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[Music]
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kural thank you so much for joining us
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today thank you for having me let's
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start by talking about the group on IPO
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what do you think and what's the
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difference between group Groupon and
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snap deal so I think uh the fact that
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the Groupon IPO is happening 3 years
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after the company started is actually an
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is Testament to the power of the model
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of the fundamental model um I think
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there there has been a lot of mixed
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reactions to Groupon as a company and
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over the last few months but I think
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that's a transient phase um if you zoom
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out and say a company that made zero
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doar in Revenue to a company that's
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making a few billion dollars in Revenue
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in less than three years I I don't know
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of many examples when that has happened
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before so um I I actually wish them luck
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um I hope the IPO goes really really
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well in in India we've taken a slightly
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different approach uh we we actually our
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Origins as a business were in things
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like coupon books discount cards mobile
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coupons and when the Internet space
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started taking off in India about 18
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months ago we migrated the entire
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business online so we were in the
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couponing business even before uh you
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know Groupon type company started coming
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into existence um and and we we actually
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changed the model on multiple parameters
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for instance we didn't have the concept
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of group buying to begin with where we
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didn't require a minimum number of
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people to purchase on the site before a
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deal went life uh our our proposition
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was that for a consumer the best
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experience is that if you are the only
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one who wants to purchase you should be
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allowed to purchase so we structured
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deals with merchants in a way where they
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would even entertain One customer if
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that was the only customer that bought a
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deal right well what's the reason why
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group buying hasn't really taken off in
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India uh on the contrary it's actually
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taken off really fast um and uh and
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probably our business is Testament to
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that when we started 18 months ago um
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you know we were very small company
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maybe 15 people we are about 700 people
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now and we have operations in 50 cities
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and we are soon probably going to start
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going International also uh we are the
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highest traffic e-commerce site in India
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right amongst the top 50 sites in terms
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of traffic in India uh we have 10
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million subscribers and we are adding
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about a million and a half subscribers a
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month right so that just demonstrates to
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you the velocity of growth of the
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business and that wouldn't have happened
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if consumers didn't see uh significant
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value in what we were offering to them
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right now you based on what you just
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described I think you have a pretty uh
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unique perspective on consumer buying
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Trends uh uh in the Indian market sure
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what are some of the most interesting
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Trends you see and uh what are the most
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active sectors sure um so I think um it
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actually has surprised me a lot that the
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the the the appetite for Indian
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consumers to purchase online now and
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purchase a wide variety of things a lot
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of consumers don't see us as a deal site
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they see us as a discovery platform they
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see us as a way to find things to do or
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basically things to spend money on on
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the weekend where they earlier were only
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going to that one restaurant or One
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Salon Etc right so we've enabled that
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Discovery in a city in addition to that
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uh the way we look at our business is
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that deals are an entry point for us
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into the consumer's life right our our
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view has always been that we want to
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build a brand that participates in
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consumers lives every day and that
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participation doesn't uh begin or end
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with only restaurant Spas salons Etc
