Jesse Genet, founder and CEO of packaging platform Lumi, reflects on the operational mindset differences between running a bootstrapped company and scaling a VC-backed startup.
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“Working with a creator is a great example of spending money to save time. The concept that if you get that hire in two months instead of eight months, you've fundamentally shifted your roadmap forward. That is a type of thinking that is not very common in a bootstrap company where you feel like I control my destiny, I control my timeline, and conserving capital is part of my job.”
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Jesse GenetMay 4, 2018▶ 13:0920VC: Why VCs Are Wrong About Bootstrapped Founders, How Content Can Be Used As A Key Customer Acquisition Tool & How To Use Humour When "S*** Hits The Fan" with Jesse Genet, Founder & CEO @ Lumi
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Founders notice when a VC firm's only woman is an assistant
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Opinion
VC diversity directly dictates what types of companies get built
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What-if
A stable 40-hour job might have stopped Genet's entrepreneurial journey
“If I had ever had a taste of, like, a real income where you work 40 hours a week and someone, like, just tells you you're doing good because you've done a reasonable amount of work, I have no concept about whether I would have done any of this.”
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Disclosure
An investor fell asleep during a pitch meeting with Jesse Genet
“Well, I'm pretty sure someone actually slept through a meeting I took with them, so that, that was a pretty strong signal, but I, they looked very, very tired, and they had, like, kind of shiny glasses on. I couldn't really see whether their eyes were open, bu…”
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Disclosure
A VC repeatedly asked Jesse Genet if Lumi made physical boxes
“There was one meeting I took where someone kept asking whether I was truly talking about boxes. Like, I would be like, and then this is happening in the industry, and here's how the corrugated equipment works. And they'd be like, we're talking, like, you mean …”
Jesse GenetMay 4, 2018▶ 16:5820VC: Why VCs Are Wrong About Bootstrapped Founders, How Content Can Be Used As A Key Customer Acquisition Tool & How To Use Humour When "S*** Hits The Fan" with Jesse Genet, Founder & CEO @ Lumi
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