Whats your story and most importantly, how did you get started with the entrepreneurial bug? So I wouldnt be too picky early. Like what have you seen that really works? A lot of business schools was how to make decisions with imperfect information. When you look your cofounders, your team in the eye and you know theyre ready to go and theyre resilient and they come back in to build and try the next thing and youve kind of worked out together this is part of the game. So I saw for example Axle Springer which is you know more kind of like the corporate. Got it. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. You know marketplaces and liquidity is king like you were pointing to finding what you need in the shortest period of time because otherwise theyre going to go elsewhere. And for you I guess personally and professionally because I think they both come together, so how has your leadership and management skills changed over the time from leading the company of lets say four to ten folks initially to a company of over a hundred employees? Whats your story and most importantly, how did you get started with the entrepreneurial bug? Theres never like an exact number you need like when Uber raised money or you know Zillow raised money, theres never like a number they have to be at. They were [sexy 23:47] company and really fantastic fundraisers but the rounds just take a long time, due diligence take a long time. You always have more nos that more yeses in fundraising but it was ultimately about just hustling my network as much as possible. Anthemos Georgiades: Hey, thanks for having me. Likewise. Because I speak with a ton of founders that are perhaps opening up the possibility of bringing on corporations and I think that you need to really do it right. You kind of just all in [06:39] I think where the carving of the rose start to happen for me around 10, 12 people where you no longer just have [06:49]. So in terms of timeline, you were mentioning that the C round, you guys closed this 46 million a couple of months ago. Get a custom action plan and all the help that you need to start raising more capital. Got it. Its not about the ski trips and any of that you know. Well, first of all, your point about quashing the egg and shooting the chicken. Additionally, Anthemos Georgiades has had 2 past jobs including Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. We saw it would take three to six months to integrate Pat Mapper and their backend that engineering project we worked really hard and quickly just over a year to integrate so we underestimated like how much work was required to integrate them by 3x. Alejandro: Of course. anthemos georgiades net worthperpetual futures binance. We both wanted to be entrepreneurs. Youre exactly right. I mean to a point network gets you an intro but a lot of intros are 10 minute meetings where the VC immediately decides its not for them which is totally fair. So Anthemos, whats the business model here? Weve only been working with Axle Springer for four months now but they are fantastic. There could be investors who are fantastic. How much respect is there? Then behind the scenes, Zumper will close the transaction with the landlord and set the renter up with kind of rent payment. Shalin Amin Chief Experience Officer. Ill set the first couple of meetings often alone but its been wonderful as weve grown our executive team to be able to bring like our VP of sales, our head of grow, our CPO in to the meetings afterwards when they want to meet the team. Anthemos Georgiades. I kind of looked through in Crunchbase which connections I have into which fund. August 4, 2020. And then my other cofounder Kurt Taylor I met through his mother who was an [04:43] and it was another example of just pure hustle. So I guess for a marketplace or lets say for the people that are listening to us like what kind of metrics do you think for the most part if were talking about hyper growth companies, like they should be a little bit more mindful about? I didnt think that either of them originally. Every fantastic company has had hundreds of nos on the way to kind of huge outcomes and you just cant take it personally. Ill set the first couple of meetings often alone but its been wonderful as weve grown our executive team to be able to bring like our VP of sales, our head of grow, our CPO in to the meetings afterwards when they want to meet the team. 1. And it was just [22:11] during the process that its a startup, were at growth stage but not to expect to be able to predict our courses like that public company again. You can filter down by city and . His passion for relieving the stress for others in . So the way we monetize this is we either monetize the landlord mainly and we either charge them to leads. Im so glad I did it. I mean youre doing various jobs, head of sales, head of finance, head of fundraising, head of like DZ. It was incredibly difficult. Got it. Like many of our most successful entrepreneurs, Anthemos Georgiades was drawn into startup life to solve a burning problem. Alejandro Cremades leads the vision and execution for Panthera Advisors as its Co-Founder and. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah, I mean BCG I think you get access to the 23 year olds CEOs who had been working for 40 years and kind of crazy in consulting you take the shortcut in your careers to being in the board room. And [14:42] in Silicon Valley is married to [graphics 14:43] mostly in terms of great companies just break out and succeed [agnostic 14:48] as to where people went to college or if they came from a wealthy or poor family. It was not something Ive really ever thought about before. Were growing very quickly but none of that was true obviously in the first two years. We both had ideas to be entrepreneurs but neither of us have the guts to actually go for it. Retention is something I think about every day. So tell me your story a little bit here, Anthemos. Saying that, in the early days you kind of need to bring on all the capital that you can. We also actually had a really wonderful fourth cofounder whos no longer with us. Saying that, in the early days you kind of need to bring on all the capital that you can. Zumper has 7 current employee profiles, including CEO and co-founder Anthemos Georgiades. Alejandro: Got it. And even though that sounds so obvious six years later, people just werent doing this in 2011, 2012 and we created a bunch of data that overwhelming shows the renters wanted to be applying for apartments from their phone. You know its interesting that you mentioned the chicken and the egg. Alejandro: Got it. They may not understand marketplace as well as you but they may be able to bring a brilliant way of thinking about how to bring the supply on [30:20]. Alejandro: Got it. So you know I think Axle Springer very used to appraising companies that match their scale. It is your job not just to do the day to day but once or twice a year you should be doing stuff that has a completely linear outcome where one day youre doing you know 3 million users a month and the next day youre doing 5 million users a month. So I think as your company matures, you look for investors that have something that you dont have and so for us, were not yet doing $100 million in revenue. So I guess in just to like follow up on that, what in your mind and obviously in what youve seen creates really that magical relationship between cofounders? Zumper CEO & Co-Founder Anthemos Georgiades makes renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel, shares insights on monetizing marketplaces, diversifying r. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry, used by more than 26 million renters last year alone. The most important thing is to surround yourself with an amazing support group because it is so much harder to build a company than I thought it was and the emotional resilience you need to get through the dark days and come back to the bright days even now is what [38:54] just get harder like yeah, we have more revenue now but with that there are people [38:58] and like huge revenue targets we have to attain and so the most important thing is surround yourself with a network of family, friends, mentors, peers, your team, your investors, whoever is an emotional crutch for you where you can take from them but also maybe get back to them as well when theyre having a tough time, thats the single most important thing is look after your mental health because it is lonely and it is stressful and if youre able to kind of be resilient you have a great outcome but it is really hard on some days to push through, so build that around just [39:35] and you can be happy while running your company. Alejandro: So I guess like I have one thing to follow up on this. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Everyone filling gaps where they could and it [07:02] fulfilling gaps in to where youre skilled and so I think the most obvious thing to do for that is to hire people with very different skill sets to you that allows you to never really have awkward overlap and egos because everyone is kind of skilled at something very unique. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. I really enjoyed it and great stuff. Anthemos Georgiades: No. See How I Can Help You With Your Fundraising Efforts. Alejandro: Got it and before we actually dive in to the journey here, so consulting and business school, this is a few things that I typically hear so from some of our other guests. The other large investor in this round [20:05] scale so once you have product market set, how do you scale that? In the early days, youre going to need to take all the capital you can get. And then now your job at five, six years in with a team of a hundred with higher and amazing executive team who are all better at doing their jobs than you would ever be and so your job is almost as a CEO is to like hire yourself out of a job where you hire people, where you look at them and you think, Wow, I cant believe you report to me. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Your second month you spend getting term sheets and documents signed. Your email address is 100% safe from spam! You can set the expectations and then see what happens and if its not a good fit upfront, you can go with the different option on the table. It was at the time Pat Mapper example almost the same size on consumer but now Zumper is much bigger but we called it like a cheat and your job as the founder is to identify like vertical cheats where overnight you become bigger than your competitors. Its really built in the dark days of when stuff is really difficult and I think Zumpers culture now is we have a lot of users still remembers and its a testament to those dark days and we never take anything for granted. And you know I think hiring is definitely tough but retaining is even more complicated so is there any things that you for example seen yourself that work on that front? Dave Costantino Staff Engineer - Backend. I mean your job moves from doing jobs in the first few years. Since 2012, Georgiades has grown Zumper to over 200 employees, 178 million annual visits, and raised $178 million in venture capital for the company. Got it. Anthemos Georgiades. Obviously they knew and I think for us it was like telling Axle and the rest of our investors that there are going to be months where we massively beat plans and there will be months where were behind plans. He was with HBS 10 years ago. Alejandro: Alrightee. But oh we must have had like 20 persons or 20 people say not now or later. And it is the culture that keeps people here, not the compensation or anything else. And at one point