The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Why You Must Have A Customer Acquisition Strategy From Day 1, How To Test and Validate Ideas At Speed & Why You Should Speak To Investors Before Starting Work On Your Idea with Kulveer Taggar, Founder @ CEO @ Zeus Living

May 31, 2019

Kulveer Taggar, Founder and CEO of Zeus Living, shares his journey from co-founding successful startups like Auctomatic to creating a unique rental service for business travelers. He emphasizes the crucial need for a customer acquisition strategy from the very beginning. Kul discusses the importance of validating ideas quickly and leveraging company culture for success. He also critiques Silicon Valley's boasting culture, advocating for authenticity and open communication in tech. Dive into his insights on navigating startup challenges and the power of effective execution.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Early Influences

Kulveer Taggar's entrepreneurial journey began with a gap year at Deutsche Bank, where he met a friend who started a business at 15.
At Oxford, he joined the Entrepreneurs club and was inspired by a trip to Silicon Valley, leading him to pursue startups.

ANECDOTE

Zeus Living Genesis

The idea for Zeus Living stemmed from his co-founder's frustrating experience renting out his home.
This sparked a 'lightbulb moment' for Kulveer, envisioning a streamlined rental process.

INSIGHT

Tech-Enabled vs. Software

Tech-enabled businesses, unlike pure software, deal with physical assets ("atoms"), making scaling harder.
They require expertise across many areas, from real estate acquisition and design to customer service and marketplace dynamics.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Kulveer Taggar is the Founder & CEO @ Zeus Living, the startup providing a home of your own for business travel with smartly furnished homes for extended stays. To date, Kul has raised over $14m in VC funding from some dear friends of the show in the form of Garry and Alexis @ Initialized, James and Pete @ NFX, Mike @ Floodgate, Y Combinator, GV and Naval Ravikant just to name a few. Prior to Zeus, Kul co-founded Auctomatic alongside Stripe's Patrick Collison, they ultimately sold the company for $5m. Before that, Kul co-founded Bosco, alongside former 20VC guest, Monzo's Tom Blomfield, they raised seed funding from YC before moving to the states to start Auctomatic. If that wasn't enough, Kul has also made several angel investments in the likes of Boom, Airhelp, Meetings.io and more.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Kul made his way from Oxford University to being at the centre of one of tech's most powerful hubs of YC and then with the founding of Zeus? What were Kul's biggest takeaways from his first 2 startups? How did that impact his operating mentality?

2.) What did the idea generation process look like for Kul with Zeus? How was James Currier @ NFX so foundational helping here? Why does Kul believe that the idea "really is everything" today? Why does Kul believe that customer acquisition channels are a core part of the product that must be considered from Day 1?

3.) Before hitting on Zeus, Kul and the team had many ideas, what did that idea validation process look like? How did Kul keep morale high in the team when continuously trying and stopping work on new projects? How does Kul think you can use culture as a superpower? As a leader, how can you be both vulnerable and strong at the same time?

4.) Kul has previously said that "tech-enabled businesses are just much harder than pure software plays". Why is that? What makes them so much more challenging? How do the required skills to be successful change when moving from pure software to tech-enabled? What single question remains the most important to ask when innovating in either?

5.) VCs are not so used to such operationally heavy businesses so how did Kul find the fundraising process? Why does Kul advocate that all founders should speak to investors and A/B test their idea before starting work on it? How did investors differ when comparing SF vs NYC? How did the messaging have to change? What was the most common pushback or concern? What have Initialized done to have such a foundational impact? What makes Garry such a special investor to have on board?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Kul’s Fave Book: How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kul on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.