In the midst of what many have dubbed “The Great Resignation,” many employers are struggling to fill job openings. According to one report, approximately 72 percent of recruiters are struggling to find relevant candidates. And startups in particular are seeing hiring delays. According to another report, it takes an average of six months to hire someone for a startup.

Fixing this issue isn’t easy. According to entrepreneur Gary Bolles, standard recruitment strategies are ill-equipped to handle the future of work. He says traditional recruitment pipelines are highly dependent upon poorly designed processes that usually don’t benefit the hirer or the worker. Instead, he says startups should focus on expanding their network. 

“What you’d love to have is a magic wand capacity that gives you access to a broad network of people,” Bolles says. “You want a high functioning network with a range of different people who can all solve a wide variety of different kinds of problems.”

Bolles is the author of “The Next Rules of Work”, a book that helps leaders understand why traditional notions about work inhibit their ability to address new problems. On Jan. 13, 2022, Bolles hosted a webinar for Founders Network members where he provided pandemic-era strategies for hiring and growing people.

“Instead of thinking in terms of metrics or some numbers or targets that we need to hit, we need to design systems from scratch.”
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To learn more about pandemic-era strategies for hiring and growing people, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from January 13.

DE&I recruiting

Each year, Silicon Valley Bank releases the results of a survey of startup founders around the world. In the most recent report, Silicon Valley Bank asked startups in the U.S., U.K. and Canada about the ethnic and racial minorities in their C-suites and on their board. According to the report, less than half of the companies had at least one member of their leadership teams who was ethnically or racially diverse. The same was true for the number of women in the C-suite and on boards.

While statistics like this illustrate diversity, equity and inclusion issues in the startup world, changing the status quo is more than a numbers game. In order to address DE&I in hiring, organizations often tack metrics on to their recruiting processes. However, according to Bolles, DE&I initiatives must be more than an afterthought.

“We need a mindset shift,” Bolles says. “Instead of thinking in terms of metrics or some numbers or targets that we need to hit, we need to design systems from scratch. We need  DE&I to happen automatically as opposed to a set of mechanics that we try to tack on to our recruiting processes.”

“ATSs are a mechanical approach to old rules processes.”
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The role of tech

Companies are increasingly turning to technologies like artificial intelligence to revamp their hiring processes. However, Bolles says AI can exacerbate recruitment issues because it often relies on historical data sets that are biased. Bolles is also critical of applicant tracking systems because he says they rely on outdated processes.

A recent study found that ATSs are contributing to hiring issues and preventing employers from filling open positions. According to the report, 88 percent of employers say qualified candidates are vetted out of the hiring process because they do not match the exact criteria in job descriptions. The report indicates that outdated metrics and software systems are causing employers to overlook overqualified candidates, resulting in approximately 27 million hidden workers in the U.S. 

“ATSs are a mechanical approach to old rules processes. That’s a model that works sometimes for some hirers, for some applicants, and for some work roles and for the most part doesn’t work very effectively for many,” Bolles says. “None of that means you shouldn’t have good data. You should have good data. You should be able to track information about the people in your sphere. But only focusing on this narrow slice is a miss for everyone.” 

“You have to be extra careful and extra sensitive about not creating systems that are just going to get you people that look like you.”
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Hiring in the pandemic era

The pandemic hasn’t just prompted employees everywhere to rethink their jobs. It’s also forcing employers to rethink how they work and how they hire. Remote work is more popular than ever and as COVID-19 continues to force some to work remotely for safety reasons, startups are having to change the way they do business.  

Part of this global shift to remote operations  involves a more virtual hiring process than ever before. More and more companies are increasingly turning to video interviews to fill open positions, but researchers are already detecting issues employers should be cognizant of.  According to one study, video conferencing for job interviews disadvantages both employers and candidates. Additionally, according to Bolles, video interviews can have unintended consequences in terms of bias. 

“I know that we have to do these things in a virtual world. But there are a whole bunch of aspects of video interviews that are biased against a wide range of applicants, especially people with diverse backgrounds and without the kind of exposure to these processes that gives them very low chances for success,” Bolles says. “You have to be extra careful and extra sensitive about not creating systems that are just going to get you people that look like you.”

Want to learn more about pandemic-era recruitment strategies? In his webinar Bolles covered:

• How work changed in “the Great Reset” of the global pandemic
• How these changes have affected founders and startups
• What founders need to do differently to effectively hire and develop workers
• What founders need to know about skills to grow their company

To learn more about pandemic-era strategies for hiring and growing people, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from January 13.

Healthcare is a fast-growing market, but entrepreneurs looking to enter the fray should be aware that there is more to it than supply meeting demand, says Midori Uehara, VP and Head of Business Development at Cedar, a healthcare fintech platform.

