Atrium

In episode 649, Rob Walling chats with Pete Kazanjy about his book Founding Sales, which is designed to help SaaS founders learn how to sell as well as how to hire and scale sales. We cover a lot, including objection handling, how to ask for the sale, and mindset shifts you need to make when learning how to sell. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  3:53 - Overview of Founding Sales 7:54 - Growing TalentBin to $6M ARR 10:28 - What Pete is working on today with Atrium 12:28 - Mindset changes when doing sales for the first time 19:26 - Speed vs. production value for sales materials 22:46 - Handling objections 26:50 - Asking for the sale 31:03 - Relentless execution 32:15 - What sets good sales reps apart from those that struggle? Links from the Show: Pete Kazanjy (@Kazanjy) I Twitter Atrium Founding Sales Modern Sales Pros Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com The Lean Startup  The Startup Owner’s Manual  ElevenLabs Prime Voice AI  MicroConf US  SaaS Playbook If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

Jason and Pete chat about SaaStr Fund, the state of VC funding in Q1 2023, and whether LPs play a role in the former "grow at all costs" mindset that prevailed in 2021 and early 2022. Video: https://youtu.be/cvYe2jf2gOE This conversation is an excerpt from a Modern Sales Pros fireside chat. You can find that video on their channel: https://youtu.be/fVckRPSUG-U Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

Pete Kazanjy is the author of Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook and the founder of Modern Sales Pros, an invite-only peer learning community focused on sales operations and sales leadership. He’s also the co-founder of Atrium, a B2B SaaS company that provides data-driven sales solutions. Pete got his start in product at VMware and then dove deep into the art and science of sales. In today’s episode, we talk about the importance of founder-led sales and how to methodically scale a sales department. He explains the difference between old-school sales and modern sales, which focuses on human connection and solving problems for customers. He also shares actionable tips to improve your sales technique and explains how to use data to monitor your success at different milestones in the sales process. — Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/founder-led-sales-pete-kazanjy-founding — Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast: • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny • Flatfile—A CSV importer that says yes instead of error: mismatch: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny • Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app: http://merge.dev/lenny — Where to find Pete: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kazanjy • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazanjy/ • Website: https://kazanjy.svbtle.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — Referenced: • Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Founding-Sales-Go-Market-Handbook-ebook/dp/B08PMK17Z1 • Brianne Kimmel’s SaaS school: http://briannekimmel.com/saas-school/ • Modern Sales Pros: https://modernsaleshq.com/ • The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898 • The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Successful-Strategies/dp/1119690358/ • Pete’s presentation on founder-led sales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXIVAZJyPA • Pete’s guest post on Lenny’s newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/sales-bottom-up • The Cadence: How to Operate a SaaS Startup: https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-cadence-how-to-operate-a-saas-startup-436aa8099e8 • Maker vs. Manager Schedule: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • Atrium: https://www.atriumhq.com/ • Greenhouse: https://www.greenhouse.io/ • Pete’s ICP Template: https://www.foundingsales.com/2-product-marketing#building-narrative • Marissa Fuhrer Bell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissafuhrer/ • Data-driven sales master class: https://salesnerds.atriumhq.com/msp-nailing-science-of-sales-figma-webinar-video • The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951 • The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Score-Takes-Care-Itself-Philosophy/dp/1591843472 • All-In podcast: https://www.allinpodcast.co/ • Encanto on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/encanto/33q7DY1rtHQH — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) How Pete met Lenny  (05:05) Pete’s background (07:20) Modern sales vs. old-school sales (09:17) What is founder-led sales, and why is it so important? (14:58) When to hire your first salesperson  (18:20) Why you should keep your in-person events to around 10 people (19:34) What a sales motion is and why it needs to be updated regularly  (20:55) What are the leading indicators of success? (23:54) Why founders don’t need to be rock stars at sales (28:28) Sales mindset changes—the number-one tip to improve your sales (33:30) How modern sales should focus on helping customers solve problems (36:00) A few tips to help you get better at sales (36:40) ICP and personas (39:14) Why you should hire junior sales staff in the early stages (45:40) Signs your new hires aren’t a good fit (47:38) The importance of using metrics for success (49:33) Month-by-month expectations for sales hires (51:19) Why work from home is bad for junior salespeople (54:19) Why you shouldn’t be afraid of sales (55:19) Lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

