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A CEO鈥檚 guide to building a (profitable) bootstrapped Startup | Anisa Mirza | PlatziConf - YouTube
Channel: Platzi Team
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Columbia what's good guys thank you for
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having me here today I'm gonna apologize
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in advance my talk is going to be in
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English I was taught I was told to talk
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slower and everyone will laugh at my
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jokes so I promise to do that as long as
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you do your end of the promise okay so
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first of all I want to thank my friends
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Freddie and Christian for inviting me
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here today I've been watching with a lot
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of admiration platt see conference grow
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year-over-year I've been seeing such
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great things from the students that come
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out of plat secon and I was like
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Christian I want to join in on the fun I
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hate watching it on just Instagram and
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so this year he's like fine we'll invite
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you so here I am
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alright so my talk today is on
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overcoming the fear of getting punched
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in the face a CEOs guide to building a
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profitable bootstrap startup so let's
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start that's right let's start off with
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no outside funding Thank You Freddie and
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so you're here for one or two reasons
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and I'd love a show of hands you're here
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either because you are a current founder
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show of hands if you're a current
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founder I'm a two hands from that guy
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that's right I love it
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okay and then keep your hands up if
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you're a current founder now add to that
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are you an aspiring entrepreneur someone
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who wants to become a founder put your
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hands up if any of you come on guys
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there must be more aspiring founders in
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the room all right okay good good so
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you're here because ideally you want to
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learn techniques and ways that you can
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build a startup without relying on just
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fundraising okay and that's what I'm
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gonna share with you today a second
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reason you may be here is you're
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sadistic and you like getting punched in
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the face whatever floats your boat but
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I'm hoping it's more of the latter it's
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a little bit about me I'm a CEO and
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founder of give effect
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I started give effect with my team about
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six years ago we went through Y
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Combinator's 2015 batch which is where I
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met Freddie and Christian
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I'm a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree and I
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built a profitable bootstrap startup
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that does 12 million in process revenue
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with no funding no seed funding no bank
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loan
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no Aron whenever I say no funding people
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are like but did you have this funding
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but did you take money from this did you
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take money from him like no no outside
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funding I'm also a passionate cat mom
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and this is my insta handle if you'd
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like to ask questions or talk along the
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way please feel free to follow me so one
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day I woke up in college and I said to
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myself I want to become a boxer I was
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confident I'd be great one and so the
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very next day I went down to the local
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boxing studio I met this instructor who
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was a former Olympic boxer and he said
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to me Aneesa do you want to be a good
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boxer or do you want to be a great boxer
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and I was like yo I'm talking Muhammad
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Ali's style I want to be a great boxer
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so tell me what I got to do what do I
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need to learn to be an amazing boxer and
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I thought it was gonna be everything
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about like oh and Issei you have to eat
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like this diet and you have to you know
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learn how to I don't know whatever the
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techniques were clearly I didn't go very
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far in it and he goes no before you can
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master the techniques of becoming a
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great boxer you have to learn one very
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important skill you have to conquer your
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fear of getting punched in the face not
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getting punched in the face but your
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fear of getting punched in the face I
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thought that was weird I never went back
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the next day but in all seriousness when
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I started my company six years ago I was
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surprised that I would remember his
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advice and that it would echo more true
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today than ever before you see when we
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did Y Combinator a week before demo day
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a week before fundraising me and my
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co-founders made an active conscious
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decision
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that we were not going to fundraise at
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demo day sounds crazy right
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we made an active conscious decision
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that we were not going to fundraise
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we're not going to do an around we were
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not gonna take seed funding we were
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going to continue to bootstrap our
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startup everyone said we were crazy
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everyone said it was going to kill our
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business but that's exactly what we did
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at the time we were doing 10,000 in mr
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our 10,000 in monthly recurring revenue
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with just the three of us in a house and
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we said if we take on outside and butt
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investment now we may be steered into
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the direction the investors want to take
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us to soon our market the sector that we
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serve is non profits so we're a
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for-profit company serving non profits
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and Silicon Valley doesn't really always
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get this face and so we wanted to be
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able to have autonomy in the way we
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build our company we didn't want to be
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at the hands of an investors direction
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of the company we wanted to build
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something that was truly meaningful and
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that we believed in so at the time we
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really believed that without fund
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raising we would be able to continue to
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build this company but to do so we had
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to go down the hard path of sales
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because that was going to be our
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investment channel that was gonna be our
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revenue and you know when you're a
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startup especially a start-up CEO so any
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of you aspiring CEOs they're gonna
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relate to this you know what that feels
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like it feels like getting punched in
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the face when you go out there trying to
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sell your startup and you're doing your
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first sales pitch and maybe you suck at
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it but you believe in what you do you're
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passionate about it
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this is your life this is your baby so
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when someone sits there and tells you
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this sucks or they tell you that first
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no it really does feel psychologically
