Notion drives 60% more leads through paid marketing</a></li><li>Example 2: <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.mutinyhq.com/blog/the-second-lever-replays#conversion-secret-how-snowflake-runs-abm-at-scale\">Snowflake builds an ABM and enterprise marketing program</a></li></ul><p><strong>12:50</strong> - You recently shared that with data and AI, Mutiny transforms conversion from a niche A/B testing tool to a platform that every go-to-market team can use to drive efficient growth at scale. What does that mean, and how have you leveraged the advances in AI over the last four years? </p><ul><li>When you can give the entire go-to-market team x-ray vision into every visitor and how they are converting – and then pair that insight with the ability to change the website for different segments – every team will make the website a core part of their strategy to drive more revenue. Mutiny uses AI to give teams this insight and answer questions like: What segments should I prioritize? What parts of the website should I change? What copy will resonate? Where should I focus? </li></ul><p><strong>17:00</strong> - At Mutiny when looking at data, when do you know the right questions to ask and when do you say these are not questions we need to optimize now?</p><ul><li>In the early days, one of the most valuable things we did was follow our customers’ growth teams. We would attend team meetings, watch them use our product, and ask questions. It became clear what we should build for our customers. </li></ul><p><strong>20:30</strong> - Since you started Mutiny, what are some of the advances in AI that you’ve leveraged? </p><ul><li>We did things that didn't scale in the early days to solve customers’ problems. As our customers grew, our data set grew and we used AI models and inputs to improve our recommendation engines and service a broader customer base. Today, we can build models that tell a user where on the website they should make changes and write personalized copy leveraging GPT-3. </li></ul><p><strong>29:10</strong> - Did you have moments when you felt Mutiny could be doing more with the advances being made in AI? </p><ul><li>We saw an opportunity to marry our proprietary data set with GPT-3 to produce highly personalized copy. </li></ul><p><strong>32:15</strong> - GPT-3 was an inflection point for Munity. What is the next inflection point? </p><ul><li>There are a lot of opportunities with DALL-E, as visuals are important in marketing.</li></ul><p><strong>36:30</strong> - Do you have cautionary advice on how to think about using technologies like GPT-3 and DALL-E for founders dabbling in AI? </p><ul><li>Think through the ultimate long-term vision of the product and the long-term defensibility of the business. And launch fast, as technology develops quickly. </li></ul><p><strong>38:40</strong> - What advice do you have for founders in terms of leveraging OpenAI, GPT-3, etc. while focusing on the long-term vision? </p><ul><li>Your vision and long-term view is separate from your day-to-day execution. Your long-term vision (i.e. the opportunity and what you’re trying to create over the course of a decade) provides clarity around where you’re trying to go and brings other people along with you, like your investors and employees. Day-to-day, you’re focused and executing quickly – and not always thinking about the ten year vision when you’re building V1.</li></ul><p><strong>43:45</strong> - You decided to grow your team by acquiring Intellipse. And now, Mutiny has one of the larger engineering teams with production experience in modern marketing AI technologies. Why did you decide to pursue an acquisition? </p><ul><li>Founders have to look for inflection points where something happens in the market leading to the “old way” no longer being as good. And as a result, a much larger portion of the market is open to a new and better way. We’re in a recession, and this is an inflection point for Mutiny. Companies need to convert every dollar to a customer, and Mutiny has built a product that makes marketing dollars more efficient. We can accelerate our road map with the acquisition of Intellipse</li></ul><p><strong>46:40</strong> - How did you know you wanted to work with the Intellipse team so much that you had to go through an acquisition?</p><ul><li>We were interested in the Intellipse team and the skills the team had developed. Their CTO and senior engineers had a unique experience with marketing AI and newer technologies, like GPT-3.</li><li>The personality and values of the founder spreads in an organization and becomes the company culture. After getting to know the founder and the free am, it was evident the two companies had a similar culture and shared values – and we’d be able to bring this team in and enhance our culture.