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it's also physical products right so
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about a few months ago we started
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selling physical products s to the same
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customers which are you know iPhones
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blackberries iPads watches sunglasses
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you apparel wallets you name it and
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we've seen tremendous traction where uh
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we the same customer who was going to a
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restaurant or a spa is the same customer
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who wants to buy an iPhone or a or a
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nice pair of Levi jeans so why not sell
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sell all of those to them right so let's
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talk a little bit about your own
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entrepreneurial Journey uh starting snap
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deal um uh after you finished studying
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business management in the US you went
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back to India uh and you noticed that
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India's retail environment was changing
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tell us about those changes and how that
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inspired you to start SN absolutely so I
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was actually involved in an
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entrepreneurial project when I was at
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Warton uh it was a consumer product
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company that I had joined as a uh as as
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one of the early employees and I
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realized um that couponing and sampling
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were very powerful marketing tools that
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were being used in the US for decades
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now so in 2007 400 billion coupons were
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issued in the US in India that number
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was Zero now there are two ways to look
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at that as an entrepreneur as you can
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say no one's done it before so probably
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there is no opportunity here because
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it's probably too risky other people
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have tried and failed you can say no
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one's done it yet and hence there's a
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great Greenfield opportunity and we'll
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be the Pioneers we were 24 years old
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then and I think you need to be 24 and
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naive to believe the latter and
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fortunately we did that so we just we
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said you know there's a great
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opportunity Indians are deal hungry um
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you know I often say Indian consumers
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are about ABCD astrology Bollywood
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cricket and discounts so as long as
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you're doing one of those four I think
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you as a business are in pretty good
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shape so we picked the D right but uh
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your initial experience in in in the
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discount business was somewhat
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disappointing is that right and it was
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slow um and and I think
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we we really we were slumming the
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streets every day uh so what were some
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of the biggest hurdles you had to face
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and how did you overcome them so you
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know both me and my co-founder Rohit uh
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we went to high school together we we
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had no Capital when we started we had no
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family contacts we had no you know you
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know we had good academic backgrounds
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but we didn't have a lot of we had grand
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total of you know one in 18 months of
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work experience between the two of us
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when we started so we had very few
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things going for us other than the fact
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that we were just you know blindly
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optimistic about the opportunity and and
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I think that that degree of to the to a
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degree of irrationality that really
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worked for us uh wherein every day when
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we were coming into office even though
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the needle was not moving as much in the
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business we were still very optimistic
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that the next day will be better and and
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just having that core belief that of
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course we are doing better than
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yesterday kept us going and and kept us
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thinking about how do we make the
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business bigger better faster you
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referred to the fact of uh you know the
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raising Capital uh that that's a typical
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challenge for any entrepreneur how do
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you get the seed Capital to get going
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how how did you manage so uh we had a
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few Savings of our own we put those in
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uh into the company also interestingly
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and this is where you know uh won has
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really helped us uh it's it's it's a big
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coincidence I was part of this program
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called the management and Technology
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Program here and it's interesting that
