The chapter explores the challenges of running a consulting business like Pitch Black, emphasizing the struggles of securing consistent income and dealing with financial instability. It also reflects on the evolution of the founders' startup idea, their engagement with investors, and the importance of building strong networks for funding. The discussion compares pitching to angel investors and venture capitalists, stressing the human element in evaluations and the significance of detailed business information for successful meetings.
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The Startup Playbook Podcast
Insights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors
My guest for Episode 184 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is Adrian Osman.
Adrian is the Co-founder & COO of Me&U formerly known as Mr. Yum.
He started his career as the Founder of pitchblak, an agency that helped hundreds of Australian entrepreneurs to validate and test their startup ideas.
From that agency, the idea of Mr. Yum was born to provide sales and marketing tools for the hospitality industry. The business found product market fit very quickly and raised a $89M Series A funding round led by Tiger Global in 2021.
In late 2023, Mr. Yum merged with their largest competitor, Me&U to become the global leader in its category, collectively processing over $2B in dining transactions per year.
In this interview we covered a wide range of topics including:
The early days of Mr Yum
Focusing on ratios over volume
Lessons from raising a record $89M Series A funding round led by Tiger Global
Behind the scenes look at the merger between Mr Yum and me&u
and much more!
Timestamps:
2:12 Adrian’s background
7:02 Lessons from early career sales roles
9:16 Adrian’s first consulting business, pitchblak
14:25 The initial idea for Mr Yum
22:29 When is the right time to speak with VC’s and how to pitch to them
27:43 The launch of Mr Yum and initial customers
37:02 Growing the business and navigating Covid
42:36 Raising a $89M Series A
46:58 Challenges scaling the business post raise
53:58 The merger between Mr Yum and me&u
1:08:13 Navigating structural changes to the company post merger
1:14:06 Learning and growing as a leader at the same rate as the company
1:18:19 Developing and sharing a compelling vision for a company as a leader
1:22:54 Building culture and high performing teams
Our partners
A big thank you to Kim Teo, Boden Westover and Stew Glynn for their help with this interview!
Also a big shout out to our partners for the show:
Scendar
Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com
Vanta
Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount
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