“Healthcare is not a typical good or service. Unlike in most businesses, the buyers are different from the decision makers, who are different from the people who are benefiting. Market forces are often distorted or not applicable at all,” she says. 

Uehara, who will be delivering a Founders Network global keynote on November 17,  co-founded OODA Health, which was recently acquired by Cedar for $425M. She provided insights on how entrepreneurs can succeed in the healthcare market. 

To learn more about insights on how entrepreneurs can succeed in the healthcare market, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from November 17.

Long passionate about the topic, Uehara studied public health policy and human biology at Stanford and then ran strategic implementations at Castlight Health, following a few years in management consulting at Bain & Co. After earning an MBA and MPP from Harvard University, she co-founded OODA, which brings cutting-edge fintech to the healthcare industry.  While she’s a staunch believer that adequate medical care is a human right, she is also a realist, who is aware that change often follows financial incentive.

“Healthcare is not a typical good or service. The buyers are different from the decision makers, who are different from the people who are benefiting. Market forces are often distorted or not applicable at all.” - @CedarNY
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Follow the money and mind the product-market fit

“If you want to have an impact in healthcare, you have to follow the money. This means identifying where money is being spent (or wasted), and recognizing solutions must deliver financial value to get traction – you can’t appeal just to the goodwill of an organization,” she explains. Uehara says that although they are often nonprofits, healthcare players are incentivized to maximize their bottom lines, so tech solutions must deliver financial value if they are to be widely adopted.

For example, OODA’s digital patient payment platform focused on tackling the disconnect between “payers,” usually insurance companies, and the “providers” who bill for services, ranging from hospitals to physician offices to labs processing samples. These two groups often battle over administrative and billing issues, leaving the patient caught in the middle. OODA’s solution pioneered a ground-breaking business model and novel technology to bring the two sides together on behalf of the patient, partnering with multiple large payers and providers across the country.

As OODA grew, however, it became clear that the new business model as designed wouldn’t scale in the absence of broader policy or regulatory change. “While OODA had achieved significant traction and strong relationships with innovative enterprise partners, our initial solution was too reliant on bringing payers and providers together at the same time,” Uehara explains. “We needed a foundation of a scalable product with strong product-market fit as a springboard for the systems innovation we had demonstrated was possible.”

“If you want to have an impact in healthcare, you have to follow the money. This means identifying where money is being spent (or wasted), and recognizing solutions must deliver financial value to get traction.” - @CedarNY
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Enter Cedar, a later-stage startup that was already successfully addressing pain points in the patient financial experience for the provider market. When it acquired OODA, Cedar gained the ability to bring payer data and engagement into the patient billing process, as well as expand into addressing administrative pain points in the payer market – a win for both companies. 

Uehara’s own journey as a co-founder influences her advice to other entrepreneurs: “When you’re trying to get to initial product-market fit, start narrow. Don’t try to do too much. Don’t spread yourself too thin across too many stakeholders in the enterprise healthcare ecosystem.”

Raise enough money to withstand long sales cycles

She adds that providers and payers are infamous for being hard to sell to, so entrepreneurs should raise enough money to withstand long sales cycles. That means getting plenty of investment in your company and a strong team in place, even before you have any customers. 

“You need a bench that’s deep enough to support you when organizations are pushing on your capabilities and technical sophistication,” she says.

“When you're trying to get to the initial product-market fit, start narrow. Don't try to do too much. Don't spread yourself too thin across too many stakeholders in the enterprise healthcare ecosystem.” - @CedarNY
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Learn the policies that dictate healthcare tech 

Even with adequate investment and a tight product-market fit, many well-meaning technologists fail when it comes to introducing new tech tools for the industry. According to Uehara, that’s because they don’t understand the underlying system incentives and policies that dictate the use of seemingly outdated tools.

“Pure tech people come in and say some variation of: ‘Wow, fax machines! It’s obvious, all we need is an email system for healthcare. Why don’t we have that?’ But that fails to consider that the fax machine may be the optimal solution given the existing system,” she says, adding that the “graveyard” of tech solutions rejected by the industry include those created by Microsoft and Google. More viable solutions come from those who understand the underlying incentives of the industry and the policies that drive them.

Uehara has devoted her career to this kind of in-depth knowledge, something she speaks about with noticeable passion. “There’s nothing more important than your health and the health of your loved ones. And when you don’t have it, nothing else really matters. I’m continuously struck by the significance of healthcare in our lives,” she says. 

To learn more about insights on how entrepreneurs can succeed in the healthcare market, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from November 17.

Michael Masterson, co-founder and managing partner of investment firm Supermoon Capital, is hyperfocused on Pre-Seed to Series A stage startups in sleep. Supermoon Capital is taking part in our Pitch Practice, where a handful of founders will pitch for three minutes and then get direct feedback. He is also participating in the Office Hours where Angel/Series A+ Founders Network members will have 10-minute private sessions.

