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May 28th, 2021 is that day that could have changed my life.
I was selling my startup and offering a high 8-figure exit to my team and my investors. For me, the amount was life-changing.
This was the result of 18 months of excruciating work.
Here is what happened 🧵
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Part of being a successful founder is a commitment to excellence that many won’t understand or even see or perceive
To next-level excellence
This will create some friction among those without that commitment. Actually, lots of friction.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
"Your First 50 Employees Must Be Pirates Or Romantics"
saastr.com/the-cold-hard-tru…
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
I have done one investment where it was a non-CEO founder that reached out, and it worked out well (Pipedrive, $16m entry -> $1.5B exit)
But still -- don't do it Only worked once.
The CEO just has to do it.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Supervised a project 2 week ago. Two programmers where hired to create an MVP. I have worked with both before.
- Alex from Germany. 100% code. 19 years experience.
- Hamid from Pakistan. Code + Copilot + GPT-4 + no-code. 4 years experience.
What do you think happened?
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
What I heard 6 months ago turned out to be correct. Last week, Robinhood announced RTO at 4 days/week or more.
Going all-in on a trend that looked hip at the time, and then do a full reverse barely a year after: speaks of inconsistent and impulsive leadership.
Very interesting. Just 11 months ago, Robinhood proudly announced they are a remote-first company.
I am now hearing they are trying to get people into the office "organically".
If you work there, would love to hear what is happening and how well this post you think will age.
ALT January 12, 2022 Robinhood is a Remote First Company We are excited to announce that Robinhood will be staying primarily remote. In December we shared with our employees that our mission to democratize finance for all starts with our people, and that means bringing in and supporting
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Early stage Venture Capitalists:
Asking for a friend: When you see an accelerator or incubator company where the founding team owns 50% or less of the company in their first raise, is this a flag?
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Yes, things are harder today than 1 year ago and so, so much harder than 2 years ago
But ...
Gartner is predicting SaaS will still grow 18% in 2023 to $200 Billion worldwide this year.
And grow another 18% in 2024
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
To me the most powerful power a startup can have:
When they innovate on the product of an incumbent and the incumbent knows it is better, but to embrace this change they would have to cannibalise their entire existing business.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Having a truly great cofounder is rarer than anyone realizes
You can just go so far, for so long
And no one can really stop you
Remember to tell them a couple of times this year. Maybe even today.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Thank you to all the investors who are investing in the YC w23 batch. After working with over 800 YC companies over the past 10 years I also wanted to offer 1 piece of advice.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
VC's are FINALLY starting to realize the power of industry specific software aka vertical SaaS.
In the last few months I've seen more and more top tier investors come out of the woodwork with blogs and overviews.
Why the time is right for YOU to start a vSaaS business 🧵
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
The journey to even just get to a pre-seed round is so intense: committing to an idea, finding a co-founder, leaving a job, convincing family members you're not crazy. For most founders, it's a phase that's full of danger, ripe with charlatans, predatory types, and naysayers.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Honest truth about venture:
25 active investments
15 boards
4 new deals a year
50 partner meetings a year
500 pitches a year
Really, isn't all that much time to help any one portfolio company
Not really
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
"We all have tons of issues.
But for raising capital?
There are no excuses.
The worse thing you can say to a VC is 'we didn't grow that fast last month because we were fundraising"
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
In 10 years, virtually all business meetings in a company will be recorded, transcribed, and fed into the AI as a copilot for the CEO.
Raphael Gindrat retweeted
Your job as CEO of a startup is to make the really hard decisions with really limited information that no one else is capable of making.