#32 - Martin Tajur 🇪🇪 (Honey Badger Capital, Pipedrive) on success factors in raising a unicorn, hard things entrepreneurs must be prepared for and lessons in angel investing

Martin Tajur is an angel investor, partner at Honey Badger Capital as well as a co-founder and ex-CTO of one of the most successful sales CRM companies globally - Pipedrive. 

In our first interview with a unicorn founder, we talk about the origins of Pipedrive,  growing it into a billion-dollar company, and the evolution of the role of the founder as the company grows. We also dig deeper into the hard things about growing a business. Finally, we talk about angel investing and its benefits for companies and investors. 

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[02:20] - INTRODUCTION 

• Learning how not to do a startup from own experience
• Is it possible to start a successful company not working full time
• Skype post-acquisition

[10:40] -  ON PIPEDRIVE AND RAISING A UNICORN

• Confidence in the product to compete in a crowded space
• Product simplicity and usability
• The role of the founder when scaling a startup
• Keys to success when growing a startup
• Job interview tips
• Letting go of responsibilities
• Acquiring other startups as a growth strategy
• Do the founders have a say in a unicorn level exit

[31:30] - ON HARD THINGS IN BUILDING A COMPANY

• Maintaining focus
• Keeping the company afloat financially in an early stage
• Agreeing between founders on responsibilities and equity
• Hire slow, fire fast
• What to do if a manager cannot keep up with the growth of the company
• Dealing with strategy misalignment between founders and investors

[49:10] - ON ANGEL INVESTING

• What it takes to start angel investing
• How fast you should build up your angel portfolio
• What angels should bring to the table besides money
• What do angels get out of the investments besides return
• How to find the right angel for your business

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ 

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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