Jack Greco, Brendan Rogers and Our New Approach
📣Announcement!
We are very excited to announce to our readers and subscribers that we have launched The Venture Brief podcast. Following some feedback which we received from our subscribers, we have decided to amend our mission in order to deliver more original and meaningful content. That’s why we will be bringing you a weekly episode where we pick the brains of some brilliant founders and early stage investors. Today we will give you a preview of what is to come by releasing our first two episodes with Jack Greco (co-founder of ACV which raised over +$296M) and Brendan Rogers (co-founder of Wag! which raised over +$360M).
#1 Jack Greco — Building the First Unicorn Out of Buffalo
Jack Greco is a co-founder of ACV Auctions, an online auction dealer platform, last valued at $1.5Bn and raised over $296M from leading investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital, Fidelity, and many others. He is an angel investor, mentor, and advisor to many startups in upstate New York, including 3AM Innovations, Evoke Healthy Foods, and SPATCHED. He is also an LP in several funds, the executive director of Techstars Buffalo, and the founder of One Link Ventures, a company that builds enterprise software solutions for its clients. He is an amazing individual devoted to fostering a verdant startup ecosystem in upstate New York.
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Key Takeaways:
- “If I have to, I am going to New York and I am not coming back until someone is interested.” ACV were running low on money and trust but Jack was relentless in his efforts and flew to New York to literally go knocking on VC doors. It was through this effort he managed to get their lead investor on board.
- “Sometimes it is not about what you’re willing to do, it is about what you’re okay doing that might blow up in your face.” Taking many shots on goal, Jack knows that a majority will not go in. Nevertheless, a majority of his success can be contributed to his quality of persistence.
- As a mentor, there is a lot of value in asking founders basic questions so that they can clarify their own thinking. We know how to make decisions, but sometimes we need someone to awaken us to our own natural decision making process.
- Before committing capital, Jack will always invite people over to break bread. Likeability is a large part of a founder’s or GP’s investability.
- Now is the time to make investments as these investments will produce outsized returns as well as outsized impact. Talent is cheaper than ever and the investment dollars are more powerful.
- “For a guy that never stopped moving, I used to think of myself as a bicycle, that if I was not rolling forward I would tip over, I do not mind this temporary kickstand falling down and actually looking at where I am rather than just where I am going.” Use the time in lock-down to reflect upon where you are instead of always looking at what is next.
#2 Brendan Rogers — Cofounder of Wag! on Recruiting, Work-life balance, and Why Personal Branding is Crucial
Brendan Rogers is the cofounder of Wag! which raised over $360M from leading investors such as Softbank, Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, and many more. Prior to that, he co-founded Gamechanger Labs which was acquired in 2014. He is currently focused on giving back to the startup community through his VC firm called 2.a.m. Ventures and 2.a.m. Talent. Brendan is a humble and down to earth guy who dominates in the area of recruiting and personal branding.
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Key Takeaways:
- On building products: Building on top of another platform is risky since you can never view your own startup as a stand-alone business. You are always at the mercy of the platform. A good example for this is BranchOut.
- On raising money: The best way to figure out whether you are ready to go raise your next round of financing is to build out a set of metrics that are core to your business in order to understand the stickiness of your product (e.g. with consumer products: Monthly Users / Daily Users).
- On raising money from Angels: You need to make sure that the angels that you include on your funding round are able to deliver extreme value add from day one. A key question in this regard is to ask yourself whether the angel investor can make
- On hiring great people in the early stages: You need to identify people that really believe in the core values of your company. In order to find those people, you need to “peel back the onion” in interviews and determine whether the candidate has a passion to solving the problem the startup is addressing.
- On hiring great people in the later stages: At a later stage, it also becomes more important to find people that have entrepreneurial traits and tools from either past experience (e.g. side-hustle) or time spent besides work (e.g. captain of a sports team). In addition to this, you need to find people that are team-oriented.
- On work-life balance: It is important to push yourself to the limit as much as you can, however you need to be able to take a step back sometimes. If not, you will burn out. If yes, it will give you perspective. In that sense, building a great startup is not a sprint but a marathon.
Book Recommendation: The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman.
Reachout: on Linkedin
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