Takeaways:

• Know everything about the investor you’re pitching to
• Understand the problem you’re trying to solve 
• Determine why your company should be selected and focus on why your idea is the solution to a problem.
• Understand your customer and the competitive landscape
• Hire the best people from the beginning  

To have a successful pitch, you should know the investor inside and out, so the Founders Network talked with Masterson about what makes Supermoon Capital special and how to  successfully pitch to them. 

“Not only are we providing capital, but we have a lot of different ways that our companies can access different resources and relationships, depending on what their particular needs are.” - @memasterson1
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• Know everything about the investor you’re pitching to. 

Masterson said they’ve assembled an arsenal of sleep science resources and relationships. One part of this arsenal is their team of six leading sleep scientists in the world.

“They are not just listed on our website,” he said. They’re advisors and thought leaders who are incentivized based on the performance of the fund.

Supermoon also has SleepScore Labs as an exclusive partner. Masterson said they are the leading sleep-focused R&D services company that has collected about 70 million hours of sleep data over the last decade or so.

“Their range of R&D services are really relevant to our portfolio companies,” Masterson said. So if a prospective founder needs testing to back up the effectiveness of their product’s claims, as an example, Supermoon has access. 

SleepScore Labs has the partnership with Mattress Firm, one of the largest sleep product retailers in the industry and ResMed, the leading sleep apnea clinical therapy R&D firm in the world, is also an investor in Supermoon.  

“Not only are we providing capital, but we have a lot of different ways that our companies can access different resources and relationships, depending on what their particular needs are,” Masterson said. 

“The biggest thing I've learned that I would share with new founders of companies is that it's really difficult to attract and hire really good people.” - @memasterson1
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• Understand the problem you’re trying to solve 

Keeping up with how the science is changing and what pain point you’re trying to solve is key to a successful pitch. 

“Sleep is moving fast right now,” Masterson said. “And even since we started our fund, for example, the diagnostic landscape has changed dramatically.” He estimated an even split in the percentage of sleep studies taking place in a lab versus at home. The pandemic has shifted a lot of sleep testing to the home. 

Masterson said the pandemic will have a “legacy effect” that will impact the development of tests and devices intended for home use.

• Determine why your company should be selected and focus on why your idea is the solution to a problem.

When looking at companies to invest, Masterson said he looks for why that person is the right one to select. He’s looking for someone with a “highly relevant background and a passion for solving this issue.”

“Usually there’s a personal story involved that’s driving that extra gear,” he said. “That’s something that we look for.”

“People are what make or break, in my opinion, a startup at the beginning.” - @memasterson1
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• Understand your customer and the competitive landscape

Since Supermoon specializes in what they call the emerging “Night Market,” founders don’t need to explain to them why sleep is important. Instead, they need to give specific information on who their customer is, what competing products are available and why their product or service is key in helping people sleep.

Masterson said the phrase, “You can sleep when you’re dead” is just not relevant any more. He said “this older, more pervasive attitude is changing.” 

• Hire the best people from the beginning

Masterson said having the experience of being a startup founder himself was one of the best decisions he ever made. Starting a company from the ground up helped him become a better investor.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned that I would share with new founders of companies is that it’s really difficult to attract and hire really good people,” he said. “People are what make or break, in my opinion, a startup at the beginning.”

Founders should develop the ability to attract good talent and develop them early on into leaders of organizations. Planning ahead and surrounding yourself with the right people is how a founder can succeed. 

For more insightful feedback from Supermoon Capital, join Michael Masterson for the next Pitch Practice and Office Hours or request to join to access the many resources that Founders Network offers or find out if you qualify for full membership here.

Bondi attributes her ability to quickly learn different technologies and envision their potential value in the marketplace to a sense of curiosity born from early work as a reporter. She considers asking good follow-up questions and her obsession with details key components of her big-picture analysis. “I think curiosity about how other companies work, of the learnings they’ve had, is really important for a founder. As a leader, I don’t just think of our company, but of how we fit into the ecosystem,” she says.

Her prior experience as a CMO who was brought in repeatedly to get companies to acquisition, the next round of funding, or IPO, has also endowed her with special expertise in GTM (go-to-market) strategy, a topic she’ll be discussing at fnSummit. 

“You can’t design your go-to-market strategy in a silo. You don’t want to just go forward and then, at some point, the product person turns around and says: Why are you doing this?” - @kbondi
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Use thorough analysis to know your customer 

Before creating any B2B go-to-marketing plan, Bondi says companies should determine to whom they are selling their product or service. She cautions that this sounds simpler than it is since thorough analysis is required to determine who makes the purchasing decisions within a company and who and what are influencing them.