I just told one I just feel like I want to step on the egg and shoot the chicken because it was so repetitive. Its hard. So I think as your company matures, you look for investors that have something that you dont have and so for us, were not yet doing $100 million in revenue. Everyone filling gaps where they could and it [07:02] fulfilling gaps in to where youre skilled and so I think the most obvious thing to do for that is to hire people with very different skill sets to you that allows you to never really have awkward overlap and egos because everyone is kind of skilled at something very unique. That is where your focus is and even though you kind of missed doing some of the stuff and the weeds and my team continue to tell me to get away from the weed and continue to [36:12] the 50,000 set, you have to let it go and trust your team to do a better job than you were doing. Now we have supply so the six months curve at the series B was all about users and millions of monthly users and then at the series C it was much more revenue curve. To give you odds, at the seed stage and the series A stage of growth cuts, all about supply side where a two sided marketplace chicken an egg, on day zero you have no renters and no landlords, how do you solve that? Got it. I'm so proud of my wife Lucy Georgiades and her cofounder Lindsey Nehls on launching their business Elevate Academy today. We didnt go that route because I have the network but if I didnt have the network and some people have the network and still do it, they are really good cheap in to getting scaled quickly. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. Just enter your email below. And then when I moved out to America, Russel was software engineer at Google and I had no technical background so I basically hit up my network for anyone with a technical background living in the US who might be interested in joining and Russel and I really hit it off and he was the perfect cofounder. And [14:42] in Silicon Valley is married to [graphics 14:43] mostly in terms of great companies just break out and succeed [agnostic 14:48] as to where people went to college or if they came from a wealthy or poor family. And so I wouldnt be too pressured. And even though that sounds so obvious six years later, people just werent doing this in 2011, 2012 and we created a bunch of data that overwhelming shows the renters wanted to be applying for apartments from their phone. Meaning hey, we send you a ton of leads this month that close in to leases. I mean I think at seed round its like an [26:02]. Anthemos Georgiades: Yes, weve raised $90 million in capital including a series C that we just closed three months ago. So you kind of just have to [25:29] but just to be clear yeah, we had far more nos than yeses at the seed round. Yeah. I was also doing, Ive been doing marketplaces for I think like 10 years now and I remember in the last company, I would go and meet with investors and they kept asking me for the chicken and the egg. Yeah. Weve only been working with Axle Springer for four months now but they are fantastic. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. You shameless have to mine your network and I think all CEOs and entrepreneurs have to find that edge of how did they meet one of these investors, how did they meet someone that knows them. We both wanted to be entrepreneurs. So it was never I want to be an entrepreneur journey. Terms & Conditions! And your cap table I mean as I was reviewing I just felt as I was looking at the Oscars of Silicon Valley, the red carpet. Alejandro: Got it. So the series B, weve done story now look at how quickly the renters are growing on the platform. I met Russel who [04:01] engineering products through just the personal connections in London. Every fantastic company has had hundreds of nos on the way to kind of huge outcomes and you just cant take it personally. So Im completely there with you. In many instances, really acquisitions are great to either feel growth on the company itself, either on the product or perhaps by adding a great talent, but unfortunately many M&A transactions fail really on the integration side of things. Raising money first, marketplace businesses is still really difficult and Ive raised $90 million and Im still saying it is difficult. Yeah. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. It was incredibly difficult. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. At college in the UK, Ive had like multiple [00:58] renting apartments. And were just a little earlier than obviously a public company so our gross is spikier. Theyre struggling to kind of grow their audience because they didnt have enough listings whereas Zumper at the getgo we had a lot of unique landlords on the platform that no one else had. Saying that, if you do have multiple term sheets the second point is of course, like before you get to liquidity, revenue is irrelevant and if revenue gets in the way of bringing either the consumer on to your platform or the supply side person on to your platform, you should not be trying to charge. And so back to your point, yes, we want investors who are supportive of the fact that we didnt try to monetize the platform for the first three years because it would have created a barrier to entry. Originally from London, he has an MBA from Harvard Business School, MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and BA from the University of Oxford. I think at that stage it makes sense. Likewise. So paradoxically, I dont think the core DNA of a companys culture is built at ski tracks or offsite. It seemed crazy that the real estate industry wasnt moving towards on demand. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. Anthemos Georgiades is the co-founder and CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry, used by more than 26 million renters last year alone. Yeah. So I guess for those listeners that are looking at acquiring other companies to perhaps grow a little bit faster, what kind of advice would you give to them? Its a Greek name, British accent. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. At series B, you got to show product market set across the board with the revenue and then at series C, you got to show real traction and real revenue and a proper P&L. Not really actually. How many listings do we have on the site? Were very clear with Axle Springer that we have a lot of consumer scale so a lot of people use our platform on a monthly basis but were still building the [21:55]. So cofounders are difficult especially if youre not technical as really hard to find a good technical cofounder but the great thing is once you do and it takes a long time, they are able to attract the next generation of talent in to the company and thats how you kind of build your engineering team out. I mean I think at seed round its like an [26:02]. Well help you prequalify renters and actually get the renter in to a lease, signing the documents, paying the first month deposit but well charge you a percentage of the lease fairly. Youll get terms sheets and yeses hopefully quicker than that but this process takes a while and as the money increases and a few rounds become more complicated, it can take more than three months as well. Could you meet him? And so whereas that doesnt guarantee any success we obviously have to have really good numbers and a really good story to tell them. The most important thing is to surround yourself with an amazing support group because it is so much harder to build a company than I thought it was and the emotional resilience you need to get through the dark days and come back to the bright days even now is what [38:54] just get harder like yeah, we have more revenue now but with that there are people [38:58] and like huge revenue targets we have to attain and so the most important thing is surround yourself with a network of family, friends, mentors, peers, your team, your investors, whoever is an emotional crutch for you where you can take from them but also maybe get back to them as well when theyre having a tough time, thats the single most important thing is look after your mental health because it is lonely and it is stressful and if youre able to kind of be resilient you have a great outcome but it is really hard on some days to push through, so build that around just [39:35] and you can be happy while running your company. Alejandro: Got it. Anthemos Georgiades: One Lesson That Led To Raise $90 Million From The Top Venture Capital Firms by Alejandro Cremades Like many of our most successful entrepreneurs, Anthemos Georgiades was drawn into startup life to solving a burning problem. Culture is everything and so investing in people making sure I as the CEO spend a lot of time as much as possible with people who dont report to me is absolutely critical and that is ultimately like the fabric on how most companies are run. With a diverse background that includes consulting for Boston Consulting Group and serving as Economic Advisor and speechwriter in the 2010 British Election, Anthemos founded Zumper in 2012 after his own terrible rental experience. And so when you think about AB testing frameworks, you think about how many started [03:43] that is a [03:44] grad school taught me. Im the CEO and Ive always felt that it was my responsibility to do the fundraising. His passion for relieving the stress for others in apartment rentals has given birth to a venture which has now raised $90 million, has experienced tremendous growth, and boasts a VC line up of some of the most prized investors in Silicon Valley. For us, I think they fully understand the entrepreneurial journey and were really excited to have them on board. At the end of the day though, whether its senior people, junior people, interns who we want to bring back is all under pinned by culture. June 12, 2022 . So we want to be the first ever kind of full stack rental platform for long term leases and we monetize that two ways. Well, Anthemos, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. A lot of it was completely bottom up. The company was incorporated in California, Texas, and Florida ten years ago. Really good strategy to differentiate the demographics and were super happy with how it went down. Absolutely. So if the story has changed in a way that merits the focus of the company but what is consistent every single time weve raised is that for six months in a row, we had really, really quick growth. I know entrepreneurs who spend nine months raising their rounds which is a long time but they got great rounds done. anthemos georgiades net worth; wedding max minghella wife; private beach airbnb california; antique english double barrel shotguns; tuscany faucet cartridge removal; primeweld cut 60 machine torch; glendale, az setback requirements. Well, first of all, your point about quashing the egg and shooting the chicken. And the biggest change in the series C I just raised versus in the early days is having a CFO. One is I wouldnt be too pressured about it too early. Got it. Published by at June 13, 2022. So in the first two years, Zumper is now [07:52] $90 million in capital. Anthemos Georgiades: Oh yeah, on the seed round back in 2012, we had probably five investors come in to the seed round so we kind of had five yeses who put in small checks. And so I didnt really think about it too often because this is kind of 15 years ago but then I moved to another six or seven times into an apartment rentals in London, in Boston, in New York and the process is so bad every time, not just in searching but also in actually like getting the apartment. So how did you meet your cofounders? He runs all the background