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. Alejandro: Got it and before we actually dive in to the journey here, so consulting and business school, this is a few things that I typically hear so from some of our other guests. How much respect is there? We want investors who look at $100 million in revenue as table stakes but they wont agree to a billion. I think if you hire four cofounders like yourself, thats difficult and luckily we didnt have that problem. 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. Got it. Saying that, in the early days you kind of need to bring on all the capital that you can. In terms of the dynamics, I think in the early days, you kind of through osmosis graduate towards like the things that are important. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. And so when you think about AB testing frameworks, you think about how many started [03:43] that is a [03:44] grad school taught me. But was drawn in to it just to solve a problem as I think so many entrepreneurs are. Make sure tenants understand why things are . 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. How many listings do we have on the site? I kind of looked through in Crunchbase which connections I have into which fund. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. I have no experience doing that. 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 so I wouldnt be too pressured. They were [sexy 23:47] company and really fantastic fundraisers but the rounds just take a long time, due diligence take a long time. Not really actually. Absolutely. We love our investors. Got it. 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? 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. Stay informed using all the free online rental data out there (like Zumper's national rent report). Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Hello, everyone, to the DealMakers Show. Alejandro: Got it. So how did you meet your cofounders? Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. 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. 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. Two sided marketplaces are so difficult. 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. 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. Get a custom action plan and all the help that you need to start raising more capital. Anthemos Georgiades: One Lesson That Led To Raise $90 Million From The Top Venture Capital Firms by Alejandro Cremades Like many of our most successful entrepreneurs, Anthemos Georgiades was drawn into startup life to solving a burning problem. 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. Youre exactly right. 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 the startups end up wasting a lot of cash that could really extend runway but thats a different conversation. For me, its Zumper, an apartment rental platform. Alejandro: So Im completely there with you. So yes, we have a great cap table. Prices can change quickly! So thats how Zumper got started. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. 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 met Russel who [04:01] engineering products through just the personal connections in London. But theres no right answer in business. 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. Meaning hey, we send you a ton of leads this month that close in to leases. glendale, az police activity today; archer lodge middle school calendar. 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. I learned more from you than you learned from me, and then your job as CEO is to do kind of two or three things, that is to continue to advance like the vision and the mission of the company and keep everything strategically aligned. 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. So in terms of timeline, you were mentioning that the C round, you guys closed this 46 million a couple of months ago. Got it. So one is weve always promoted within so whenever we needed a role, we always prefer to promote someone instead of hiring from outside. For every successful fundraise, every single company have a lot of nos. Anthemos Georgiades Current Workplace Zumper Location 555 Montgomery St Ste 1300, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States Industry Information Collection & Delivery, Media & Internet Description Discover more about Zumper Anthemos Georgiades Work Experience and Education Work Experience Manager, Summer Investment Atomico 2009-2010 Now my cofounders were phenomenal in bringing them to meetings. Your third month is getting kind of diligence done and getting the wires in to the door. 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. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. 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. Published by at June 13, 2022. 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. 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. You are going to get a bunch of nos so I wouldnt rule people out too early. When you look your cofounders, your team in the eye and you know theyre ready to go and theyre resilient and they come back in to build and try the next thing and youve kind of worked out together this is part of the game. Saying that to your point, we see the deal was a successful and yet M&A is really hard to integrate. I mean your job moves from doing jobs in the first few years. Vishal Makhijani President & COO. 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? Of course. See How I Can Help You With Your Fundraising Efforts. Anthemos Georgiades. 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. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. There was no book [01:41]. Think Masterclass for Management. Your job as the CEO and the founder is to convince your investors of the reason to do this. 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 you acquire not long ago Pat Mapper and how did this come together? Its just part of the game and it doesnt [24:30]. Got it. 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. Youre supposed to try six things that dont work. Got it. Got it. 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. How many listings do we have on the site? Alejandro Cremades leads the vision and execution for Panthera Advisors as its Co-Founder and. Anthemos Georgiades: Its part of the game. I mean if you could give some kind of like tips you know both fronts it would be really fantastic. 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. We love our investors. It is ultimately the culture. So it doesnt always work out and I think thats fine. 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. 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. And your cap table I mean as I was reviewing I just felt as I was looking at the Oscars of Silicon Valley, the red carpet. 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. He remains a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan, and wakes up painfully every Saturday morning to tune into the live English soccer games. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. But oh we must have had like 20 persons or 20 people say not now or later. So Anthemos, whats the business model here? 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. We also actually had a really wonderful fourth cofounder whos no longer with us. 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.