 So it gives me great pleasure to introduce our next speaker, and I know you're not supposed to have favorite speakers Okay, but I do and it's born Just so you all know I like you all the way up But one is my favorite and I think it's actually mostly due to the power of his magical moustache so he's a veteran of several startups including trade me and He founded coded and then publicly launched Vend a company with incredibly cool offices and and a bunch of incredible employees who fill my social media tweaked with Tweets of how much fun they're having at work every day Literally when I'm sitting bored at work all of his employees are like hey, we're at Vend. It's awesome So I have this jealousy thing going on his obsession for cloud-based applications began as a mission to prove that Functioning and successful point-of-sale software could actually succeed in the cloud and was inspired by zero and And the nice thing about Vend is that retails get up and running in minutes with software that they love to use And it's not often you hear people who love to use software So this year born was winner of the EY entrepreneur of the year technology and emerging industry award and has previously won the entered innovators award and One thing I really love about born other than I'm going to plug it right now We have co-founded a charity together. So we work together a lot and it's awesome OMG tech other than that It's his willingness to share his stories and his teachings and his blog eight degrees gives great advice on how to do the Amazing things that he does like fit hundreds of meetings into one week schedule And how to bring up an incredible family and how to not burn out when so many things seem to need to be done So born's advice to his younger self bootstrapping growth is hard and slow But if speed is off the essence then raising capital is hard But fast and with that I would like to introduce to you for myself. Hello. I I don't have any slides So I'm going to be the show today. I might spring into dance, but probably not I might sing but definitely not So I Had a talk with a few people before The event kicked off just whilst we're milling around asking questions about what would actually be Useful things for me to talk to you about because when you're in the middle of a startup and you're going at such fast pace You kind of forget about all the things that were kind of important in year one and year two So, you know, I've written down a few notes from things that people ask me about And maybe I can tell a bit of the story about being as I go So Michelle's already given a great introduction about what it is we do so we're a space application Very much inspired by what Rod was doing and zero and and that was kind of cool because you know back four years ago We're only been alive for four years But back then it was really cool to see the story about zero who was you know Seemingly taking the world on and proving that you could build amazing things from New Zealand and I thought that's cool I want to do that too. So I did And so that's my first point is that Starting it's it's usually the one of the biggest roadblocks biggest barriers that you're actually going to face which is You know, you always come up with some bullshit reason. It's the way you can't can't do it away now is the wrong time but And some of those reasons are really valid and you should totally listen to them because that's your spidey senses telling you say well You know, that's you going through the risks. So well, what if I quit my job? What's the risk in that other than not having any money and Starving and that never happens. Nobody ever starts to be a thinner startup. So that's that's a bullshit reason But at some point you've got a you should totally listen to those fears But then you should should fucking knock them off one of the time and say, okay, so I'm scared about this What am I going to do to mitigate that risk? And that's what it's about It's about understanding what your risks are and then coming up with plans to deal with those risks And you'll find that there is chances are there isn't a risk that you can't come up with a really valid plan for And so starting I mean it sounds so obvious, right? That's why that's cool to start up It's because you at some point start, but and and then it's about not stopping. So, you know, you get going and then We heard the word earlier today, which is momentum. It's like you've got to get that momentum going And you can do that a number of ways. So in the in the early days, it's really around telling stories And you'll think that your story that you have isn't really interesting, but it is, you know And to a whole number of different audiences You know one of the one of the things that I find that a lot of early stage start up down to the scared of is Talking too much with telling everybody about the big picture about the big idea Okay, somebody else goes and pinches it and does it instead of you, which is again a totally bullshit reason because Maybe that has happened in the past, but if you if you're running at such a pace And you're throwing yourself at it a hundred percent then And they're not going to be able to catch up on you because you've probably been thinking about this thing a lot longer than they have And you've probably done a lot of work on it And the other cool thing about telling your story a lot is it creates this really cool motivation and that Once you start going out there and telling people about this crazy idea you're going to do Then you've kind of got to do it. Otherwise, you look like a bit of a dick And so, you know That was one of these funny thought patterns that I've identified really honest like oh man if I tell that guy about my idea Then he's going to think I'm a dick if I don't do it and as soon as I found myself thinking that I was like fuck I'm going to tell him and He's going to shame me, you know two years down the track if I haven't done it And that never stops like, you know, even once you started start talking about You know, how big you're going to be it's it's okay to have huge aspirations and as Kiwi's it's something that