On today's episode of Empire Jason and Santiago are joined by investor, entrepreneur & Co-Founder of Twitch Justin Kan, for a deep dive into NFTs. Sitting at the crossroads of gaming and NFTs, after launching Fractal, a Solana based marketplace for gaming NFTs, we invited Justin to Empire to discuss what he anticipates for the future. He shares what it was like after leaving Twitch, getting into crypto, launching Fractal and so much more. Justin provides a look behind the curtain into the fast evolving world of Web 3.0, from the the traditional Web 2.0 and gaming perspective, discussing the new possibilities crypto provides for gamers, streamers & communities online. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

First Jason explains why Miramax is suing Quentin Tarantino over his Pulp Fiction NFT collection (2:31). Then Twitch Co-Founder & GP at Goat Capital Justin Kan joins (19:19) to discuss lessons from entrepreneurship, what he looks for when investing, his YouTube channel, podcast and more!

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

Most SaaS founders skip straight to demos and email templates without building the foundational narrative their entire SaaS sales process depends on. Pete Kazanjy, author of Founding Sales, explains why that is backwards and how five sequential steps create the sales narrative everything else cascades from. Pete's SaaS sales process framework has five components: identify the problem through customer interviews, determine who is measured on solving it, quantify hard and soft ROI costs, map current solutions and shortcomings, then present how your product is better. This SaaS sales strategy foundation drives every slide deck, email template, and demo script. In this episode, Pete walks through each step of the sales narrative framework, explains why your real competitors are often spreadsheets rather than other tools, and reveals how startup selling at the persona level transforms messaging for different buyer roles. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Build your SaaS sales process on interviews, not assumptions: Pete ran dozens of structured interviews before crafting any narrative. Patterns only emerge after many conversations. 🤝 Target the person measured on the outcome: The right persona isn't always the end user. It's whoever's success metric aligns with your product's impact in the SaaS sales process. 💰 Quantify hard and soft ROI: Give buyers concrete numbers for cost savings and time saved so they can build an internal business case for your SaaS sales strategy. 🛠️ Map current solutions before positioning: Your real competition in the SaaS sales process is often Salesforce reports and spreadsheets, not other startup selling tools. 📉 Never skip to demos without the narrative: Founders who jump to feature tours fail to create urgency. The narrative bridges "what it does" and "why you need it now." Chapters Introduction What Atrium does - data-driven sales management About the book Founding Sales Why most founders skip the SaaS sales process foundation Step 1 - Identify the problem through interviews Using customer development to detect patterns How themes emerge from interviews Step 2 - Identify the target persona Building narratives at the persona level Decision-makers vs problem-holders Pricing to match the right buyer level Step 3 - Quantify the cost of the problem Step 4 - Map current solutions Why current solutions are not direct competitors Step 5 - How your solution works and why it is better How the SaaS sales process narrative cascades into all assets Wrap up Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/279 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

