The Pursuit of Scrappiness #32 - Martin Tajur 🇪🇪 (Honey Badger Capital, Pipedrive) on success factors in raising a unicorn, hard things entrepreneurs must be prepared for and lessons in angel investing
Martin Tajur is an angel investor, partner at Honey Badger Capital as well as a co-founder and ex-CTO of one of the most successful sales CRM companies globally - Pipedrive.
In our first interview with a unicorn founder, we talk about the origins of Pipedrive, growing it into a billion-dollar company, and the evolution of the role of the founder as the company grows. We also dig deeper into the hard things about growing a business. Finally, we talk about angel investing and its benefits for companies and investors.
The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps
[02:20] - INTRODUCTION
- Learning how not to do a startup from own experience
- Is it possible to start a successful company not working full time
- Skype post-acquisition
[10:40] - ON PIPEDRIVE AND RAISING A UNICORN
- Confidence in the product to compete in a crowded space
- Product simplicity and usability
- The role of the founder when scaling a startup
- Keys to success when growing a startup
- Job interview tips
- Letting go of responsibilities
- Acquiring other startups as a growth strategy
- Do the founders have a say in a unicorn level exit
[31:30] - ON HARD THINGS IN BUILDING A COMPANY
- Maintaining focus
- Keeping the company afloat financially in an early stage
- Agreeing between founders on responsibilities and equity
- Hire slow, fire fast
- What to do if a manager cannot keep up with the growth of the company
- Dealing with strategy misalignment between founders and investors
[49:10] - ON ANGEL INVESTING
- What it takes to start angel investing
- How fast you should build up your angel portfolio
- What angels should bring to the table besides money
- What do angels get out of the investments besides return
- How to find the right angel for your business
Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/
Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/
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