</li></ul><p><strong>50:15</strong> - How long did it take to assess the culture? </p><ul><li>We spent the same amount of time with each individual as if we were hiring them onto the team through our typical recruiting process.</li></ul><p><strong>51:30</strong> - Do you expect to acquire more companies in the future? And how should founders and CEOs determine whether this strategy is right for their company? </p><ul><li>Be clear about your goals and why an acquisition is the right way to achieve those goals. When a company is working toward a similar goal – building something we would have done ourselves – it is a successful acquisition. With Intellipse, the team shared similar goals and company culture, and could accelerate our timing.</li><li>We want to hire founders onto our product team who are user focused and move quickly. Founders can focus their entrepreneurial energy on building a product and growing that business area within Mutiny. </li></ul><p><strong>54:55</strong> - What are your thoughts about how AI will impact the next ten years? </p><ul><li>There has been enough productization of backend AI technologies that as a founder you can tap into AI to accelerate the product you want to build and the value you give to customers. From a user and growth perspective, AI enables us to automate many of the tasks no one wants to do. And for those who aren’t technical – but understand what they are trying to do – they can now be self sufficient.</li></ul>","comment_id":"6356a9c957e9f90001984b62","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/10/BlogTwitter-Image-Template-1.jpeg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-10-24T08:05:45.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-10-25T08:44:16.000-07:00","published_at":"2022-10-24T09:25:31.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"YC’s Anu Hariharan sat down with Mutiny co-founder and CEO Jaleh Rezaei to talk about their recent acquisition of Intellipse, an AI marketing platform, as well as how AI will impact the next era of growth.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a7106f","name":"Y 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You can read the first edition <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/learnings-of-a-ceo-max-rhodes-faire/">here. </p><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://zapier.com//">Zapier was founded in 2012 by <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/wadefoster/">Wade Foster</a>, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/bryanhelmig?lang=en\%22>Bryan Helmig</a>, and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/mikeknoop/">Mike Knoop</a>. The founders went through YC’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/zapier/">Summer 2012 batch</a> and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/growth-program/">S18 Growth Program</a>, and today, Zapier automates work by connecting with over 5,000 apps. The company has been profitable since 2014 and is valued at $5B – with 700 employees working remotely. Wade, Zapier CEO, shared his learnings growing into the role of a growth-stage CEO. </p><p><strong>How has your job as a CEO changed from leading a 3-person company in 2012 to a 700-person organization today? </strong></p><p>In the early days, you’re in the trenches with your co-founders and early employees splitting up tasks and touching nearly every part of the business. Often you’re writing code, selling products, recruiting, and helping with HR and finance functions. Today, Zapier is almost a team of 700 – and as we’ve grown, people have taken more and more duties from me to help the company grow and scale.</p><p>Now, one place I feel I am most needed is the vague concept of setting the vision and communicating that vision — and then ensuring everyone understands what we are doing, why it’s important, and their role in getting that done. This came naturally to me when we were small and I was in the trenches with everyone and communicating constantly. But as we hired more folks, I realized leaders were interpreting the vision to their team somewhat differently. I learned that if you are not communicating the vision well, you'll have teams that seem to be working on random projects. In isolation this isn’t bad, but as a collective set of tasks, you discover their work doesn’t fit into the vision. </p><p>We now repeat the vision over and over again in many formats. We put the vision in writing and it's constantly referenced; it's communicated at our all-hands; we bring in customers to talk about Zapier’s impact; we show data, so charts and figures can help tell the story; we have a company podcast. </p><p>When people inside the company start to turn the vision into a meme or Slack emoji, I know they really get the vision. Diagnostic tools, like employee engagement surveys, also help me understand how well employees understand why their role is important. It’s also evident when reviewing roadmaps. If a team’s tasks are tight and cohesive, I can tell they’ve been making tough decisions to align to the vision; if there are a bunch of random tasks, I can tell the vision hasn’t been communicated clearly. As a CEO, you have to ask, “Tell me how this is aligned,” and force those conversations to occur. Over time, people will get more comfortable with these types of assertive exercises. </p><p><strong>As you've grown, what changes have you had to make to keep everyone at your company aligned?