Its a good question. So what I wanted to ask you here is in terms of on boarding lets say this type of, because its a different beast, you know type of investors so how does the approach from evaluating an investor that is a VC, an angel or an angel group shift towards evaluating a potential strategic corporation that is looking to become part of your cap table? Like what have you seen that really works? Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. We both had ideas to be entrepreneurs but neither of us have the guts to actually go for it. They take every, some people go and warm theirif you have a brilliant idea, theyd be crazy not to take it and then their entire value is obviously give you a three month program and then at the end expose you to liek 40 investors. I mean to a point network gets you an intro but a lot of intros are 10 minute meetings where the VC immediately decides its not for them which is totally fair. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper. How does the day to day at Zumper work? Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Culture is everything and so investing in people making sure I as the CEO spend a lot of time as much as possible with people who dont report to me is absolutely critical and that is ultimately like the fabric on how most companies are run. You just get to this kind of motion of you all feel the same and you kind of pull in the same direction. Yeah. Were incredibly grateful for everything she did and she remains kind of shareholder in the company. So the series B, weve done story now look at how quickly the renters are growing on the platform. Then behind the scenes, Zumper will close the transaction with the landlord and set the renter up with kind of rent payment. Everyone in Boston, everyone in New York were straight nos and [25:15] didnt get second meetings but then a month later we came to Silicon Valley and we found a much better product market set for the kind of investor who was prepared to come early and invest early and we got a lot of yeses very quickly. So we bought them. They were [sexy 23:47] company and really fantastic fundraisers but the rounds just take a long time, due diligence take a long time. Your second month you spend getting term sheets and documents signed. Raising money first, marketplace businesses is still really difficult and Ive raised $90 million and Im still saying it is difficult. I learned more from you than you learned from me, and then your job as CEO is to do kind of two or three things, that is to continue to advance like the vision and the mission of the company and keep everything strategically aligned. Had worked at the Boston Consulting Group. Two sided marketplaces are so difficult. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper. Alejandro: Alrightee. Look how quickly our revenue are scaling. But I guess you were saying then here the shift, kind of like shifted more from like growth of users perhaps retention to more kind of like deep revenue growth. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. So what was that process like you were talking about, yes, your network of Harvard but can you share with us like what was that process of landing Kleiner on your seed round? I dont think theres a startup I could have launched that taught me more. So Im completely there with you. This show is about storytelling and all the elements that go into telling the perfect fundraising story. I mean if you could give some kind of like tips you know both fronts it would be really fantastic. 1. 1.4.1 - Provisions of this Code Declared . Because I speak with a ton of founders that are perhaps opening up the possibility of bringing on corporations and I think that you need to really do it right. Yeah. So we have several million users using our platform every month now which is great and next year we wanted tens of millions of users a month and were poised to doing that. Fantastic. At the end of the day though, whether its senior people, junior people, interns who we want to bring back is all under pinned by culture. Its hard. And I mean its quite a few cofounders. I met Russel who [04:01] engineering products through just the personal connections in London. Its a good question. . Anthemos Georgiades Current Workplace Zumper Location 555 Montgomery St Ste 1300, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States Industry Information Collection & Delivery, Media & Internet Description Discover more about Zumper Anthemos Georgiades Work Experience and Education Work Experience Manager, Summer Investment Atomico 2009-2010 Zumper CEO and co-founder May 2012 Board and Advisor Roles Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 1 Anthemos Georgiades is the Board Member at Zumper. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. So Anthemos, whats the business model here? He had actually interviewed me for a job at a different consulting firm and we stayed in touch. Its not about the ski trips and any of that you know. So cofounders are difficult especially if youre not technical as really hard to find a good technical cofounder but the great thing is once you do and it takes a long time, they are able to attract the next generation of talent in to the company and thats how you kind of build your engineering team out. You shameless have to mine your network and I think all CEOs and entrepreneurs have to find that edge of how did they meet one of these investors, how did they meet someone that knows them. And for you I guess personally and professionally because I think they both come together, so how has your leadership and management skills changed over the time from leading the company of lets say four to ten folks initially to a company of over a hundred employees? I think just up front boundaries before you close the round is super important. Oh wow, good question. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. And we built this website using an outsource development shop in Europe that just tested one assumption of the end game which was can we get users in 2011, 2012 just as mobile was coming online to apply and close apartments from their phone. Based in San Francisco, Anth leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. And your cap table I mean as I was reviewing I just felt as I was looking at the Oscars of Silicon Valley, the red carpet. Absolutely. So tell me your story a little bit here, Anthemos. I love it. Alejandro: Got it. Alejandro: Got it. It was like $46 million. It was always a man, there is a really tough problem that consumers experience and no one is solving it. So seed, series A, series B, series C, I was always the point person in the fundraise. How many landlords did we have on the site? I was just talking to a friend of mine about this. Every company is completely different and theres no gold standard. Alejandro: Fantastic. Alejandro: Of course. Theyre both incredibly smart as are my executive team who are also like critical to fundraise where Ill go in and sell the vision often alone. Yeah. They may not understand marketplace as well as you but they may be able to bring a brilliant way of thinking about how to bring the supply on [30:20]. How do you take a company with those tractions, 10 million in revenue. And then now your job at five, six years in with a team of a hundred with higher and amazing executive team who are all better at doing their jobs than you would ever be and so your job is almost as a CEO is to like hire yourself out of a job where you hire people, where you look at them and you think, Wow, I cant believe you report to me. The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. We envisioned a world in which a renter can find apartments, book in [tour 10:18], turn up the [10:21] and if they want to take the apartment pre-qualify, leave a deposit and book the apartment. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. I mean youre doing various jobs, head of sales, head of finance, head of fundraising, head of like DZ. So watching board members from the early investments are [19:38] who now runs Good Water but was originally Kleiner and then Eric [19:42] from Kleiner and theyre both experts at product market set. Yeah. I think its easy not to set those expectations and get caught in the relationship where neither side is being clear on what they expect. Hello, everyone, to the DealMakers Show. anthemos georgiades net worth; wedding max minghella wife; private beach airbnb california; antique english double barrel shotguns; tuscany faucet cartridge removal; primeweld cut 60 machine torch. Over-Communication. Rocketreach finds email, phone & social media for 450M+ professionals. Yeah. At Zumper, based in San Francisco, he leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. We raised like a million dollars in seed money, that was running out so we tried various things that didnt work and I think the fabric of our culture that is still true today when we have a hundred people is built in the dark days and those days where your stuff is not working, your users arent growing, and how you look at your teammates and how you guys turn up on a Monday morning after a really crappy week the week before where maybe someone quit or maybe the metrics went south. Thats just part of the game. If you want me to do your fundraising for you, click here. "While many markets cool off during the winter, Miami is still posting month-over-month increases. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. When you look your cofounders, your team in the eye and you know theyre ready to go and theyre resilient and they come back in to build and try the next thing and youve kind of worked out together this is part of the game. Yeah. Thats your job. Not really actually. So Anthemos, theres always a first time and you know I guess this is the first time in the history of the DealMakers Show that Im able to interview someone that has been involve on the M&A but more on the buy side. Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. Alejandro: Got it. Everyone filling gaps where they could and it [07:02] fulfilling gaps in to where youre skilled and so I think the most obvious thing to do for that is to hire people with very different skill sets to you that allows you to never really have awkward overlap and egos because everyone is kind of skilled at something very unique. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. I didnt think that either of them originally. I was really impressed when because its not hard, its almost impossible to land VC such as Kleiner Perkins on literally your first financing round, the seed round. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash. So I guess for a marketplace or lets say for the people that are listening to us like what kind of metrics do you think for the most part if were talking about hyper growth companies, like they should be a little bit more mindful about? Got it. And so I didnt really think about it too often because this is kind of 15 years ago but then I moved to another six or seven times into an apartment rentals in London, in Boston, in New York and the process is so bad every time, not just in searching but also in actually like getting the apartment. For every successful fundraise, every single company have a lot of nos. Alejandro Cremades leads the vision and execution for Panthera Advisors as its Co-Founder and. And then as we looked at the C round, Axle Springer are fantastic good example [19:59]. ! We both had ideas to be entrepreneurs but neither of us have the guts to actually go for it. We raised like a million dollars in seed money, that was running out so we tried various things that didnt work and I think the fabric of our culture that is still true today when we have a hundred people is built in the dark days and those days where your stuff is not working, your users arent growing, and how you look at your teammates and how you guys turn up on a Monday morning after a really crappy week the week before where maybe someone quit or maybe the metrics went south. Were going to charge you per lead or for the smaller landlords we charge them if theyre [11:15] for the transaction. You rarely have enough data to make the absolutely correct decision and I think a lot of businesses fail especially start ups when they dont make decisions fast enough and in business schools, the case study methods taught me how to feel confident in making decisions without perfect information and how to use data to kind of then review once youve launched, whether it was right or wrong. Retention is something I think about every day. We envisioned a world in which a renter can find apartments, book in [tour 10:18], turn up the [10:21] and if they want to take the apartment pre-qualify, leave a deposit and book the apartment. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. So you still have to land it and once youre on the door it doesnt matter where you come from you have to have something good. And at one point I just told one I just feel like I want to step on the egg and shoot the chicken because it was so repetitive. So I learned a lot from a few companies that I loved, a few companies that I thought are doing crazy things I learned so much. Yeah. And were just a little earlier than obviously a public company so our gross is spikier. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. Two sided marketplaces are so difficult. In the early days, youre going to need to take all the capital you can get. I was also doing, Ive been doing marketplaces for I think like 10 years now and I remember in the last company, I would go and meet with investors and they kept asking me for the chicken and the egg. I think just up front boundaries before you close the round is super important. So I guess lets say we had the opportunity to put you in front of your younger self, Anthemos, in 2012 before you were to close that seed round, what would be that piece of advice that you would give to your younger self with everything that youve learned having this journey ahead of you? Then behind the scenes, Zumper will close the transaction with the landlord and set the renter up with kind of rent payment. Absolutely. I mean at the end of the day, building and scaling companies especially when youre at the early stages is all about survival and its all about learning to be with each other behind the trenches and really going to war and having each others backs. So I guess for a marketplace or lets say for the people that are listening to us like what kind of metrics do you think for the most part if were talking about hyper growth companies, like they should be a little bit more mindful about? For every successful fundraise, every single company have a lot of nos. So it doesnt always work out and I think thats fine. So today, we have another founder and another one that is quite successful in their own paths. So the majority of that is still in the bank but yeah, we raised money in capital [12:00]. So you still have to land it and once youre on the door it doesnt matter where you come from you have to have something good. I mean I called it like a cheat [33:33] my team. In terms of investors, I guess two comments. His passion for relieving the stress for others in . So Anthemos, whats the business model here? Its a Greek name, British accent. So it was never I want to be an entrepreneur journey. So for the business, Anthemos, how much capital have you guys raised today? And to be fair, some of these 20 did indeed come back later to invest but in Boston and I pitched all of the east coast investors first because I was on the east coast and they were straight nos. He had actually interviewed me for a job at a different consulting firm and we stayed in touch. And were they like obviously now youre opening here the cap table to a different breed and I guess when that happen probably at a strategic level lets say from a board perspective or something you know, maybe you receive some type of recommendations whether it was with this corporation or with other corporations as to what perhaps to look for and what to avoid. Could you meet him? And so whereas that doesnt guarantee any success we obviously have to have really good numbers and a really good story to tell them. Of course. And frankly, the process is a pain in the ass. Thank you so much. Yes, weve raised $90 million in capital including a series C that we just closed three months ago. There could be investors who are fantastic. He was with HBS 10 years ago. Great question. So today, we have another founder and another one that is quite successful in their own paths. I mean I think at seed round its like an [26:02]. I mean at the end of the day, building and scaling companies especially when youre at the early stages is all about survival and its all about learning to be with each other behind the trenches and really going to war and having each others backs. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. I met Russel who [04:01] engineering products through just the personal connections in London. At series B, you got to show product market set across the board with the revenue and then at series C, you got to show real traction and real revenue and a proper P&L. So in the first two years, Zumper is now [07:52] $90 million in capital. So I wouldnt be too picky early. It is ultimately the culture. Meaning hey, we send you a ton of leads this month that close in to leases. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. So we tell the small landlords, Hey, dont just advertise in Zumper. Yeah. Absolutely. Youre right that is wrong advice. I'm so proud of my wife Lucy Georgiades and her cofounder Lindsey Nehls on launching their business Elevate Academy today. So what was that process like you were talking about, yes, your network of Harvard but can you share with us like what was that process of landing Kleiner on your seed round? You are going to get a bunch of nos so I wouldnt rule people out too early. So I guess like I have one thing to follow up on this. Whats your story and most importantly, how did you get started with the entrepreneurial bug? Alejandro: Got it. So we solved it to the first two years purely by getting landlords on board through various kind of product strategy and so our growth cuts for the first two years that we raised the [27:41] were purely about landlords and listing. I have no experience doing that. To give you odds, at the seed stage and the series A stage of growth cuts, all about supply side where a two sided marketplace chicken an egg, on day zero you have no renters and no landlords, how do you solve that? I didnt think that either of them originally. How did you find these investors? It was at the time Pat Mapper example almost the same size on consumer but now Zumper is much bigger but we called it like a cheat and your job as the founder is to identify like vertical cheats where overnight you become bigger than your competitors. rex harrison audrey hepburn relationship. I have no experience doing that. Alejandro: Got it. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. Russell Middleton Co-Founder. It was incredibly difficult. How flat is the company? You look at your cofounders and you know that they understand that and that theyre not freaking out, that is where you build real institutional culture and then you try and grow that across the team. So I guess for those listeners that are looking at acquiring other companies to perhaps grow a little bit faster, what kind of advice would you give to them? Theyre struggling to kind of grow their audience because they didnt have enough listings whereas Zumper at the getgo we had a lot of unique landlords on the platform that no one else had. So we want to be the first ever kind of full stack rental platform for long term leases and we monetize that two ways.
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