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our first angel investor was a MNT Alum
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uh who was 1982 graduate and really
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supported us he's a he's a he's an
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American gentleman who's based in
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Seattle has never been to India and
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wrote us our first check without even
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having been to India without having seen
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a business plan right that shows to me
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how powerful a network at Wharton can be
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interestingly our most recent round of
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financing which was a $40 million round
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of financing was also done by a by a
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venture fund called best Venture
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Partners where one of the senior
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Partners is in mnlm to right so it's
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funny how world's a small place and
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comes a full circle sometimes but uh
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financing for the first the after the
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seed round the series a is the big
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hurdle for any company because that's
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kind of validation of whether you're
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working on something that is potentially
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a value or not right and we had to go to
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15 VCS before the 16th one said yes and
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uh it was the hard 20 9 was the hardest
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Market to raise money there were three
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early stage deals done in India and ours
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was one of them it took 6 and a half
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months to close that deal just because
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investors were asking a lot of questions
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but after we got that initial sum of
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money we you know we were full full
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steam ahead because that's what we were
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waiting for that infusion of capital
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because we had a lot of ideas at that
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point so what were some of the issues
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that came up when you were trying to
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raise that funding and what could other
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startups learn from your experience that
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you went through so I in a tough Market
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yeah uh I think you just have to we
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approached fundraising like we
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approached sales
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right we it's very simple right we are
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very sales-oriented culture so we we map
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them as accounts like and here's where
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what this investor thinks about us
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here's what this investor thinks about
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us and we literally just kept on going
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back to them that here's a business
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update always keeping them posted about
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what we are working on knowing who's
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actually serious and who's just wasting
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your time right and knowing that early
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on and knowing who's going to back you
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even if your business not perfect but
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because they believe that you can create
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something those are the investors you
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want to go after in the beginning our
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philosophy was very simple for our
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series a series B we wanted to pick
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investors who had been entrepreneurs
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before themselves because we knew that
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the empathy that a former Entre
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entrepreneur would have towards our
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business um maybe a career investor may
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or may not have it's not like they won't
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have but my sense was I was better off
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betting on getting a former entrepreneur
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investor on board and that has really
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really helped because in India a lot of
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these businesses are evolving the models
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have to be adapted and you want someone
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who at a board meeting will say you guys
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are doing a great job keep trying new
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things keep experimenting keep making
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mistakes right you know that that's a
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great point now in addition to
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fundraising the other very critical
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piece of starting a new uh company is
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choosing the right team uh tell us about
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that experience and how it worked out it
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was very tough um because at our when we
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started the company we we were about 24
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and a half now we are 28 and um it was
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very hard because no one wanted to work
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for 24 year olds and other 24 year olds
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in India didn't want to work for 24 year
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olds either and before that everyone's
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in college in India right because people
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are generally do their undergrad and MBA
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back to back so by the time they get out
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there 2425 is a huge challenge so our