</strong></p><p>We host weekly all hands, bring customers in to talk at those all hands, are transparent with metrics, and make sure those metrics are reflective of the good and the bad. Ultra transparency with metrics has served us well, as they are motivating and help people get aligned. People start to ask, \"How do we get these bad metrics to the good category?\" and then work towards change.</p><p>Being candid has also served us well. Whether at all hands, on a podcast, or solely talking with one of our leaders, we have candid conversations about why we didn’t hit a goal, why we were off schedule, why a deal didn’t close – and then immediately dive into what we think needs to happen next. The goal is to give awareness to the organization, so that in various meetings and forums people can try to figure out how to improve those areas.</p><p><strong>What's your advice to other founders on how to hire executives?</strong></p><p>Hiring executives is one of the hardest things you’ll do as a CEO. It's hard to determine when to start hiring executives, exactly what you’re looking for in an executive, and then find that person. </p><p>The best way to figure out when to start hiring executives is to meet with people who are unquestionably good executives at companies a stage or two further along. With no intention to hire them, meet with the VP of Engineering, VP of Marketing, and VP of People and ask, \"What are the things you do? What makes you great at this job? What do people in your job disagree on?”. Get as smart as you can on this topic and then compare and contrast what that set of leaders is telling you with how your company operates. If these executives wouldn’t bring anything new to the table, you may not be ready for that type of leader. This starts to help you answer the when part of the equation – and also the what, because you start to see what these folks are capable of and what they are not. </p><p>Part of determining what you should look for in an executive is understanding your own strengths and weaknesses. This requires honesty with yourself and internalizing feedback you have received. (I encourage folks to work with executive coaches and get 360 performance reviews.) Figuring this out helps you start to realize, \"Okay, within my executive team, I need people who will compliment me in these ways.\" Otherwise, you risk hiring a team that is quite capable and competent at their function, but actually may not work well with each other or with you.</p><p><strong>What is Zapier’s culture? What do you do to cultivate it as a remote company?</strong></p><p>We have a strong set of values that we align around. One is default to action. We hire folks who are action-oriented – and we have to as a distributed company; folks aren’t in situations where they notice someone next to them is stuck on something. So, they need to be curious, self-starters, and (figuratively) scratch and itch when they see something that doesn’t satisfy their innate drive. </p><p>Next, we value defaulting to transparency because folks who are action-oriented should be equipped with a ton of context. The mission, strategy, metrics, goals, systems and processes – all of it – is well documented and organized so people can find them and take action.</p><p>We also have a feedback-oriented culture. I teach a course on feedback to all the new folks to ensure they understand how to ensure they understand how to give and receive feedback effectively because it helps us grow. </p><p>The rest of our values are outlined <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://zapier.com/jobs/culture-and-values-at-zapier/">here, but these are some of the things that drive Zapier’s culture – and as you scale, it’s crucial to create different forums to communicate these values. We have an internal tool we named Async, which is email meets Reddit. The platform is public by default, anyone can post, and information can be targeted at different groups or people. We find this is great for long-form substantive topics that have a longer shelf life (1-2 weeks) versus Slack channels (1-2 days). We also hold all hands and have a company podcast, where we capture evergreen content. For example, when we have key moments in the company history, we’ll break it down: Why we did this thing, what led to that decision, the outcomes, why it is an important moment, etc. We have found podcasts to be helpful when onboarding new folks. </p><p><strong>Why did you decide to not raise any additional funding since your seed round?