The 10 Things That Change When You Stop Bootstrapping (and Raise 10M) presented on Feb 9, 2016 at SaaStr Annual 2016

1. KRISTEN KOH GOLDSTEIN
FOUNDER CEO / SCALUS

2. BACKGROUND
BEEN A PART OF NUMEROUS
SUCCESSFUL START-UPS
Sold to
Shopping.com /
eBay (1999)
Sold to
Tibco
(2010)
Bootstrapped to $3M
in 18 months and
raise $10M from Tier
1 VCs
Founded Scalus in
2014 as a spinout
of BackOps

3. Complexity explodes exponentially when focus expands from
building a product to building a company
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
1
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
1. Product
2. People
3. Process
ALL 3 “P”S
NEED TO BE IN
SYNC
BEFORE NOW

4. THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
Mythical man month is real—
As you add people, building the company takes longer2
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
FEEL EXTREME PRESSURE
TO RECRUIT QUICKLY
MUST RESIST

5. As CEO, your second (or third) full-time job as Recruiter
starts immediately and lasts forever
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
3
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
HIRE SLOW,
FIRE FAST
HIRING OUTSIDE VS.
INSIDE CIRCLE

6. As hard as you try to prevent it, culture will change as you grow
and battle rhythm becomes harder to maintain
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
4
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
COMPANY CULTURE
FAMILY VS. VILLAGE

7. Ability to discern bus drivers disguised as bus
builders will make or break your company
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
5
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
SLOW CREEP
INVISIBLE TIPPING
POINT
Builders Playing Offense
Output Focused (Results)
Drivers Playing Defense
Input Focused (Politics)

8. Without conscious deliberate change,
the founding team risks becoming micro managers that
destroys the company from within
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
6
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
FULL STACK AGILITY
VS. REPEATABILITY

9. You may be tempted to invite more
hierarchy than necessary
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
7
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
Tracking bottlenecks and
issues becomes
a larger pain

10. Helping your people see the big picture must transition
from a 1:1 experience to one of systematic scale and
consistency
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
8
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
If your team can’t see the big picture, they
will not execute well against it

11. The tension between empowering the team
against the chaos of everyone determining
‘the how’ will consume you
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
9
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
The people doing the work
have the best idea of how it
should be done
RIGID ORDER FLEXIBLE
EMPOWERMENT

12. Scale is actually more about consistent product or service delivery
rather than quality of product or service delivery.
THE 10 THINGS THAT CHANGE WHEN YOU
STOP BOOTSTRAPPING
10
1. People
2. Product
3. Process
Rinse
Repeat
Rinse
Repeat
Consistency = Repeatability = Success

13. THANK YOU AND Q&A
KRISTEN KOH GOLDSTEIN
FOUNDER CEO / SCALUS
@kristenkoh
The 10 Things That Change When You Stop
Bootstrapping (and Raise 10M)