David Politis’ Post

Join the ranks of elite founders and join PearX, our accelerator for founders - Capital $250k to $2M - Founder to founder: Our team has started and sold 10 companies to the likes of Cisco, Instacart, Plaid, and Zynga. - Recruit the best talent: Our dedicated PearX Recruiter, Nate, will find your founding engineer, co-founder, or whatever critical hire your team needs. pear.vc/talent-services - Access Pear Studio: Everyone in PearX receives dedicated office space in Pear Studio SF, our 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art office Pear.vc/pear-studio - Build a scalable sales motion: Our go-to-market team, Pepe and Ana, will guide you through the critical steps of sales: nailing ICP, prospecting, customer discovery, messaging, and more.  pear.vc/go-to-market - Fundraise strategically: 90% of companies that go through PearX raise capital from institutional investors. - Join the best community: Joining PearX means joining a community of like-minded founders. We kick off each cohort with Camp Pear: a 3-day retreat for the entire cohort to come together, learn key company building tactics, and get to know one another. https://lnkd.in/gqsi8xAU

Three Things (March 2024) ____ One of my 2024 goals is to write a post at the beginning of every month about the three things I learned or observed the previous month. Here are my three things for March 2024. 1 - Top Talent - The Founders at the top-performing companies in the PHX Ventures portfolio invest a ton of time in finding, vetting, and closing top talent. In March, Trevor Larson hired Craig Daly as Chief Revenue Officer of Nectar and Gabe Cooper hired Jeff Perkins as Chief Marketing Officer of Virtuous. These newly hired executives have incredible resumes and can work almost anywhere they want. The best Founders attract and retain top talent. The best Founders are the best recruiters. 2 - The Pre-Seed Problem - PHX Ventures has a $5m pre-seed fund that invests $50k-$250k into pre-revenue B2B software companies. The problem with pre-seed investing is that there is no operating data to evaluate. Historically, I have been primarily focused on how a founder thinks about future revenue, but I am increasingly curious about how deeply founders think about their future expected cost structure. I have loved seeing Danny Friday and Josh Hsu, two pre-seed founders we have backed, get into the details of their future expected cost structure. 3 - All the Lonely People. Starting and scaling a company is a lonely proposition. The loneliest time in my life was when I was a founder. I was surrounded by people, but I mostly felt alone in the journey. Lately, loneliness beyond company building has been on my mind. Loneliness is an epidemic in this country. I'm not a sociologist or therapist, but I can do something. I can be better at seeing and connecting with people. I can ask questions. I can listen. I can try to help combat loneliness in my own little corner of the world. At least I can try. What did you learn last month? I hope you will comment below. I learn so much from the thoughts and experiences of others. ____ #saas #founders #venturecapital

This could be so easily avoided: The founding team at Start-Up X raises 1M... They now need to build their team of first 10(ish) employees. Seems straightforward right? They call some people they know, have a casual chat about stuff, they pay them what they want because they know they are good and this gets them employee 1,2 and maybe 3. (They hoped this would do all 10 but realised not as many jump ship as they would like.) A little stumped on how to proceed one of them goes "oh, let's fire a job ad on LinkedIn". Everyone concurs, "seems logical" they thought. 200 applicants applied... per ad. They start panicking a bit and start rationalising poor quality handling of the situation. "So many large companies never get back to everyone, its to be expected right?" "Yeah, that's true, so many jobs I applied to never got back to me so I don't think it will hurt us too much." Anyway, most of the candidates don't hear back, they pick a few and have some casual discussions. "Yeah, she seems like she would do a decent job, shall we just give her an offer?" They get up to the 10 people they wanted. Success right? But then things start breaking. People start getting real busy on things that aren't moving the needle, not for any fault of their own but because they were hired because they were good at what they do, which is great but not necessarily what the business needed at that point in their journey. It gets a bit frustrating, there is misalignment on how to proceed and a couple people leave. The investors start to sweat a bit which means the founders themselves are turning grey with worry. They start to evaluate what went wrong and how to fix this in future so they do a few things: - Standardise the interview process to ensure that the tasks that need done are being done by people who are brilliant at those things specifically. - Ensure alignment of the mission of what they are trying to achieve as a business so that on both a macro and micro level people know their place in the journey. They think its enough. "Feels like we are on the right tack". They contact some people from the previous applications but start getting no's. "You took 3 months to get back to me, I have a new job now." "You hired one of my friends and they told me how disorganised you were, no thanks." "I didn't even get so much as an automated thank you for my application, I'll pass." Suddenly, this is getting a lot harder. Talent Strategy is crucial at the early stage, you need to consider: - Employer branding and ethical sourcing - Best practice around candidate experience - Building an interview process that ensures tactical and strategical alignment - That not doing from day 1 this will cost you too much money and even more time. Once a week I'm going to give a free 30 minute consultation slot for start-ups on how to design a Talent Strategy specific to their business. If you want this weeks slot, comment below or send me a DM.

