@zumper Stories Uncategorized How autonomous can people be at the junior levels? 1. And investors love that story because its easy to believe that you can continue to do that. Every company is completely different and theres no gold standard. That is where your focus is and even though you kind of missed doing some of the stuff and the weeds and my team continue to tell me to get away from the weed and continue to [36:12] the 50,000 set, you have to let it go and trust your team to do a better job than you were doing. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. And then when I moved out to America, Russel was software engineer at Google and I had no technical background so I basically hit up my network for anyone with a technical background living in the US who might be interested in joining and Russel and I really hit it off and he was the perfect cofounder. "These markets had a huge net migration from New York and California, and they have held up," he says. And so as you mature you look for a different kind of investor and that naturally tends to happen. I mean your job moves from doing jobs in the first few years. I mean if you could give some kind of like tips you know both fronts it would be really fantastic. Culture is everything and so investing in people making sure I as the CEO spend a lot of time as much as possible with people who dont report to me is absolutely critical and that is ultimately like the fabric on how most companies are run. "While many markets cool off during the winter, Miami is still posting month-over-month increases. You can filter down by city and . Alejandro: So I guess in just to like follow up on that, what in your mind and obviously in what youve seen creates really that magical relationship between cofounders? Its so hard to get marketplaces liquidity so correct, the beautiful thing as you know is when you have it, it took us three years to get to that, it just runs and you just grow naturally when you have both sides but its so hard to get to it. So our CFO is fantastic and what he was able to bring to the series C was real credibility where I meet the investors, get them excited about our vision and our story and then they spend hours with the CFO on the second or third meeting digesting our historical financial as were talking about where were headed. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. In the early days, youre going to need to take all the capital you can get. Saying that, in the early days you kind of need to bring on all the capital that you can. They were [sexy 23:47] company and really fantastic fundraisers but the rounds just take a long time, due diligence take a long time. So Id say your first month you spend like getting first, second, third meeting. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper. Thats quite motivating for people. Anthemos Georgiades is co-founder & CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry. Youre exactly right. Yeah. I say like in the first pitch to the day the money wires, theres always been around like a minimum of three months. Saying that, I have connections through both business school and previous people that have gone through BCG venture capital and most of your listeners and entrepreneurs will know so much of this is about like getting warm introductions to VCs so I did have a couple of cheats to get in through the network or through the BCG network. So how did you meet your cofounders? Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. How do you scale like 20 million in revenue to 200 million in revenue and we didnt need the more product set investors because we already have fantastic people at that. Just out of curiosity, Anthemos, like how many nos did you get for example on your seed round if you have to count it? I think its easy not to set those expectations and get caught in the relationship where neither side is being clear on what they expect. I think if you set these expectations from the very beginning that are super important. Were growing very quickly but none of that was true obviously in the first two years. So how did you meet your cofounders? A lot of it was completely bottom up. Background Report for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Includes Age, Location, Address History for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records Social Media Profiles Alejandro: Fantastic. For every successful fundraise, every single company have a lot of nos. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah, I think its probably the DNA of your culture is I think a lot of it is built in the tough times. The reality is often in the early stages, youre going to want to take all the capital thats given to you and you may not have multiple term sheets. Were incredibly grateful for everything she did and she remains kind of shareholder in the company. And so back to your point, yes, we want investors who are supportive of the fact that we didnt try to monetize the platform for the first three years because it would have created a barrier to entry. Its a good question. Its hard. I was also doing, Ive been doing marketplaces for I think like 10 years now and I remember in the last company, I would go and meet with investors and they kept asking me for the chicken and the egg. Anthemos Georgiades: Its part of the game. And so back to your point, yes, we want investors who are supportive of the fact that we didnt try to monetize the platform for the first three years because it would have created a barrier to entry. After that, it changed to more consumer. How does the day to day at Zumper work? Since 2012, Georgiades has grown Zumper to over 200 employees, 178 million annual visits, and raised $178 million in venture capital for the company. I really enjoyed it and great stuff. Could you meet him? And