She tells of a company that offered a freemium model for a dev tool and assumed sales would follow. She notes this is often an assumption with freemium models, but more is needed than simply making a product available with a free tier. To this point, when Bondi analyzed the company’s highest-value customers, it became clear that the users were not the buyers. While the tool was used mostly by developers, those who made the decision were focused on an architecture shift. Their title didn’t matter as much as what the buyer cared about most. While the developers liked the tool, they didn’t make large purchasing decisions. As a result of this finding, Bondi changed the GTM strategy to focus on adoption at the user level, while emphasizing architectural benefits to address the needs of prospective buyers. 

She explains: “If my product can help save time, but that isn’t one of the buyer’s top concerns, it’s a nice to have, but not a must have. Without the urgency of addressing a perceived immediate need, this misalignment leads to a sale being put off to a later date.” 

“One of the challenges is that VCs often have a certain idea of how go-to-market should work. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. As you grow, the market may change, and your strategy may need to change too.” - @kbondi
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Align your GTM strategy with all parts of the company 

Although the right sales pitch is crucial, Bondi believes an effective GTM strategy goes beyond sales and marketing, touching many areas including company vision, product design, and finance. For example, before creating a strategy, there must be communication between the product managers and marketing teams.

“You can’t design your go-to-market strategy in a silo. You don’t want to just go forward and then, at some point, the product person turns around and says: ‘Why are you doing this?’” Bondi recommends transparency, so that all departments are aligned and working toward the company’s larger vision.

Neura: Successful GTM strategy in action

When Bondi was brought in as marketing CMO at Neura, an Israel-based AI company, it had less than 5,000 active users. Because implementing Neura began with an SDK, the company initially thought targeting small organizations through hackathons would be a faster path to implementation. However, once implemented, they saw usage fall off and projects abandoned as there was little need behind them. 

“I think curiosity about how other companies work is really important for a founder. As a leader, I don’t just think of our company, but of how we fit into the ecosystem.” - @kbondi
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Bondi took a different approach, which included integrating third-party data showing the number of downloads apps had per month. She then set a minimum of 50,000 downloads a month as a baseline criteria for beginning sales talks with a potential customer. Within nine months, this approach led Neura to have over a million active users. Four months after that, they added an additional 500,000. 

“We succeeded because I changed the go-to-market to match what we needed, instead of staying with what seemed easy and not really thinking about the motivation on the user side,” she explains.

Don’t be afraid of change

Bondi has found that to get GTM right, ongoing measurement and change is often necessary. “One of the challenges is that VCs have a certain idea of how go-to-market should work. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. As you grow, the market may change, and your strategy may need to change too.” 

So how does she get others on board to implement change? “It’s not such a challenge when you can back up what you are suggesting with facts. You bring people into the process, rather than dictating to them,” she says.

fnSummit, taking place from October 13-15, 2021, is an annual event where founders, investors and partners come together to explore the theme of growth. Located in a beautiful resort in California’s Carmel Valley, the event will offer participants a chance to network, share ideas and enjoy a variety of recreational and team-building activities. 

“I learned that you have to build things that people need, want and are willing to pay for. People ‘make it’ as founders because they have figured out how to reach customers,” he says. 

That awareness motivated Shah to have potential customers fund his latest company, as opposed to going the more traditional investor route. He’ll discuss the ups and downs of customer funding in a fireside chat at fnSummit. 

“I learned that you have to build things that people need, want and are willing to pay for. People ‘make it’ as founders because they have figured out how to reach customers.” - @meetulshah
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Not just an MVP

His experience raising money for previous ventures set the stage for a fresh direction with DemandMatrix. “I feel that investors generally look for the ‘hockey stick,’ but the founder might be totally fine exiting five to 10 times off the revenue. So, things can get kind of misaligned,” he explains. 

As a result, he decided that with DemandMatrix, he’d make sure there was a product-market fit and that the idea was not just “this MVP.” He explains that when customers fund, they become partners in the project, investing in growth and incubation.

He is enthusiastic about his recent experience with customer funding and sees it as a good option for other startups. “You keep the equity. You keep the growth within the company. You reward your employees, the people who are helping you grow, and you’re still able to make your own decisions.” 

“I feel that investors generally look for the ‘hockey stick,’ but the founder might be totally fine exiting five to 10 times off the revenue. So, things can get kind of misaligned.” - @meetulshah
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The ups and downs of customer funding

Still, he acknowledges that there are challenges, including the fact that growth can be slower with customers funding. “VCs come with a lot of goodwill and cache. You can hire people faster. People might say: ‘Hey, Andreessen Horowitz invested. That means, you must be sexy.’”

