Daniel Debow is a co-founder of Workbrain and Rypple. He has a law degree from the University of Toronto and was previously a co-CEO and co-founder of Rypple. The document discusses his background and experience founding two startups, Workbrain and Rypple. It provides details on Workbrain's success, selling for $227 million in 2007, and the founding of Rypple to address problems with performance reviews. The document concludes with semi-useful advice Daniel has learned from his startup experiences.

1. story & stuff
daniel debow
SproutUp Oct.20.2010

2. background
my spiel startup v1
startup v2
useful stuff

3. Daniel Debow
Stanford LLM, UofT JD/MBA, Western BA(psych)
Workbrain co-founder + VP, Corp Dev & Marketing
Rypple co-founder + co-CEO
Bass player & music lover
New dad
background/me

4. David Stein
McGill Comp Sci
Workbrain co-founder, EVP, Chief Strategist
Rypple co-founder + co-CEO
Oenophile
2 boys
background/my partner

5. STARTUP V1
the workbrain era

6. where it all
started
workbrain
startup v1

7. me & workbrain
co-wrote the biz plan
hired tons of people
sales ops, marketing, corp dev
went public & got us sold
startup v1

8. sold in 2007 for $227MM
97
89
57
34
17
0 4
2000 2002 2004 2006
revenue (US$ MM)
startup v1
8

9. wanted post-workbrain
high growth, high margin businesses
startup v2

10. a business screen
software enabled
peer-production
huge market
change in channels
startup v2

11. a real problem
not enough feedback at workbrain
startup v2

12. STARTUP V2
the founding of rypple

13. 75%
People hate
performance
reviews
*Bersin Associates Research

14. Proof of concept
c-level buyin & quick adoption
startup v2

15. “Game changing management idea”
startup v2

16. Seed financing
$5M+
edgestone, peter thiel, & angels
fund product/market fit
startup v2

17. Early hires
driven, smart, humble, fun
general purpose
initially, stars from workbrain
startup v2

18. Early users
1000’s of innovative tech & creative co’s
startup v2

19. Social software that
makes feedback easy
startup v2

20. Series A
$7M round lead by Bridgescale
funds for scaling the machine
startup v2

21. LITTLE BITS OF
SEMI-USEFUL ADVICE
What I’ve learnt so far

22. Caveat
“Nobody knows nothing.”
* William Goldman

23. Know yourself
passion ! hobbies
find teachers & mentors
risk sucks. love risk.
useful stuff

24. Starting
don’t believe your bull$#!%
talk to lots of people
iterate
useful stuff

25. Partnerships
diff. strengths + viewpoints = great decisions
great b/s detector
…it’s a marriage
useful stuff

26. People
#1 job – build a killer team
A-players from the beginning
exit gracefully, but exit
useful stuff

27. Money
dig your well before you need water
build trust: create a market for you
understand investors’ incentives
useful stuff

28. Culture
is a competitive advantage
takes time to gel
we try: driven, smart, humble, fun
useful stuff

29. Metrics
be data driven
but, not too much
Iterate on bigger changes
useful stuff

30. Product
focus on bright spots
be a relentless killing machine
really know your customer
useful stuff

31. At work
trust + transparency + autonomy = performance
feedback-based learning culture
the journey has to be fun
useful stuff

32. resources

33. Useful? rypple.com/ddebow/sproutup
We’re hiring! rypple.com/careers
ddebow@rypple.com
Get in touch facebook.com/debow
@ddebow