Gleb Braverman

I give up! 🤷 🏳️ Not on Henosia, or on you guys, or on anything that matters. 💜 I give up on trying to be a SoMe manager! But as a startup founder you can’t. You’re expected to be present on various platforms to engage your future customers and “build hype”. 💥 🚨 But I’ve come to loathe it: LinkedIns algorithms are so complex by now that trying to engage it “correctly”, means losing yourself. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this: To increase the reach of a post: 💠Posts should be 900 to 1200 characters, BUT only if it’s not text only 📄 💠Use images, BUT no more than 5 🖼️ 💠Mention people, BUT only if they react to the mention 👍👏 ❤️ 💡 😂 💬 💠Use emojis, BUT not too many 💠Post, BUT only if you engage with three other posts afterwards 💠Include a selfie, BUT only if relevant (❓) 💠Use carousels, BUT must contain 10-15 slides 💠Post consistently, BUT don’t post twice within 18 hours 🕓 💠Don’t use links, BUT also don’t be first to comment your own post (“link in the comments”, anyone?) 🔗 💠Etc! (Thanks Richard van der Blom for your continued effort in trying to keep up with all the changes and equipping people with the needed knowledge 🙏. If you haven’t given up on the LI algo yet, you can find Richards most recent LI algorithm report here: https://lnkd.in/dUq6dJfy ) But I don’t want to adhere to an algorithm! 💠I’ll post when I have something to share, and not post when I don’t 💠I’ll engage with other content when it actually speaks to me 💠I’ll include whatever pics AND links that make sense for my post 💠I’ll tag those I find relevant I’ve also messed up this post thoroughly: It’s too long, it mentions someone who is probably too busy to react, I use waaaay too many emojis (but that’s because I’m using the ones Jim Meyer doesn’t use 🤪), I’ve included a link, I don’t have time to engage with a ton of content after posting, I’m posting on a Friday afternoon, and you don’t want a selfie of me in no makeup 💄 and sweatpants (believe me!), so instead here’s a picture of the plate used for today’s lunch! 🍽️ If this means I mess up my SoMe presence, so be it. 😤 To circumvent the algorithm, I’ve started clicking the bell icon on the profile page of people I’d like to hear from 🔔. As my posts going forward will probably be downrated by the algorithm, you can do the same If you want to hear from me (primarily about Henosia, as that is what excited and occupies me). And if you, just for the heck of it, want to spite the algorithm, feel free to share 🔁, comment 💬 and like 👍 this rebellious, non-conforming post. Let’s make LI into what WE want it to be! 👊 ❤️  

40

11 Comments

Founders should be able to sell secondary whenever they’d like to do so. If you make something - and that thing is valuable - you should be able to sell it. Actually selling that secondary can be tricky. Let's go through the actual steps (or read the whole essay https://lnkd.in/eajr238N): 1. Get the term sheet. 2. Negotiate “normal” major terms: dollars in, price, board, etc. 3. Don’t forget about re-vesting. Founders often do. 4. Sign the term sheet. Go out and start figuring out allocations for the remaining dollars. 5. If you’re lucky enough to have more demand than you do space, you have the opportunity to sell some secondary. Figure out how much excess demand you have. 6. Talk to your lawyer and your accountant about what you want to do. Ask them to explain the pros and cons of selling secondary as common shares vs. preferred shares (which is a bit out of scope for this essay). 7. Decide how much secondary you want - ideally this is “reasonable,” which is a moving target. One good way to frame “reasonable” is to give a clear reason as to why you want to sell. This is particularly important in early rounds. Good reasons include: “Need to pay off student debt” and “Just had our first kid after years at below market salary.” Less good reasons include “Need a new Porsche” and “LinkedIn ghostwriter prices went up.” 8. Go to your new lead investor and say “Hey! Great news! We have 2x demand for available shares. It would mean quite a lot to me and my cofounder if we could take (insert reasonable amount here) off the table because (insert reasonable reason) here. Obviously as our lead, you get first access. Sound good?” 9. Work with the buyer to figure out if you are selling common shares or preferred shares. (a) If you are selling common shares, and the buyer is willing to buy these at the same price as preferred, great! Just make sure that you aren’t creating any challenges around voting by giving those shares to an outside party. Also, talk to your lawyer and accountant. (b) If you are selling preferred shares, go back to your lawyer and accountant to make sure you’re not creating any issues for yourself. You’ll also need to confirm with your existing investors that they are ok with you doing this because it will change the preference stack - which impacts them. 10. Triple check your numbers. 11. Complete your transaction and close the round.

