Pod of Jake
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * OpenStore’s mission is to reinvent e-commerce to allow for the serendipitous discovery of products in a way that obviates the need to shop in the real world * Optimally, a fundraising round should directly de-risk a certain aspect of the business * People are more emotional about selling their business compared to selling their future cash flows * There is a fixed cost of pain when building a start-up; you might as well amortize the same pain across the biggest possible vision * Having success in the first vertical is so hard that most people lose the energy, enthusiasm, and time to conquer other verticals in the future * From day one of running a company, identify your goal and work backward from it * Automate the processes that can be automated to maximize scalability * Successful companies work in person and have a critical density of talent where everyone works in the same room * The art of company building is to find people whose talent is not yet appreciated by the rest of the world and who have incredible potential * A question every entrepreneur must consider: “Does your company have the best possible people working against the most important challenges?”
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Keith is the CEO & Co-Founder of OpenStore and a General Partner at Founders Fund. He is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur, a prolific investor, and a self-described contrarian. Keith previously served as a General Partner at Khosla Ventures. Before that, he was COO at Square and served in influential roles at LinkedIn. He also co-founded Opendoor. Keith began his career in technology as a senior executive at PayPal. He has since invested early in many great companies including YouTube, Airbnb, Palantir, DoorDash, Stripe, Quora, Yammer, Affirm, Eventbrite, and many others. He also served as a Board Member from inception to IPO at Yelp and Xoom. Follow Keith on Twitter @rabois.
[0:00] - OpenStore's early momentum and fundraising strategy
[5:35] - How an decentralized department store could unlock eCommerce growth
[12:33] - Introducing OpenStore Drive and why it is great for Shopify store owners
[16:49] - OpenStore's horizontal approach and why Keith believes it is best
[18:41] - OpenStore’s business acquisition strategy and thoughtful process design
[24:09] - How learnings from OpenStore’s initial acquisitions have led to improvements
[28:56] - Why OpenStore’s business is resilient in various macroeconomic environments
[35:06] - Acquisition offers and accept rates as metrics and countermetrics at OpenStore
[38:45] - Introducing Gumdrop which matches long-tail influencers to long-tail SKUs
[41:40] - The advantages of aggregation that benefit OpenStore’s business model
[45:19] - Building a great company culture; finding & developing undiscovered talent
[51:11] - The most high-leverage activities Keith allocates time to as OpenStore's CEO
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