grabcad story and lessons learned
TRANSCRIPT
Lessons learned
Hardi Meybaum@hardi_meybaum
Founder Investor
interviewing.io
2009
2014
Lesson learned #1: talk to customers (not investors)
Lesson learned #2: don’t give up after first failure
Lesson learned #3: celebrate victories - earned $25, celebration dinner $60
Quit a day job and go all-in (week before the birth of 1st child)
Lesson learned #4: have a very very understanding spouse
Raised first seed money
Lesson learned #5: raising the money from Europe is painful
today: 2M+ registered users
Community
Lesson learned #6: launch MVP quickly
Lesson learned #1: talk to customers
Lesson learned #7: everything is not like it appearsLesson learned #8: you are in or out, no middle choice
booked this room for 3 months but ended up here
Lesson learned #9: go where your customers are
Lesson learned #10: learn from great mentors
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Lesson learned #11: always be experimenting
started A/B testing
# of users
17M 20+ investors
Lesson learned #12: raise money when you can, not when you need
Lesson learned #13: raise money from people who want you to succeed and can help you
“This is crazy, I talk more on GrabCAD than in real life”
Lesson learned #14: love your customers
Lesson learned #1: talk to customers
Workbench
Momentum Machines
hammerhead.io
“we love GrabCAD so much that we never want to leave”
Lesson learned #15: customers always comes first
Lesson learned #16: Team comes second, but is incredible important
Lesson learned #17: find people you enjoy working with
Lesson learned #18: hire more experienced and smarter people
than you
Lesson learned #19: find people who inspire you at difficult times
Lesson learned #20: lead through inspiration, discipline and achievement
“have fun and enjoy the journey”