16

1 Comment

If you are focusing on demand generation as an early-stage startup You may be doing it wrong, and here is why 👇 As an early-stage startup, you shouldn't act like an enterprise company. You want to bring your product to people who are ready to buy. These people are already looking for solutions like yours. You need to capture the existing demand before you start doing demand generation. If there is a demand for what you are selling, start investing in channels that will put your product in front of the right audience. Don't start marketing from the top of the funnel; start from the bottom and move up. So, what are some of the channels you can use to bring your product in front of the right audience? I usually work with B2B SaaS PLG companies, so we generally use: Ads ( for capturing demand in short term) Content ( capturing demand in short and long term) Outreach ( short term) If you don't know where to start, ask your customers about how they look for a new product. P.S: You don't need to do 10 channels at the same time you can do one at a time but do it right What do you do when there is no established category and demand for your product? If there is no demand for what you are selling, try to focus on pain points of your ICP or their current solution E.g: If there is no category called "content calendar software" You can still focus on a current solution, "creating a content calendar with sheets" If you focus on the current solution of your ICP, you can educate them about your product. or You can focus on educating people on how they can create content calendar and use your software to educate them. #seo,#saasmarketing, #gtmstrategy, #contentmarketing, #growthmarketing

20

6 Comments

We are hosting another EPD Meetup, and I would like to invite you to join us! 🙌 You can look forward to meeting great experts such as Hubert Palan, Founder & CEO of Productboard, and Klara Losert, Founder & CEO of Talkbase. In this fireside chat, Hubert will share his unique perspective and lessons learned in leading tech teams through achieving unicorn status, market downturns, the launch of AI, and replatforming for large-scale enterprise deployment. We will cover the following important questions: 🔹 What key lessons has Productboard learned during its rapid growth to unicorn status? 🔹 How did the market downturn affect us and what measures did we have to take? 🔹 How has Productboard evolved its product strategy over the past few years? 🔹 What prompted the decision to replatform, and what drove the shift to a thin client architecture and federated GraphQL + what were the main challenges along the way? 🔹 How did the development and launch of Productboard AI go? 🔹 Why did the company invest in building a product-led growth team? 🔹 Who was involved in these major technology decisions, and how does collaboration across teams work at Productboard? 🔹 How does Productboard maintain a strong tech culture? 🔹 What are the major challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Productboard? If you can't make it, don't despair! We'll live-stream the Meetup and send you a recording afterward. Thanks a lot, and I look forward to meeting you eventually! :) Register via the link in the comments 👇

44

3 Comments

Build your sales engine for startups! I am facilitating this workshop on 31.05 - 12:30 to 13:30 at Urban 3, Maria 01. What we will dive into -identifying key challenge for sales in your startup and resolving it. It will be workshop - practical and hands-on... I will dig into what makes product 'saleable' , why your customers may not buy your product (psychology), what challenges can you expect and how can you address them. Join me for this interesting debate. It's after quite some time that I am doing this workshop and so I take this opportunity to post it on Linkedin and share some of my journey ... I started doing these workshops, at a professional level in 2012, when I pursued starting a Consulting practice with my friend Nayanish Joshi. What started as fun , side-gig turned out to be a serious venture. In the next 10 years that followed, we helped several small and large companies solve their Marketing & Sales problems. I lived a life of multiple entrepreneurs in these 10 years - trying to resolve why a company was not selling enough, or articulating pricing strategies, or framing go-to-market for innovative products or revamping sales engines... worked in India, Europe and Africa... Over the years, we kept doing such workshops - first to get customers, then as fun for accelerators & incubators and sometimes for college students. I did some interesting workshops and work around them with Anindo Ray when we worked on setting a school of entrepreneurship in India and middle east. I am doing this small workshop being part of Urban Tech Helsinki Company. This post would be incomplete, if I do not thank Ari Seppänen and Kaisa Ahonen who have been ever helping EKOTEKT and all the wonderful startups at Urban Tech Helsinki.

