How a Solo, Non-technical Founder Started an 80-Person Startup
•
2 likes•692 views
The document details the founding and growth of ZeroCater, a food delivery startup. It describes how the founder Arram Sabeti started the company in 2009 after organizing lunch orders at his previous job at Justin.tv. ZeroCater grew from just Sabeti to 80 employees, feeding over 700 companies and working with around 500 restaurants. The founder discusses the early challenges of building the company with no funding and automating processes to scale more efficiently. ZeroCater raised a $1.5 million seed round of funding and continues growing its operations across multiple cities.
Recommended
More Related Content
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (6)
Featured
Featured (20)
How a Solo, Non-technical Founder Started an 80-Person Startup
- 1. Taking ZeroCater from 0 to 80 people Arram Sabeti ZEROCATER
- 2. Quick info ■ Started October 2009 ■ 80 employees ■ Feeding >700 companies ■ Working with ~500 restaurants ■ Offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington D.C. @arram #hustlecon
- 3. Quick info ■ 2007: Discovered Hacker News, became completely obsessed with startups ■ 2008: Sold car to fund move to Bay Area. Got a $500/ studio in El Cerrito #hustlecon@arram
- 4. My timing was impeccable #hustlecon@arram
- 5. Living the Americone Dream #hustlecon@arram
- 6. “Just to be fair, I should mention I’m going to quit in a year to start my own company.” #hustlecon@arram
- 8. Countdown to the day I quit my job
- 9. Stuff I was responsible for at Justin.tv ■ Customer support ■ Ordering lunch ■ Recruiting coordination ■ Quality assurance ■ Facilities management #hustlecon@arram
- 10. Stuff I was responsible for at Justin.tv #hustlecon ■ Justin.tv was highly opinionated about food. @arram
- 11. Schlep blindness ■ In 2009, food startups not considered legit ■ Dropbox office manager asks Justin Kan for our restaurant list ■ Justin Kan suggested I help out ■ Three months later I quit my job #hustlecon@arram
- 12. Get a job where you’re at the bottom of the totem pole doing all the crappy things no one wants to do. Recipe for finding a startup idea: #hustlecon@arram
- 14. Hand crafted in notepad #hustlecon@arram
- 16. My sales formula was pretty simple LinkedIn + Acquaintance = Intro #hustlecon@arram
- 17. Year 1 ■ Achieved $500k gross sales run rate ■ Everything broke #hustlecon@arram
- 18. 20 mind-numbing hours / week #hustlecon@arram
- 19. Scaling pains ■ Started looking for a technical cofounder ■ Took 3 months to convince a friend to join #hustlecon@arram
- 20. Our first office
- 21. Automation… finally #hustlecon ■ Giant spreadsheet → Django app ■ 20 hours billing → 3 seconds @arram
- 23. Applied to Y Combinator #hustlecon@arram
- 24. Accepted into Y Combinator #hustlecon WINTER 2011 CLASS @arram
- 25. Investors #hustlecon ■ Tried to recruit a sales manager, instead got a funding offer @arram
- 26. #hustlecon Investors “We’d also like to know if you’re willing to go up to $1mm.” @arram
- 27. #hustlecon Investors “We’d also like to know if you’re willing to go up to $1mm.” @arram
- 29. The Rollercoaster “Startups do to co-founder relationships what puppies do to socks; they try to pull them apart.” Matthias Wagner #hustlecon@arram
- 30. The Rollercoaster #hustlecon ■ About 25% of companies lose a cofounder ■ One of the most common causes of failure @arram
- 31. Fortunately, traction trumps everything. Qualifications don’t matter. #hustlecon@arram
- 34. We did raise a $1.5mm seed round. #hustlecon@arram
- 36. “Running a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly” Paul Graham #hustlecon@arram
- 37. “I keep saying how brutally hard this is… I pissed blood for years keeping Netflix alive. Marc Randolph #hustlecon@arram
- 38. “Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss.” Elon Musk #hustlecon@arram
- 39. #hustlecon SNAFU Situation Normal: All F*cked Up @arram
- 40. zerocater.com ARRAM SABETI FOUNDER, CEO #hustlecon@arram a@zerocater.com We’re hiring! Head of Product, Hackers, VP Marketing, Sales, Designer, etc. eat@zerocater.com