 Good afternoon and I should say big thank you to all of you for for giving me your time Which I always consider to be your most valuable resource. So so thanks a lot for for making the time Thanks to the introduction I'll just compress my into my background a little bit and then get straight to what I think in my mind are some of the Key elements that don't really get discussed when you are dealing with startups. So I've done Chemical engineering I did my MBA actually had worked in frozen foods. I did four startups My last one was acquired by Yahoo where I then joined to become global partnerships here of global partnerships And since then since July of this year, I have left Yahoo. So today. I'm a free agent the When we were in my own startup as well as when I advise a whole bunch of startups We kind of break down the startup into four components a lot of discussion Happens around what the product is what the technology is but perhaps not so much get discussed around what is the culture for execution and Wow, do you think about the business? So my goal today is to really break this down into very tangible action items things that work for us things that did not work for us and Not necessary that they are applicable to to everybody and every startup because you are in your own trenches But as a founder you definitely want to be in the mindset of you are the chief architect And you don't want to just find yourself one day into some in a situation where you did not think it through So let's start with culture for execution One of the things that we did at in my previous company called cool iris We broke it down into rather than thinking of culture as a buzzword We said let's break this down into the very specific components And the three components that we broke it down into were collaboration Again, not a buzzword But basically as we were doing all the recruiting and we were building the team as we are you know People talk about like oh a you need to bring on a players by the band I don't know any startup that says we want to bring on a B plus players But that everybody thinks they are going to bring on a players But the one important aspect of that recruiting process We also tried to gauge how good of a team player She or he is going to be and this was important because there were many a times where we found this is a great very Relevant talent, but at the end of the day the collaboration piece was going to be missing and at that particular point in time The cost of a wrong hire for a startup it actually ends up being much more than the cost of a no hire It's very difficult to say no to somebody who you feel you found them But because they are not going to be collaborative in and you actually go through that process of figuring it out second component was component of meritocracy and Meritocracy is important because as you go through the age of the startup, you know in your three year four You never want the next talent who's you're going to recruit to find out that oh I already have so many people ahead of me So how much room is there for me to grow into so meritocracy where you are going to be gauged by Your performance and this is across the board founders CEO any person within the company and this was important to establish Meritocracy right from day one within the company the third element is the element of trust Again to break down what trust really really means in our particular case My employment contract was exactly the same as every single employee that came that we were recruiting And I could not the numbers they would always say my numbers are different than your numbers But the flavor of the contract is no different And the reason for that is when the time for acquisition comes You want the team to be in your most cohesive state And that can only happen when you know all of you the entire team has effectively there are no special privileges being assigned to anybody So this is how we had taken the culture for execution and componentized it to make sure here are the things I'm trying to go a little bit faster here because I want to cover on the business side Three very important things as well. So on the business side We I'm going to break it into monetization fundraising and mna On the monetization piece You know just to to think about how you think about a dollar or euro in this case First level said it's important to have a dollar compared to not having any dollar. Okay, so just let's just get our basic facts Right, but when you do have it there are three ways to think about it The first dollar is your equity dollar An equity dollar is something, you know, which is great. It's it's important You need you heard so many speakers you talk about it, but you have to remember that it is a dilutive dollar Meaning you get it, but you are also giving up your equity in exchange for taking that money So it's good, but it's also you're giving up something for it The second dollar is a scrappy dollar and scrappy dollar is typically you find a lot of startups who are You know doing something they're doing if especially more in the b2b side or sometimes a b2c company but they take on projects because you are trying to Generate revenues and generating revenues is not a bad thing because it's now helping you extend your runway But remember the second dollar which is not so as good as the third dollar And the third dollar is what we call as or I call as an aligned dollar And the aligned dollar is the one where it actually amplifies your enterprise value And amplifying your enterprise value giving you the runway and that is not dilutive That is the dollar which is what you are really seeking And it's important to distinguish those three because as you are thinking about decisions Even in terms of product development or or any other decision you are thinking through Am I going to be earning this and is it also going to amplify my enterprise value? Or is it just going to only extend my runway? So that's on the monetization side On the fundraising side again in my mind there are sort of three key takeaways that I that I felt Or important for for especially founders to know The first one is Don't be in a rush to label your round Okay, and what do I mean by that? We made one mistake you know we went straight to series a And and then of course by the time we did b and then we did c we had raised 29 million dollars But by the time you are in c you are assigned there's a certain expectation Around what does a c round company means? What are your metrics? What are your revenues? So if you are still in the process of trying to figure out What your product market fit is and in today's day and age especially more so relevant