Open dialogue and inspiring truth from leading entrepreneurs and investors were at the center of the event organized by our long-time supporter/investor, VentureFriends! ❤️ 🤝 🙏 Our founder and CEO, Egor Kirin, joined the panel to share insights on efficiently scaling a global business and raising growth capital. 🚀 🚀 🚀
It was a privilege to have so many friends join us in Athens for the VF Summit this year. We had a series of enthralling panels, a rooftop dinner by the Acropolis and even a quick trip to an island with some of the international attendees 🛥️🇬🇷 We thought we would share some of the key takeaways from the discussions and we hope to see some of you join us next time! ⬇️ Panel 1: Venture Capital from Series A to Growth Raluca Ragab, Gil Canaani, Akis Bratsos, George Dimopoulos • Expectations are now higher, from Series A onwards it’s no longer enough to hit a revenue milestone. There needs to be belief that the startup can become huge and profitable, write-offs are painful. • At the growth stage, a larger importance is placed on the capability of the executive team and the processes they have put in place. Founders have to understand the key drivers for their business. • Building relationship is key, it’s rare to invest at this stage within a few months of meeting the founders. 12-24 months is typical. Panel 2: Best Practices & Learnings in Hiring, Growth & Culture Alex Chatzieleftheriou, Jad Antoun, Nikos Moraitakis, George Hadjigeorgiou, Apostolos Apostolakis • Founders should look for people who are willing to join for the mission of the company and the opportunity to grow with it, rather than just for the salary and perks. • As a company scales there is the inevitable need to delegate but that doesn’t mean letting go of the details. • Growth from market tailwinds can be misleading, need to assess performance excluding market conditions. Panel 3: Fintech & Embedded Finance Peter O'Higgins, Egor Kirin, Caetano Lacerda. Alistair Owen • Building a performance culture that has a strong grounding in risk and compliance is essential when experiencing hypergrowth. • There’s no right answer to building a finance team; hiring a strong CFO can be a real asset when scaling the business. • Raising debt is essential to scale a lending operation, but founders need to switch their thinking from pure upside to also understanding the downside risk to speak the language of debt investors. Panel 4: Lessons from Fundraising, Scaling & Exiting John Tsioris, Marios Stavropoulos, Thanos Papangelis, Apostolos Apostolakis • Exiting a business isn’t straightforward, the founding team may need to stay for a few years and lose their autonomy to the acquirer. • Efficient growth is key to success, all the panelists reached profitability/low burn after a few years which gave them power when fundraising and exiting. • Being a founder is stressful and they often doubted themselves, but this motivated them to improve themselves!