A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:14:48 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:14:48] S1: And this was the SPAC post COVID era, like late 2020ish? [00:14:52] S0: Yeah. Earlier than that, but this is like when I think the news online is late, but it was pre that, but that was hard. Like I think, you know, we spent over 500,000 legal fees and, you know, nine months of work, you know, me in the middle of the night all the time with my laptop on my knees, two, three weeks before Christmas, the whole thing just fell out of bed. And like, I think as a first time founder, what was the hardest then was picking up the phones to the shareholders and being like, look, I made a call, we went in this direction and I fucked it up. It wasn't that we made any mistakes. I think it was just that as founders, you know, and and, you know, shareholders back you to go in a certain direction, like, I I found that tough. [00:15:36] S1: And you... That was that harder for you, especially at that age, than the money you probably assumed you would make if it happened? Like, was that top of mind for you or even back then it wasn't?
00:15:36 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:15:36] S1: And you... That was that harder for you, especially at that age, than the money you probably assumed you would make if it happened? Like, was that top of mind for you or even back then it wasn't? [00:15:46] S0: No. Honestly, no. I feel Arnie and I, in the grand scheme of things, have never really been, like to an extent like that motivated by money. And even if you are, it really does get boring quick and like you realize that having a purpose and kind of a sense of fulfillment like every day is just, is harder to find first of all and is way more important. It was really just that feeling of letting people down. And all I, you know, wore my ass off and we did everything correct and everyone would have made the second solid decision even looking back on it. I think as a founder, particularly as a first time founder, during that journey you just put so much weight on your shoulders, And it's difficult to then be like, yeah, I fucked up. [00:16:31] S1: How'd you go from there to exiting?
00:16:31 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:16:31] S1: How'd you go from there to exiting? [00:16:33] S0: Well that was almost like maybe the perfect turnaround. You know, I won't go into too many details of the you know, who called me and when in terms of mentioning them by name, but I was I was in a seaside town in England and I got this call from this Swedish number and I ignored it and they kept calling me and calling me and calling me. I think looking back on it, what happened was they were interested in acquiring us and knew that this spark was going on. And so the second that they heard it fell through, like my phone was blowing up, and it was a much much better outcome. I I mean, I don't wanna talk financially about sort of confidential server uninvolved, but it really was for our customers, shareholders, us personally, it was a better outcome and you know, the business now is in great hands doing great things. [00:17:21] S1: Oh, so it's still operating, like this lending marketplace still exists?
00:17:21 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:17:21] S1: Oh, so it's still operating, like this lending marketplace still exists? [00:17:24] S0: It's funny, A, is, it only just as in the last couple of weeks in The UK which is where the bulk of the business was got rebranded to this new business. But even today I was in this... We did some photo shoot for something at the business and all the equipment that the person was renting there was rented through Fat Armour, which is feels good. And also the amazing thing about our business is like it's a really rewarding story, right? Because what it did to so many creatives was unlock their ability to their passion full time. And I mean, I generally there's probably hundreds of thousands of people that that business changed people's lives for the better, which... And I've [00:18:04] S1: never met them. Right? And that's why it was such a great business, I think, the end to be involved with, and still involved with. When did you sell that, and then when did you start your next company, Fancy? [00:18:13] S0: So 2019 and then end of twenty nineteen, Arnd and I, my brother and I, we kinda just thought it'd be cool if you called the groceries on your phone. I wouldn't necessarily say there was more to it than that. We were like, wanted to build something. We thought that would be cool. And just like polar opposites the first business. Like, we launched with like... To call it an MVP was like an overstatement. It was almost like a WhatsApp group. It was so bad [00:18:41] S1: of an app. So it was a native app. And what city did you choose to launch in?
00:18:41 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:18:41] S1: of an app. So it was a native app. And what city did you choose to launch in? [00:18:45] S0: Newcastle. Again, a bit of a fluky part to the whole story. So Arnes was CEO and we decided to launch Newcastle. One reason, Newcastle for the listeners, whether they know or not, is like a tiny little town. Actually, people from Newcastle would probably get out somewhere. It's a town in the Far Northeast Of England. That is an amazing town or city, but quite small. It's a bit of a university town as well. And yeah, we launched up there, so it was very much a case of like coding during the day and then we'd kind of open up, mainly in the evening was when the orders came in. So like from six onwards, deliver orders until midnight. Did you guys do the first deliveries or [00:19:25] S1: did you partner with someone right away?
00:19:25 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:19:25] S1: did you partner with someone right away? [00:19:27] S0: The team is in the founding team did the first like 1,400 deliveries. We didn't know this at the time, but one of the things that, you know, Arne always says this that was so amazing was obviously, if you're doing the deliveries, you're getting the most real time user feedback that you can possibly get because you're literally... You're meeting every single user every time they make an order in person. So it's almost like you have customer interviews for every order which helped us iterate and build so much quicker. But yeah, the model was originally, you know, obviously we were vertically integrated, right? In other words like it was... We had the warehouse, we had the stock, etcetera, but we didn't have anything beyond the app. So we were like getting orders, we were like going down to the corner shop, we were buying like cigarettes and vodka, and then like delivering them. [00:20:22] S1: And you would pay yourself and then get paid later? Like you didn't have a partnership with the stores where you're buying stuff?