Opinion
Gavet: Amazon copied Ozon's model of e-commerce pickup points
“I do think that Amazon did copy some of the things that we were doing because we invented pickup points. We had 2000 plus pickup point across Russia because at the time in Russia it was all cash on delivery, and we had to figure out a way for people to Get the…”
Insight
Gavet: Priceline tolerated inefficiency to protect acquired companies' entrepreneurial spirit
“We will not sacrifice, ah, the entrepreneurial spirit in the name of synergy.
So we are going, another way of saying that is, we are going to tolerate inefficiency in the name of supporting
Entrepreneurship.
And that I think is the secret sauce.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Gavet: Startups attempting to compete with ChatGPT will probably fail
“And frankly, if you're an entrepreneur and your dream is to compete with ChatGPT, you're probably not going to succeed because of the compute power and the data sets required to even remotely have a shot at competing. So the only businesses that might compete …”
Insight
Gavet: Being a strong leader means knowing when to shut up publicly
“And I think being a strong leader is also to know when to shut up. And not say anything, because you're not supposed to have an opinion on everything, and certainly you're not supposed to have an opinion on everything publicly.”
Insight
Gavet: Public company CFOs inevitably brute-force post-acquisition startup synergies
“For the ones who are saying, no, no, that's my baby, like, when you start talking in these terms, when you can see the emotional attachment, I always encourage them to have a very, very direct conversation with the potential buyers, understanding that promise,…”
Insight
Gavet: NPS measures founder happiness, whereas financial return measures success
“NPS measure, to a large extent, happiness. Return. Measure success.”
Opinion
Gavet: Founders join Techstars for the program, not the check
“Like, the reason why they come to us, it's not for the check. Like, they can raise money somewhere else. They came for everything that comes with it, which is the Axe Rater program, like the boot camp, which is 13 weeks, and at Techstars, it's extremely hands-…”
Insight
Gavet: Delay AI adoption by a quarter if customer needs remain unclear
“And if you don't know yet, in my world, I think it's okay to wait another month, another quarter, not saying 10 years, but just a little bit, and then revisit on a regular basis whether or not there's new application of AI, new development that would make sens…”
Disclosure
Gavet refused to operate Ozon in Russia if forced to pay bribes
“I was absolutely clear that I would not be running a business if I had to pay bribes. That was a non-starter. And I would fight for what I believed in, and that included running a really Really clean business.”
Assertion Contradicted
Gavet: Ozon's $100M raise was Europe's largest round at the time
“When we closed, you mentioned the hundred million dollar round. At the time, and it's gonna sound silly, but at the time, that was the largest fundraising round ever done in Europe”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gavet: Google Ads built features based on Booking.com feedback
“That relationship was so important that there is a certain number of things that the Google ad team built. They built it based on On booking.com feedback.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gavet: None of 280 Techstars employees called it an investment business
“The, I remember starting first day and my first hundred day I had what I called a listening tour. So we had at the time, 280 employees. And I talked to every single employee one-on-one with the same set of questions, including one, which was, what is Techstars…”
Insight
Gavet: AI pitches must demonstrate capabilities impossible before the technology
“Tell me something that AI is going to help you to do that was not possible to do before. Even if you don't fully understand the technology, Tell me in one sentence, thanks to AI, we're going to do X. And if I immediately see that without AI, X will never have …”
Insight
Maëlle Gavet: Startup solutions matter far more than their use of AI
“What I care about is, Is there a big, gigantic problem in front of us? And do you have a really different way of solving it versus everyone else? And if that means using AI, awesome. If it means not using AI because you have a better option, that's fantastic t…”
Opinion
Gavet: AI lets startups solve problems Big Tech cannot solve
“AI is so exciting because it allows new businesses to come and solve problems that big tech is not capable of solving right now.”
Assertion Contradicted
Gavet: Ozon built Russia's first nationwide private delivery network
“Part of the success of Ozone, by the way, came from the fact that we built the first nationwide private delivery infrastructure.”
Assertion Contradicted
Gavet: Ozon revenue grew from under $100M to over $1B
“When I joined, we had a little less than a hundred million dollars of revenue.
When I left, we had a little over a billion.”
Disclosure
Gavet: Techstars takes common shares in portfolio startups
“We take common shares in the company.”
Maëlle Gavet