Recapping Universo della Famiglia 2021 (Part 3): Founder Wisdom
Join us for part three of recapping our Universo della Famiglia 2021. Our founders are full of wise words we would like to share beyond the Famiglia.
Get an inside look into the lives and learnings of founders in the tech industry who have taken on the challenges of starting and scaling companies, disrupting and transforming industries and staying honest and resilient through it all.
📺 You can also watch the full event here.
7 nuggets of wisdom from our founders.
#1 Alex Bouaziz (Co-Founder & CEO of Deel) on rapid scaling.
- Be customer-obsessed. Focus on processes, experience, and people enjoying your product.
- Hire right. Who you hire and the culture you create is crucial.
- Be mission-centric. Work on something you enjoy, and care about your company.
#2 Shubham Goel & Ray Zhou (Co-Founders & CEOs of Affinity) on starting a company.
@ Ray: Have a growth and learning mindset. Be open-minded and value truth over ego. Or as a professor at Stanford told him, “A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept.”
@ Shubham: Surround yourself with mentors who were just recently where you are now.
#3 Bindu Reddy (Founder of Abacus) on her top 3 learnings in tech.
- Transformation always takes longer than you expect and is bigger than you expect (from the internet revolution to AI and crypto to robotics and biotech).
- Always assume good intent. You’re likely to find bias, whether unconscious/unintentional or not, but start out assuming that there is no bias or malice from the people you’re interacting with. If there is actual bias, call it out for sure.
- We should bring the valley back to real innovation — that is, back to discovering the next big thing over profit maximization (which will hopefully come with innovation).
#4 Hanno Renner (Co-Founder & CEO of Personio) on the best advice he got.
Lars Dalgaard once told him, “Never lie to yourself.” Keep yourself and the business honest in the metrics of your business, how it’s growing, and not making excuses.
#5 Michi Wax (Co-Founder & CEO of Forto) on the challenges he had to overcome in disrupting the traditional logistics industry.
- Delivering a reliable service to clients while very dependent on antiquated infrastructure (with the added difficulty of freight disruptions during Covid).
- Mixing the specialists with hungry tech talent and creating a unique culture of contrast.
#6 Sara Spangelo (Co-Founder & CEO of Swarm Technologies) on resilience.
Challenge yourself an extra 10% every day and over time you will feel more comfortable where you were uncomfortable before. You’ll be able to take bigger risks and keep pushing and growing.
Missed our first two Recapping Universo della Famiglia 2021 posts? Check out Part 1: Top #10 Highlights and Part 2: Speaker Insights.