</strong></p><p>The only funding we took in the history of the company was a $1.3M seed round in 2012. This was partially philosophical and partially about the business. </p><p>The three of us co-founders had worked at a fast-growing, bootstrapped company owned 50/50 by two brothers. When we came out to the Valley (we were from Missouri), we started to hear this line of thinking, “No great company has ever done X.\" Some of these statements would center around the impact of venture funding, and I was dismissive in part because I had this counterexample from my time in Missouri. So, when we raised the seed round, we decided to treat it like the last round we’d ever raise.</p><p>Our second reason for not raising multiple rounds: Across the founding team, we had all the skill sets to do every job inside the company. That meant we didn't have to hire to make progress in the early days. We even had rules in place around hiring like, “Don’t hire until it hurts.” </p><p>Then there was the third, rational component: We were able to grow quickly without external funding because of Zapier’s network effect on our developer platform side. We're able to have low customer acquisition costs (mostly through organic channels), and this is intrinsic to how Zapier works. </p><p>Along the way, some of the philosophical thinking fell by the wayside by observing other companies and realizing fundraising is a tool like anything else. There are moments when it can help you, and there are moments when it can hinder you. You should strive to understand when external funding is a good tool to use versus when it is not – and then apply it if it makes sense for you.</p>","comment_id":"62f15573ab52db0001d3b642","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/08/BlogTwitter-Image-Template.jpg","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-08-08T11:26:59.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-08-15T12:08:14.000-07:00","published_at":"2022-08-09T08:55:00.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Today, Zapier automates work by connecting with over 5,000 apps. 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In 2010, she was one of the first 30 employees at Square and the company’s first comms hire.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/lindsay-amos/"},"primary_tag":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/learnings-of-a-ceo-wade-foster-zapier/","excerpt":"Today, Zapier automates work by connecting with over 5,000 apps. The company has been profitable since 2014 and is valued at $5B – with 700 employees working remotely. Wade, Zapier CEO, shared his learnings growing into the role of a growth-stage CEO.","reading_time":6,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"62c640aadb59f2000159e618","uuid":"062e4f3f-c2e8-4f21-8a15-eb02adb47efe","title":"Same, Same but Different with Vanta and Zapier","slug":"same-same-but-different-with-vanta-and-zapier","html":"<p>Both <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.vanta.com//">Vanta CEO <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/christinacaci/">Christina Cacioppo</a> and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://zapier.com//">Zapier CEO <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/wadefoster/">Wade Foster</a> made the decision to take a disciplined approach to fundraising. They flipped the equation of a typical startup founder: instead of raising money to enable a certain amount of growth, they eliminated the assumption of fundraising, controlled their spend, and evaluated how to ramp up spending based on what the business was bringing in. <br></p><p>YC’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/anuhariharan/">Anu Hariharan</a> sat down with Christina and Wade to talk about their unique funding history in our first episode of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/new-yc-audio-series-same-same-but-different/">Same, Same but Different.