Jillian Manus advises founders to never start alone and always have a technical co-founder as CTO. She warns against vague pitches like "Uber of X" and says investors want founders who can name 1,000 potential users in three seconds.
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Don't start a company with a CTO or co-founder. Okay, who here has tech background? Who are engineers? Okay, who are not? Okay, so basically there are 2 things I look for. First of all, I never look for single founders. I think that's worrisome. I need a team. I need a visionary, I need a high executor, I need a salesperson, I need that.
Did I bore you? No.
No, I'm only kidding. I don't need to see your dogs. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. You see, I'm not that nice. So I need 2 people. I need a man and a woman. I need a woman and a woman. It doesn't matter. You can have a great dog as long as they can be a good CTO. So by the way, I have a pretty dog. So then I've got my boyfriend that likes great dogs. OK, anyway. So the CTO is a co-founder, right?
You need someone with tech experience.
How many of you understand that? How many of you don't understand, don't agree with me, which is okay too? Yeah, okay.
Well, not that I disagree, I'm just trying to figure out, because a lot of people are like, find a CTO, find a CTO, but I want it to happen organically. I don't want to just shove someone into the role because I need a CTO person.
No, I agree with you on that.
I do believe co-founders are a good idea, but I don't always think they need to be the CTO.
Okay, well, you're right.
You know what, you're right.
Right, and thank you for correcting me. So it actually is someone with tech ability, okay? Someone who knows how to— someone with development background, someone who knows how to create the product. Because when you're pitching a product, it's very hard to say, this will work this way, I think. You know, I'm going to build this out this way, I think that will work. You need someone who's going to be there with you saying, this is how we're going to build it, this is how it's built, this is the frame, and you're back. Welcome back.
Okay.
Sorry about that. So you want someone who's actually going to know that. And that's very hard. So a lot of you, I mean, one of the reasons you're all here is to get to know each other. And to talk to the engineers. The engineers should talk to the executors. In fact, not to say that you're not executors, but you need a team. You need a team. And you need someone who understands the vision. And you need to find people who support you. And you need to understand that you cannot You cannot do this alone. And the people that you choose at the very, very beginning are people that you— what? That you—
Trust.
That's it. That's it. That's it. Okay? If I could think of one reason I was successful— so I built 4 companies. I failed in one of them. So I emphasize the word fail. People are like, mm-hmm. But I've done a lot of things in my life. I started in banking. I ended up as head of TMT for Credit Suisse. I was vice president of Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. I was director of development, I've been an agent, I've been a sports agent, I've been everything you can name, possibly a publisher. I've done a lot in my life, which takes me now to the ability to actually have some little areas of expertise to be able to apply. I've started companies and I've sold them and I know what it takes and I know that it is very difficult to do it without Trust, and the entire reason that I think I've become somewhat successful at this point in my life because I'm still evolving is that people trust me. That people trust me, and that I have great relationships. And if I could say one reason, and I heard Warren Buffett say this, he was actually at this women's conference that we built, and I actually I asked him I said, "What is the number one reason you are successful?" And he said, relationships. And I said, no, really. He said, no, that's it. That's it. He said, you have relationships, good relationships. And so when you're building your team, you have to find people that you're going to trust and you really, really trust. And you're going to have to earn their trust. I should have put that into a slide, but you got that. I love this one. Our startup idea is like Uber meets Warby Parker meets Birchbox meets Snapchat meets Etsy meets something we haven't fully What have you heard of yet? And this guy says, you have us at like Uber. Okay, so that's not me, okay? I don't want to hear bloody Uber. I don't want to hear you're an Uber of this, we're an Uber of that. I don't want to hear I'm like this one, I'm like that one. You can do a comparable, you know, you can do something like that where you say, we take a little bit of this, but what is it? I can't be like Warby Parker. What is it from Warby Parker that you're Abstracting a specific, it is the supply chain, is it the, what is it, right? So be more specific if you're gonna say I'm Meet Snapchat or Meet Etsy, what specific part of that business model when you're gonna pitch something and you're putting together some comparable? So, and it's really interesting because when people come down to pitch me, the first thing, and this is in our investment meetings, When Mike Jacob and I sit together and someone— and we have someone pitching or sending us a pitch deck, the first thing I think about and the first thing we ask, and I'm gonna ask it of all of you right now, if I were to pitch you an idea, okay, all we do is we count 3 seconds. And in 3 seconds, I have to think of 1,000 people who will want to use this product. So if you're going to pitch me your company right now, if I can't think of 1,000 people within 3 seconds, I've got a problem. Or can I think of 3 companies that your company, your product is solving their problem? Interestingly enough, the mind works in such a way that we process a lot of information in 3 seconds. If you think of 1,000 people, 1,000 people, all of a sudden your mind is going 1,000 people, okay. What do they look like in terms of, are they young, are they old? Are they outdoors people, are they indoors people? Do they like to talk? Do they like to eat candy? Do they like to ride a bicycle? Do they like to, what kind of car do they drive? Do they not like a car? Do they hug a tree? Do they swing in a tree? I don't know. And so all of a sudden your mind clicks on that. Believe it or not, that's the first question we ask at our investment meetings, do I know 1,000 people? Now, if you're building a product, do you guys automatically know 1,000 people that would use your product?
Yes.
OK. Now, if the answer was no, we'd have a big problem. But OK. Do you think I would know 1,000 people in 3 seconds?
