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A lot of that is in the bank. 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. Its a good question. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. 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. 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? How did you find these investors? Anthemos Georgiades Email & Phone Number - Zumper | ZoomInfo I grew up in London. Its just part of the game and it doesnt [24:30]. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. I mean at the end of the day, building and scaling companies especially when youre at the early stages is all about survival and its all about learning to be with each other behind the trenches and really going to war and having each others backs. At scale you get to do that and have those teams. 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. Alejandro: Got it. 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. Categories . Anthemos lives in San Francisco, where Zumper is HQd, with his wife. When people ask me what Im most nervous about its how to keep our amazing team together, a couple of tactics and then one thing that really worked. So paradoxically, I dont think the core DNA of a companys culture is built at ski tracks or offsite. Thank you so much. Anthemos Georgiades is the CEO of <a href="http://zumperblog.kinsta.cloud">Zumper</a>. 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? Anthemos Georgiades: No. Published by at June 13, 2022. But theres no right answer in business. 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. 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]. 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. anthemos georgiades net worth So Im completely there with you. Alejandro Cremades leads the vision and execution for Panthera Advisors as its Co-Founder and. So cofounders are difficult especially if youre not technical as really hard to find a good technical cofounder but the great thing is once you do and it takes a long time, they are able to attract the next generation of talent in to the company and thats how you kind of build your engineering team out. And investors love that story because its easy to believe that you can continue to do that. Your third month is getting kind of diligence done and getting the wires in to the door. Remember to unlock for free the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below. Really good strategy to differentiate the demographics and were super happy with how it went down. 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. Got it. Youre exactly right. 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. A lot of it was completely bottom up. Additionally, Anthemos Georgiades has had 2 past jobs including Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. And you know I think hiring is definitely tough but retaining is even more complicated so is there any things that you for example seen yourself that work on that front? Anthemos Georgiades on LinkedIn: Elevate Academy | Elevate Leadership Over-Communication. 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. There was no book [01:41]. Yeah. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. 1.4.1 - Provisions of this Code Declared . Retention is something I think about every day. Had worked at the Boston Consulting Group. She was our original CPO and after the series A, she moved on to roller, another company and we promoted someone internally to CPO. Back to Meet the San Francisco Business Times' 40 under 40 Class of 2018. So what is the best way, Anthemos, for people that are listening to reach out and say hi? Theres never like an exact number you need like when Uber raised money or you know Zillow raised money, theres never like a number they have to be at. Thank you so much. They were super lean team of under five people and its been a great deal for Zumper like we have one backend, one sales team and then two consumer platforms. His passion for relieving the stress for others in apartment rentals has given birth to a venture which has now raised $90 million, has experienced tremendous growth, and boasts a VC line up of some of the most prized investors in Silicon Valley. True to its reputation, Comfortbilt's HP22 pellet stove comes with a heating capacity of 50,000 BTU. Alejandro: Alrightee. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. 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. I mean youre doing various jobs, head of sales, head of finance, head of fundraising, head of like DZ. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Alejandro: Got it. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Budget in my opinion perhaps should be allocated to something else. 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. So I guess in your guys case, how do you deal with the egos and then more importantly how did you define the responsibilities early on so that you kind of have that healthy culture going on? In terms of investors, I guess two comments. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. Absolutely. Alejandro: I love it. So for the business, Anthemos, how much capital have you guys raised today? Hes raising money now. 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. So the series B, weve done story now look at how quickly the renters are growing on the platform. It was at the time Pat Mapper example almost the same size on consumer but now Zumper is much bigger but we called it like a cheat and your job as the founder is to identify like vertical cheats where overnight you become bigger than your competitors. So one is weve always promoted within so whenever we needed a role, we always prefer to promote someone instead of hiring from outside. I really enjoyed it and great stuff. 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. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. [06:54] the early days and it worked where there was just all hands to the pump. So I guess in your guys case, how do you deal with the egos and then more importantly how did you define the responsibilities early on so that you kind of have that healthy culture going on? It was incredibly difficult. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. You are going to get a bunch of nos so I wouldnt rule people out too early. Like many of our most successful entrepreneurs, Anthemos Georgiades was drawn into startup life to solve a burning problem. So we solved it to the first two years purely by getting landlords on board through various kind of product strategy and so our growth cuts for the first two years that we raised the [27:41] were purely about landlords and listing. 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? Were incredibly grateful for everything she did and she remains kind of shareholder in the company. He runs all the background of operation and he came from the real estate industry, two completely different background and neither of them was an obvious pick when I started the company at grad school. There was no book [01:41]. 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. Well, first of all, your point about quashing the egg and shooting the chicken. But I will say the one thing is true is that you always raise on momentum. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. In the first two or three years you will kill your marketplace if you create any barriers to entry from either side. I mean your job moves from doing jobs in the first few years. Pat Mapper caters to 25 and under and kind of big college populations. 