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early our initial inclination was let's
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hire a senior guy to bring to enhance
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the senior team that didn't work out too
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well because we realized there's always
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a gap in mindset between a guy you hire
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at a senior level versus an entrepreneur
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so then the approach we took was we
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hired Junior guys and kind of brought
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them up in the company gave them
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increasingly amount increasingly uh
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increased amount of responsibility and
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that worked out really well so hiring
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very very hungry Junior guys and giving
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them more responsib ability so what do
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you look for in people you hire um just
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a insane amount of animalistic passion I
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mean we just uh we you know that's
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really we just we just seek that because
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so much in Internet businesses in India
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is a to be figured out right that you
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you're not unless you're hiring like an
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engineer who's good at data warehousing
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which is a very specific skill if you're
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looking for a guy who can do sales or
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marketing or those kind of things I
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don't have a job description right we
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kind of make the job descript
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description every day and it's different
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on different days of the week so then
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you need a person who can adapt who's
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like clay right and who can really take
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a lot of initiative and and uh doesn't
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really need a ton of coaching uh
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day-to-day right uh were retailers
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receptive to the idea that uh
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discounting tell us about that how how
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did you make the case and how did you
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how do you did you actually build your
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business I initially it was a lot of
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cold calling uh cold calling and cold
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emailing uh we would literally just sit
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outside uh merchants and retailers
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waiting for them to get into office so
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that we could catch them then or waiting
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for them to leave office so that we
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could catch them then because nobody
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wanted to talk to two young guys uh with
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a laptop right just they're used to
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dealing with larger companies in India
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right they generally in India
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unfortunately we in a culture where uh
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it's changing very fast but in but still
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a lot of people feel wisdom comes with
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age right and that's why we always have
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a 70-year old prime minister right but
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but I think that's changing very fast um
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so we one was just Brute Force approach
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that I think that when you have nothing
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to show no product no customers nothing
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you have to do something you have to
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sell a dream right and but over a period
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of Time Life got simpler as we drove
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results for a ER he told his neighbor or
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some friend who's running some retail
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shops that why don't you do a deal with
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these guys they'll send more customers
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to you etc etc so can you share any
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worst stories with our audience yeah um
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you know the there were actually the the
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really interesting one was um it's
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actually a it's a positive story U
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because we went through this cycle of
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really making retailers understand this
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business um about January of last year
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January 26th last year I clearly
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remember it's Republic Day in India it's
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a holiday and a couple of retailers
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called me and basically said that this
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is pre us starting snap to you we still
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doing offline couponing then uh
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retailers called me and said you know
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we've done a couple of deals with these
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online couponing sites uh and we've
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gotten five seven customers uh why don't
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you guys try this also we trust you
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we've done because we've educated we had
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educated them about this they trusted us
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they wanted us to do that right to me
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that was a watershed moment in the
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history or evolution of local Merchant
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Commerce and e-commerce in India wherein
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a small business owner who's probably 50
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55 years old has doesn't use internet
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doesn't use a computer is calling us up