But he adds that if the product-market fit is not there, those benefits don’t really lead to long-term success. “You end up doing a disservice because VCs are asking you to spend money because that’s their job. If the market doesn’t want what you are selling – it can be a recipe for disaster.” 

“When you fund through customers, you keep the equity. You keep the growth within the company. You reward your employees, the people who are helping you grow, and you’re still able to make your own decisions.” - @meetulshah
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Keeping an open mind

Shah thinks customer funding could be a fit for a range of companies including enterprise companies where customers can pay money upfront; those already situated in an area that strategic customers or partners want to enter; and those looking to disrupt within a legacy industry.

Other founders often ask him whether they should try to fund via customers. Shah believes: “There is no right or wrong answer. It’s your journey.” He just suggests that entrepreneurs be open to the option.

For Shah, his openness to learning led him to innovate in the field of technographics as well as to discover out-of-the-box ways to fund his ventures. Through it all, he says that he has always focused on pursuits that he enjoys.  

“Through starting at age 18, I realized that you can do what you enjoy and money is a byproduct. It sounds like a cliché, but I have found that when you spend time figuring out what you like to do, financial success will come.”  

fnSummit, taking place from October 13-15, 2021, is an annual event where founders, investors and partners come together to explore the theme of growth. Located in a beautiful resort in California’s Carmel Valley, the event will offer participants a chance to network, share ideas and enjoy a variety of recreational and team-building activities. 

“I think it’s important for teams to disengage from the grind, to compete and create together in a totally immersive way that has nothing to do with their usual schedule. It ends up leading to being more productive at work,” he says.

Welch will be bringing some of his most innovative team-building activities to fnSummit, where he’ll also be sharing his thoughts on how to encourage creativity and build community among founders and staff. 

“I think it's important for teams to disengage from the grind, to compete and create together in a totally immersive way that has nothing to do with their usual schedule.” - @tysmysterytours
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Stepping into the unknown

Welch found his calling organically. Although trained as an aerospace engineer, he has always had a knack for planning activities. “My friends joke that I must be a ‘herding breed.’ When I’m traveling in a foreign country and I see people that seem a little lost, I’ll just say: “Let’s do something!.” 

To celebrate turning 30, he threw his first “mystery tour,” in which people came together to participate in group activities without knowing what was planned. It was such a success that he decided to bring the concept to companies and organizations, a venture that has proved highly successful. 

The sense of stepping into the unknown is a crucial aspect of his events. “The mystery part makes everyone more open minded. They go on this adventure together and they achieve things, and it brings a different sense of bonding,” says Welch.

“People just enter this shared space. It’s kind of like meditation in that the mind fully focuses on something different. Suddenly, they’re competing and interacting in new ways.” - @tysmysterytours
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What to expect at fnSummit: Building forts and old-school lawn games

Some of Welch’s clients ask for a competitive activity, while others want to work on collaborating on a project or just relaxing together. At the upcoming fnSummit, he’ll be offering some great options, including one his most popular activities – fort battles. This competitive game involves teams constructing large forts out of cardboard boxes that fit together like Lego and then mounting an offense and defense to protect their forts, all while playing dodgeball. 

“It’s a very strategic game and quite a good workout too. I’m just always amazed at how it brings out this youthful, fun spirit in everyone of any age or background,” says Welch.

For those who prefer a more creative vibe, Tyler’s Tours also offers a much-loved mini-golf-design activity. Teams are given “a crazy number of supplies,” and are asked to design and build the mini golf hole of their dreams, after which the entire group plays the whole course. 

‘It’s insane to see the level of creativity that comes out. I thought at one point I’d seen it all, but every time we do this activity with a group, people surprise me with new designs. Going through the whole creative cycle, from start to finish, really bonds people,” he says, adding that he’ll also offer a variety of lawn games and activities at fnSummit, aimed at those who prefer to dabble in group interactions.The lawn games are good old-school casual fun that allow for social bonding and light competition

“Most startups are used to doing happy hours, bowling or ping pong in the city. But mystery tours bring excitement. CEOs ask me: When are you coming back? That’s what I hope to bring to fnSummit.” - @tysmysterytours
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Creating a shared space for innovation

Whatever they choose to do, Welch is preparing the ground for people to let go of their everyday work mode, relax and have fun. 

“People just enter this shared space. It’s kind of like meditation in that the mind fully focuses on something different. Suddenly, they’re competing and interacting in new ways,” he explains. 

“Most startups are used to doing happy hours, bowling or ping pong in the city. But mystery tours bring excitement. CEOs ask me: When are you coming back? That’s what I hope to bring to fnSummit,” he says.  

fnSummit, taking place from October 13-15, 2021, is an annual event where founders, investors and partners come together to explore the theme of growth. Located in a beautiful resort in California’s Carmel Valley, the event will offer participants a chance to network, share ideas and enjoy a variety of recreational and team-building activities.