Give yourself enough of a wiggle room Where you can actually do a pre seed you can do seed you can then so by the time you are in a You actually already established What the product market fit looks like and what it is and very very important for you because it can also help you If there's one thing that you can actually benefit and hopefully from this is not it will actually help you save your own dilution So you are not going straight into a and in assigning the the metrics of a so if you can do a pre seed a seed and Be even more creative a prime before you go to b Then then more power to you in terms of how you think about about fundraising. So that's number one second point on the on the fundraising piece is on thinking about your board Your board selection is extremely important You know don't take it too lightly It becomes just like you were thinking about diversity on the team diversity of talent diversity of background You really want to be thinking about diversity about the board the board has been created For the governance of the team and the company But at the same time you as a founder are thinking about how to leverage the board for your own benefit And by having a board which is much more well rounded and not just only from the investor side Is very very useful as as you grow into the journey of success The third important point during fundraising is on the is on the element of runway Most companies or even entrepreneurs and investors when you talk about runway Your expectation is this is the runway of capital that we are discussing But equally importantly is the runway of patience And this runway of patience I know so many startups where you run out of the runway of patience And this could be the patience of your spouse could be the runway of of your colleagues of your investors your board So as you are thinking about runway of runway for the company It's not just the runway of capital, but also the runway of patience The last topic I want to touch is on the mna side on mergers and acquisitions You know as a founder if you're going through your journey, I think it's it's very It's very relevant and it's very it's important that you look into the mirror Whether it's your your two your three whatever And you say at some point I know I'm not going to be able to go public I think there was a speaker here from london stock exchange who did a fantastic job to show That you can actually go public on different stock exchanges But if you do believe that you're not going to be able to go public Then you know that your mna is probably your only other choice in terms of what success means If you have reached that point where you know that getting acquired is the only choice You again as a founder owe it to yourselves that you absolutely need to build relationships With your target the top 10 20 whatever your number of potential acquirer is going to be But again a key thing that we learned from from my journey or I learned from my journey was It was I ended up having a lot of relationships with cob dev people You know because cob dev within the bigger organizations are the people that that really facilitate the mna process But what I had missed was you also need Relationships with the deal sponsor and typically the deal sponsors come from the product side So you as a founder you as an entrepreneur if you're reaching that particular state of mind that mna is probably your Only viable exit strategy at this point You want to invest your time in developing the relationships making them aware of who you are Obviously you're not revealing your secret sources But making them aware them as an the cob dev as well as the product and engineering folks In the target companies is worth your investment I have one minute left. So I'll I'll try to also make it quick here the I'll jump to the to the last point because this is also very important The last point is on your data room So as you're going through the mna process They will say hey you need to open up a data room And we open the data room when we actually got the term sheet for an acquisition Big mistake You need to open the data room the day you start your company And and the reason for that is From the time you signed the term sheet to getting the deal closed For us it took 52 days And those 52 days is something that I felt we should have compressed a lot Because during that 52 days time frame you are carrying a lot of risk Because you have already signed an exclusively agreement with the acquirer But you want to make sure that the deal actually goes through so remember one thing Rather than thinking offer now is my startup and I'm going to now start the data room when I get the term sheet for an acquisition Start your data room the day you start the company So anyway, I I wanted to make sure that I I come here and not give you some generalized guidance and advice But some specific points to think about maybe they're applicable. Maybe they are not again You are the founder You're in your own trenches You really want to think of yourself as a chief architect on all the dimensions Not just product not just engineering But also the business side and all the culture for execution So thank you Thank you And now we'll move on to the questions that will appear in front of you on the screen And please ask more questions through slider.com So James is asking how do you find out if a candidate is a good team player before you hire them? So one of the things that we did is we always felt the interview process was a little bit bullshit Where you just brought in somebody asked them a questions and then say yeah, you are hired or so And it was actually unfair even for the candidate We got them to spend a full day with us And we actually you know, this is post signing of the nda We said, okay We're going to actually treat this as if you are in the company and we are actually going to deal with you Given the problems that we are currently facing So it was effectively a working session for the full day And sometimes you went overboard and actually said if you want to invite your beloved ones as spouses and let them Come in and have lunch with the team. It's also cool So really getting to kind of accelerate the relationship into what and simulating what the relationship will be Is something that we used to do it takes Extra effort and extra time on the part of the CEO or the founder But it is as I said the cost of a wrong hire ends up being much more than the cost of a no hire So definitely worth the investment in making that happen Any additional tips for increasing trust in the team Eskos asking this question really, you know, this is a very very important point at the end