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and saying internet is working for me as
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a means of customer acquisition we
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didn't waste any time 8 days later we
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launch snap deal right so literally
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February 4th last year we launched that
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toal so I mean that way it's a it's a
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very symbiotic relationship that we have
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with our uh with our Merchant Partners
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in India interesting so so you you
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raised uh $12 million from private
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Equity $52
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million uh how did the investors
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expectations change uh as as you sort of
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started trying to raise larger amounts
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of capital I think um I I don't think
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investors expectations change that much
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I think even when an investor puts in $2
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million they think about your company
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Pro potentially being the next Google or
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Facebook right um I I I don't think any
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investor puts in money into or I think
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investor should not put money into a
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business thinking that this will be a
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quick flip right and we we were never of
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that mindset um I think it's more our
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how it's changed our mindset right uh so
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when you raise your seed round you're
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thinking that okay this gives me enough
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money to build a proof of concept so
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I'll get my seed series a then once you
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get your series a you start building
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your team a little bit more and to scale
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you raise your series B right and once
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you hit scale to really accelerate to
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get to the Finish Line you raise your
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series C right so in an entrepreneur's
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mind your goal changes basis the size of
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the investment that you take uh at the
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various Milestones of the business so
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now we are very clear that now we need
00:16:23
to go for the Finish Line right which is
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probably take the company public a few
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years out Etc right and and and so we
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think very differently now compared to
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how we thought of the business maybe
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even 9 or 12 months ago wherein we are
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now steering the ship in terms of
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building the right team the right Senior
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Management so that each one of us is
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dispensable so how how how will you know
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it's the right time to go
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public I think we'll figure it out uh I
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don't think there is I don't think we
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have a date I don't think we have a
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timeline as such no but what about the
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conditions what conditions must exist so
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that I feel we should be confident that
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if we went public the business will
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still continue to grow to an exponential
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pace for at least 5 to 10 years hence
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right if we if we know that that kind of
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Headroom exists in the opportunity that
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we are addressing that to me is
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significant validation and also if we
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know that we have a team in which all of
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us are important to the growth of the
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business but none of us are
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indispensable I think once we get to
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that point we we probably ready right
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now uh what can you tell us a little bit
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about you had I think predicted I I read
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somewhere that by the end of 2011 you
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would have $20 million in
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revenues where do you stand in terms of
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your revenues and U give us a sense of
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your operations and yeah so yeah as I
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had mentioned we are about 700 people
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now we'll be close to a th000 people by
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January uh we hiring still hiring very
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aggressively we're making tremendous
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progress on the product side of the
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business I mean these are these things
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are just flying off the shelves uh right
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now um we probably are looking at 30
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million members by next year up from
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maybe 1213 right by the end of this year
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uh so it's going to grow very fast on
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that parameter also we um uh our our
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sense is by by the end of our next
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financial year we should probably be
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getting close to $100 million in sales
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um because I mean we went from 3 million
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to 30 35 right so 35 to 100 shouldn't be
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hard and by in two years from now