we really suck at is Even if we have them we just don't talk about them You know five years ago You never really heard about Kiwi software companies talking about being building a billion-dollar business from New Zealand And today we've already heard it a couple of times, you know And you know fuck a billion that's built 10 billion-dollar businesses, you know, there's why stop at a billion, you know And so it's really cool to hear that sort of aspiration coming through I mean you should probably shouldn't on day one even before you've got a product and the customer be going out of going Yeah, we're gonna be a billion dollars because people would just think you're a bit of a dick But you know, it's you can still tell that story about you know, there are steps You don't go from zero to a billion overnight Even though it feels like there's all these overnight successes that happen It's it's always a 10-plus year journey, but you can tell that story about that next step, you know You know two runs above where you are now, which is right You know, we're gonna have customers in a hundred countries or you know We're gonna grow a team of 20 people Whatever that next aspirational goal is start talking about that because the more you talk about it the more you're committing to it And it creates that motivation There's lots of other things that motivate and it's really important for you to figure out what they are for you So fear like I mentioned like fear of that being a dick is quite motivating Greed maybe you want to build a billion-dollar business because you want a billion dollars That's a lot of money and You'll probably need to raise some money along the way as you won't get to keep it all But it's important to identify what those those motivators are for you and remind yourself about them and You know for me, I think fear is you know, there's really only two it's a it's a it's a set of scales, right? It's fear and greed Here and greed it's that's what it always boils down to and I tend to lean on the fear side because greed is And nobody likes a greedy bugger But yeah, be humble it's really important to be humble because the other secret weapon that you will discover as you go is that The power of your success is going to come from the people around you. It's not about you It's about the team that you can build around you And this is one of the things that will kill your startup or your idea It's if you think if you think that you are scalable is that you can Do everything You know, I've got a nickname at the end now. I'm chief delegation officer because you know, I I'm constantly trying to make myself redundant By doing that I hire people who are smarter than me I'm probably the dumbest person in the organization to be honest and and I'm okay with that because You know, it means everybody we bring on board and we try and foster this and and all of our team hiring is that make sure you're hiring People smarter than you because it makes your life so much easier But it also, you know rises the tide for everyone And letting go, you know trusting people trust so One of the things we did right from day one is just have this open policy of trusting everybody we bring on board Investors stuff, you know, man anybody who's involved in the business Treat everybody like grown-ups and share information openly and honestly, you know You know how much money we're burning? You know, we've got a we've got screens on the wall in the office Which have all of our key metrics which some are motivating and some are well not demotivating But you know some are fear metrics, you know, so we've got the day we run out of money It's on the screen on the wall, you know, and so everybody knows it and it's it's like You know, we'll go out and we'll you've got two choices, right? We either make money or we go and raise more money to fuel the growth But it's still really important that everybody understands that if we do Neither of those two things then there is a date where we risk run out of cash and the dream is over And it's amazing how empowering that is for people to know that we thought we agonized over this for ages So shit, that's gonna scare the bejesus out of people, you know but Again, you treat everybody like grown-ups you put into context. It's like don't worry Hopefully we're not gonna actually run out of money, but you know based on our current plan and our current revenue targets we either break even by the state or we raise money by the state and Both of those things are incredibly valid and so the thing that we're focusing on that moment is growth So we've made the decision that you know, we're probably not gonna go to break even Like was mentioned really you should always always always always always have a plan to get to a break even position If possible Because you never know what will happen because you know, yeah five or six years ago. Nobody really saw the GFC coming right? It was all happy days and then suddenly it wasn't But have that aspiration so you know, you know, we're serious We are absolutely serious about building a $10 billion company from New Zealand and so that's gonna take a lot of money You can't bootstrap a $10 billion business and so that's my next point Just raise money like seriously it is hard it's really really hard It's not a trivial thing and you know the stories about being in the valley and doing deals on napkins Doesn't happen or at least the ones that do happen They're probably not the best deals and you probably shouldn't be doing those napkin deals and napkin term sheet It's not a great thing But don't be afraid of delusion and bringing on other people to help you grow your business people ask me like you know So I'm a 25% you a whole event and people I told you when I say chat you've given away so much of your company It's like dude. I haven't given it away. They gave me shitloads of money and that's how this Grow the business, you know, so But you know, I have a smaller chunk of something That's way way way bigger than anything that I could have bootstrapped out of my spare room So don't be afraid of that But the important thing to to make sure that you're