Pete Kazanjy had zero sales experience when he became his startup's first sales rep. As a product marketer, he had to learn selling SaaS without sales experience from scratch. He built TalentBin to acquisition by Monster, then discovered that 60% of selling activity leadership believed was happening simply was not. Pete went from selling SaaS without sales experience to leading startup sales for 600+ reps at Monster Worldwide. His discovery that 40% of expected sales activity was missing inspired Atrium, a tool that monitors KPIs automatically so managers can coach instead of staring at dashboards. He also wrote Founding Sales, the missing manual for first-time sales leaders. In this episode, Pete reveals why founders are better at founder selling than they think, when to hand off sales to a hired leader, and why 100 structured customer development interviews validated the data-driven sales management gap. 🔑 Key Lessons 🤝 Founders should sell before hiring reps: Selling SaaS without sales experience works because founders know the problem space deeply. The tight feedback loop between selling and product iteration is a superpower. 🧠 Measure actual activity, not what leadership assumes: At Monster, Pete discovered 40% of expected startup sales activity was missing. CRM data was empty and leadership was defensive. 🛠️ Instrument your team like a factory: At TalentBin, Pete tracked every KPI for 8 AEs. Nothing surprised the team because every metric was visible and actionable. 📉 Dashboards fail because nobody looks at them: 100 customer interviews revealed that teams build reports then ignore them. Automated monitoring solves selling SaaS without sales experience. 🎯 Package your sales process before hiring a leader: Document stages, decision trees, and email templates. If the handoff fails, the process probably lives only in the founder's head. Chapters Introduction Favorite quote - The Score Takes Care of Itself What Atrium does - data-driven sales management Pete's path from product marketer to sales leader Why Pete took on selling SaaS without sales experience How the idea for Atrium emerged from Monster Discovering 60% actual vs expected selling activity Running 100 customer development interviews Why dashboards fail for sales management Building Atrium's automated KPI monitoring Why founders should handle startup sales themselves When and how to hand off sales to a hired leader Packaging the sales process for handoff Writing Founding Sales - the missing manual Lightning round Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/278 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

Pete Kazanjy is the Co-Founder @ Atrium, the startup providing proactive, always-on insights for sales operations, managers, and leaders. Stop asking questions. Start getting answers. Alongside Atrium, Pete is also the Founder of Modern Sales Pros, a community of 15,000 focused on sales operations and sales management. Pete is also the author of Founding Sales, the canonical writing on early-stage startup sales. Prior to founding Atrium, Pete founded TalentBin, culminating in their exit to Monster Worldwide in February 2014. Finally, before TalentBin, Pete founded Honestly.com building the world's first professional reputation clearinghouse and raising funding from CRV and First Round in the process. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Pete made his way into the world of SaaS and how he came to be one of the leading figures on sales operations and management that he is today? Why do founders have to sell the product themselves at the start? When is the right time to hire their first sales reps? What profiles should founders look for in these first reps? What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring their first reps? How should they structure their comp plans? How do the best onboard their sales reps? What can be done to minimise ramp time of new reps? How is the documentation used most effectively? How can sales calls be used for new rep onboarding? How does Pete think about optimising payback period on a per rep basis? What are the leading indicators that a sales rep is successful? What are the core metrics founders should measure to determine the effectiveness of their reps and sales teams? How does this differ between SMB and enterprise? What are the challenges with enterprise given the long sales cycles? Pete's 60 Second SaaStr: Hardest element of Pete's role today with Atrium? What would Pete most like to change in the world of SaaS? What sales leader does Pete most respect and why? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-356-with-atrium-co-founder-pete-kazanjy/ If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Pete Kazanjy

Pete Kazanjy

Co-founder

Atrium

Ryan Petersen is the Founder & CEO @ Flexport, the operating system for global trade with over $1.3Bn in funding from the likes of Softbank, Founders Fund, DST, GV and First Round to name a few. Justin Kan is the Founder @ Atrium and Twitch (acq by Amazon for $1Bn). Justin is also a prolific angel with a portfolio including the likes of Scale AI, Digits, Cruise and Triplebyte to name a few. Matteo Franceschetti is the Founder & CEO @ Eight Sleep, the #1 Smart Mattress, designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. To date, Matteo has raised over $70M from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Kevin Hartz and Ryan Petersen to name a few. Steve Schlafman is a Coach and Investor @ High Output. Previously Steve was a Partner @ Primary Ventures in NYC and before that Principal @ RRE. CLICK TO LISTEN ON ITUNES In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What was your realisation moment for stopping drinking? How did it come about? What was your prior relationship to alcohol like? 2.) For me I always found an excuse to not stop drinking, when you think about your attempts to give up, what excuses did you provide as reasons for continuing to drink? What insecurities and vulnerabilities did drinking hide and mask for you? How did it impact them? 3.) From a literal standpoint, how did you approach giving up the act of drinking? What tools did you find most helpful? What resources do you recommend? How has your life changed since you stopped drinking? Matteo, you have the data from Eight Sleep, what does the data say about how stopping drinking truly impacts your sleep? 4.) People often say that stopping drinking kills your social life, what would you respond to that commonly held belief? What other core misconceptions do you find people hold towards drinking? To those considering giving up drinking, what would you advise them? What do you know now about alcohol that you wish you had known earlier? As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Ryan Petersen