🍋 Rewinding Our Summer'24 Company Offsite 🍋 Two weeks ago, we brought together our entire team of over 50 lemoneers from 17+ nationalities for our biannual offsite in Brandenburg. We spent four days reflecting on the past, focusing on the present, and getting excited about the future. Our activities were centred around our six principles: 🌟 Customer first & Deliver high quality outcomes: We worked through our product roadmap and our company goals, ensuring we are all pushing in the same direction to build the best product and provide the best experience for our partners. 🤝 Be a team player: From the lemon.olympics and scrambled legs morning runs to joint BBQs, bonfires, tennis matches, and just time to connect, we shared lots of laughs, nerdy brokerage insights, and even some sore muscles. 💡 Lead with empathy & No failure, only feedback: We engaged in company-wide discussions, celebrating our strengths, identifying areas for growth, and outlining clear steps to further develop our culture and set everyone up for success. ... all of it, of course, guided by our mission and sixth principle: Grow investing opportunities! (FYI: If you want to join our mission of building brokerage-as-a-service infrastructure for the next 100 million European investors, we're #hiring across many roles. Check out our open positions! Link in the comments 👇) #berlin #fintech #startups

Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman on how much equity to give your first 10 employees In the early days of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla recruited elite talent, hiring people like Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy, and Eric Schmidt. Many people from Sun went on to start or run billion-dollar companies. Sam Altman asks Vinod how he convinced these people to join him when Sun was just a small startup. Vinod replies: “I see this as a major problem nowadays. People aren’t allocating equity widely enough. I think among the first three or four founders at Sun, we kept less than half of the common. The total was something like 25-27% for the founders, an equal or slightly larger chunk for everybody else we would hire, and then investors had like 40% after the A round. In retrospect, that was a very good idea.” When his son Neil founded the AI startup Curai Health, Vinod advised him to keep only 15% of the company rather than 45% and try to hire one or two people at 15%. Then he advised him to leave 30% of the pool for non-founders. Vinod explains his reasoning: “Even though they’re coming in later and they didn’t come up with the idea, they will be incredible resources, especially as magnets to attract other people. If you believe a company becomes the people it hires, then your task becomes attracting the best people, and selling depends on magnets.” This what Vinod did with Bill Joy. Vinod gave Bill half his equity even though Bill joined later: “Bill Joy was an incredible magnet. People wanted to work with Bill and Andy. And even if Bill didn’t do a day of work, he was more than worth it because he helped attract Eric Schmidt. I don’t think Eric would have come work for me as a 25 year old.” Sam Altman agrees on Vinod’s philosophy of maximizing the size of the pie rather than your ownership percentage: “I think this is the most important piece of advice we’ve talked about among many important things today. Being super generous with early employee equity and getting founder-quality people in the first 10 employees—I think all the evidence is on the side of doing this, and yet almost no one does. So there’s a huge edge if you’re willing to do it.” Vinod argues it’s the “single-most important thing to do in the first six months of a company.” The best people can start their own companies. If you want them to join your company, you have to be generous with equity. https://lnkd.in/gKzscwft

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀 We are thrilled to announce that award-winning finance and tech recruiters Hunter Bond will be hosting a workshop at next week's Founders Week at The Factory London (in partnership with SeedLegals) 🎉 Presenting an informative guide on "Scaling Your Startup: Recruiting Top Talent in the Tech and Finance Sectors", this session will provide invaluable insights on building a strong team, navigating the competitive talent market, and strategies for attracting and retaining the best candidates. Founders Week is now fully booked, but reach out if you've missed out and I'll see if I can find you a way in (I know a guy 🎟 )🌟 #FoundersWeek #HunterBond #StartupSuccess #TechRecruitment #FinanceRecruitment #Networking #Workshops

