how a solo, non-technical founder started an 80-person startup
TRANSCRIPT
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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We’re hiring!Head of Product, Hackers, VP Marketing, Sales, Designer, etc.
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