so whereas that doesnt guarantee any success we obviously have to have really good numbers and a really good story to tell them. We raised like a million dollars in seed money, that was running out so we tried various things that didnt work and I think the fabric of our culture that is still true today when we have a hundred people is built in the dark days and those days where your stuff is not working, your users arent growing, and how you look at your teammates and how you guys turn up on a Monday morning after a really crappy week the week before where maybe someone quit or maybe the metrics went south. Then behind the scenes, Zumper will close the transaction with the landlord and set the renter up with kind of rent payment. There could be investors who are fantastic. So the way we monetize this is we either monetize the landlord mainly and we either charge them to leads. Just enter your email below. And the biggest change in the series C I just raised versus in the early days is having a CFO. Anthemos Georgiades is the CEO of <a href="http://zumperblog.kinsta.cloud">Zumper</a>. I grew up in London. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash. My friend have had to camp out overnight outside the property management office to get access to the new apartment and this is [01:09] you know things coming online, you can order a cab via phone, you can book a hotel online. Yeah. It was like $46 million. Get Anthemos Georgiades's email address (a*****@zumper.com) and phone number (646398..) at RocketReach. anthemos georgiades net worthperpetual futures binance. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. Yes, weve raised $90 million in capital including a series C that we just closed three months ago. Got it. Budget in my opinion perhaps should be allocated to something else. Got it. Obviously they knew and I think for us it was like telling Axle and the rest of our investors that there are going to be months where we massively beat plans and there will be months where were behind plans. Rental listing startup with more than 26 million users. After that, it changed to more consumer. Got it. Yeah. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. Of course. Unluckily weve made some phenomenal early hires so the company that have all scaled to leadership roles, thats fantastic for retention because those people know that we could have hired from outside but we bet on them and it worked and so Zumper is a place to build theyre career not somewhere else. Got it. I mean youre doing various jobs, head of sales, head of finance, head of fundraising, head of like DZ. You shameless have to mine your network and I think all CEOs and entrepreneurs have to find that edge of how did they meet one of these investors, how did they meet someone that knows them. Got it. Likewise. Categories . Alejandro: Got it. Its really built in the dark days of when stuff is really difficult and I think Zumpers culture now is we have a lot of users still remembers and its a testament to those dark days and we never take anything for granted. Alejandro: Got it. Tanguy Le Louarn Chief Product Officer. It is ultimately the culture. They are brilliant about. rex harrison audrey hepburn relationship. Meaning hey, we send you a ton of leads this month that close in to leases. At the end of the day though, whether its senior people, junior people, interns who we want to bring back is all under pinned by culture. Because I speak with a ton of founders that are perhaps opening up the possibility of bringing on corporations and I think that you need to really do it right. At college in the UK, Ive had like multiple [00:58] renting apartments. So what was that process like you were talking about, yes, your network of Harvard but can you share with us like what was that process of landing Kleiner on your seed round? Alejandro: Got it. Alejandro: Just out of curiosity, Anthemos, like how many nos did you get for example on your seed round if you have to count it? And we were talking about the $46 million round which was the C round, C as in cat and basically what you were talking about I mean what Ive seen is that you guys have shifted a little bit the strategy. Likewise. A lot of it was completely bottom up. Youre exactly right. Additionally, Anthemos Georgiades has had 2 past jobs including Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. hendrick motorsports hats; anthemos georgiades net worth Oh yeah, on the seed round back in 2012, we had probably five investors come in to the seed round so we kind of had five yeses who put in small checks. So Im completely there with you. Georgiades founded Zumper after his own . Were growing very quickly but none of that was true obviously in the first two years. anthemos georgiades net worth; wedding max minghella wife; private beach airbnb california; antique english double barrel shotguns; tuscany faucet cartridge removal; primeweld cut 60 machine torch. All of it is going to be important and it will come out at the right stage. Anthemos Georgiades: Oh wow, good question. Every fantastic company has had hundreds of nos on the way to kind of huge outcomes and you just cant take it personally. I think the startups end up wasting a lot of cash that could really extend runway but thats a different conversation. At series B, you got to show product market set across the board with the revenue and then at series C, you got to show real traction and real revenue and a proper P&L. The other large investor in this round [20:05] scale so once you have product market set, how do you scale that? I mean I think at seed round its like an [26:02]. So the majority of that is still in the bank but yeah, we raised money in capital [12:00]. And then at business school, I think the single biggest thing I learned through the case study method which is how they teach it at Harvard Business School but I think its true. Every fantastic company has had hundreds of nos on the way to kind of huge outcomes and you just cant take it personally. I mean I called it like a cheat [33:33] my team. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. You know marketplaces and liquidity is king like you were pointing to finding what you need in the shortest period of time because otherwise theyre going to go elsewhere. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry, used by more than 26 million renters last year alone. So I think three months is an efficient round. We saw it would take three to six months to integrate Pat Mapper and their backend that engineering project we worked really hard and quickly just over a year to integrate so we underestimated like how much work was required to integrate them by 3x. Got it. So you still have to land it and once youre on the door it doesnt matter where you come from you have to have something good. Your email address is 100% safe from spam! Yeah. Got it. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. All of it is going to be important and it will come out at the right stage. My friend have had to camp out overnight outside the property management office to get access to the new apartment and this is [01:09] you know things coming online, you can order a cab via phone, you can book a hotel online. This pellet stove is a good heating solution for a smaller rather than a . Its a Greek name, British accent. So one is weve always promoted within so whenever we needed a role, we always prefer to promote someone instead of hiring from outside. We didnt go that route because I have the network but if I didnt have the network and some people have the network and still do it, they are really good cheap in to getting scaled quickly. For us, I think they fully understand the entrepreneurial journey and were really excited to have them on board. So I think three months is an efficient round. So strategically that was a good marriage where they had a great consumer brand and we have really fantastic supply side inventory. He remains a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan, and wakes up painfully every Saturday morning to tune into the live English soccer games. We have like four people at the company for the first year or maybe five for the first year and so theres so much to do and theres so little time and few resources that you actually theres no real intellectual whiteboarding session that you do to carve out rose. It is your job not just to do the day to day but once or twice a year you should be doing stuff that has a completely linear outcome where one day youre doing you know 3 million users a month and the next day youre doing 5 million users a month. Your third month is getting kind of diligence done and getting the wires in to the door. So I wouldnt be too picky early. He discovered that the marketplace doesnt work for renters, and the idea for Zumper was born with the goal of evening the playing field and increasing transparency in the marketplace. Had worked in politics. The most important thing is to surround yourself with an amazing support group because it is so much harder to build a company than I thought it was and the emotional resilience you need to get through the dark days and come back to the bright days even now is what [38:54] just get harder like yeah, we have more revenue now but with that there are people [38:58] and like huge revenue targets we have to attain and so the most important thing is surround yourself with a network of family, friends, mentors, peers, your team, your investors, whoever is an emotional crutch for you where you can take from them but also maybe get back to them as well when theyre having a tough time, thats the single most important thing is look after your mental health because it is lonely and it is stressful and if youre able to kind of be resilient you have a great outcome but it is really hard on some days to push through, so build that around just [39:35] and you can be happy while running your company. And we built this website using an outsource development shop in Europe that just tested one assumption of the end game which was can we get users in 2011, 2012 just as mobile was coming online to apply and close apartments from their phone. Two sided marketplaces are so difficult. Terms & Conditions! So watching board members from the early investments are [19:38] who now runs Good Water but was originally Kleiner and then Eric [19:42] from Kleiner and theyre both experts at product market set. Get 5 free searches. And then my other cofounder Kurt Taylor I met through his mother who was an [04:43] and it was another example of just pure hustle. And so I didnt really think about it too often because this is kind of 15 years ago but then I moved to another six or seven times into an apartment rentals in London, in Boston, in New York and the process is so bad every time, not just in searching but also in actually like getting the apartment. So tell me your story a little bit here, Anthemos. The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. Alejandro: So Im completely there with you. With a diverse background that includes consulting for Boston Consulting Group and serving as Economic Advisor and speechwriter in the 2010 British Election, Anthemos founded Zumper in 2012 after his own terrible rental experience. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry, used by more than 26 million renters last year alone. At series A, you got to show product market set in a sub vertical. Alejandro: Got it. So in the first two years, Zumper is now [07:52] $90 million in capital. It has to be me and thats how I started the company six years ago after business school. Yeah. In the early days we love the exposure to Silicon Valley investors. