Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Pre-seed founders should seek advice from Seed founders, not Series D veterans

François de Kerret · After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show · Nov 28, 2024 · at 28:57

François de Kerret, co-founder of Zeffy, discusses mentorship and fundraising advice for early-stage startup founders.

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“When you're pre-seed, just spending time with seed or series A founder to understand how they build their motions. And I will spend more time with them and less time with, I don't know, series D advisors, outstanding advisors who don't really know this.”

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More from François de Kerret

Insight
Zeffy's zero-fee model prevents incumbent copying due to their high-margin addiction
“Other fundraising platforms are structured with higher cost and sales motion. They have a higher margin on each non-profit, so they do more money on the fundraising, but it's also, I think, An addiction because now they are structured with higher costs, more s…”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 7:35 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
Insight
Raising unneeded capital distracts founders and risks adding misaligned board members
“It's actually a very conservative strategy because you'll take this money that you don't need, so you're preventing a risk that you don't know is necessary. But you do two things. First, as a founder and funding team, you spend a lot of time raising money and …”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 20:15 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
Disclosure
Zeffy exclusively hires inexperienced fresh graduates to maximize their learning curves
“For junior, we like them to be just out of university. So the more junior is the role, the less experience we want because we want to Get them at a role where they will learn as much as they will bring. So maybe it's not really clear how I'm saying this, but i…”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 23:00 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
Insight
François de Kerret: Zeffy's tip-based model thrives in North America's tipping culture
“And we thought, okay, but if it works in Europe, where people leave maybe one euro for a 200 euros meal here in Quebec and in America, it will work for sure. And it's exactly what nonprofits are asking for, a free platform.”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 3:50 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zeffy acquired 30,000 non-profits by scaling Google Ads to $500,000 monthly
“And those three years, well, a lot of things happened that if I'm summarizing, we just scaled Google Ads from 5000 dollars a month to half a million a month, and it just brought traction and 30,000 non-profits.”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 17:00 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
What-if
François de Kerret believes Zeffy could have reached profitability after one round
“Probably I wish we could probably even have done it after one round if we were more serious in this focus.”
François de Kerret Nov 28, 2024 ▶ 28:37 After I passed, this startup grew 30x in 3 years to $10M+ ARR. Here's how he did it—& what I miss... · PMF Show
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