Your goals as an entrepreneur are not always clear. They may be centered on making a profit, which means a lot of decisions need to be made on prioritization. But your goals as an entrepreneur should also be centered on building a brand that can deviate from a script, and consider alternatives. 

“Real estate is a relationship business and at a time when most of our relationships exist through screens, it is more important than ever to have a tool that can enhance those interactions.” - @foundersnetwork
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Julie Leonhardt, co-founder and CEO of Vuse, believes that her understanding of the real estate industry, combined with her listening to the pain points of the agents with whom she speaks on a daily basis, has allowed her to create the perfect tool for the agents’ toolkit. Vuse is a mobile platform that enables real estate professionals to create and share captivating, pro-quality videos on the go. Her former life as the COO of Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. and the SVP of Affiliate Services and Head of Operations, EMERIA region, for Christie’s International Real Estate, and her partnership with award-winning filmmaker, Leanna Creel, creates the perfect team to build a product that the real estate market really needs right now.  

“Launching in March 2020 was definitely a risk,” Leonhardt explains. “However, once everyone realized that COVID was not going to be a minor blip on our year, my phone and email were blowing up with agents begging for Vuse. Vuse combines my real estate background with my co-founder, Leanna’s, amazing filmmaking acumen to create a product that is uniquely designed for agents. Real estate is a relationship business and at a time when most of our relationships exist through screens, it is more important than ever to have a tool that can enhance those interactions. ”

“Are you able to pivot where the industry is pushing you? That is so key to product nimbleness. You may not be able to find full market fit right away. Some companies may have to do a few degrees shift as the market changes so they…
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Vamshi Gunukula, COO of DirectShifts, didn’t have to search hard to find the opportunity in the global pandemic. His team found itself in the middle of the moment. DirectShifts is a tech-enabled staffing platform that matches clinicians with employers. As the need for qualified medical professionals grew, his team pivoted toward helping hospitals and clinicians source from a variety of locations. They also focused on sourcing more specialties.

“We diversified because we saw the market needed it,” Gunukula said. “We always create our product with a vision to serve certain aspects of the industry. But the industry will push you laterally. Are you able to pivot where the industry is pushing you? That is so key to product nimbleness. You may not be able to find full market fit right away. Some companies may have to do a few degrees shift as the market changes so they find their sweet spot.”

“This was an extension of my passion, but also very much trying to solve a problem. And as it turns out, it was a problem that basically every single traveler in the world has experienced or will experience some time in the future…
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Zephyr Seat is geared toward the air traveler who in this new normal seeks more private space, among other benefits. The Zephyr Seat would allow airlines to provide double-decker. lie-flat seating in a 2-4-2 configuration. CEO Jeffrey O’Neill, a frequent traveler and designer, came up with the idea after seeking a way to get some good sleep on a very long flight from at the economy price point.

“This was an extension of my passion, but also very much trying to solve a problem,” O’Neill shared with allplane.tv. “And as it turns out, it was a problem that basically every single traveler in the world has experienced or will experience some time in the future when they travel again.”

While O’Neill’s idea was born well before the pandemic in 2017, it arrives at the right time,  just travelers would appreciate isolation and social distancing. It’s poised to be a significant disrupter in the travel industry, should airlines adopt it. At this stage, the Zephyr Seat team is still hunting for the first taker. 

Hear more about how these founders are moving their products forward by joining our Product Panel on August 24. Sign up to join us in this FREE event and find out if you qualify for full membership and get insights on:

• How to pivot where the industry is pushing you with product nimbleness
• Why you should sell your meaning, not just your product
• How to extend passion to propose a solution
• Attract the attention of customers through experiences 
• It’s not about products, it’s about unmet needs

Coaches can be game-changing for some founders. Similar to how a professional tennis player works with a range of coaches to polish different areas of their game (from serving to mental toughness), leaders benefit from expert coaching in areas ranging from communication to mindset to decision-making, and more.

But, with the glut of new coaches entering the field and promoting their services–who is the right coach for you? And, how do you know you’re investing your time and money well? 

Here is the rub–the very reason most founders seek a coach–to address blindspots–is the same thing that makes it hard to find the right coach–we don’t know what we need to maximize our growth. 

“The very reason most founders seek a coach--to address blindspots--is the same thing that makes it hard to find the right person--we can't always see on our own what changes will have the biggest impact on our growth.” -…
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Here are 5 tips for founders looking to hire a coach for the first time:

1. Understand your WHY.

Even if your biggest leadership edge is a blindspot that you can’t fully see or articulate, it helps to enter into the coach search process with clear goals in mind.