</a> </p><div class=\"kg-card kg-audio-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/media/2022/07/SSBD_Final_1_thumb.jpg?v&#x3D;1657216763245\" alt=\"audio-thumbnail\" class=\"kg-audio-thumbnail\"><div class=\"kg-audio-thumbnail placeholder kg-audio-hide\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M7.5 15.33a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0ZM15 13.83a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0Z\"/><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M14.486 6.81A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 17.25 9v5.579a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-5.58a.75.75 0 0 0-.932-.727.755.755 0 0 1-.059.013l-4.465.744a.75.75 0 0 0-.544.72v6.33a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-6.33a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.763-2.194l4.473-.746Z\"/><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M3 1.5a.75.75 0 0 0-.75.75v19.5a.75.75 0 0 0 .75.75h18a.75.75 0 0 0 .75-.75V5.133a.75.75 0 0 0-.225-.535l-.002-.002-3-2.883A.75.75 0 0 0 18 1.5H3ZM1.409.659A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 3 0h15a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.568.637l.003.002 3 2.883a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 .679 1.61V21.75A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 21 24H3a2.25 2.25 0 0 1-2.25-2.25V2.25c0-.597.237-1.169.659-1.591Z\"/></svg></div><div class=\"kg-audio-player-container\"><audio src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/media/2022/07/SSBD_Final_1.mp3/" preload=\"metadata\"></audio><div class=\"kg-audio-title\">Same, Same but Different with Vanta and Zapier</div><div class=\"kg-audio-player\"><button class=\"kg-audio-play-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M23.14 10.608 2.253.164A1.559 1.559 0 0 0 0 1.557v20.887a1.558 1.558 0 0 0 2.253 1.392L23.14 13.393a1.557 1.557 0 0 0 0-2.785Z\"/></svg></button><button class=\"kg-audio-pause-icon kg-audio-hide\"><svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><rect x=\"3\" y=\"1\" width=\"7\" height=\"22\" rx=\"1.5\" ry=\"1.5\"/><rect x=\"14\" y=\"1\" width=\"7\" height=\"22\" rx=\"1.5\" ry=\"1.5\"/></svg></button><span class=\"kg-audio-current-time\">0:00</span><div class=\"kg-audio-time\">/<span class=\"kg-audio-duration\">59:28</span></div><input type=\"range\" class=\"kg-audio-seek-slider\" max=\"100\" value=\"0\"><button class=\"kg-audio-playback-rate\">1&#215;</button><button class=\"kg-audio-unmute-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M15.189 2.021a9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h1.794a.249.249 0 0 1 .221.133 9.73 9.73 0 0 0 7.924 4.85h.06a1 1 0 0 0 1-1V3.02a1 1 0 0 0-1.06-.998Z\"/></svg></button><button class=\"kg-audio-mute-icon kg-audio-hide\"><svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M16.177 4.3a.248.248 0 0 0 .073-.176v-1.1a1 1 0 0 0-1.061-1 9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h.114a.251.251 0 0 0 .177-.073ZM23.707 1.706A1 1 0 0 0 22.293.292l-22 22a1 1 0 0 0 0 1.414l.009.009a1 1 0 0 0 1.405-.009l6.63-6.631A.251.251 0 0 1 8.515 17a.245.245 0 0 1 .177.075 10.081 10.081 0 0 0 6.5 2.92 1 1 0 0 0 1.061-1V9.266a.247.247 0 0 1 .073-.176Z\"/></svg></button><input type=\"range\" class=\"kg-audio-volume-slider\" max=\"100\" value=\"100\"></div></div></div><p><strong>You can also listen on <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://open.spotify.com/episode/3c1CmZtpzCqMa2MxXK845H?si=Ay6GBKIuT4OPfZePwUO4bQ\%22>Spotify, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/158-same-same-but-different-with-vanta-and-zapier/id1236907421?i=1000569160335\%22>Apple Podcasts</a>, or <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1vAxRkrNwoXKl/">Twitter. </strong><br></p><p><strong>3:20 </strong>- Christina, why did you wait so long before raising your first round?<br></p><p><em>Vanta was bootstrapped until raising a Series A round that ended up looking more like a traditional Series C. The company has surpassed 3,000 customers and is valued at $1.6B.</em><br></p><ul><li>Investors want to fund businesses that don't actually need funding.</li><li>Christina talks about ensuring they were truly building something that people wanted and finding product-market fit.<br></li></ul><p><strong>7:10 </strong>- Christina, what was the scale of Vanta when you decided to raise? Why did you decide to raise if you were cash-flow positive? <br></p><ul><li>Vanta had true signs of product-market fit, as shown by the impact of sales and marketing.</li><li>Christina talks about raising to ensure they didn’t lose the market they created. <br></li></ul><p><strong>10:50</strong> - Christina, how did you say no to the investors wanting to fund Vanta? What was your mental model? <br></p><ul><li>Be pragmatic with how you plan to spend funds; ensure the dilution from fundraising is worth it.</li><li>Christina talks about already hiring as quickly as possible and funds not helping with this challenge.<br></li></ul><p><strong>14:15 </strong>- Wade, tell us about your experience raising a seed and why you decided not to raise again. <br></p><p><em>Zapier raised only a $1.3M seed round in 2012 and has been profitable since 2014. The company is valued at $5B. </em><br></p><ul><li>Treat each funding round like it will be the last money you ever get.