of the day We were in the in the cool iris for seven years and 100 percent of the company then ended up joining yahoo Trust is so fundamental But none of that just comes only through words. It all comes through actions And the example I gave which was you know, my employment contract is the same as yours The numbers are different, but the flavor is the same Is one way to tangibilize it But every other thing, you know anything that you do if you say that you're going to do and then really making it happen It takes some time to build the trust But the but the employment contract at least gets it started gets the journey of trust building started on both sides Um, what are the most important documents of a data room? Jusso is asking the you know, look every different company that is acquiring you has a as a huge dog due diligence list But and and every of course company that is acquiring will have a different due diligence list But it's not that hard to find out what a standard due diligence list looks like It's you know, it's available on the internet You can ask your lawyers or you can ask some of the friends and and that's what you reverse calculate from You say if this is what it's going to be Maybe the specific Folders are going to be different. The names are going to be different But at the end of the day the due diligence list for most mna is is very similar So you can create a more generalized version from that any additional no the higher How to deal with toxic existing toxic employees Well, there's a reason why they are toxic. I think you want to find out where the toxicity is coming from I think there's there's probably a source of toxicity Which you want to invest your time in and after investing all that time if you still find that okay It is indeed say with the with the with the employee You need to have a very frank conversation And at the end of the day don't sit on that toxicity for too long because it will infect and it has a really negative effect on not just you not just the employee But the rest of the team but 90 percent of the time I have found that if it's if it's an issue for the for you It's very likely an issue also for that person And and having again a very frank and this is where your element of trust also comes in Where you can be very frank about what is the issue and tackle it head on Don't try to just think oh, I'll push it and maybe the problem will go away. It will not go away Sorry, which one am I looking at the question the higher ticked all the boxes, but down the road one year later for example The candidate turns out to be toxic. I think we talked about that I'll go to the anonymous one. How much time do you spend Keeping in touch with the board and from them informing them about progress, etc It depends on the stage of the company and it depends upon What you're going through at there are times when you actually you as a ceo and a founder can spend up to a third of your time Dealing with the board and investors if you really are trying to utilize them for making say the deal happen Or you have a strategic deal going on or financing So it's not a specific percentage all throughout But depending on where you are In the in the life cycle of the company, but it's very very important that you maintain the transparency And not have any surprises with the board So a board meeting is great But if you're revealing new information at the board meeting something is already wrong in terms of your communication channel with the board What should be in the identical higher contract that fits all It's it's effectively Whatever your own contract is if there's an employment contract that specifies These are the options that you have are they going to waste? Is there a double trigger? Anything that you think is relevant for you Is the same thing that is going to be relevant for the other teammate that you're going to hire for your other co-founder Or for employee number 22 employee number 69 It doesn't matter at the end of the day it is they are thinking about the same thing So I don't think there is a boiler plate But whatever you are thinking about for your own self as I said the numbers are going to be very different The numbers are never going to be the same because you're dealing with a meritocratic environment here But the flavor is the same if you're starting How do you deal with early hire who does not have the right cultural fit? But with good skills that the company needs at the moment It's an interesting question that the way because you do come across this situation quite a bit One ways in my mind to try to figure this out is the try before you buy and the try before you buy is not just only for you But also for the potential employee the teammate that you're going to bring on Maybe think of structuring a con on a contract basis But maybe you say look everything's there, but we are not quite sure about you know few of the areas Why don't we start off on on the contract? Goal for 30 days 60 days 90 days whatever the time frame is and if it's works out great If it doesn't work out There is a checkpoint already in place to have this operation Rather than saying please come on board and then if it doesn't work out We'll just let you go, you know x amount of time So if there is some room it's a very hard one by the way And we've had to make some hard decisions Where we actually said no to candidates when we felt that this is not going to work It was very painful because everything had been checked off But we just could not get the the cultural fit to get going but but perhaps A contract in place for a short term to get it started maybe the solution If you were starting a company today, what would be the one and only one thing you would focus on in the first month You know that that's a hard one in the sense. I don't think there is one and only one you don't get to pick and Yes, everybody will say focus on the customer only think about the product But at the end of the day, if you are the ceo or you're the founder You are going to be looking at you know building the team Getting investors lined up getting the product getting the customers I think the one thing that you are focused on is success And that is the only thing that you're going to focus on And and that's all I can say. I mean it's slightly a bullshit answer But but the truth is it you cannot just say I'm only going to focus on product And I'm not going to worry about the team and I'm not going to worry about how to raise money Those are all important components of getting it launched It's the first month. You have so many things to do. You just have no choice I think I've answered the questions here Thank you so very much