CEO

Flexport

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

Matteo Franceschetti

CEO & Co-Founder

Eight Sleep

Justin Kan is the Founder and CEO @ Atrium, the startup providing a full-service corporate law firm that uses modern technology to give startups a legal experience that is fast, transparent, and price-predictable. To date, Justin has raised over $75m in funding from some of the best in the business including Founders Fund, a16z, First Round, General Catalyst, Thrive, Initialized and more. Prior to founding Atrium, Justin was a Partner @ Y Combinator, the globally renowned accelerator and the birthplace of some of today's largest startups. Before that Justin was the Co-Founder @ Twitch, the world's leading video platform and community for gamers which was acquired by Amazon for $970m. If that was not enough, Justin is also a prolific angel investor with investments in the likes of Cruise Automation, Rippling, Zenefits, Triplebyte and more. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Justin made his way into the world of startups and YC? How that led to the founding of Justin.TV, later Twitch? What was that a-ha moment for Atrium? 2.) Why did Justin feel that being an investor full time was not for him? How does Justin think about and approach the learning process as a founder? What advice does Justin give to those who want to quit? What was it that made Justin embrace the series of self-improvement habits he now practices? 3.) What does Justin mean when he says, "attaching yourself to outcomes will only cause your own suffering"? How does Justin think about and advise founders when it comes to burnout? How does Justin feel about the "crushing it" culture in tech? What can we do to normalise vulnerability? What were Justin's biggest takeaways from "The Score takes Care of Itself"? 4.) What have been Justin's experiences with therapy? How does he advise founders thinking of engaging with therapists? What have been his biggest lessons that drive success in therapy? How does Justin look to show authenticity through positivity? What does that really mean? 5.) What have been Justin's biggest takeaways from "The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership"? What are the core principles? What is required to roll out these values and principles within an organisation? What are the fundamental challenges to successfully roll this out on a large scale within your company? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Justin's Fave Book: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership As always you can follow Harry, Justin and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

Want actionable advice from a founder who has built multiple tech companies and has invested the time to be open, introspective, and transparent about lessons learned? In this episode (which originally aired as a YouTube video), a16z General Partner Andrew Chen (@@andrewchen) talks with Justin Kan (@justinkan). Justin is a repeat entrepreneur who co-founded Kiko Software (a Web 2.0 calendar that pre-dated Google Calendar by 4 years); Justin.tv (a lifecasting platform); Twitch.tv (a live streaming platform for esports, music, and other creatives now part of Amazon); Socialcam; and now Atrium, a software-powered law firm for startups. Justin reflects on his journey and shares 10 + 1 lessons he’s learned: The paradox of choice: choosing a focus Tradeoffs between B2B versus B2C companies Market risk vs execution risk Fundraising strategy: go big or stay lean? Managing the stress of being a startup CEO (again!) Seeking out mentors, coaches, and peers for help Intentionally designing a culture to avoid the pitfalls of “culture eating strategy” Things he’s still doing in his latest startup—and things he’s doing very differently Managing higher expectations What he’s reading and listening to Bonus: advice he’d give his 20-year old self The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information. Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