47

8 Comments

5 Reasons Why You Should Hire Developers From Eastern Europe For Your Start-Up: 1. It’s a hidden market 2. The hiring costs are lower 3. There is a large talent pool 4. They speak English really well 5. They are motivated and excited to work with you So if you are a startup founder or CTO and you need developers, DM me “DEVELOPER” and let’s talk

18

13 Comments

I love startups, but I HATE startup culture. Especially on LinkedIN. It feels like the digital version of the bad motivational posters you saw in high-school. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" Content usually includes: - Mindless motivational drivel - Glam shots of the "founder", accompanied with more mindless motivational drivel - Complaints about cold email, outbound etc. (which you should be doing) - Complaints about investors not investing in your seed round I could go on. Second worst are VC investors who probably couldn't operate an ice-cream stand providing operational advice.

243

59 Comments

Is networking important for early-stage, first-time founders? Extremely important ❗ I believe that it is not possible to succeed without knowing the right people. How do you build your network? 1️⃣ Networking events and conferences 2️⃣ LinkedIn - find relevant people, connect, and meet with them. 3️⃣ Join communities and attend their events. In London, we have a few great founder communities such as Female Founders Rise and Connectd, where you can meet fellow founders and investors. In Silicon Valley, there are also remarkable communities such as Femigrants Foundation. If you are in the Bay Area, you should follow Mariane Bekker, who posts about the great events going on. I have attended their events and can confirm that I've made amazing connections. However, it should not be about connecting with as many people as possible. It should be about building quality relationships. #founders #networking #femalefounders #startups

27

7 Comments

After 2 years at Bolt, it’s time to say goodbye 👋 - what a ride!⁣ ⁣ Here are 5 top lessons I learned working at 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲'𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁-𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽. ⁣ 1. 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 - reaching a milestone is never the final destination. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣The question is always, 'what's next?' This mindset of constant improvement and raising the bar has taught me to never settle and keep aiming higher.⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝘀 - no leader succeeds alone. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣Growth and progress come from surrounding yourself with the right people who share the same mindset and vision. It’s about building a team that believes in the mission as passionately as you do.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ 3. 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿 - when things don’t go as planned, don’t wait for someone to step in. ⁣ ⁣ Roll up your sleeves, solve problems, and others will follow. This proactive approach is key to making things happen and driving change.⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣4. 𝗕𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 - never accept mediocrity. ⁣ ⁣ If something isn’t working, no matter how long it’s been done a certain way, speak up! Challenge the status quo with good intentions to drive meaningful change.⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣5. 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗷𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 - blocks can never become excuses not to start.⁣ ⁣ In a challenging market for ride-hailing like Spain, with its regulations, competition, and complexities, there will always be obstacles. Never let these blocks become excuses. Move first, and then find ways to overcome the barriers that stand in your way.⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Thankful for my time at Bolt and for all the people I have met along the way 💚!

204

22 Comments

How to Understand a Founder’s Financial Wisdom I've compiled a list of key factors that analysts focus on when evaluating your startup. Do not tell anyone that I told you. ◼️ Salaries. Analyzing salary distribution in small teams is fascinating. It’s also incredibly useful to have a conversation with the founder about the reasoning behind these decisions — it's always worth digging a little deeper. ◼️ Equity Split. *Solo founders now: 🥳 #joke * ◼️ Development Expenditures. Instead of beating around the bush, take a straightforward look at what’s been accomplished over the past six months. Actions really do speak louder than words. ◼️ Financial Transparency. Transparency builds trust. This doesn’t mean every employee should have daily access to financial details, but the founder should share strategic metrics and explain their significance — no smoke and mirrors here. ◼️ Honesty. I've encountered situations where data was presented in a more favorable light than reality. It’s often unclear what people hoped to achieve by doing so. ◼️ Growth Strategy. I recommend taking a responsible approach to planning and always being prepared to answer the question, "Why this way?" ◼️ Risk Assessment: How thoroughly have potential risks and market threats been evaluated? What criteria would you add? Let’s discuss! #startup #investment #vc