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probably cross 200 million in sales what
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what accounts for this kind of growth
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and which are the most active categories
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I think the just to zoom out one of the
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most important things is the customer
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experience right so interestingly 70% of
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the consumers who have ever bought on
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Snap Tao have come through the word of
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mouth channel right so they didn't come
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through advertising it's not like they
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haven't seen advertising but when we do
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surveys of our customer base we find out
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that 70% of them came because someone
00:18:58
told them to come to snap deal and buy
00:19:00
something that to me is in a way makes
00:19:03
me very happy because means we have a
00:19:05
good customer experience that people are
00:19:07
liking right in a way it also makes me a
00:19:10
little anxious because that part you can
00:19:13
only control if you keep running a good
00:19:15
business you can't advertise the hell
00:19:17
out of it and you can't grow that 70 to
00:19:19
75 by advertising it but if you if your
00:19:22
customer experience becomes worse that
00:19:24
70 will go to 10 in no time right but
00:19:28
it's a happier place to be in than a
00:19:30
business which is very dependent on
00:19:31
Advertising right so for us uh it's a
00:19:34
lot about customer experience where
00:19:36
people trust our our vision is very
00:19:38
simple for the
00:19:40
business um helping consumers get the
00:19:43
best deals everyday and everywhere and
00:19:45
nowhere does it say you know what kind
00:19:48
of deals we could be selling a house we
00:19:50
could be selling a car we could be
00:19:51
selling anything it doesn't matter as
00:19:54
long as consumers trust us that our
00:19:57
promise is solid that whatever they come
00:19:58
and buy from us they'll get the best
00:20:00
steal then I think we are in good shape
00:20:02
what are the some of the most popular
00:20:04
things that people are buying through
00:20:05
snapchat mobile phones very very popular
00:20:08
uh people love mobiles in India they
00:20:10
change their mobile phones like every
00:20:12
six months it seems you know we have we
00:20:14
we selling a lot of mobile phones every
00:20:17
day uh we sell a lot of apparel a lot of
00:20:20
jewelry uh restaurants bars uh very very
00:20:23
popular cons as as both family members
00:20:26
have started working in India now
00:20:28
compared to the housewife one of them
00:20:30
being a housewife early on um I think
00:20:33
people are eating out a lot more people
00:20:35
have a lot more discretionary income so
00:20:37
they're going for Spas where three years
00:20:38
ago no one went to spas in India so we I
00:20:40
think we've kind of single-handedly
00:20:42
created the spa culture in India um so
00:20:46
people are traveling a lot now in terms
00:20:48
of weekend getaways that's a culture
00:20:50
also we've introduced Indians didn't do
00:20:52
that uh earlier because you know it's
00:20:54
just expensive Etc but we've made it
00:20:56
affordable for them so consumers are
00:20:58
buying everything uh almost everything
00:21:00
from us and we have some great very
00:21:02
interesting consumer buying Trends right
00:21:05
like for instance we know that people
00:21:07
who eat Chinese food a lot are have a
00:21:10
higher propensity to buy a Blackberry
00:21:12
phone right so we have some really
00:21:14
interesting data around purchase
00:21:16
patterns of consumers very
00:21:18
interesting U uh a lot of companies are
00:21:22
now trying to jump onto the group buying
00:21:26
bandwagon uh how do you expect to
00:21:28
sustain snap Deal's competitive
00:21:31
Advantage so interestingly when we
00:21:33
entered about one year ago um there were
00:21:36
about 50 players in the space in India
00:21:39
there's almost no one left now um we we
00:21:42
have about we have over 70% market share
00:21:45
in that space even in the product
00:21:47
e-commerce space we are probably we the
00:21:49
rate at which we are growing will be
00:21:50
number one in no time uh just because of
00:21:53
the reach we have right so I came back
00:21:55
from China two weeks ago and what I
00:21:57
realized there was the companies that
00:22:00
won the e-commerce race in China and
00:22:02
there were many there right the ones who
00:22:04
won the the ones who eventually won the
00:22:07
race were the guys who had the most
00:22:08
amount of consumer traffic people coming
00:22:11
to their site and given snap deal is by
00:22:14
far number one there um there is there
00:22:18
is absolutely no doubt in our mind that
00:22:20
you know that will serve as a great
00:22:22
differentiator so that to that earlier
00:22:24
point I made about cons us wanting to
00:22:27
always build a brand that participates
00:22:29
in people's lives every day it's
00:22:31
interesting that a lot of consumer
00:22:32
hundreds of consumers have written to us
00:22:34
uh written to me personally over the
00:22:35
last one year saying when they come to
00:22:38
office before they check Facebook they
00:22:40
check snap to you
00:22:42
interesting uh I want to tell you read
00:22:45
you something that Barton marketing
00:22:47
Professor Dave rebstein told us when um
00:22:51
we interviewed him about Groupon sure uh
00:22:55
and his view uh online group buying site
00:22:58
face lots of
00:22:59
challenges uh incre rapidly increasing
00:23:02
competition unsustainably High rates in
00:23:05
customer acquisition and problems in
00:23:08
retaining deal prone customers who are
00:23:10
constantly looking for Discount deals
00:23:13
and the fact that these discounts may
00:23:14
have to be withdrawn as the economy
00:23:16
picks up uh do you face any of these
00:23:19
issues with SNAP not um not really and
00:23:22
that's largely driven by a number of
00:23:24
reasons uh one of the one of the one of
00:23:27
one of the reason one of the criticisms
00:23:29
I've I've read about recently is about
00:23:31
that's unsustainable for a merchant to
00:23:33
give this kind of discounts it's very
00:23:36
different in India in in the US there
00:23:39
are a high fixed cost and high variable
00:23:41
cost for a merchant right um because
00:23:44
people are expensive here in India they
00:23:47
have high fixed cost but very low
00:23:48
variable costs so despite the average
00:23:51
discount in India being higher at 70 75%
00:23:54
even then uh Merchants make money and
00:23:58
merch to the point where Merchants are
00:23:59
actually clamoring to pay us money so
00:24:02
that we feature their deals which we
00:24:04
don't do because our model is very
00:24:05
simple we don't charge a fixed fee right
00:24:08
so Merchant see tremendous value also
00:24:11
there's a supply side glut from a
00:24:13
merchant side in India wherein I'll give
00:24:16
you an example when I was here even if I
00:24:18
had to go for lunch in New York or
00:24:20
Seattle Etc I had to take a reservation
00:24:24
in India I've been back for 4 years I've
00:24:26
never taken a reservation at a
00:24:27
restaurant or a spa or a salon that goes
00:24:30
to show even on a weekend even on a
00:24:32
Saturday night that goes to show how
00:24:34
much distress inventory exists in India
00:24:36
so the model is even more powerful there
00:24:38
actually that's one secondly um because
00:24:42
we sell so many things to customers not
00:24:45
only the deals to us the deals are a
00:24:47
great entry point essentially a low cost
00:24:50
of customer acquisition and then we
00:24:52
cross- sell other products and travel
00:24:54
and other things to them where we
00:24:57
monetize that that customer even further
00:24:59
so can you give some examples so for
00:25:01
instance a customer um you know wants to
00:25:04
go out for a haircut right they'll come
00:25:06
buy the haircut deal from us now we know
00:25:08
that other people who've also bought a
