Misha Esipov is the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit. He reflects on how early recruitment at Nova Credit naturally skewed male before formalizing diversity goals.
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“So we started as three co-founders, and we scaled up to 10 folks, and all seven of those hires were male, despite having Nikki, my co-founder, not being male.”
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More from Misha Esipov
Disclosure
Esipov: Top Silicon Valley executive search firm sent 95% male candidate slate
“For example, I am working on several executive searches right now, and the first slate that one of the top tier executive search firms here in the Valley brought me was like, 95% male, and the five percent that was not male were candidates that I had put forwa…”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 18:3820VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
Insight
Esipov: Startups without clear paths to cash flow will never go public
“But at the end of the day, if a business does not have a clear path to generating cash, it is not an enduring business and will never be a public company.”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 6:1420VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
Insight
Esipov: VCs should make fewer bets and spend more time per company
“Any one of their eggs, I think, is directly correlated to how much time they spend with that egg. I would love to see the VC engagement extend beyond the boardroom, and some VCs are very good at this, and spend more time on site with the company, get to actual…”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 10:3320VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
Insight
Esipov: Consensus-based decision-making yields slow, average outcomes for startups
“It's very tempting, especially as a first-time team, to make every decision consensus-based. And so you deliberate on every decision, and everything takes forever. And oftentimes, unfortunately, you end up with a decision that's the average, as opposed to what…”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 14:0820VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
Opinion
Esipov: External recruiters cannot solve diversity hiring for startups
“I have never found a recruiter that can solve diversity. I think that is something that as a leadership team, you have to make a company-wide priority and do yourself.”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 18:2920VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
Insight
Esipov: Address core business model risks upfront during VC fundraising
“My style in having fundraising conversations is not to try to hide the most challenging part of a business model under the mattress. Instead, I try to bring it up forefront and talk about why I recognize it to be a concern and how I've Personally gotten comfor…”
Misha EsipovMar 20, 2020▶ 8:2120VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
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