Jillian Manus, an early Uber investor, argues that founders need mentors from outside their industry and must understand whether they're building a product, service feature, or SaaS. She shares how helping an Uber driver reconnect with his mother in Ethiopia led her to study gender differences in how men and women process information, which shapes product design and pitch strategy.
Chapters
Now we're talking about this. All right. I cannot tell you how many companies pitch where this is, don't build a service feature, build a product. Startups can tend to build their company thesis off of one missing feature from another platform. So a lot of times people will come and they'll say, I have this. And I think to myself, well, this is a great idea for a retail model. This is a product, e-commerce. This is a great product for a digital health piece. This is— so when someone said my company is efficient, is it making some other bigger model, bigger product efficient? Or is it creating efficiency in a market? And that's a very big problem. Have you ever thought to yourself, gee, good, think about your product. Could this be a service? And if it is, it can be a SaaS. Who's building a SaaS product? Okay, awesome. Okay, in that case, you want it to be that way. Okay, do you guys know off the top of your head 4 partners that would use this? 4 enterprise partners? Okay, go think of that. Okay, so the SaaS product is a different category because it is a service, right? But all the rest of you, is your product big enough to stand on its own? Does it have resilience? Can it be scaled? Okay, because that is the go bigger part. How are you going to scale it? Can it be scaled? Can it be scaled here in the United States? Does it have regulatory issues? Does it have any roadblocks going forward that are clearing? And by the way, they can be too. We— so we were the 3rd investor in Uber, structured capital was. companies are Breather and Breathometer and Peerspace and Surf Bear and Laura Wolf. And I don't know if you know any of these, but that's some of our companies. We have 65 companies in our second fund and 110 over both of our funds. So we have seen a lot of companies and we help a lot of companies. And every single time we look at a company, we keep thinking, is this a service? That's, that's like one of those Because it's 1,000 questions, 1,000 people, is this a service, is this a feature, is this a product? It takes a village. We talked a little bit about that. Who has advisors here? Who has mentors? Okay. Who doesn't have anybody but themselves right now? Okay. Interestingly enough, when I was growing up, I was raised in boarding school. I went to boarding school when I was 7 years old in England. I didn't have anybody. I actually didn't even really have parents. I had nuns. Great nuns. They were my mentors, and they were all that. And they taught me about being authentic. They taught me about having a purpose. They taught me about a lot of things. But they also needed— I didn't realize became mentors for me, even though when someone now asks me did I have a mentor, I always say no. Because I really didn't have a mentor. My mentor was actually me. I listen to a TED Talk every single day for the last 3 and a half years. There's not a moment that I'm not evolving. There's not a moment that I'm not learning something new. And it doesn't have to be— and I'm telling you this, and this goes back to this in a second— please, don't only learn what is right in front of you. The TED Talks that I listen to and the things that I learn, I learn about an amazing I learned about a blazing ant the other day, and a dinosaur actually. This little wee dinosaur who really, you know, was like the little caboose that couldn't get up the hill. I love dinosaurs, I didn't realize that. I like ants, I like bugs, I didn't know anything about that. I learned a lot about sleep disorders. I've learned a little bit about an architecture of the— Roman architecture and Greek philosophy. And so, It's really important, guys. I know you're so focused on this, but really try to learn this way and surround yourself with advisors and mentors that are not necessarily in a business lane, in your business lane. Try to meet people. I talk to everybody. I know you find that very, very surprising. Yeah. But I actually talk to people in elevators. I talk to people on street corners. I talk to people, I'm not kidding you, And the Uber drivers, God help them. I talk to every Uber driver, every Lyft driver. I actually, I sent this Uber driver who was telling me about his mother who he hasn't seen in Ethiopia because he's here on a lottery, and I bought him a ticket back to Ethiopia to go see his mom. And then his mom called me from Ethiopia with him. This is unbelievable. And she said to me, in Ethiopian, by the way, and by the way, no, I do not speak Ethiopian. But the son was on the phone. And he said, she said, may God bless you with as many tears of joy that I'm shedding now. And I just thought to myself, I think that's why I talk to everybody. Because who knew that by just talking to this Uber driver, I would get to understand it. And so at that point, I started to dive into Ethiopian culture. And I started learning about the matriarchal societies. And then from there, I started to realize how women rule. And then I started to read The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine, and then The Male Brain. And all of a sudden it started me on this big fabulous journey of learning. And the interesting part at the very end of this journey, what I really learned is that men and women's brains are completely different. And this is very important for you to know because when you're pitching a man and a woman, believe it or not, it's a little bit different. Men listen Men listen differently than women. Women's brains are anatomically different than men's. It's a fact. And so you have to think when you're pitching a product and when you're selling to a user, what's your user look like? Is it a man? Who's on this— whose user is predominantly female? That's really interesting. Who's predominantly male? That's really interesting. Who goes both ways? Okay, very good. Do you know that women listen differently than men? Do you know that the reason is, is because we have front lobe and side lobes and all of that gets translated differently? And when you're building the behavior of your product and you're thinking of the adoption, guess we're gonna have to factor in just that as well because the behavioral science is really what you guys are going to have to study. And part of it is creating an advisory board and surrounding you with people who not necessarily are in your lane. Learn from them about behavior. If I have a lot of mentors, well, I have a lot of advisors right now because I know what I don't know. And that's the other thing that I'm realizing as I grow older. I know a lot about a little. Or maybe I know a little about a lot. But I know I don't know a lot about a lot. That's—