00:25:11
haircut from us recently have also
00:25:14
purchased uh maybe a a shirt from you
00:25:18
know Tommy Hilfiger shirt right so we
00:25:20
will now F next time they log on to the
00:25:22
site they'll see a Tommy Hill fer shirt
00:25:24
right so they may actually end up buying
00:25:26
that because consumer's wallet is fairly
00:25:30
clearly segregated in their minds right
00:25:32
this much money I spend on restaurants
00:25:33
this much money I spend on travel this
00:25:35
much money I spend on clothes gadgets
00:25:37
Etc so our goal is very simple get a
00:25:40
greater share of wallet because the
00:25:42
Indian consumers are extremely deal
00:25:44
conscious and we can't change that we
00:25:46
can't fight that and we actually as snap
00:25:49
deal we play to that right and and so
00:25:52
it's very natural for consumers to come
00:25:54
and come to our site because they are
00:25:57
online to look for deals if they didn't
00:26:00
if they weren't that price sensitive
00:26:01
they would just be shopping offline
00:26:03
great let's let's continue on the risk
00:26:06
theme uh when you think about uh snap
00:26:10
Deal's
00:26:11
operations what do you think are some of
00:26:13
the biggest business risks that could
00:26:15
potentially put snap deal out of
00:26:17
business yeah and and and what are you
00:26:19
doing to prepare for those risks so um I
00:26:22
I think I've been more sleepless and
00:26:24
paranoid now than I ever been and people
00:26:27
question me that why now the business is
00:26:30
doing really well you don't even need to
00:26:32
be here for it to grow and you have
00:26:33
capital and brand and everything that's
00:26:36
when you need to be most paranoid yeah
00:26:37
and that's the reason I'm most paranoid
00:26:39
right because the times when you have
00:26:41
nothing when you have nothing to protect
00:26:44
what's the point of being paranoid right
00:26:46
uh now we are super paranoid right I
00:26:48
mean as an organization we're very
00:26:49
paranoid organization but in a healthy
00:26:52
manner not to a not to an obsessive
00:26:54
extent but um I think the in a very
00:26:58
people driven business uh there are
00:27:00
there there basically in our in our case
00:27:02
there are two two big risks uh are
00:27:05
people making sure that we retain our
00:27:07
best people and we keep bringing on
00:27:09
board even better people right I think
00:27:11
that's a big risk and and something I
00:27:13
spent a lot of time on in the last
00:27:15
couple of years I've done three and a
00:27:17
half thousand interviews just myself
00:27:19
right our selection rates in our company
00:27:21
are one out of 30 people we interview we
00:27:24
have six rounds of interviews for
00:27:26
engineering roles it's one out of 57
00:27:28
right so we are very very stringent in
00:27:30
terms of quality control as to who comes
00:27:32
in and who doesn't come in and we've
00:27:34
seen because of that our attrition rates
00:27:37
are lowest in the it and internet sector
00:27:40
in India where average would be about
00:27:43
30% last year we had a attrition rate of
00:27:46
3.2% right so which is very good for
00:27:48
India a fast growing Market where people
00:27:50
get better salaries all the time I think
00:27:52
the second one is a brand risk we've
00:27:55
invested a lot of capital lot of energy
00:27:58
into building a brand that's top of-
00:27:59
mind for consumers and a brand that
00:28:01
consumers trust that's why they're
00:28:03
willing to come and buy from us because
00:28:04
they know if if we mess up one day we
00:28:07
are also there to fix it for them and
00:28:09
make it okay right and that trust takes
00:28:12
a long time to build although it took us
00:28:14
18 months but relatively not that long
00:28:17
but took a lot of effort we had to put
00:28:19
in a tremendous amount of effort to
00:28:20
build that trust in just 18 months what
00:28:22
what were some of the things you did to
00:28:23
build trust so fast sure um so
00:28:26
interestingly from the first month that
00:28:28
we started all the customers who
00:28:30
transact in a month the first Saturday
00:28:33
of the following month they get an email
00:28:35
directly from me even today right and
00:28:38
and when they reply I reply directly to
00:28:40
them right it comes into my inbox so
00:28:43
like 3 months ago um or two months ago I
00:28:46
remember when we sent the mail I got
00:28:47
some 5,000 emails back from customers
00:28:50
and responded to all of them in like 5
00:28:51
days right so at the end of it I had to
00:28:53
soak my hands in cold water for like 5
00:28:56
days but but you'll be surprised how how
00:29:00
big a confidence Builder that can be for
00:29:02
a customer because for a virtual service
00:29:04
that they are not very familiar with we
00:29:06
don't have a 15-year e-commerce history
00:29:07
in India right when they know that there
00:29:09
is a human being who is at the top of a
00:29:12
company um is responding themselves it
00:29:15
gives them great confidence to give us
00:29:17
their money right well let me ask you a
00:29:21
couple of personal questions just to
00:29:24
wind up uh in your experience so far in
00:29:27
your 28 years of uh that glorious so far
00:29:32
28 glorious years what's what's the
00:29:34
biggest leadership challenge that you
00:29:36
have faced how did you deal with it and
00:29:39
what did you learn from it sure I think
00:29:43
um
00:29:45
uh I think the one of the biggest ones
00:29:48
the the internal biggest internal
00:29:50
conflicts we've learned to deal with now
00:29:53
is um how to how to uh work with people
00:29:58
who are smarter than you right um and
00:30:01
while a lot of people talk about this
00:30:03
stuff but I've kind of felt it like
00:30:05
front and center many many days and
00:30:08
continue to feel it right wherein I know
00:30:11
that a lot of the folks we have in the
00:30:13
company are are much better at what they
00:30:16
do than and than what me or my
00:30:19
co-founder could be at the same task
00:30:22
right and we didn't know that feeling
00:30:25
when it was just the two of us right
00:30:27
right at at that point it was us and us
00:30:30
and us right and we did everything and
00:30:32
we were good at everything or so we
00:30:33
thought uh but the moment you get on
00:30:36
board someone who's just doing marketing
00:30:38
and they're doing a great job at it that
00:30:41
sometimes you you take a step back and
00:30:43
say that if I were in that role could I
00:30:46
even think about doing things like that
00:30:48
or even do it in with so much structure
00:30:50
with so much precision and execution or
00:30:52
not chances are probably not right and
00:30:56
and then
00:30:57
knowing that it's important to let them
00:30:59
do their thing is very critical uh and
00:31:03
everyone makes mistakes and you have to
00:31:04
make peace with that but just stepping
00:31:06
back and
00:31:07
saying thank God that we have people who
00:31:10
are better than us at what they do uh
00:31:13
let's just let them do their own thing
00:31:15
but it does sometimes create a feeling
00:31:17
of inadequacy as a founder and
00:31:20
entrepreneur that um because there is
00:31:22
all this always this Aura around
00:31:24
entrepreneurs that there's just some you
00:31:27
know superum beings right who can do
00:31:29
everything probably not the case at
00:31:32
least I don't feel it I don't feel it I
00:31:34
mean I'm sure there are some who have
00:31:36
that I don't have that right and which
00:31:38
is why we are very happy we've learned
00:31:40
to defer uh or learn to defer to to our
00:31:44
um to our to our colleagues it's a great
00:31:48
answer uh one last question U how do you
00:31:51
define
00:31:52
success
00:31:54
H it's a really deep
00:31:58
question the best for yeah I I think um
00:32:03
just being excited about coming into
00:32:05
office every day I think that that to me
00:32:08
that to me is Success because it's
00:32:10
definitely not making a certain sum of
00:32:12
money it's definitely not my valuation
00:32:15
being you know billions of dollars it's
00:32:17
definitely not that I think it's being
00:32:20
happy about coming into office the next
00:32:22
day I think that to me is as long as I'm
00:32:24
doing that I can do this forever G
00:32:27
thanks so much for speaking with us
00:32:29
thanks thanks for having
00:32:33
[Music]
00:32:52
me