On this episode I'm visiting Atrium's headquarters in SoMA in San Francisco to chat with two serial entrepreneurs, Justin Kan and Ranidu. Justin Kan's career blew up in the mid-2000s when he started livestreaming himself 24/7 on Justin.tv, a Y Combinator backed startup that he co-founded. Justin.tv eventually turned into Twitch and sold to Amazon for nearly a billion dollars. He has gone on to found multiple startups since then, including Exec, Whale, and now Atrium. Ranidu has a unique background. Before jumping into tech, he rose to fame as an R&B and hip-hop artist (check him out here). He went on to join Google before founding the first of many startups, many of which have been centered around his passion for music. We talk about a few of them including The Drop, The Artist Union, and Audius, a decentralized audio distribution platform he started earlier this year. In this episode we talk about: What they've learned from building products and startups, what lessons they would give to entrepreneurs starting out today, and how the startup and investing landscape has changed. Justin explains why he says that 2010-2013 was the “sweet spot” for building and scaling a company in the Bay Area. We talk about whether distributed teams make sense due to the escalating cost of living and the battle for talent in San Francisco. Whether an Apple Watch can replace your smartphone. Justin talks about how he survives in Silicon Valley without a phone, how going phone-free has changed how he works and lives and why he compares compulsive smartphone use to an addiction. He says a smartphone is a “Juul for your mind.” We're all big music fans, so we also talk about artists we've been loving recently, why the lines between music genres are being blurred, and the economics of creating music for artists. We also discuss some of their favorite products including a gratitude journal app that will improve your mental health, a “social network for athletes,” and a tool to help organize your tasks at work. We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Also, big thanks to our sponsors, Rally Rd and AngelList, for their support. 😸 Quotes from This Episode “We [at Atrium] have some resources, [we] have expanded, but measuring your company’s success in headcount is like measuring an airplane in weight, so it's not exactly the right measure of success.” — Justin “As an independent artist today, it takes between three months and eighteen months between the time you stream my music to get paid, and we [at his new company Audius] think that’s wrong in 2018.” — Ranidu “I think the sweet spot [to build a company in the Bay Area] was in 2010 through 2013 or so, where the costs were relatively much lower on the startup salary side. Now your million dollars is good for hiring two machine learning engineers.” — Justin “A lot of days [in my gratitude journal] I write about how awesome it is to live in San Francisco and have all these resources and friends. Life here is great and I think we get caught up in the little bit that is bad and think that everything is bad. To hate on San Francisco is very fashionable.” — Ranidu Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode Airtable — Real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid. Apple Watch — The most powerful and advanced smart watch yet. The Artist Union — Discover and support the next generation of artists. Atrium — Legal services for startups, powered by machine learning. Audius — The future of music streaming on the blockchain. Five Minute Journal — The simplest, most effective way to be happier every day. Headspace — Learn to meditate and live mindfully. Insight Timer — The best free meditation timer, redesigned. Monday — Simplify the way your team works. Pacemaker — DJ with artificial intelligence from your Spotify. Strava — Run and cycling tracking on the social network for athletes. The Drop (RIP) — EDM discovery community.

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

Ranidu

Founder

RARanidu

Justin Kan is a Partner @ world renowned, Y Combinator. The birthplace of the likes of Airbnb, Reddit, Dropbox, Stripe, Zenefits and many more incredible companies. Prior to YC, Justin co-founded SocialCam, acquired by Autodesk for $60m and Twitch.tv, the world's leading video platform and community for gamers, acquired by Amazon for $970m in 2014. In Today's Episode with Justin You Will Learn: How Justin came to found Twitch.tv and then later made the transition into VC with YC? Having been a YC alum, how has Justin seen YC as an institution change over time? How have the interviews, demo days, mentoring arrangements altered? How can YC keep the same quality of startup treatment with the mass scaling taking place? YC always positions itself as an accompaniment to the VC industry, does the new $700m YC growth fund not directly compete against VCs? What 3 qualities does Justin believes all good investors must have? How has Justin looked to establish his own personal brand? What has worked and what has not? Justin is very bullish on Snapchat, why so? What makes Justin so excited for the platform? How does Justin use it to such success? What would Justin like to see change in the platform? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Justin's Fave Book: Shogun Justin's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Nuzzel & The Information As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Justin on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal

In this episode Justin Kan, partner at Y Combinator and founder of Justin.tv, Twitch, Exec, and Socialcam joins us. Justin shares tips for hopeful YC applicants, the motivation behind his new EDM music discovery site, and impressions of this renewed interest in livestreaming video. Listen in. P.S. Here's a pic of the original Justin.tv broadcasting machine, as taken from our "recording studio" at Twitch: https://instagram.com/p/0B2Gs9D9Z1/

Justin Kan

Co-Founder

AtriumTwitchGoat CapitalY CombinatorFractal