3

❓I had this question under one of my posts: what is the reason for the top down approach to building a management structure? Well, both approaches can work. I tried filling in junior positions first just because as a startup our budget was limited and you kind of do most of the work yourself. Yet, I think it makes a lot of sense to do the other way around, especially for the leader, for the founder. 👉🏻 Hiring stronger people frees up energy and time for the founder himself to do critical, more important things. Otherwise, if you have junior employees, much more management is required. So even though somebody works for you, you still spend a lot of time setting tasks, checking tasks, coaching, etc. So basically, it's a slower way of growth because you still spend a lot of time basically doing the less important work. That's why it's very handy, if not hiring, then at least taking on partners that are very good in specific functions that you are not good at. They will cover a big piece of work that needs to get done, which leaves you as a founder with more time and energy that you can focus in your area of expertise. Each one of us has a certain sweet spot, certain zone of genius, and we have to spend most of the time there. You can also hire a cofounder to cover big functions. You have to have strong people performing important functions. That's why solo companies are not really doing big things. I think it's a solid approach, especially if funding allows you to hire strong people first. They will be more independent, have better quality in what they are doing, have better ideas, can achieve more independently, and then consider hiring help for them (=juniors). I will certainly try the second approach and let you know how it works.

19

3 Comments

Vinay’s story and exprience provide excellent insight for any starting or midway founder

3

1 Comment

When outsourcing product development do you ask potential partners about a project that went wrong? I’ve seen two horror stories in the last few days on LinkedIn where founders have spent £100k+ on outsourced development of a product, only to be left with no working product and a further bill to finish the job. In both cases the development partner had either been incompetent or had acted in bad faith to try and gouge extra budget (or both). Now product design and development is complicated, and even the best can and will make mistakes - but it is how these mistakes are dealt with that really defines a partner. A couple of years ago we made a mistake on a project - we quite seriously underestimated the effort involved in a key part of it*. We were rebuilding an MVP that the founders had already been burnt by another agency on - there was a fixed deadline and new clients were already signed up. This was make or break for their business - so we piled on extra resource, we ruthlessly prioritised, and through blood, sweat, and tears we delivered it. I won’t pretend it was fun for anyone involved, and I won’t pretend it was profitable for us but we had honoured our promise and two years later they are still a great client with a successful product. Do you trust your development partner to do the right thing? *We also did a lot of work to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Mistakes are forgivable, the same mistake twice is not!

11

BIG NEWS: OpenAI Cofounder IIya Sutskever launched a new company https://ssi.inc/ Hear from them: "SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap, because it is our sole focus. Our team, investors, and business model are all aligned to achieve SSI. We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs. We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead." What are your thoughts? #data #ai #genai #genai #datascience

7

1 Comment

🙈 The only guide on startup fundraising in 2024 you’ll ever need 2 months ago, Slava Solonitsyn and I hosted a 1.5h private webinar on “How to raise in 2024 — a guide to parallel fundraising” as part of FundraisingHackers.com. Slava is definitely not your average tech founder — previously a VC (with 2 unicorns out of his seed portfolio, cc Ruvento Ventures), he turned to being a founder, went through Y Combinator twice, and co-founded one of the top YC companies, Mighty Buildings. Slava has raised over $180M in his entrepreneurial career. In this guide, you’ll find: 📅 Data on the current market conditions ✅ Benchmarks on the funnel/conversions 🖇️ CRM/weekly plan/taskforce templates 📡 Introduction to parallel fundraising/taskforce concepts ...and much more! Slava has spent more than 10 years applying and perfecting this playbook and you can now get it and read/watch implement it for free — at Fundraising Hackers we believe that fundraising knowledge should be free for all and it’s our mission to do our best to share our experience. Want to get the links to the recording and slides? ✏ Drop a "+", emoji or any other comment below ☑️ Make sure to follow me or I won’t be able to DM you I'll start sending them today. #fundraising #startups #YC #AI