Request for help/stories for Utah Tech Week: I’m working on a proposal for some funding right now and would love to hear some similar success stories from Utah Tech Week this year or last. My friend Chris Owens met Kirk Ouimet, CEO of Phi at Utah Tech Week last year and became their founding designer. From Utah Tech Week, have you: - met co-founders or employees? - met angels/VCs who invested in your company? Met startups that you invested in? - closed deals/partnerships with old or new relationships? - learned any key info that helped you in your startup or career?

Community is Power! A community is a group of people sharing a common goal. A community is about sharing the unique paths each of us takes on our journey to achieve that goal. Every startup, project, and company goes through many stages: Going from idea to execution,  Is about a developer, and their investor.  About visions, and about pivots,  About bootstrapping, and about exits,  About deploying, and about rollbacks, About hiring, and about firing,  About software, and about its people. And our community came together as one, to share, learn, and grow. Because there is so much more we can do with technology. And there is nothing we can’t achieve together. Thanks to Joseph Hoffman for making this happen! Your longstanding vision of technology, years before it was understood, is a testament to what we all can achieve. Shoutout to our great panel of experts, Sholom Rubin, Max Hauer, and Nachman Lieser, for generously sharing your personal experiences! Thanks, everyone, for making this such a success. 🙏 Until next time, Let’s innovate together!

Shout out to my mate Neil Wittensleger here who changed the future of two Tech companies this week by leading them through Hiring Two Mission critical roles in Engineering and Product. Both these companies are on the cusp of their next big move but the only way they're going to get there is with the Talent to contribute to their products. These hires Neil makes directly impact the future of companies at this size and scale. I watch Neil bite off these seemingly impossible tasks, expertly guide these founders through how they're going to get the best of the best and then he delivers all the way through to their Day 1 and beyond. Big week for Neil, but not out of the ordinary for him either. Startups talk about competitive edge - product features don't make up for having the best and brightest talent in the team. For Neil's clients - he is their competitive edge because he builds winning teams.

Symba INC is on Inc. Magazine!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 This recognition from Inc. Magazine’s #FemaleFounders 250 means the world to us. It's a moment that encourages me to hit pause and truly appreciate the strides we've made—like impacting 20,000+ careers! AND we're on the list with icons like Selena Gomez and Shay Mitchell!! 🤯🙀🤩 Reflecting on last year, it honestly felt like navigating a storm; from the sudden collapse of our bank, SVB, leaving us in a panic about everything from vanished funds to how to run payroll, to witnessing massive layoffs impacting our core customers in tech and HR. The challenge was real and immediate. But, remember pressure makes diamonds! 💎💎💎 So, we buckled up. We pivoted our go-to-market strategy —shifting our focus to industries like healthcare, financial services, and retail that urgently needed our help. But, let’s be real….transitioning to these sectors wasn't instantaneous. It involved a steep learning curve, diving deep into new industries, forging fresh alliances, and reimagining our product to meet these new demands. Through it all, we discovered a broader horizon for Symba. We’ve stretched our wings from focusing solely on early careers and apprenticeships to encompassing all new hires. This new chapter isn’t just another phase; it’s our most daring adventure yet, and we’re thrilled to partner with leaders who are just as eager to roll up their sleeves and enact change. 🚀 To our amazing customers, we love you! ❤️ Thank you for believing in us and giving innovation a real shot. Implementing new technology across an enterprise is a complex dance involving many partners, but the best things in life aren’t easy. We are excited to continue to grow with you! 🌱 Amidst a landscape where less than 14% of startups boast a woman CEO and a mere 2% of venture capital reaches women-led startups, the path ahead is daunting but filled with potential. I’m not just hopeful—I’m energized to make a difference and pay it forward.💪 Thanks to every single person in our Symba community, my co-founder and rock, Nikita Gupta, and Inc. Magazine for spotlighting our journey. Here’s to breaking more barriers and shaping the future. 🙌 #FemaleFounders #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #SymbaJourney #Resilience #Empowerment #WomenInBusiness #WomeninTech #OpenUpTheWorkforce