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like getting punched in the face and I
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promise you if you can overcome your
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fear of getting punched in the face you
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too can build a profitable startup
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because you too will be able to master
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the art of selling as a CEO for a
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startup company because this really does
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fall on those shoulders of the CEO so
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today I'm going to share my 8-step
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playbook for how to build
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we'll bootstrap startup before we get
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into it three disclaimers number one we
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were a b2b sauce company so
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business-to-business and if that's not
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you then you need to know if all of this
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applies to you or not I'm not here to
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say you should never fundraise I'm not
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here to say fundraising is bad I'm
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simply here to say that I want you to
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understand there's another path if you
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decide to do sales before fundraising
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and get your profitability it only
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increases your valuation on paper so if
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this applies to you you have to decipher
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if it does then this is a playbook so
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number one assemble a well-rounded
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founding team most people look at me and
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say thanks Captain Obvious we all know
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the founding team is important but not
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really right I met I meet so many
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entrepreneurs who sit and tell me and
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nice that we love what you're doing we
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want to do it just like you and you know
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we're gonna go ahead and bootstrap this
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company I'm like cool what's between
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your product today and your first sale
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like what do you need from today to
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there and they go well we need to go on
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hire such-and-such skill set so how are
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you gonna do that without fundraising oh
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I guess we're gonna have to fundraise I
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mean oh this is expensive hiring people
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is expensive so what you need to make
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sure is that your founding team today
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has all the core competency you need in
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your sector to go to market and if you
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don't you should really consider
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bringing on whether it's that engineer
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whether it's that marketing guru you
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need to go ahead and make sure you have
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that in your founding team otherwise
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it's really difficult to do this
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bootstrap this is what we look like it
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was real sexy back then that's my
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co-founder and my other co-founder
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they're identical twins so you're seeing
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them both really and we really the three
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of us were able to take this company and
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continue to build it the only reason we
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hired was when it was time to scale
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meaning we needed more Annie SEZ we
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needed more Kevin's more Alan's to do
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the job not because we needed a skill
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set we were actually able to bootstrap
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it all the way to 60k and monthly
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recurring revenue before ever hiring a
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single person but that's only because we
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had these skills in the founding team
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number two the fun parts go out and
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acquire customers so you're gonna
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have to do email blasts you're gonna
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obviously do phone calls and you want to
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build trust so add them on LinkedIn have
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a gmail avatar I want to say something
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about email blasts this is what our
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email look like it looks really ugly I
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know but this email had higher than
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industry average open rate higher than
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industry average click rate for us I'm
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only sharing this with you to say well
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you go ahead and describe your setup
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your email blasts it's good to look at
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best practices out there today like how
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should you design your email right
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you're gonna go online you're gonna look
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at best practices but then make sure you
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a be test because this against would be
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against best practice this email format
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but this is the email format that worked
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for us that got click rate and open rate
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so obviously you need to a/b test email
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is not the sale pick up the phone you
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need to get on the phone and actually
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call your customers if you're trying to
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get bookings and sales you should be
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doing 80 to 100 dollars a day I think
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you should always leave voicemail and
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persistence pays off everyone thinks
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they know this about sales that
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persistence pays off but actually the
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stat shows over 40% of people in sales
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stop after the first attempt they don't
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continue follow-up so don't be one of
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those 40% persistence does pay off learn
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how to demo here it's important to
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understand one really critical thing
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your job in a demo is not to tell the
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client all the amazing features that you
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have all the amazing skill sets in your
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product know your job in a demo is to
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tell a story and to solve your customers
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pain point there was actually a Harvard
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study that came out that showed that
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when you talk about your product from
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the perspective of solving a customer's
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pain point that it has the same effect
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on lighting up areas in the brain as it
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does when someone has a headache and you
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give them Advil
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that's fascinating it's literally
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solving pain so don't worry about
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talking about all the features you need
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to be talking about a solution focus
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approach to your product tell a story
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okay this is my most important point and
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I may be running low on time so we might
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have to skip a few have empathy what
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does that mean
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it doesn't mean say oh poor you your
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life sucks without my product no and I
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advise you don't do that what do we mean
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by empathy here well let me tell you a
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story I was in Atlanta we opened a
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second office there to scale out to our
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next 50 employees and in the Atlanta
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office a year and a half ago one day
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after work this is a real story one day
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after work I was coming home and I went
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to the hotel to have a glass of wine
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this guy came over to me and he said to
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me hey listen I have really good cocaine
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and I was like okay that's great like
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look like and he's like I know it's that
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kind of night I was like what kind of
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night and he's like I got that good
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stuff come with me
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I got a free sample for you as well I
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was like no sir no and he's like I'm