129

319 Comments

200 hours per week. That's what we have at Kori - 4 people giving everything they've got to build something meaningful. But in a startup, it's not just about the hours - it's about how you spend them. My framework is simple: focus on 3 things per week, nothing more. Every Monday morning I write down 3 weekly priorities and share with the team. The mental model of coming up with the list is: "If we accomplish these three items, will we be a fundamentally different company by Friday afternoon?" If the answer yes, that's the list. The real discipline (and this is HARD)—Saying no to everything else, even the seemingly urgent tasks that constantly vie for attention. This ruthless prioritization has been transformative for our progress. Is true what so many experience entrepreneurs say — focus is table stakes.

22

1 Comment

𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰! ✨ I’ll be sharing 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 on one of the most critical topics in SaaS—the relationship between product and churn, and how to turn that knowledge into improved retention and growth. ;) I’m especially looking forward to connecting with old friends, meet new ones, connect with founders, operators, and investors—learning from each other and fueling new ideas that will shape the future of SaaS. Plus, I can’t wait to check out the incredible products being showcased! If you’re attending, let me know! 👀 If you still don't have a ticket, follow the link below! ;) 👉 Grab your tickets here: https://lnkd.in/dJtD_g64 👉 Check out the speaker lineup: https://lnkd.in/dJtD_g64 Dublin, I can’t wait to see you! ☘️ #SaaStock #SaaS #ProductStrategy #Churn #Networking #Innovation SaaStock Alexander Theuma BeBold

67

6 Comments

Fast cash or a sustainable business? ♻️ This founder chose the long game and got to six figure ARR 🚀 On this episode of the pod, I spoke to Aleksandar Orlić. He’s the founder of Randevu, a customizable development environment for SaaS startups. The Randevu team had always wanted to build a scalable self-service API for developers. But along the line, they started doing custom development for clients too. Soon, Aleksandar realized these custom projects took them away from their vision. So he decided to ditch them and focus on building their API. Turning down the quick cash was hard. But it paid off, boosting Randevu’s ARR to six figures! Here’s how Aleksandar made sure his decision was the right one: 1️⃣ Stuck to the vision: He wanted a self-service model from the start. So they only did a few initial projects to test their idea with the intention of phasing them out. 2️⃣ Resisted short-term cash: Once they had proof of concept, they rejected custom development work to focus on building their API. 3️⃣ Added useful features: They provided pre-built front-end options, allowing customers to launch MVPs quickly with minimal development effort from the Randevu team. If you’re stuck on an important decision, this episode is for you. 🔗 Link to the full episode in the comments.

6

2 Comments

Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt has founded & exited multiple companies. He's an advisor and board member to numerous startups and enterprises. And for the last 8 years, he's run WillingnessToPay.com, a B2B SaaS Pricing consultancy, where he's consulted with over 150 clients ranging from startups doing $1M in ARR to enterprises with $1B+ in ARR. Not only that, he's written a best-selling book called the Pricing Roadmap, and published dozens of excellent videos on youtube to share his expertise on B2B SaaS pricing & packaging, negotiation, company building, M&A, and SaaS monetization. In this clip, he describes why pricing & packaging becomes so complex for SaaS companies to manage. It stems from two places: 1. Dual sources of complexity from product & sales that amplify each other 2. Not having a clear monetization strategy Listen or watch the full episode now👇 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/d6pipMFT 🎥 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dDK9pCrw 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/dnbRiiEe 🍏 Key Takeaways about SaaS pricing, packaging, negotiation, and monetization: - Feature-based analysis is a popular approach, but may be more academic than practical in B2B contexts. Unless you’ve got a clearly understood category and feature set (e.g. in commoditized markets), avoid overly academic analyses. - Relying solely on quantitative methods can lead to flawed insights. Intuition and diverse data sources are critical in resolving internal dissonance about product value and pricing. - Pricing should be a series of ongoing negotiations with your customers, not a one-time event. Play an infinite & collaborative game with your customers – find a way to make expansion a shared goal that results in gain for both parties. If you're building a B2B SaaS startup and focused on pricing, packaging, and monetization, I highly recommend this episode.

28

4 Comments