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. So you still have to land it and once youre on the door it doesnt matter where you come from you have to have something good. Vishal Makhijani President & COO. Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More. Well help you prequalify renters and actually get the renter in to a lease, signing the documents, paying the first month deposit but well charge you a percentage of the lease fairly. At Zumper, based in San Francisco, he leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. And in terms of preparation, Anthemos, how has the preparation like preparing before going to market to start engaging investors, how have you seen with your business, with Zumper, how have you seen that changed over time as the rounds were maturing? And as you know as and your listeners know, youre going to get a lot of nos on the way. You know its interesting that you mentioned the chicken and the egg. So seed, series A, series B, series C, I was always the point person in the fundraise. Your third month is getting kind of diligence done and getting the wires in to the door. For Zumper's Georgiades, many Florida markets, such as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, have been the big pandemic winners. I was really impressed when because its not hard, its almost impossible to land VC such as Kleiner Perkins on literally your first financing round, the seed round. what was the premier league called before; And in terms of preparation, Anthemos, how has the preparation like preparing before going to market to start engaging investors, how have you seen with your business, with Zumper, how have you seen that changed over time as the rounds were maturing? And then when I moved out to America, Russel was software engineer at Google and I had no technical background so I basically hit up my network for anyone with a technical background living in the US who might be interested in joining and Russel and I really hit it off and he was the perfect cofounder. There could be investors who are fantastic. So the series B, weve done story now look at how quickly the renters are growing on the platform. I think the startups end up wasting a lot of cash that could really extend runway but thats a different conversation. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. They wanted to close apartments like they book a hotel and so took the status of like 35 different apartments we leased using the technology in San Francisco to VCs and said, Hey, were really going to rebuild all of this but heres some data that shows this really can work at scale, and thats how we raised the first million dollars from some of the names that you mentioned. Got it. So thats how Zumper got started. Zumper CEO & Co-Founder Anthemos Georgiades makes renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel, shares insights on monetizing marketplaces, diversifying r. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. Were very clear with Axle Springer that we have a lot of consumer scale so a lot of people use our platform on a monthly basis but were still building the [21:55]. So you kind of just have to [25:29] but just to be clear yeah, we had far more nos than yeses at the seed round. Got it. And [14:42] in Silicon Valley is married to [graphics 14:43] mostly in terms of great companies just break out and succeed [agnostic 14:48] as to where people went to college or if they came from a wealthy or poor family. For me, its Zumper, an apartment rental platform. And so I wouldnt be too pressured. And so I didnt really think about it too often because this is kind of 15 years ago but then I moved to another six or seven times into an apartment rentals in London, in Boston, in New York and the process is so bad every time, not just in searching but also in actually like getting the apartment. We both wanted to be entrepreneurs. That is where your focus is and even though you kind of missed doing some of the stuff and the weeds and my team continue to tell me to get away from the weed and continue to [36:12] the 50,000 set, you have to let it go and trust your team to do a better job than you were doing. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. If you guys are Zumper website, you can kind of kind at zumper.com the Contact Us or on Twitter I am just @anthemos, A-N-T-H-E-M-O-S on Twitter and yeah, I respond to people. So I think as your company matures, you look for investors that have something that you dont have and so for us, were not yet doing $100 million in revenue. So when you go in to a fundraising in terms of preparation the most important thing is that your last six months are great and your most important metrics are all growing really nicely so kind of five, six months in a row that is a fantastic story to tell to an investor. You are going to get a bunch of nos so I wouldnt rule people out too early. So in terms of timeline, you were mentioning that the C round, you guys closed this 46 million a couple of months ago. So Zumper is the vision for the company is to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. I guess the question that I would ask you and perhaps some advice for some of those that are listening, that are building a business that is more around the network effects, the marketplaces, should they walk the other way if the investor is asking too much about revenue early on on the financing cycles? Oh wow, good question. Thats quite motivating for people. Really good strategy to differentiate the demographics and were super happy with how it went down. So I saw NEA, Kleiner Perkins, Graylog, Andreesen Horrowitz, just to name a few. So lets talk about Zumper here. The second one is have a vision and a mission that people agree with and we all wanted to [37:13] this vision make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. He was with HBS 10 years ago. So Anthemos, theres always a first time and you know I guess this is the first time in the history of the DealMakers Show that Im able to interview someone that has been involve on the M&A but more on the buy side. You can set the expectations and then see what happens and if its not a good fit upfront, you can go with the different option on the table. Alrightee. Yeah. anthemos georgiades net worth. So it was never I want to be an entrepreneur journey. We have like four people at the company for the first year or maybe five for the first year and so theres so much to do and theres so little time and few resources that you actually theres no real intellectual whiteboarding session that you do to carve out rose. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Pat Mapper caters to 25 and under and kind of big college populations. Your job is to raise capital and your job is to kind of hire and retain the best talents. And so just be prepared that however smart, however many smart people have looked the deal and thought about whether it will work, it always take a little bit more time than you think it will to integrate because theres always some gremlin kind of hiding in the works that youre going to find. Got it. And to be fair, some of these 20 did indeed come back later to invest but in Boston and I pitched all of the east coast investors first because I was on the east coast and they were straight nos. Alejandro: Got it. Yeah. Its hard. So I learned a lot from a few companies that I loved, a few companies that I thought are doing crazy things I learned so much. It has to be me and thats how I started the company six years ago after business school. And did you diversify this responsibility with the other cofounders or was there one of you guys that has always been leading the chart on the financing side? And we were talking about the $46 million round which was the C round, C as in cat and basically what you were talking about I mean what Ive seen is that you guys have shifted a little bit the strategy. Yeah. Ill set the first couple of meetings often alone but its been wonderful as weve grown our executive team to be able to bring like our VP of sales, our head of grow, our CPO in to the meetings afterwards when they want to meet the team. Alejandro: Got it. Originally from London, he has an MBA from Harvard Business School, MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and BA from the University of Oxford. Since 2012, Anth has grown Zumper to over 100 employees and raised $90 million in venture capital for the company. And at one point I just told one I just feel like I want to step on the egg and shoot the chicken because it was so repetitive. So I guess lets say we had the opportunity to put you in front of your younger self, Anthemos, in 2012 before you were to close that seed round, what would be that piece of advice that you would give to your younger self with everything that youve learned having this journey ahead of you? We want investors who look at $100 million in revenue as table stakes but they wont agree to a billion. So we tell the small landlords, Hey, dont just advertise in Zumper. anthemos georgiades net worth. Saying that, if you do have multiple term sheets the second point is of course, like before you get to liquidity, revenue is irrelevant and if revenue gets in the way of bringing either the consumer on to your platform or the supply side person on to your platform, you should not be trying to charge. They may not understand marketplace as well as you but they may be able to bring a brilliant way of thinking about how to bring the supply on [30:20]. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah, I mean BCG I think you get access to the 23 year olds CEOs who had been working for 40 years and kind of crazy in consulting you take the shortcut in your careers to being in the board room. I mean to a point network gets you an intro but a lot of intros are 10 minute meetings where the VC immediately decides its not for them which is totally fair. So I as British person moving to Silicon Valley in 2012 I have never run a startup before. We envisioned a world in which a renter can find apartments, book in [tour 10:18], turn up the [10:21] and if they want to take the apartment pre-qualify, leave a deposit and book the apartment. Everyone filling gaps where they could and it [07:02] fulfilling gaps in to where youre skilled and so I think the most obvious thing to do for that is to hire people with very different skill sets to you that allows you to never really have awkward overlap and egos because everyone is kind of skilled at something very unique. Of course and I agree with you there, Anthemos. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. FUNDED EP01: How to tell a story worth $140 million dollars (Zumper) 00:00 51:07 Episode Summary Anthemos Georgiades, founder of Zumper, perfected his pitch the way most founders do: through trial and error. In terms of investors, I guess two comments. And it was just [22:11] during the process that its a startup, were at growth stage but not to expect to be able to predict our courses like that public company again. In the early days you as the CEO you are the fundraiser, you are the effective CFO, youre the head of sales and you kind of have to do the whole thing. Saying that to your point, we see the deal was a successful and yet M&A is really hard to integrate. And it is the culture that keeps people here, not the compensation or anything else. Now we have supply so the six months curve at the series B was all about users and millions of monthly users and then at the series C it was much more revenue curve.

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