And then at business school, I think the single biggest thing I learned through the case study method which is how they teach it at Harvard Business School but I think its true. I say like in the first pitch to the day the money wires, theres always been around like a minimum of three months. Got it. Anthemos Georgiades: Oh wow, good question. Get a custom action plan and all the help that you need to start raising more capital. So the majority of that is still in the bank but yeah, we raised money in capital [12:00]. At the end of the day though, whether its senior people, junior people, interns who we want to bring back is all under pinned by culture. Pat Mapper caters to 25 and under and kind of big college populations. Got it. Anthemos Georgiades is co-founder & CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry. It is your job not just to do the day to day but once or twice a year you should be doing stuff that has a completely linear outcome where one day youre doing you know 3 million users a month and the next day youre doing 5 million users a month. All of it is going to be important and it will come out at the right stage. Absolutely. I was really impressed when because its not hard, its almost impossible to land VC such as Kleiner Perkins on literally your first financing round, the seed round. And frankly, the process is a pain in the ass. It was just purely hustling my network for six months to find people who are really great cultural fit but also have very different skill sets to the one I have. One Lesson Led This Entrepreneur To Raise $90 Million From The - Forbes Taylor Glass-Moore Co-Founder. Yes, weve raised $90 million in capital including a series C that we just closed three months ago. Your second month you spend getting term sheets and documents signed. You know marketplaces and liquidity is king like you were pointing to finding what you need in the shortest period of time because otherwise theyre going to go elsewhere. So strategically that was a good marriage where they had a great consumer brand and we have really fantastic supply side inventory. Im so glad I did it. Yeah. Over-Communication. It is not suppose to be easy. anthemos georgiades net worth And then as we looked at the C round, Axle Springer are fantastic good example [19:59]. And investors love that story because its easy to believe that you can continue to do that. So for Zumper our vision as I mentioned was to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel and so instead of going in with just an idea, I built like a really crappy version of the end game that I wanted to build. So you kind of just have to [25:29] but just to be clear yeah, we had far more nos than yeses at the seed round. So I guess for those listeners that are looking at acquiring other companies to perhaps grow a little bit faster, what kind of advice would you give to them? So cofounders are difficult especially if youre not technical as really hard to find a good technical cofounder but the great thing is once you do and it takes a long time, they are able to attract the next generation of talent in to the company and thats how you kind of build your engineering team out. Well, first of all, your point about quashing the egg and shooting the chicken. Anthemos Georgiades: One Lesson That Led To Raise $90 Million From The Top Venture Capital Firms by Alejandro Cremades Like many of our most successful entrepreneurs, Anthemos Georgiades was drawn into startup life to solving a burning problem. But theres no right answer in business. Anthemos Georgiades: Oh yeah, on the seed round back in 2012, we had probably five investors come in to the seed round so we kind of had five yeses who put in small checks. There could be investors who are fantastic. Anthemos Georgiades CEO and co-founder. You can filter down by city and . Anthemos Georgiades: No. Its so hard to get marketplaces liquidity so correct, the beautiful thing as you know is when you have it, it took us three years to get to that, it just runs and you just grow naturally when you have both sides but its so hard to get to it. We both wanted to be entrepreneurs. So what was that process like you were talking about, yes, your network of Harvard but can you share with us like what was that process of landing Kleiner on your seed round? Alejandro: Got it. For Zumper's Georgiades, many Florida markets, such as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, have been the big pandemic winners. In the early days we love the exposure to Silicon Valley investors. For me, its Zumper, an apartment rental platform. Alejandro: Got it. So Ill read it if anyone tweets anything interesting or if I can be helpful in anyway. Yeah. So I guess lets say we had the opportunity to put you in front of your younger self, Anthemos, in 2012 before you were to close that seed round, what would be that piece of advice that you would give to your younger self with everything that youve learned having this journey ahead of you? I mean to a point network gets you an intro but a lot of intros are 10 minute meetings where the VC immediately decides its not for them which is totally fair. Member profile: Zumper's founders - Anthemos Georgiades and Russell I mean your job moves from doing jobs in the first few years. And in terms of preparation, Anthemos, how has the preparation like preparing before going to market to start engaging investors, how have you seen with your business, with Zumper, how have you seen that changed over time as the rounds were maturing? So Id say your first month you spend like getting first, second, third meeting. Anthemos Georgiades: Its just part of the game and it doesnt [24:30]. I think just up front boundaries before you close the round is super important. Zumper CEO and co-founder May 2012 Board and Advisor Roles Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 1 Anthemos Georgiades is the Board Member at Zumper. Yeah. Obviously they knew and I think for us it was like telling Axle and the rest of our investors that there are going to be months where we massively beat plans and there will be months where were behind plans. I mean to a point network gets you an intro but a lot of intros are 10 minute meetings where the VC immediately decides its not for them which is totally fair. You kind of just all in [06:39] I think where the carving of the rose start to happen for me around 10, 12 people where you no longer just have [06:49]. I think if you set these expectations from the very beginning that are super important. Theres never like an exact number you need like when Uber raised money or you know Zillow raised money, theres never like a number they have to be at. Alejandro: Got it. And so just be prepared that however smart, however many smart people have looked the deal and thought about whether it will work, it always take a little bit more time than you think it will to integrate because theres always some gremlin kind of hiding in the works that youre going to find. Tanguy Le Louarn Chief Product Officer. