Samir Vasavada: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires | E1171
Samir Vasavada is the Co-Founder & CEO of Vise, a technology-powered asset manager. Samir and his co-founder, Runik founded Vise from the Midwest at 16 years old. They bootstrapped the company before dropping out of high school and raising $128M in just 6 months from some of the best including Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund. The company achieved unicorn status when the pair turned 20 years old, making them the youngest founders of a $BN company at the time.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:01) Starting Vise
(03:45) The First Big Yes
(07:16) How the Sequoia Deal Went
(11:15) Does Samir Regret Raising Significant Funds Early On?
(19:15) Mistakes & Lessons on Hiring
(38:29) Advising Founders on Transfer Restrictions & Investor Exits
(39:07) The Dual Impact of High-Profile Investors on Startups
(45:02) Losing Friends When the Company Cooled
(47:46) Samir's Period of Depression
(55:40) Quick-Fire Round
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In Today’s Episode with Samir Vasavada We Discuss:
1. The Biggest Hiring Mistakes That Broke Us:
Why is hiring people who come with a playbook one of the most damaging things you can do?
Why is it impossible to build a remote company that performs the same as in person?
Why is it the worst thing to hire people who have a reputation they are obsessed with maintaining?
Why do you never want to hire people who join because of who your investors are?
Why does Samir regret not firing people faster? How much time is enough time to know?
Why is hiring in a hot market one of the most dangerous things you can do?
2. Fundraising: 3 Rounds and $126M in 6 Months:
Does Samir regret raising so much money so soon in the company life?
What did Samir do that he regrets doing, having had so much money so early?
How did the need for free food at an event lead to a term sheet and $50M from Sequoia?
Did Samir feel that he could talk to investors when things were going really badly?
Why does Samir believe that liquidation preference matters more than valuation?
3. The Depression, The Pressure and Wisdom From Jensen Huang:
What did Jensen Huang teach Samir when it comes to wealth and leadership?
How did Samir deal with the pressure of raising $126M in 6 months and being the youngest unicorn founder, ever at the time?
Was Samir hurt when people he thought were his friends, no longer stuck with him when the company was no longer “hot”?
What was Samir’s darkest time? How did he overcome and get out of it?
Does Samir blame his parents for the pressure they put on him from such a young age?
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Пікірлер: 30
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The best part about working at Vise was when they laid me off. If your entire exec team turns over twice in 24 months and you blame the advice of investors (which you followed), then blame former employees, maybe the problem is you Samir. But maybe you like being valued at 300X revenue, sounds like you have definite product market fit.
@cartercs1
Ай бұрын
Exactly. Baffling how there is no responsibility taken. Only when prompted "but you are to blame right?", which he responds "100%" when you know he doesn't mean it at all. LOL.
@wally4727
Ай бұрын
How do you know he doesn’t mean it at all?
@gimbazan9798
20 күн бұрын
You sound like those employees at tech companies who make "the day in the life of an engineer" tiktoks and video all the fun things that you get it to do at the office but real work for an hour or two
Okay, I'm pretty sure this is the best tech-focused podcast channel out here. Great job Harry!
First comment . Hope you bring Palmer Luckey on show soon .❤
@tdoncheva2099
Ай бұрын
I would love that too!
Aren't these folks doing a "hard" reset on the company?
@SMbased
Ай бұрын
LOL
@cartercs1
Ай бұрын
Samir looks completely out of his depth in this interview. Skittish, defensive, and worst of all: narcissistic. Mind blowing he was able to con VCs into raising hundreds of millions of dollars, take secondaries, and then go on a press run a few years later shifting the blame on everyone but himself.
This is outstanding Harry.
Great insights ✍
“When I was single digit age”
Ego still in tact Sadly
I love bootstrapped company ! we don't wait for VC .
Samir comes across as incredibly defensive and arrogant in this interview.
@cartercs1
Ай бұрын
He repeatedly blames investors, his VCs, executive management, employees, peers - but takes no real accountability himself. His dishonesty in this interview is alarming: he's not a child star who was exploited, he actively sought out hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and now is dumping blame on others as he fails to deliver on his promises. Not a great look.
@wally4727
Ай бұрын
Yeah and he is admitting all the mistakes he made.
Very refreshing conversation. Samir is great and clearly going to continue to do great things.
Damn Harry is jacked
"we were talking so much about how to be inclusive... frankly, things that don't matter" when people show you who they are, believe them!!!!!
@wally4727
Ай бұрын
He is saying that those don’t matter at all unless you build a great product.
i think many people that have been in Samir and Runik's journey have forgotten how young they are
This guy still hasn’t realised why failed. At all.
54:00
First.
@20VC
Ай бұрын
🙌🙌
It’s what parents do, they care about their kids and their outcomes that’s not a flaw and please don’t say that it is. It’s your job to bring them to understand your dream. This host is kind of annoying sometimes.
I think its the thing with immigrant parents... ABCD