A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:06:54 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:06:54] S1: Did you do the comment like especially that early on, oh, I'm student, wanted your advice, etcetera, or was it like very direct like, hey, I'm fundraising? [00:07:02] S0: I was very direct. You know, I think in that first message, the big part of it is credibility. So I think like, how can you in that first three or four words get some level of credibility? Is it a name drop? Maybe it's where you studied if you studied somewhere great. [00:07:18] S1: Do you remember what you did? What was your kind of credibility tagline? [00:07:21] S0: There was a couple of people that I approached and I asked whether they would be advisors. So I was like, hey, can you just help me out? And they themselves were like quite reputable. I think in the first line I said something along the lines of like, hey, I've started this new company, already got advisors from Airbnb and whatever and Uber, know, this is what we do, keen to chat, you know. No one should ever like say they're raising money and so far they've raised zero. Yes. It sounds obvious, but like I would advise like not to do that ever, right? In other words like no matter what, if you are raising, the rounds pretty much already done. That's narrative. [00:08:05] S1: Yes. Yes. [00:08:06] S0: I'll explain the reality of this but like no one wants to be that first check. So that first check is gonna come from an ally or someone that you know. Right? And so they're the ones gonna take the leap of faith. But, yeah, you always wanna be on the tail end.
00:08:06 · Chaz Englander, Pablo Srugo
[00:08:06] S0: I'll explain the reality of this but like no one wants to be that first check. So that first check is gonna come from an ally or someone that you know. Right? And so they're the ones gonna take the leap of faith. But, yeah, you always wanna be on the tail end. [00:08:19] S1: I actually did it by accident because we thought we needed only like 200 k, and then we thought we needed only 500 k. But the effect of it was we always almost done because it was like, oh, we got a 100 k out of 200, so we're 50%. And then they were like, you know, we're gonna need more money. Well, you know what? We got 300 out of 500. And so you always got that momentum going. [00:08:36] S0: That's what people should do. Is whatever their first check is in the round, just say your total round is that plus like 20. [00:08:44] S1: Yes. And the other thing you mentioned there that I think is really important is, you know, bootstrapping is known as like, you know, you don't raise any money. But I think there's an element in bootstrapping, whether you go VC or not, which is how do you do the little thing? You have this goal of raising a million, and you're like, that seems insurmountable. Okay. Well, maybe raising a 100 k is easier to this point. Maybe raising any money is too hard, but maybe getting an adviser is not that hard. And then getting an adviser can lead to those meetings, lead to the... So it's like boot, like these little things that then get you to that big thing. Right? You gotta break it down.
00:08:44 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:08:44] S1: Yes. And the other thing you mentioned there that I think is really important is, you know, bootstrapping is known as like, you know, you don't raise any money. But I think there's an element in bootstrapping, whether you go VC or not, which is how do you do the little thing? You have this goal of raising a million, and you're like, that seems insurmountable. Okay. Well, maybe raising a 100 k is easier to this point. Maybe raising any money is too hard, but maybe getting an adviser is not that hard. And then getting an adviser can lead to those meetings, lead to the... So it's like boot, like these little things that then get you to that big thing. Right? You gotta break it down. [00:09:13] S0: Everything compounds, first of all. So like, everything seems like a really steep hill. Right? But it's like anything, you know, to get to your first, I don't know, even a 100 k in ARR when your first eye might seem huge, but when you're there, to get to like a million maybe doesn't seem that far, you know? And and I think like anything it's these little cassettes. I think the big thing is consistency. And the second thing, we mentioned Arnd and I when we did this YC interview, that's on YouTube, perseverance. So like, I think there is a big difference between blind perseverance. But if something like makes sense and you know it makes sense and you're not kidding yourself, I mean, you just gotta go at that with that all guns blazing.
00:09:13 · Chaz Englander, Pablo Srugo
[00:09:13] S0: Everything compounds, first of all. So like, everything seems like a really steep hill. Right? But it's like anything, you know, to get to your first, I don't know, even a 100 k in ARR when your first eye might seem huge, but when you're there, to get to like a million maybe doesn't seem that far, you know? And and I think like anything it's these little cassettes. I think the big thing is consistency. And the second thing, we mentioned Arnd and I when we did this YC interview, that's on YouTube, perseverance. So like, I think there is a big difference between blind perseverance. But if something like makes sense and you know it makes sense and you're not kidding yourself, I mean, you just gotta go at that with that all guns blazing. [00:09:55] S1: It's this weird balance because on the one hand, I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of time on something that's just like probably never gonna work and then ultimately doesn't work, and they're like, wow. I wish I made a huge change way earlier. But on the other hand, even the ones that are successful had to go through a lot of shit until they saw that success. So you've gotta figure out if the thing you're going after is, like, real somehow. But even if it is, unless you get really lucky, it's not just gonna be up into the right. You're gonna go eat a lot of shit to get there.
00:09:55 · Pablo Srugo, Chaz Englander
[00:09:55] S1: It's this weird balance because on the one hand, I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of time on something that's just like probably never gonna work and then ultimately doesn't work, and they're like, wow. I wish I made a huge change way earlier. But on the other hand, even the ones that are successful had to go through a lot of shit until they saw that success. So you've gotta figure out if the thing you're going after is, like, real somehow. But even if it is, unless you get really lucky, it's not just gonna be up into the right. You're gonna go eat a lot of shit to get there. [00:10:23] S0: An easy sort of cheat code there is like, again, slightly different now with AI, but like, if you have no competition and you've like never had any competition, it's like you still have no competition. You probably don't have anything that people want, right? And I think like, it's astounding to me, but I say it's astounding, I mean I was the same, You have this inherent fear for competition, think particularly as a first time founder. It's like you see competition, big company or small company by the way, building what you're building and there's just like this anxiety that builds up inside you, right? You're like, it's over, right? I think that what you realize second and third time is like, that is exactly what you need because there's just more and more folks validating your concept, right? And if you validated your concept, then all you need to do is execute better. And it's way easier to execute better than it is to find a concept that works.
00:10:23 · Chaz Englander, Pablo Srugo
[00:10:23] S0: An easy sort of cheat code there is like, again, slightly different now with AI, but like, if you have no competition and you've like never had any competition, it's like you still have no competition. You probably don't have anything that people want, right? And I think like, it's astounding to me, but I say it's astounding, I mean I was the same, You have this inherent fear for competition, think particularly as a first time founder. It's like you see competition, big company or small company by the way, building what you're building and there's just like this anxiety that builds up inside you, right? You're like, it's over, right? I think that what you realize second and third time is like, that is exactly what you need because there's just more and more folks validating your concept, right? And if you validated your concept, then all you need to do is execute better. And it's way easier to execute better than it is to find a concept that works. [00:11:19] S1: So going back to the storyline for Fat Lam, I mean, you get into YC. YC will make fundraising a lot easier, but it doesn't make finding product market fit easier. And this is not an easy path that you've chosen around lending, like a lending marketplace. What's that story?