doing when you're bringing in the investment is make sure that it's not just about the cash because You know, there's other things that you can get with investment like networks and contacts and helpful people and directors and You know, there's like a smorgasbord. It's a menu of things that you should be considering and you've got to consider What's right for you? At your stage of your growth So maybe I'll talk a little bit about our capital raising journey because I reckon it's pretty interesting because here is no There is no rule book. There is no right way to do it So we've done five rounds We've raised about 30 something mil in total, but that first round was literally 100k just to overcome that first objection right, which was you know, how am I gonna feed the kids? You know, if I throw myself at this 100% how am I gonna make sure that you know, my family doesn't suffer So that initial round just bought enough runway for me to stop doing all the other stuff I was doing and focus, you know, 120% on on the end And so we did that locally from New Zealand. That was Sam Morgan and Ron Simpson who I met through trapping And then our second round of investment. We raised it from Germany Chakra, so we didn't raise it from the valley or New Zealand even though our New Zealand investors followed on This is a really interesting story. And this is again about that telling the story. So In that first year even before we had a product in market I was out there telling stories going to events any opportunity was to stand up on a stage and talk about what it is We're doing and so I went to one of those launch events in the valley where, you know It's all vaporware, but you talk about how you're gonna watch your product and take over the world and And I thought it would just be a good exercise to get good at talking about what it is you're doing But then about a week after that I received a phone call. She wasn't fun cause of Skype That she was an email and she found this email. I Found this email yesterday because I was in the pre Christmas cleanup I was just going through and I can't remember what I searched on in my in my Gmail But I found this email from Christoph who is my German friend Well, he wasn't at the time. It was just some of the German guy who was emailing me and And yeah, he just sent me an email out of the blue. He'd seen me at The event and he wanted to talk more about what it is we're doing I thought okay Anyway, so and we had a Skype and it was all very energetic and interesting. Yeah And I just I told him the whole story. I was I shared everything openly, you know the fact that you know We had no customers or whatever and you know All that stuff but the vision about what what it is we're doing and he was like And then a month later he dropped me another line he said how things going You know, so yeah, I jumped on a Skype with him and I had chat with him and I you know We've got some customers by then and so you know things were moving along and Meanwhile, he was you know, I could hear him tapping around the people and he was taking notes of all of our progress as Our progress my progress was just me back then And we kind of kept in touch every other month. He would reach out and we'd have a little chat And then after about six months at the end of the Skype. He said Very interesting talk, would you like some money? And And I didn't need the money at the time. So I felt kind of awkward. It's kind of I'm sure you should probably say yes to this, but I don't need the money right now. He's like, that's cool That's cool And but you know, we kept kept in conversation for another six months And you know, I kept telling him my numbers and things were you know things were going up like this And then the time came when I actually get the money and so at the end of the Skype call I said Christoph actually needs some money now Would you be keen to invest and he was like, absolutely, absolutely So that conversation was like, you know about six to nine months of me talking to this random guy who you know I didn't know who he was and then he invested and the first time I'd met him was last year and since then he's invested three times and quite sizable amounts and Then what I learned about Christoph is like he was the early stage investor in Zendesk And a few other Stare startups so he he was quite knowledgeable about the space We really liked what it was really doing and you could see a lot of the same patterns And what we were doing that he'd seen in companies like Zendesk And so yeah, you should You never know who's listening so you should be telling your story because in this case It was just some random crazy German guy Who turned them to be one of our cornerstone investors and it's been a great supporter for us innocence day one And that's kind of how true with all of the other investors that we put on board is you know It's always been a six-month journey at least and it's always been about telling a really good story and a very real story Because you're gonna have to back it up. You can't just Make shit up Which is why you should shouldn't be afraid to be open and honest with your numbers because you know Maybe round up to the nearest you know million You know bacon a little bit of sizzle, but but but generally You should be pretty open and honest What else can I tell you so much just do it like it's it's really frickin exciting, you know you know, I Never really thought in four years time that Like I always had to get aspirations around how big we could build them But I never thought we'd be you know today. We're just clocked over 200 people And you've got seven officers around the world and and it's trippy to look at a World map and to be able to point to places where there are team members Onboard doing doing amazing stuff. You can totally do it from New Zealand You know, you don't need to raise money from New Zealand you don't need to raise money from the US. We've raised money from the US and subsequent rounds But raising money shouldn't be a barrier if you've got an amazing story you can tell it Well, you you'll find those investors But just start start now Cool. Thanks