Unicorn Bakery - For Startup Founders Fabian Tausch

Fabrice Grinda, founder of FJ Labs and extreme athlete, explains how he has made over 1100 investments, primarily in marketplace and network-effect startups, generating an average 40% return over 26 years.



Fabrice also likes to simplify a lot in his life by outsourcing things. Find out his recipe for a fulfilling life and managing virtual assistants in the podcast.



What you will learn:


Outsourcing: How to outsource more professionally and privately to increase your quality of life and output
Marketplaces: What are the difficulties in scaling marketplace companies, the most important KPIs and current valuations?
FOMO: How do you manage not to be pushed by others?
Senior hiring: Is it typically European to hire senior rather than young and motivated?



ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery



Fabrice Grinda

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricegrinda/

FJ Labs: https://www.fjlabs.com/



Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S



Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.



Marker:

(00:00:00) What does a successful life look like to you and what role does money play in your life?



(00:05:50) How do you decide what things you outsource vs. what you do by yourself and how do you delegate successful?



(00:12:56) Managing lessons to become a relaxed manager/avoiding things you don't like



(00:16:38) Is hiring seniors instead of young ambitious people an European problem?



(00:20:27) FJ Labs’ Investing Strategy that leads to 1100+ Investments and 40% realized IRR over 26 years



(00:36:13) What fascinates you about marketplaces and why did you stay focused?



(00:43:28) What is needed to scale a marketplace successfully



(00:56:18) How do you manage and resist FOMO?



(00:59:39) Fabrice Grinda’s view on the macroeconomics and their influence on the venture ecosystem



(01:06:37) As an extreme sports-fanatic: what are the biggest parallels between extreme sports and investing/building a company?



(01:09:37) What did you learn about yourself through your extreme adventures and how do you manage stress?



(01:13:49) Was it as easy as it appears for you to reach everything you want and how much do you need other people's opinions?

Tushar Ahluwalia founded the Razor Group together with his founding team in 2020. Since then, the Razor Group has received more than one billion dollars in investment and credit, acquired and consolidated many Amazon FBA businesses and most recently some Amazon aggregators, such as Perch.

Today, the Razor Group is the largest remaining player on the market in terms of sales and serves a product catalog of around 40,000 SKUs.

The vision: to revolutionize e-commerce and shine in front of consumers with outstanding products. A concept that shone during Corona, but is now more of an anti-hype. Nevertheless, Tushar and his team have managed to scale extremely quickly. In this interview, he reveals to Fabian what his tricks and learnings are and what makes his business model so special.

What you learn:


Fast scaling: What do you need to be prepared for when hyperscaling? What are the stumbling blocks?


What was the Razor Group's A-Team? How was the founding team put together?


Is a company ever "too big to fail"?


Why do so many of the Buy & Build models from the Amazon FBA space fail?


Why is it attractive for Razor to consolidate these faltering players?


Where should the Razor Group develop in the future?



ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery

Tushar Ahluwalia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tushar-ahluwalia/

Razor Group: https://www.razor-group.com/

Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S

Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.



Marker:

(00:00:00) What are the good and the hard things about hyperscaling?

(00:04:09) What made the perfect founding team for Razor, and what were the first steps to create momentum?

(00:16:34) What must we know about the aggregators (like Perch, Stryze and others) you bought and why they sold to you?

(00:27:58) How exposed is Razor to leverage?

(00:34:06) Is the Razor Group too big to fail after consolidating with Perch?

(00:36:59) What is the vision for the next few years for the Razor Group

Is the European climate for early-stage start-ups improving again?

After the European fundraising ecosystem was somewhat more cautious in the years following the corona boom, the question is: how is it currently developing? 

Fabian meets George Robson, Partner at Sequoia Capital, probably the best-known venture capital fund in the world. 

Together they talk about financing start-ups with high capital requirements, the fine line between optimistic vision and realism when pitching and the right approach to investors like Sequoia Capital.

What you learn:


Which investor should you seek for your startup if you're building more of a cash-heavy business?


Market assessment: Are consumer products making a comeback?


Sequoia Capital: How does Sequoia invest and what does the company value in founders?


How much storytelling in the pitch is good and when does it become too much?


How important is the warm intro really and what chances do you have with cold outreach to investors?



Here you can find tickets for MERGE: https://merge.berlin 

Don't forget to use the code UNICORN for 30% off.

ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery      

George Robson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgerobson  

Sequoia: https://www.sequoiacap.com/  

Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S        

Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.



Marker:

(00:00:00) Is the European fundraising ecosystem waking up again?

(00:04:21) How do I approach investors if I'm building a startup that combines hardware and software instead of the usual b2b SaaS startup?

(00:07:12) What investor am I looking for if I'm a cash-heavy business?

(00:11:40) How does investing at Sequoia work?

(00:14:20) Are consumer products experiencing a comeback?

(00:18:15) When it comes to pitching, where is the fine line between storytelling and "being too much"?

(00:23:45) How to get in touch with Sequoia?

Monta has raised more than 120 million euros for its software platform for electric vehicles to improve the accessibility of charging infrastructure.

Within 3 years, Monta has scaled to around 300 employees, is currently hiring 10-20 employees per month and is multiplying revenue annually.

Previously, Monta founder Casper Rasmussen built 500+ mobile apps with his agency and bootstrapped the agency to 20 million in revenue.

