Of Us Microconf #14 — Rework By Basecamp https://basecamp.com/books/rework Most business books give you the same old advice: write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you’re looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf. Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and artists who don’t want to starve will all find valuable guidance in these pages. Basecamp, formally know as 37Signals, doesn’t really need an introduction theses days, as they are one of the earlier successful SaaS startups on the block. Did you know that was actually initially created and opened sourced by Basecamp? Very cool. Ruby on Rails #13 — The Epic Guide By Clifford Oravec https://cliffordoravec.com/the-epic-guide-to-bootstrapping-a-startup Don’t waste years of your life trying to build a startup and never get it off the ground. Clifford Oravec is an entrepreneur that founded a portfolio of successful SaaS businesses, including . He wrote a really great series on medium called and has distilled his knowledge into a book that promises to deliver results. Tamboo The Epic Guide to Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup From Scratch — By Yourself #12 — Side Hustle By Chris Guillebeau https://sidehustleschool.com The all-new Side Hustle book provides everything you need to create a new source of income without quitting your day job. This was the first time I had heard of Chris Guillebeau but I had actually heard of two books written by him previously, and . He also hosts the , a gathering of creative, remarkable people. The $100 Startup The Art of Non-Conformity World Domination Summit #11 — Losing My Virginity By Richard Branson https://www.amazon.com/Losing-My-Virginity-Survived-Business/dp/0307720748 The unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time, Richard Branson. If you haven’t heard of Richard Branson, he’s the guy that started . If that’s not enough, apparently he was knighted Sir Richard Branson in March 2000? He’s created almost 100 successful ventures, so I’m guessing he has some valuable info to pass on. Virgin Records #10 — Thinking Fast & Slow By Daniel Kahneman https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555 In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. Daniel Kahneman is a renowned Psychologist with an impressive trophy case. Although a lot of books recommended by entrepreneurs have to do with sales and marketing, sometimes the science behind how people think can help better your perceptions of product design. I’m definitely going to be checking this one out. #9 — The Lean Startup By Eric Ries http://theleanstartup.com/ Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries has become a household name in the bootstrapping startup world. Time and time again I’ve heard The Lean Startup referred to as one of the best books you can buy for self-funding startups. #8 — The Personal MBA By Josh Kaufman https://personalmba.com/ A world-class business education in a single volume. Learn the universal principles behind every successful business, then use these ideas to make more money, get more done, and have more fun in your life and work. With over a half million books sold, Josh Kaufman obviously has a lot of valuable information for budding entrepreneurs. The proof is in the pudding for this one, as this recommendation comes from the creator of . has been taking off lately and is a great community for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Indie Hackers, Courtland Allen Indie Hackers #7 — The 4 Hour Workweek By Tim Ferriss https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357 Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times . Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint. Tim Ferriss is one of those influential members of the startup community that you just can’t ignore. This is not the first time I’ve heard recommendations to read The 4-Hour Workweek and I doubt it will be the last. The book was recently listed as “The most highlighted book across all of Amazon in 2017”. #6 — Founders at Work By Jessica Livingston http://www.foundersatwork.com/ Founders at Work recounts the early struggles for independence and acceptance of many of modern technology’s giants, through personal interviews that are at times hilarious, at times painful, and always inspiring. As human-interest stories they will interest the same audience that enjoys reading about the Google founders in PEOPLE magazine. Jessica Livingston is a founding partner of the notorious startup accelerator . Founders at Work includes interviews with some of the most successful entrepreneurs from the tech and startup scenes. Y Combinator #5 — Zero to One By Peter Thiel http://zerotoonebook.com/ Notes on Startups, or how to build the future. Peter Thiel is another person that doesn’t really require an introduction. He cofounded Paypal and found massive success as a venture capitalist investing in startups like Facebook. I find a lot of his content applies more towards building “The next big thing” but you can’t deny is level of success and the value of his insights. #4 — Deep Work By Cal Newport http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/ Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and has written several successful books. Deep Work tackles the tricky subject of learning to focus in a world that has become increasingly filled with distractions. Being able to focus and get the work done is often half the battle for people attempting to be successful. I’ll definitely be giving this one a read. #3 — The Millionaire Fastlane By MJ DeMarco http://www.themillionairefastlane.com/ Demand the Fastlane, an alternative road-to-wealth; one that actually ignites dreams and creates millionaires young, not old. Change lanes and find your explosive wealth accelerator. Hit the Fastlane, crack the code to wealth, and find out how to live rich for a lifetime. At first glance this one sounds a lot like one of those get-rich-quick scam books that exist in the wild. However, I’ve been assured that once you get past the title, this book has a lot of great insights into and success. entrepreneurship #2 — Getting Real By Basecamp https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real Getting Real is packed with keep-it-simple insights, contrarian points of view, and unconventional approaches to software design. This isn’t a technical book or a design tutorial, it’s a book of ideas. Anyone working on a web app — including entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, executives, or marketers — will find value and inspiration in this book. The Basecamp team makes it’s second appearance on this list with Getting Real. It’s obvious that not only do these entrepreneurs know what they are talking about, but their message obviously resonates with bootstrapping Indie Hackers. This book is packed with essays pertaining to all sorts of topics relating to building a product and business. #1 — Make By Pieter Levels https://makebook.io Learn to bootstrap profitable startups the indie way Pieter Levels is the poster boy for bootstrapping Indie Hackers. He’s created several successful products and found a great deal of success building an audience through social media. Some of what he has to say stirs up controversy, which is usually a good sign of an innovator. I’ve heard a lot of great feedback about Make and I’m excited to check this one out. Do you have have a book that you think is a must read for people trying to bootstrap their own business? Check out more on my . Enjoy the article? blog Originally published at fullbit.ca on April 24, 2018. Listen to Hacker Noon’s David Smooke on Indie Hackers.

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