how a solo, non-technical founder started an 80-person startup

Taking ZeroCater from 0 to 80

peopleArram Sabeti

ZEROCATER

Quick info

■ Started October 2009■ 80 employees■ Feeding >700 companies■ Working with ~500 restaurants■ Offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago,

Washington D.C.

@arram #hustlecon

Quick info

■ 2007: Discovered Hacker News, became completely obsessed with startups

■ 2008: Sold car to fund move to Bay Area. Got a $500/ studio in El Cerrito

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My timing was impeccable

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Living the Americone Dream

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“Just to be fair, I should mention I’m going to quit in a year to start my own company.”

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Finally, a job

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Countdown to the day I quit my job

Stuff I was responsible for at Justin.tv

■ Customer support■ Ordering lunch■ Recruiting coordination■ Quality assurance■ Facilities management

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Stuff I was responsible for at Justin.tv

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■ Justin.tv was highly opinionated about food.

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Schlep blindness

■ In 2009, food startups not considered legit

■ Dropbox office manager asks Justin Kan for our restaurant list

■ Justin Kan suggested I help out

■ Three months later I quit my job

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Get a job where you’re at the bottom of the totem pole doing all the crappy things no one wants to do.

Recipe for finding a startup idea:

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ZeroCater 0.1

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Hand crafted in notepad

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HTML + FTP

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My sales formula was pretty simple

LinkedIn + Acquaintance = Intro

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Year 1

■ Achieved $500k gross sales run rate

■ Everything broke

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20 mind-numbing hours / week

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Scaling pains

■ Started looking for a technical cofounder

■ Took 3 months to convince a friend to join

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Our first office

Automation… finally

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■ Giant spreadsheet → Django app

■ 20 hours billing → 3 seconds

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Automation… finally

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Applied to Y Combinator

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Accepted into Y Combinator

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WINTER 2011 CLASS

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Investors

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■ Tried to recruit a sales manager, instead got a funding offer

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Investors

“We’d also like to know if you’re willing to go up to $1mm.”

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Investors

“We’d also like to know if you’re willing to go up to $1mm.”

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The Rollercoaster

The Rollercoaster

“Startups do to co-founder relationships what puppies do to socks; they try to pull them apart.”

Matthias Wagner

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The Rollercoaster

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■ About 25% of companies lose a cofounder

■ One of the most common causes of failure

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Fortunately, traction trumps everything. Qualifications don’t matter.

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Our Funders

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Just kidding.

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We did raise a $1.5mm seed round.

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What’s the takeaway?

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“Running a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly”

Paul Graham

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“I keep saying how brutally hard this is… I pissed blood for years keeping Netflix alive.

Marc Randolph

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“Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss.”

Elon Musk

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SNAFU

Situation Normal: All F*cked Up

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zerocater.com

ARRAM SABETIFOUNDER, CEO

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a@zerocater.com

We’re hiring!Head of Product, Hackers, VP Marketing, Sales, Designer, etc.

eat@zerocater.com

#hustleconwww.hustlecon.com