We talk about the differences between bootstrapping as an agency and the blitzscaling approach that Monta is currently taking. 

Casper has also made a role change from CTO to CEO - what has been particularly challenging for him in this role? He also gives you an all-round view on validating ideas quickly and avoiding tropical mistakes: what are the biggest challenges early stage founders face? Spoiler: Burnout and negative stress are only part of the picture.

What you will learn:


What are the major differences between founding a bootstrapped case and a venture-backed company?


What mistakes can you make in hiring and how do you avoid them?


How can you tell whether a business idea and a decision are good enough or not?


What challenges await you when you switch from a specific role (in this case that of technical leader) to a generalized role (in this case CEO)?


How can you prevent stress and burnout and how can you prevent your startup from undermining your private life?



EVERYTHING ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery     

Casper Rasmussen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casper-h-rasmussen-63b13922/ 

Monta: https://monta.com/   

Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S       

Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.

Marker:

(00:00:00) What are the main differences between building a bootstrapped case like the agency and a venture case like Monta?

(00:02:24) How does the venture case challenge your growth - is it less focused than in the bootstrapping-experience?

(00:04:32) Your most important learnings and mistakes in Hiring and Onboarding?

(00:07:48) How do you evaluate if you bring in someone from the outside or promote from  inside your own team?

(00:09:40) What makes a decision good enough to take it?

(00:11:21) How do you evaluate your ideas?

(00:15:02) What are the biggest mistakes for early stage founders?

(00:23:54) What are the hardest parts of switching roles from "only" being a CTO to CEO?

(00:28:45) Would you say your personal life suffers from being a founder?

(00:34:03) Who would you recommend becoming an entrepreneur and raising venture money?

(00:40:58) Your tips for early stage founders that are struggling?

Scott Chachon is one of the co-founders of GitHub, a developer platform that was sold to Microsoft for around 7.5 billion dollars.

We talk about the moment he found out about the sale to Microsoft, how much money he made from the sale and whether it made him happy.

He is now founding his third startup, Gitbutler, after investing 12 million of his own money in Chatterbug and has now decided to grow the company profitably without investment.

We talk about founding in Germany and Europe as opposed to the US and Scott explains why he is now founding in Germany for the second time.

What you learn:


Milestone exit: How desirable is exit as a goal really?
Customer retention: How hard is it to retain customers and what options, such as experiential approaches, are there?
Team composition: What makes a high-performance team?
Made in Germany: What are the pros and cons of setting up in Germany vs. the USA?


Looking for 100.000€ in Cloud Credits, then apply for the OVHcloud Startup Program: https://startup.ovhcloud.com


EVERYTHING ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery     



Scott Chacon

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schacon/

Gitbutler: https://gitbutler.com/  

Merge: https://merge.berlin 



Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S       

Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.



Marker:

(00:00:00) What changes when you finally get the 100 million dollar exit? ?

(00:06:20) Did you experience an exit-depression?

(00:11:03) 12 million personal investment in Chatterbug?

(00:15:04) What is your advice for founders to get to the "zero-to-one-effect"?

(00:23:01) Gitbutler: Product & Vision

(00:29:04) How did you build your third venture with all your experience?

(00:32:55) What does it take to make a developer tool successful?

(00:36:11) Was your product ready for a lot of attention when you got thousands of signups?

(00:39:03) What do non-technical-founders forget about that makes it harder for tech people to succeed in the company?

(00:42:26) Why is building from Germany great in some parts?

(00:55:44) Investors vs. Bootstrapping: What are your thoughts?

(01:00:14) How did you plan your runway?

(01:03:44) The Merge: The developers conference

David Heinemeier Hansson is the inventor of Ruby on Rails and founder of 37signals, a company that has developed products such as Basecamp, Hey.com and more over the last 20 years.

However, apart from Jeff Bezos, David and his co-founder Jason Friedman didn't take any money and bootstrapped the company.

We talk about the biggest cost drivers for companies, how 37signals managed to develop multiple products in parallel and how David thinks about the differences between Europe and the US when it comes to starting a company.

What you learn:


When might it make sense to move away from the usual cloud services and choose your own hardware resources instead?


What advantages does the USA offer compared to Europe if you want to set up a start-up?


Who should raise money from venture capital investors and who shouldn't?


How do you learn to correctly assess which topics (e.g. marketing or hiring) it makes sense to spend money on?



Here you can find tickets for MERGE: Https://merge.berlin

Don’t forget to use the code UNICORN for 30% off.

Here you can setup your tech with Codesphere: https://codesphere.com 

EVERYTHING ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery    

David Heinemeier Hansson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-heinemeier-hansson-374b18221/ 

37signals: https://37signals.com/ 

 

Unicorn Bakery Whatsapp Broadcast:

Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S       

Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content.

Marker:

(00:00:00) How do you resist raising venture capital? Why was it not relevant to you? To whom would you recommend raising venture capital?

(00:10:51) Would AI make it possible for me, as a non-technical founder, to build a technical company these days?

(00:16:22) What are the biggest cost traps that founders run into?

(00:23:16) How do you assess new costs like hiring or marketing?

(00:29:08) The 37signals setup: team size and product variety

(00:33:31) How did you and Jason find out what company you want to build?

(00:43:23) How much money did you save by leaving the cloud?

(00:51:41) US vs. Europe - what are the differences in living and working?

(00:57:54) What would be the reasons to build out of Europe?