Justin Kan, founder of legal tech startup Atrium, explains the strategic rationale behind bringing on a massive number of VC investors during Atrium's seed round.
Opinion
Justin Kan: Many Silicon Valley Startups Succeed Despite Management, Driven by PMF
“I think a lot of companies in Silicon Valley, Kind of succeed despite their management, actually, not because of it. And what I mean by that is, like, the idea was so good that a bunch of 25 year olds could run the company, right? That core product market fit …”
Insight
Justin Kan: First-Time Founders Must Take Market Risk, Veterans Execution Risk
“When you have nothing going for you, except for you're like willing to put in hard amount, you know, like long hours and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears Then you should focus on things that are like, where there's a lot of market risk, because ideas where the…”
Insight
Justin Kan: Repeat Founders Have No Advantage Finding Consumer Product-Market Fit
“Like, I don't have any advantage in finding product market fit with a consumer app more than the twenty-two-year-old Justin.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Justin Kan: Emmett Shear Was the Only Founder Who Believed in Twitch
“When we pivoted Justin TV to Twitch, nobody believed that there would, and this was a market, right? No one believed, no investors, very few of our, even internal employees like believe, and even the founders were skeptical. You know, Emmett deserves the credi…”
Disclosure
Justin Kan Was Too Rich to Waste Time With Slow Seed Rounds
“But for me personally, you know, where it's an execution risk business, I'm too rich to like, Fuck around with the like, you know, ok, I'm just going to do a seed round and like, and just like take a long time, right? Like for me, speed to market and execution…”
Insight
Justin Kan: Silicon Valley Success Creates Paradox of Choice for Founders
“So once you become, you know, successful in some way in Silicon Valley, whether that's, you know, you've been executive at a company that's, you know, rocket ship unicorn, or you've started a company, you know, the world opens up, right? People want you to be …”