Are you struggling with low energy and burnout? Are you running into arguments with your co-founders? Are you struggling to prioritize and tackle hard issues?

In the modern world of coaching, there are coaches who specialize in everything, from breath and bodywork (ideal for imposter syndrome and other issues) to conflict and communication. Getting a sense of what you’re looking for will make you sure you get a lot of value out of your coaching engagement.

Here are some of the most common reasons I see founders hiring coaches:

• Experiencing lower than average confidence (or imposter syndrome).
• Feeling burnt out.
• Intractable infighting with co-founders and senior leaders.
• Lacking emotional resilience (feeling anxious, stressed, or hurt more often than you’d like).
• Awareness of a blindspot (such as being overly aggressive or a poor communicator).
• Hitting a plateau.

2. Coaches are not advisors.

One general piece of advice I recommend is not to hire a coach until after you get your first round of funding. Typically pre-funding founders are more focused on getting to product market fit, developing your business model and more. Many of the above issues may be present, but few people have the time or resources to invest in them at this stage–when the goal is making it to the next phase of your company.

This is not a hard and fast rule and I have seen many founders benefit from burnout support pre-funding and co-founder communication work and role conversations, pre-funding.

“One of the best ways to assess if a coach is a good fit is to ask them what frameworks have used for their own growth and what results they have seen from that work.” - @NathanParcells
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3. Quality is paramount.

Excellent coaches can be a game-changer in your growth trajectory and life. Mediocre coaches will waste your time and can even be harmful to your growth.

While referrals can help, one of the best ways to assess if a coach is good is to ask them what frameworks they use and how those frameworks have helped them grow?

Coaches who don’t practice what they preach are less likely to understand the nuances of how to help you and this is a red flag overall. 

4. Consider rotating coaches.

Similar to how many athletes change coaches (some to focus on different aspects of their game and some to bring new energy or life into their coaching relationship) I think this can be a powerful approach for founders too.

Each coach has a specialty, so when you work with different coaches you can 80/20 their best insights. In addition, if you find a coach you love where the trust established means you keep growing together, you can continue that engagement if you want.

Time-boxing the initial engagement to 3-4 months can help make hiring a coach feel less intimidating.

“Similar to how many athletes change coaches (to focus on different aspects of their game) this can be a powerful approach for founders--spending 4-6 months with a communication coach, then an embodiment coach, a leadership coach,…
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5. Commit

If you’ve had sample sessions with 2-3 coaches and found someone you like but are on the fence, I recommend going for it.

It’s worth it just to see what you get from the coaching relationship and to learn how you show up to an engagement like that.

Furthermore, the biggest impacts from working with a stellar coach come 2-3 months into the relationship once trust has been established. You don’t want to be on the fence the entire time so it’s best to commit for a period than re-assess when that period wraps up.

You should definitely be getting value throughout the engagement (and on every call with your coach) and you should end the engagement if it’s not the right fit, but in the end, there is power to committing and seeing where the process takes you.

Bio:

Nathan Parcells is an Executive Coach and Co-Founder Communication expert at Sharpend Coaching. Nathan also leads group coaching for founders on “Risk-Taking and Vulnerability.” Previously Nathan co-founded and led marketing at Looksharp. Outside of work, Nathan is an avid mountaineer, writer, and adventurer.

Sara Deshpande looks for three things when deciding whether to fund a startup.  They include:

1. An amazing vision worth fighting for
2. A multi-billion dollar market
3. A team capable of execution

“Ton of passion, can reach tens or hundreds of millions of people, will make their lives better and you can be really proud to bring it into the world, and it’s not solved in a way that’s good enough today.” - @sara_desh
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A vision worth fighting for 

While Deshpande acknowledges that there is a lot more diligence that goes into the final decision of whether Maven Ventures will fund, it is those three considerations that are most important. And so that leads to the question, what is an amazing vision worth fighting for?

Deshpande explains that it’s vital that founders truly believe that their product will have the opportunity to get in front of multiple millions of people. But they also need to believe in something more: that their product will be life-changing for customers.

That leads into the second, often overlooked part of a vision worth fighting for. “It’s got to be something that’s not already solved in a way that’s good enough today.” By good enough today, Deshpande references a problem that might not have the best solution but nonetheless has a widely adopted one. In these cases, you end up in competition with people’s existing behavior, something that is very hard to change.

To sum up an amazing vision worth fighting for? “Ton of passion, can reach tens or hundreds of millions of people, will make their lives better and you can be really proud to bring it into the world, and it’s not solved in a way that’s good enough today.”

“What have you proven so far, and how much money do you really need to get to the next set of milestones?” - @sara_desh
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Your startup’s investment stage

When trying to determine what stage of investment to hit when, Deshpande points out that in today’s market there is a lot less differentiation between various fundraising stages. For Deshpande, the big questions are, “what have you proven so far, and how much money do you really need to get to the next set of milestones?” 