of operation and he came from the real estate industry, two completely different background and neither of them was an obvious pick when I started the company at grad school. They are the two ways that Zumper currently monetizes them and there are two folks that [11:35]. Its so hard to get marketplaces liquidity so correct, the beautiful thing as you know is when you have it, it took us three years to get to that, it just runs and you just grow naturally when you have both sides but its so hard to get to it. Over-Communication. Yeah. So the majority of that is still in the bank but yeah, we raised money in capital [12:00]. Got it. And we built this website using an outsource development shop in Europe that just tested one assumption of the end game which was can we get users in 2011, 2012 just as mobile was coming online to apply and close apartments from their phone. So one is weve always promoted within so whenever we needed a role, we always prefer to promote someone instead of hiring from outside. How autonomous can people be at the junior levels? So Id say your first month you spend like getting first, second, third meeting. So M&A are strategic [33:48]. At series B, you got to show product market set across the board with the revenue and then at series C, you got to show real traction and real revenue and a proper P&L. Youre right that is wrong advice. So Anthemos, theres always a first time and you know I guess this is the first time in the history of the DealMakers Show that Im able to interview someone that has been involve on the M&A but more on the buy side. Yeah. Now we have supply so the six months curve at the series B was all about users and millions of monthly users and then at the series C it was much more revenue curve. Zumper which is a little bigger in terms of audience now caters more to urban professionals moving within cities. So tell me your story a little bit here, Anthemos. So watching board members from the early investments are [19:38] who now runs Good Water but was originally Kleiner and then Eric [19:42] from Kleiner and theyre both experts at product market set. I was really impressed when because its not hard, its almost impossible to land VC such as Kleiner Perkins on literally your first financing round, the seed round. True to its reputation, Comfortbilt's HP22 pellet stove comes with a heating capacity of 50,000 BTU. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. When people ask me what Im most nervous about its how to keep our amazing team together, a couple of tactics and then one thing that really worked. It just really helps to divide and conquer like that while I was meeting new investors again. What are some tips for successfully navigating the rental market from a renter's perspective? "These markets had a huge net migration from New York and California, and they have held up," he says. There was no book [01:41]. And then when I moved out to America, Russel was software engineer at Google and I had no technical background so I basically hit up my network for anyone with a technical background living in the US who might be interested in joining and Russel and I really hit it off and he was the perfect cofounder. We envisioned a world in which a renter can find apartments, book in [tour 10:18], turn up the [10:21] and if they want to take the apartment pre-qualify, leave a deposit and book the apartment. Yeah. We love our investors. Background Report for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Includes Age, Location, Address History for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records Social Media Profiles It was kind of [31:51] as early as we did to buy another stock up that was kind of four years in. And as you know as and your listeners know, youre going to get a lot of nos on the way. And your cap table I mean as I was reviewing I just felt as I was looking at the Oscars of Silicon Valley, the red carpet. Alejandro: And talking about hustling the network, was there any because I mean those networks that you have I think the network of Harvard is really fantastic and then you know the BCG as well but is there like any process that you followed to really like leverage the network? anthemos georgiades net worth. So our CFO is fantastic and what he was able to bring to the series C was real credibility where I meet the investors, get them excited about our vision and our story and then they spend hours with the CFO on the second or third meeting digesting our historical financial as were talking about where were headed. And so I wouldnt be too pressured. How did you find these investors? So seed, series A, series B, series C, I was always the point person in the fundraise. Look how quickly our revenue are scaling. Retention is something I think about every day. Your job is to raise capital and your job is to kind of hire and retain the best talents. So what is the best way, Anthemos, for people that are listening to reach out and say hi? Really, really nice to have you here and excited for the chat that we have ahead here. I think if you hire four cofounders like yourself, thats difficult and luckily we didnt have that problem. After that, it changed to more consumer. The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. They are the two ways that Zumper currently monetizes them and there are two folks that [11:35]. For me, its Zumper, an apartment rental platform. And so just be prepared that however smart, however many smart people have looked the deal and thought about whether it will work, it always take a little bit more time than you think it will to integrate because theres always some gremlin kind of hiding in the works that youre going to find. They may not understand marketplace as well as you but they may be able to bring a brilliant way of thinking about how to bring the supply on [30:20].