There exist a myriad of answers to the question, “How do you found your first startup?” But which of those answers apply to you and your situation? Whose advice do you follow when the world’s full of people ready with suggestions?
Well, there’s no easy answer to those questions, and sometimes it’s best to just listen to people who have pulled it off and take away the greater message at heart. That’s why at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, we asked founders Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Promise, Ruben Harris of Career Karma, and Ritu Narayan of Zūm to share their experiences in launching their companies and the lessons they’ve learned that entrepreneurs should keep in mind when building their own startups.
To begin with, all the panelists said they’d decided to take the venture capital route so they could scale and tackle the complex problems they wished to solve. Narayan, whose company provides transportation to students, said she needed guidance from experienced individuals in the industry to help her navigate the school and transportation industry. “So I ended up partnering with investors like Sequoia and SoftBank, and today Zūm is post-Series D,” she said.
Still, Narayan’s first checks came from angel investors, and in the early days, she had a lot of customers who wanted to invest. She said the best way to find an angel investor is asking for introductions and simply talking to people about your product. Harris agreed, saying he had a lot of angel investors and shared how he raised millions by simply DMing people on Twitter.
“Be willing to reach out to people and be clear on what you stand for publicly,” he said. “What I set out to do is make sure that when I’m not fundraising, I’m building the relationships with people who I plan to raise from in the future.”
Make no mistake, it still does help to be in San Francisco when looking to raise money. Sure, Google Meet and Zoom have made fundraising more accessible, but nothing beats an in-person meeting.
“San Francisco is the MBA of entrepreneurship,” Harris said. “If I didn’t spend eight years here, I would not have been able to raise our Series B completely virtually. I also believe you move at the speed of your relationships.”
The conversation then switched gears to hiring. Getting people to work for you is like selling a dream that isn’t quite realized yet, Ellis-Lamkins said. Meanwhile, sales is still the best first hire in 2023. “When you have revenue coming in, you can fix almost everything else,” she added.
Narayan added a caveat to that, saying startups shouldn’t outsource a job like sales too early in their journey. “Sales is a place where you get to know what your customers want,” she said. “If you outsource that too early, that DNA goes away from the product.”
The panel also covered the more expansive question of who you don’t want to hire. “You don’t want to hire someone who asks you who’s going to build their desk,” Ellis-Lamkins said. “All of the things that imply you’re used to some infrastructure; people who ask for a clear job description, I always feel like they shouldn’t come work with us.”
Working at a startup can be hard and grueling, with many blurred lines in terms of who does what. Ellis-Lampkins said to hire people who can figure it out for themselves, people who understand and can contribute to the hustle. “That’s what we’re looking for. Hunger and skill and where those meet.”
The founders also shared their moments of failure and how they made them better leaders. Ellis-Lamkins recalled the moment she realized she didn’t like who her company Promise was selling to at first, and decided to pivot the company to work with governments rather than police officers. Harris talked about why his company no longer has audio rooms, while Narayan spoke of the time she realized how picking up other children can be so difficult.
In the end, the answer to the question came down to an adage: Start by never giving up.