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gonna give you the best price just come
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with me I'm like no and he's like I
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don't think you're understanding it's
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the best quality coke you're gonna get
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anywhere in Atlanta I promise you is the
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best quality and I was like no like no
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and in that moment right what's
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important to realize is never along the
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way did he stop and ask me why why is
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she saying no he assumed I'm cheap when
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he thinks video cocaine no he thinks I'm
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cheap I can't afford it but it's a
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different story he assumed I was price
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sensitive
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how many founders how many new CEO
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starting sales do that they hear their
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first no from a customer not in this
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line of work obviously but they hear
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there's no from a customer and they're
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like listen I'll drop the price but the
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customer never said that then the next
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thing is they assume that oates features
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its quality it's the product it's no ask
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your customer why you're gonna hear no
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but have empathy put yourself in their
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shoes and genuinely ask them why they're
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saying no that's the only way you're
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come up with a solution to why they
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should say yes but so many people don't
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do this
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so if you remember nothing else in my
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talk I swear to God if anyone tells you
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no one you don't ask why
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at first do things that don't scale
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Abbey Scott is the reason that we were
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able to get more customers you need to
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make evangelist of your customers so
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initially we were doing things that
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don't scale if you wanted a staircase in
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the product we would build it for you if
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you needed the volunteer checkout flow
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to look different we were gonna build it
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you need to go after your first third
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fifth tenth and so on so forth of course
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there comes a point where you do things
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that scale like today we can build
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everything that every customer wants but
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when you start off it's important to do
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that version one always sucks
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okay and I say this and people are like
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yeah we know and then so many people you
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meet will wait like five months before
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they actually ship their product I know
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there's some of you in here
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we all have been guilty of this but it's
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still gonna suck in five months guys so
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the only thing is that now you're five
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months in and you lost time version one
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always sucks so go out there put it out
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there get it live get real customer
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feedback and iterate and iterate fast
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that's how you're gonna be able to make
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payroll for yourself not by just having
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it in your head and not shipping right
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so version one always sucks pricing is
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really important this is a real-life
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pricing page of give effect we started
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off at 999 99 dollars a month $1.99
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$2.99 $4.99 and it's $2.99 today the the
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most common selling plan I remember when
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we put it to $2.99 we laughed the three
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of us in our tiny living room in San
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Francisco we were like who's gonna pay
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this they did thank God
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rule of threes your goal with a pricing
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page is not to overwhelm your customer
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and give them all the options it is your
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fiduciary responsibility to make sure
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they buy and to do so the purpose of a
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pricing page is simply to guide my
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decision as a customer and to give me
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the illusion of choice I want to feel
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like I'm choosing that's important don't
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have one tear have three
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but don't have seven tears because now
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you're overwhelming me make it an easy
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choice by the way freemium czar your
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enemy I please don't do that
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if you're a b2b sauce
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the last step here is simply
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negotiations and closing before we wrap
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up this isn't some fancy story I'm gonna
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tell you it's just that I meet founders
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so often who are like Anisa I'm doing
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what you said I'm doing all these calls
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and I'm booking these demos and we're
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doing the you know really great but
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we're not we're not making progress
[958]
after the demo to the close we're not
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making progress well let me tell you
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something if you did not ask tear budget
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timeline and their decision for payment
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if you didn't actually do this and get
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them a contract and set up next steps
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you weren't trying hard enough
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it's not their job to come knocking at
[978]
your door to buy the product right it's
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your job to ensure that they are moving
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forward with this sale if they were
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wowed by your product don't let a sloppy
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process kill the sale so it's really
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important I advise you to have this
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especially the stuff on the left here to
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have this on a sticky note for my team
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today each of my sales reps are
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responsible before the demo ever ends
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they have to have this information like
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the demo cannot end without getting this
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information so you know you want to know
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the tier you want to know budget you
[1008]
need to understand their timeline and
[1009]
you have to actively ask these questions
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it's not their job to tell you it's your
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job to ask and you have to create a
[1016]
sense of urgency that's it for me today
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if you are interested in more
[1022]
information on this please feel free to
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contact me one thing I do want to say as
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we close is simply that you know I hope
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when you listen back to this talk you're
[1031]
not thinking hey this is how we can
[1034]
become like an aggressive salesperson or
[1036]
you know how sometimes it feels weird
[1038]
selling hard I almost think to myself
[1041]
why does sales matter forgive affect
[1043]
beyond the fact that we want to build a
[1045]
profitable company and make payroll it
[1048]
matters because I believe in our product
[1050]
and what we do every single day a
[1054]
customer buys our product a non-profit
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is
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now serving their clients with better
[1059]
software that means that a Habitat for
[1063]
Humanity is providing housing for
[1064]
someone who's low income and can build a
[1067]
home for their self that means that an
[1069]
SPCA is providing shelter and adoption
[1072]
to an animal that was abused that means
[1075]
that Big Brother Big Sisters is able to
[1076]
pair more adults with children who have
[1079]
been sexually abused and hurt our
[1081]
software helps power nonprofits to serve
[1085]
their communities and excellence it's
[1087]
not a banks bottom line that we're
[1089]
decreasing or some bar staff that we're
[1091]
helping reduce their overhead we're
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doing work that truly matters and so
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we're really proud of every single sale
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we make and every time a customer adopts
[1100]
give effect and I hope that if you're
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gonna go on this journey to be a founder
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you to believe in your product in the
[1105]
same way sales matters not just for
[1107]
profitability because your product is
[1109]
truly making the world a better place
[1111]
thank you so much
[1113]
[Applause]
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