What I Learned From Founders That I Met Over GrowthClub
For the past few months, I’ve been looking for ways to grow my professional network and connect with other founders. After attending various events with networking opportunities and joining a few Slack groups in my field, I came across a startup that surprisingly had a simple goal: to connect founders so that they can help each other grow and succeed.
In a nutshell, GrowthClub is a virtual Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurs from around the world connect over video chats to exchange growth hacks and help each other out.
Maxim Zavadskiy, Helsinki.
My first video call was with Maxim Zavadskiy, the founder of GrowthClub. Yes, Max vets everyone who requests the platform access, and he welcomes each new member personally. We talked about our entrepreneurial journeys, the current startup experience, and everything in between. Here is the key takeaway I learned from Max:
“Don’t code anything until you have your first paying customer.” — Maxim Zavadskiy
Given that 99% of entrepreneurs don’t know how to write code, the “No-code” movement is becoming remarkably popular. Whether you are looking for no-code tools to build the initial MVP or your entire startup, you can browse through NoCodeList or use the Directory at NoCode.Tech to find the right set of no-code tools.
Jesse Aldridge, San Francisco.
Jesse previously worked as a full-stack web developer at Airbnb and Instacart. He is now freelancing while doing user discovery sessions for his projects that he is starting himself. Furthermore, he built a tool to help him trade stocks, and he is now working on making this internal tool available to the public.
Here is what Jesse advises to founders who are looking for burnout prevention and treatment:
“Work all the time. Burnout doesn’t happen if you work for yourself and believe in what you’re doing.” — Jesse Aldridge
Alex Negrutsa, Moscow.
Alex is a Co-Founder at IMSHOP.IO, and he is now expanding his company’s services to the UK, US and Canada. Alex and his team help retailers increase online sales by developing mobile apps and interactive digital store solutions. IMSHOP also provides clients with inventory analytics and a wide range of omnichannel marketing tools.
Alex shared some of his PR initiatives and went over a few specific campaigns that perform exceptionally well. But most of his bits of advice were around product management.
“Iterate fast and check the adoption rate of each feature. Ask feedback directly. If you deliver a new feature, ask clients to join your retrospective and demo meetings.” — Alex Negrutsa
Yannick Koechlin, Zurich
Yannick is a founder at C Wire, a contextual distribution platform for long-form video content among premium websites. Based on the study done by HubSpot, consumers around the world are expecting brands to produce more video content. To address the growing demand and align with the industry trends, Yannick and his team have created a distribution channel for branded videos.
Besides the extensive knowledge in AdTech and Media, Yannick holds expertise in hiring and experience in leading the teams.
“Create a strong culture with a matching hiring pipeline that works towards it. As the Germans say: klasse statt masse — quality over quantity.” — Yannick Koechlin
Adetiwa Olumide, Lagos
Adetiwa, the founder at Frontdoors, is on a mission to make neighbourhoods safer by empowering residents with smart door locks. Here is his advice to the early-stage startups:
“Hire and work with like-minded people to accomplish your goals. The people you hire can drastically alter your company’s direction.” — Adetiwa Olumide
Grant Belgard, Niceville
Grant is a founder of The Bioinformatics CRO, a research company that provides data analytics for the biotechnology industry with the focus on genomics.
“Don’t try to be all things to all people. Find your niche and those who need what you can offer. Don’t presuppose you know what the market needs — this should be an iterative process of exploration.” — Grant Belgard
Interested in joining GrowthClub to connect with founders?
I believe the quickest way to acquire knowledge is to receive it from those who have done it, been there and ready to share their personal ‘Know-How’ techniques. If you are a founder who is continuously learning and willing to share some of the growth hacks from your areas of expertise, GrowthClub could be your weekly boost of knowledge exchange.
GrowthClub is indeed a geographically and ethnically diverse community of founders, and I do hope to see more female entrepreneurs joining the platform in the future.
Originally published at http://byvi.co on August 6, 2020.
