Russakow: Startup and corporate career choices yield similar success long-term
Jeff Russakow · 20VC: One Question Founders Must Ask Themselves When Approaching Investor Selection, Why Series B Is One Of The Most Challenging Phases & What Makes For A Successful CEO Transition with Jeff Russakow, CEO @ Boosted · Apr 5, 2019 · at 7:57
Jeff Russakow, CEO of Boosted, provides career perspective to university graduates weighing early-stage startups against large tech companies.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“You look back at age 50, and you realize that people that took both paths end up kind of happy and about the same level of success 30 years later either way”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jeff Russakow
Russakow: Most people will continue to own their vehicles long term
“And then there's routine travel like commute or running errands, which is like 99% of travel where people prefer to own the vehicle. And so, as you look at the history of vehicles, probably from Ben Hur and the Chariot forward, you realize that that fundamenta…”
Russakow: Silicon Valley Has Conceded Hardware and Research to Other Countries
“We've pretty much conceded, almost as a community, the consumer product or the hardware world to other countries. We've conceded a lot of fundamental technology research that used to be our hallmark to other countries, and we've really given a lot of ground to…”
Russakow: Modern VCs Are Generalists Driven by Consensus
“VCs tended to have very deep expertise in certain industries or technologies and could go very deep on, on diligence, whereas today's investors tend to be more generalists. So you're less likely to find investors today who develop a proprietary view versus hav…”
Russakow: Founders should only choose investors they trust to babysit their children
“If my wife and I needed to go run off for the weekend and handle some terrible emergency and leave my three daughters with this person just for the weekend without a word said, would I even think twice about it? And if the answer is I'd have to think twice, th…”
Russakow: Successful hardware products hyperscale rapidly after launch
“In hardware, you've got a lot of pain up front. It might take you a year to get out the product. The product has to be perfect before you get it out the door, because once you get out the door, you can't get it back, and it takes a lot of capital to get going.…”
Russakow: Undifferentiated SaaS companies are as commoditized as generic hardware
“In contrast, if you're investing in the 51st SaaS software company that makes the same HR payroll software or marketing automation software, by definition, how is that not potentially also a commodity if it's the 51st one?”