GrabCAD Presentation for the European Innovation Academy. My lessons learned as a founder and CEO of GrabCAD.

1. Lessons learned
Hardi Meybaum
@hardi_meybaum

2. Founder Investor
interviewing.io

3. 2009

4. 2014

5. Lesson learned #1: talk to customers (not investors)

6. Lesson learned #2: don’t give up after first failure

8. Lesson learned #3: celebrate victories - earned $25,
celebration dinner $60

9. Quit a day job and go all-in
(week before the birth of 1st child)
Lesson learned #4: have a very very understanding spouse

10. Raised first seed money
Lesson learned #5: raising the money from Europe is painful

11. today: 2M+ registered users
Community

12. Lesson learned #6: launch MVP quickly

13. Lesson learned #1: talk to customers

14. Lesson learned #7: everything is not like it appears
Lesson learned #8: you are in or out, no middle choice
booked this room for 3 months but ended up here
Lesson learned #9: go where your customers are

15. Lesson learned #10: learn from great mentors

16. 0"
10000"
20000"
30000"
40000"
50000"
60000"
70000"
80000"
Jun"
Jul"
Aug"
Sept"
Oct"
Nov"
Dec"
Jan"
Feb"
Mar"
Apr"
May"
Jun"
Jul"
Aug"
Sept"
Oct"
Nov"
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Users"
Lesson learned #11: always be experimenting
started A/B testing
# of users

17. 17M 20+ investors
Lesson learned #12: raise money when you can,
not when you need
Lesson learned #13: raise money from people who want you to succeed
and can help you

18. “This is crazy, I talk more on GrabCAD than in real life”
Lesson learned #14: love your customers

19. Lesson learned #1: talk to customers

21. Workbench

22. Momentum Machines

23. hammerhead.io

24. “we love GrabCAD so much
that we never want to leave”
Lesson learned #15: customers always comes first

25. Lesson learned #16: Team comes second,
but is incredible important

26. Lesson learned #17: find people
you enjoy working with

27. Lesson learned #18: hire more
experienced and smarter people
than you

28. Lesson learned #19: find people who
inspire you at difficult times

29. Lesson learned #20: lead through
inspiration, discipline and achievement

30. “have fun and enjoy the
journey”

32. hardi.meybaum@gmail.com
@ hardi_meybaum