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. Make sure tenants understand why things are . 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. Anthemos Georgiades CEO and co-founder. So the majority of that is still in the bank but yeah, we raised money in capital [12:00]. So I guess for a marketplace or lets say for the people that are listening to us like what kind of metrics do you think for the most part if were talking about hyper growth companies, like they should be a little bit more mindful about? 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. Got it. Anthemos Georgiades on Twitter: "77% of you were interested in a It was just purely hustling my network for six months to find people who are really great cultural fit but also have very different skill sets to the one I have. So it doesnt always work out and I think thats fine. Anthemos Georgiades. Anthemos Georgiades (Zumper) | Startup Grind Rental listing startup with more than 26 million users. 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. 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. Anthemos Paul Georgiades has been associated with one company, according to public records. It is ultimately the culture. And even though that sounds so obvious six years later, people just werent doing this in 2011, 2012 and we created a bunch of data that overwhelming shows the renters wanted to be applying for apartments from their phone. He remains a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan, and wakes up painfully every Saturday morning to tune into the live English soccer games. So Id say your first month you spend like getting first, second, third meeting. Anthemos Georgiades - Quora Got it. 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. 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 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? 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. Anthemos Georgiades is co-founder & CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry. What's in Store for Multifamily Markets in 2023? 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. @zumper Stories Uncategorized In many instances, really acquisitions are great to either feel growth on the company itself, either on the product or perhaps by adding a great talent, but unfortunately many M&A transactions fail really on the integration side of things. I think just up front boundaries before you close the round is super important. The other large investor in this round [20:05] scale so once you have product market set, how do you scale that? Theyre both incredibly smart as are my executive team who are also like critical to fundraise where Ill go in and sell the vision often alone. 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. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Got it and before we actually dive in to the journey here, so consulting and. Youll get terms sheets and yeses hopefully quicker than that but this process takes a while and as the money increases and a few rounds become more complicated, it can take more than three months as well. And as you know as and your listeners know, youre going to get a lot of nos on the way. 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? 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. Anthemos and Russell met in London while working at a consulting company back in 2006, but it was after they moved to the U.S and experienced the pain of finding a place to live that they decided to found Zumper along with Taylor Glass-Moore and Leah Jones. A lot of it was completely bottom up. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. But oh we must have had like 20 persons or 20 people say not now or later. I really enjoyed it and great stuff. It is not closely married to [14:55] and thats where its still on [14:58] I think Silicon Valley has a long way to go where when I got my first introductions to VCs to Kleiner, to Andreseen, to Graylock, to NEA, it often came through my graduate school network where someone was like, Hey, this guy is leaving HBS. Got it. Think Masterclass for Management. Got it. Weve only been working with Axle Springer for four months now but they are fantastic. Got it. 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 every successful fundraise, every single company have a lot of nos. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Got it. I was just talking to a friend of mine about this. So I guess for those listeners that are looking at acquiring other companies to perhaps grow a little bit faster, what kind of advice would you give to them? So I guess like I have one thing to follow up on this. Everyone in Boston, everyone in New York were straight nos and [25:15] didnt get second meetings but then a month later we came to Silicon Valley and we found a much better product market set for the kind of investor who was prepared to come early and invest early and we got a lot of yeses very quickly. Hes raising money now. Yeah. 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. Had worked in politics. 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. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. It looks better for investors and it makes your life easier. So Zumper is the vision for the company is to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. So I wouldnt be too picky early. So we bought them. I think Id say forget everything you think you know and everything, your education [38:28]. 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. In the early days we love the exposure to Silicon Valley investors. Yeah, I think its probably the DNA of your culture is I think a lot of it is built in the tough times. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah, sure. I mean youre doing various jobs, head of sales, head of finance, head of fundraising, head of like DZ. At series A, you got to show product market set in a sub vertical. How much respect is there? And the biggest change in the series C I just raised versus in the early days is having a CFO. 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. I dont think theres a startup I could have launched that taught me more. So today, we have another founder and another one that is quite successful in their own paths. And you know I think hiring is definitely tough but retaining is even more complicated so is there any things that you for example seen yourself that work on that front? They take every, some people go and warm theirif you have a brilliant idea, theyd be crazy not to take it and then their entire value is obviously give you a three month program and then at the end expose you to liek 40 investors. You kind of just all in [06:39] I think where the carving of the rose start to happen for me around 10, 12 people where you no longer just have [06:49]. 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. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Russell Middleton Co-Founder. Like what have you seen that really works? Alejandro: Got it. A lot of business schools was how to make decisions with imperfect information. Anthemos Georgiades is the CEO and co-founder at Zumper. Thats your job. Yeah. Retention is something I think about every day. I mean I think at seed round its like an [26:02]. In terms of investors, I guess two comments. 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.