</li><li>Wade talks about his personal experience working for a quickly-growing, bootstrapped company, growing Zapier in a cost-effective way, and addressing constraints without fundraising. <br></li></ul><p><strong>20:00</strong> - Wade, did you always want to build a bootstrap company? When did you know Zapier had product-market fit and that it was a business model predisposed to being bootstrapped? <br></p><ul><li>When you make something people care about, it’s easy to sell to customers.</li><li>Don’t hire until it hurts.</li><li>Wade talks about finding product-market fit, their repeatable go-to market strategy to grow their base without a ton of capital, and their philosophy around hiring and building a remote company. <br></li></ul><p><strong>24:30</strong> - Wade, how did you attract talent without big headlines about fundraising news?<br></p><ul><li>Wade talks about hiring in a distributed way, writing about their learnings, and unique hiring tactics to raise the profile of Zapier as an employer. <br></li></ul><p><strong>27:00</strong> - Wade, what was the hardest part about hiring for a bootstrapped company? <br></p><ul><li>Wade talks about this not being an issue when hiring outside of Silicon Valley and already being profitable. <br></li></ul><p><strong>29:15</strong> - Christina, can you highlight Vanta’s journey to product-market fit?<br></p><ul><li>You can’t raise your way into the right product.</li><li>Christina shares insight into her first customers and advice on testing the value proposition with early users. <br></li></ul><p><strong>35:45 </strong>- Christina, when did you know you had product-market fit and what were the signs? <br></p><ul><li>The path to product-market fit isn’t linear.</li><li>Christina speaks to the mistake of focusing solely on hiring versus selling in the early days. <br></li></ul><p><strong>38:45 </strong>- Christina, how did you attract talent without big headlines about fundraising news?<br></p><ul><li>Christina shares how her pitch to candidates changed throughout Vanta’s journey. <br></li></ul><p><strong>44:10 </strong>- Wade, how has hiring changed since the pandemic? <br></p><ul><li>Wade speaks to more companies competing in this remote environment and how this is shifting again given today’s economic climate. <br></li></ul><p><strong>46:45</strong> - Wade, what is your advice for founders whether to fundraise or not? <br></p><ul><li>Determine the constraints in your business and figure out how to address those.</li><li>Wade shares their biggest challenges and his mental model to determine whether to raise or not raise. <br></li></ul><p><strong>49:00 </strong>- Wade, talk about your early days and how you were able to reach product-market fit as a remote company. <br></p><ul><li>When building a company, pick a lane: all remote or all in-office; the hybrid approach is the most challenging.</li><li>Wade talks about how this played out for Zapier, including working in-person with his co-founders the first few years and reaching product-market fit during this time. <br></li></ul><p><strong>51:15</strong> - Christina, do you recommend in-person, remote, or hybrid? <br></p><ul><li>Christina talks about the importance of documentation for remote and hybrid companies.<br></li></ul><p><strong>53:30 </strong>- Christina, how long in Vanta’s experience was in-person important? <br></p><ul><li>Christina shares the challenges of shifting from in-person to remote. <br></li></ul><p><strong>55:30 </strong>- Christina, how are you thinking about fundraising today in this funding environment and what advice do you have for founders? <br></p><ul><li>If you can, push your fundraising out — and if you can’t, it’s all about unit economics.</li><li>Christina talks about her recent experience fundraising (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.vanta.com/blog/vanta-announces-series-b/">$110M Series B</a>) and the importance of metrics.<br></li></ul><p><strong>58:00 </strong>- Wade, what advice do you have for founders in this funding environment? <br></p><ul><li>Running a good business never goes out of style. Focus less on what investors care about and a lot more on what your customers care about.</li></ul>","comment_id":"62c640aadb59f2000159e618","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/07/Same_Same_1600x900_72DPI.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-07-06T19:10:50.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-07-07T10:59:27.000-07:00","published_at":"2022-07-07T08:55:00.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a7106f","name":"Y 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