Even though Kevin Busque is a co-founder of TaskRabbit, he didn’t choose the response he was hoping for the first time raam anand pitched his new venture that will Felicis Ventures’ Aydin Senkut. Free of charge, he said the outcome was perhaps the best things that could have happened.
“I’m kind of glad that he didn’t invest at the time because it really influenced me to take a hard look at anything you were doing and really enabled company to become Guideline, ” said Busque. “That seed round was a precise slog. I think I spent 7 or eight months trying to woman a round for a product in which it didn’t exist, going purely after vision. ”
Potentially, that idea evolved into Guide-line, which describes itself as “a full-service, full-stack 401(k) plan” to obtain small businesses. Eventually, Senkut did make a check — Felicis led Guideline’s $15 million Series B return. Today, Guideline has more than 14, 000 businesses across 60+ towns and cities, with more than $3. 2 billion by using assets under management. The company contains raised nearly $140 million.
This week on Extra Recession Live, Busque and Senkut tackled Guideline’s Series B pitch player — which Senkut described as a functional “role model” — and how these guys built trust over time.
The duo also offered candid, actionable feedback on pitch patio’s that were submitted by Extra Recession Live audience members. (By how, you can submit your pitch terrace to be featured on a future show using this link right here .)
We’ve included highlights below as well as the full video of our conversation.
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Episode bassin:
- How they found: 1: 30
- Household trust: 11: 30
- Inside Guideline’s Series B porch: 16: 00
- Try to sell deck teardown: 33: 00
How they met
Senkut and Busque met nearly a decade ago, when Busque was still at TaskRabbit. Several years later, Busque launched out on his own and went fundraising for his original believed. Even though he got a simply no from Senkut, it wasn’t uncomplicated decision.
Looking backbone, Senkut said he had much more space to follow his instincts while angel investing.
“As a new institutional fund with LPs, we were feeling the pressure of checking every single checkmarks, ” explained Senkut. “It’s amazing how, sometimes, being more and more structured or analytical actually will not always always lead you to make better decisions. ”
When Busque returned around after the pivot, looking to boost a Series B, Senkut called things a “no-brainer, ” particularly with thanks to the type of CEO Busque is.
“My opinion of Kevin as a person is that he’s a superior quality wartime CEO, but also he’s a product visionary, ” said Senkut. “We call them ‘missionary CEOs. ’ There are mercenary CEOs who can herb every ounce of dollar from rock, but we are gravitating great deal toward CEOs like Kevin who’ re focused on product first. People who have an extremely acute vision of what the is actually, and. a very specific vision for how to solve that problem and simply ultimately turn it into a long-term worldwide and successful company. ”
Busque said he was attracted to Senkut based on his level of vérité, explaining that Senkut doesn’t want to go by the book.
“If he wants to write a money because the founder is great or the method great, he does it, ” claimed Busque. “It’s not necessarily that he offers see a certain metric or increase pattern. ”
Assembling trust
Obviously, numerous staying connected and communicating (and not just about Guideline) laid the basis for building a relationship. Busque had to talk about the honesty in their conversations, in addition to Senkut’s initial rejection, lended alone greatly to the trust they have.