She offers a basic breakdown for the early stages:

1. Earlier Pre-Seed Rounds: Pre-product, pre-launch, very early data stage. $1 million, less than $2 million.
2. Seed Stage: With early customer feedback, early product at market and a team that’s working together you have proof points and mitigated risk from team and early product perspective. $2-3 million.

Deshpande stresses the importance of determining milestones in funding. Is the goal to see the company through to a Series A milestone? In that case, it’s a core seed stage.

“Once you have a good set of culture values you have to go beyond just having them written on a wall and actually integrate them into the daily behaviors of your team.” - @sara_desh
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Company Culture

Back in 2014, with just the founding partner, herself and an intern, Deshpande sat down to create a company culture, one that was intentional and committed to paper. At that time, the emphasis that Maven Ventures placed on creating a formal company culture was regarded as a nice thought. Today, though, Deshpande finds this idea really resonates with founders, not just because of all the highly publicized cases of massive culture failures within companies, but also because more and more investors have come to expect a well-established company culture.

In order to create a strong company culture, Deshpande recommends:

1. In the early days (before or during hiring) have an intentional discussion with the co-founding team.
2. Document the vision and mission of the company. What are the core values you would like to see the company and employees embody?
3. Make these 3-5 documented sets of values a core part of your company.

“Once you have a good set of culture values you have to go beyond just having them written on a wall and actually integrate them into the daily behaviors of your team.” This means making them a part of the hiring process, evaluation process and annual review.

For more from Maven Ventures, sign up for Founders Network for an upcoming event with Senior Associate, Robert Ravanshenas, or request to join to access the many resources that Founders Network offers.

Dave Lambert grew up in Colorado and moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford. Right after college he started a computer hardware company which he ran for a decade. He followed that up with a software dot-com company which he ran for about 5 years before selling to a competitor. WorkMetro began as a transactional company, but in the mid-2000s pivoted to a subscription model. This was before people were really using CAC (customer acquisition cost), LTV (lifetime value) and churn.

Lambert stresses the importance of these KPIs for all businesses, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies. Once you calculate the lifetime value relative to CAC and the churn rate, you’ll have the answers to a lot of questions, from whether or not you have a profitable business model, to if it’s time to scale.

With so many companies he works with making errors in how they calculate these numbers, Lambert will share how to use these numbers properly.

“Thinking from a KPI perspective in business, it’s all about increasing MRR. You should throw away the concept of bookings.” - @seedstagedave
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Another major mistake which Lambert often sees SAAS startups making is how to incentivize sales. This mistake goes back to not properly evaluating those critical KPIs. For instance, if one sales rep sells a 2-year subscription for $1,000/month, while a another sells 2 1-year subscriptions for the same price, then the second sales rep has actually provided twice as much value as the first and should be incentivized accordingly. It is the monthly recurring revenue (MRR) that is the most important, not the length of the contract. “Thinking from a KPI perspective in business, it’s all about increasing MRR. You should throw away the concept of bookings.”

“Real product market fit is when you’ve created a product that meets the needs of your customers so well that they’re literally pulling your product away from you instead of you having to sell.” - @seedstagedave
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An additional idea which Lambert so often sees being misunderstood is product market fit. While a lot of people think product market fit is as simple as selling your product, “real product market fit is when you’ve created a product that meets the needs of your customers so well that they’re literally pulling your product away from you instead of you having to sell.”

To learn more about the importances of KPIs, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from June 3.

A final concept which Lambert plans to cover in his presentation is pricing. While this topic is both complex and critical, he finds that too often, founders have given it little thought, let alone plan for optimization. Lambert sees two frequent mistakes here.

“If only 0-10% of prospective customers are saying no to a price then you’re charging way too little.” - @seedstagedave
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The first is that people don’t do the testing to find out what the value of their product is to customers. And as a result they charge too little. “A lot of companies operate on the concept which says the best pricing is the pricing where no customer says no because it costs too much. If only 0-10% of prospective customers are saying no to a price then you’re charging way too little.” Lambert explains that it takes confidence and experimentation to continually raise the price until you get pushback.

The other big mistake that Lambert sees SAAS startup founders making with regards to pricing is when they offer a single product with single metric pricing. This can lead to a scenario with an unlimited plan where an enterprise level software company is paying the same as a tiny company. To get around this you can create a Pro version with a certain feature set that large companies would need.

Though in business for nearly a decade, Lambert thinks of Right Side Capital as his third startup. A startup that is in the business of funding other startups. Join Founders Network to learn more about what early stage founders need to know about building a successful SAAS company.

To learn more about the importances of KPIs, see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from June 3.