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. But was drawn in to it just to solve a problem as I think so many entrepreneurs are. It was always a man, there is a really tough problem that consumers experience and no one is solving it. He was with HBS 10 years ago. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. So I wouldnt be too picky early. They are brilliant about. And for you I guess personally and professionally because I think they both come together, so how has your leadership and management skills changed over the time from leading the company of lets say four to ten folks initially to a company of over a hundred employees? So I guess for a marketplace or lets say for the people that are listening to us like what kind of metrics do you think for the most part if were talking about hyper growth companies, like they should be a little bit more mindful about? Now we have supply so the six months curve at the series B was all about users and millions of monthly users and then at the series C it was much more revenue curve. Thank you so much. It is not suppose to be easy. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Got it. Your job as the CEO and the founder is to convince your investors of the reason to do this. We want investors who look at $100 million in revenue as table stakes but they wont agree to a billion. So we tell the small landlords, Hey, dont just advertise in Zumper. You know marketplaces and liquidity is king like you were pointing to finding what you need in the shortest period of time because otherwise theyre going to go elsewhere. Thats your job. 77% of you were interested in a @zumper flex living pass 1.5 yrs ago Since then we - Added 500K+ flex listings - Launched a search UX for flex rentals We're now launching an MVP of Zumper Pass - a one & done subscription. Terms & Conditions! We raised like a million dollars in seed money, that was running out so we tried various things that didnt work and I think the fabric of our culture that is still true today when we have a hundred people is built in the dark days and those days where your stuff is not working, your users arent growing, and how you look at your teammates and how you guys turn up on a Monday morning after a really crappy week the week before where maybe someone quit or maybe the metrics went south. Were incredibly grateful for everything she did and she remains kind of shareholder in the company. The other large investor in this round [20:05] scale so once you have product market set, how do you scale that? Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. And the biggest change in the series C I just raised versus in the early days is having a CFO. So tell me your story a little bit here, Anthemos. The second one is have a vision and a mission that people agree with and we all wanted to [37:13] this vision make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper. So the series B, weve done story now look at how quickly the renters are growing on the platform. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper. We have like four people at the company for the first year or maybe five for the first year and so theres so much to do and theres so little time and few resources that you actually theres no real intellectual whiteboarding session that you do to carve out rose. At Zumper, based in San Francisco, he leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. So I guess for those listeners that are looking at acquiring other companies to perhaps grow a little bit faster, what kind of advice would you give to them? The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. So our CFO is fantastic and what he was able to bring to the series C was real credibility where I meet the investors, get them excited about our vision and our story and then they spend hours with the CFO on the second or third meeting digesting our historical financial as were talking about where were headed. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. I think if you hire four cofounders like yourself, thats difficult and luckily we didnt have that problem. And then my other cofounder Kurt Taylor I met through his mother who was an [04:43] and it was another example of just pure hustle. I think the startups end up wasting a lot of cash that could really extend runway but thats a different conversation. Try for free at rocketreach.co In terms of the dynamics, I think in the early days, you kind of through osmosis graduate towards like the things that are important. I know entrepreneurs who spend nine months raising their rounds which is a long time but they got great rounds done. Were growing very quickly but none of that was true obviously in the first two years. Of course. How does the day to day at Zumper work? Alejandro: So I guess like I have one thing to follow up on this. The other large investor in this round [20:05] scale so once you have product market set, how do you scale that? So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. And so just be prepared that however smart, however many smart people have looked the deal and thought about whether it will work, it always take a little bit more time than you think it will to integrate because theres always some gremlin kind of hiding in the works that youre going to find. At series B, you got to show product market set across the board with the revenue and then at series C, you got to show real traction and real revenue and a proper P&L.