Background Report for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Includes Age, Location, Address History for Anthemos Paul Georgiades Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records Social Media Profiles Saying that, I have connections through both business school and previous people that have gone through BCG venture capital and most of your listeners and entrepreneurs will know so much of this is about like getting warm introductions to VCs so I did have a couple of cheats to get in through the network or through the BCG network. 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. 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. So I wouldnt be too picky early. Absolutely. 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. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. 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. Budget in my opinion perhaps should be allocated to something else. So M&A are strategic [33:48]. Were incredibly grateful for everything she did and she remains kind of shareholder in the company. 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. Yeah. Since 2012, Anth has grown Zumper to over 100 employees and raised $90 million in venture capital for the company. So the way we monetize this is we either monetize the landlord mainly and we either charge them to leads. The reality is often in the early stages, youre going to want to take all the capital thats given to you and you may not have multiple term sheets. Hes raising money now. Alejandro: Fantastic. So that was great. It has to be me and thats how I started the company six years ago after business school. So Im completely there with you. Alejandro: Got it. 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. 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. We both had ideas to be entrepreneurs but neither of us have the guts to actually go for it. And were just a little earlier than obviously a public company so our gross is spikier. I think if you set these expectations from the very beginning that are super important. He has grown the Zumper team to 50 and counting and successfully completed the acquisition of apartment search platform PadMapper. So when you go in to a fundraising in terms of preparation the most important thing is that your last six months are great and your most important metrics are all growing really nicely so kind of five, six months in a row that is a fantastic story to tell to an investor. Got it. Not really actually. Anthemos Georgiades is the CEO of <a href="http://zumperblog.kinsta.cloud">Zumper</a>. Zumper CEO & Co-Founder Anthemos Georgiades makes renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel, shares insights on monetizing marketplaces, diversifying r. 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. So Anthemos, whats the business model here? Unluckily weve made some phenomenal early hires so the company that have all scaled to leadership roles, thats fantastic for retention because those people know that we could have hired from outside but we bet on them and it worked and so Zumper is a place to build theyre career not somewhere else. The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. Your job is to raise capital and your job is to kind of hire and retain the best talents. 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. Back to Meet the San Francisco Business Times' 40 under 40 Class of 2018. 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. Just enter your email below. So what was that process like you were talking about, yes, your network of Harvard but can you share with us like what was that process of landing Kleiner on your seed round? Were going to charge you per lead or for the smaller landlords we charge them if theyre [11:15] for the transaction. . The one unifying theme in every fundraising Ive run is momentum. Alrightee. 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. Had worked at the Boston Consulting Group. So Zumper is the vision for the company is to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. Got it. Never thought Id be an entrepreneur. 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. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. 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. I know entrepreneurs who spend nine months raising their rounds which is a long time but they got great rounds done. You rarely have enough data to make the absolutely correct decision and I think a lot of businesses fail especially start ups when they dont make decisions fast enough and in business schools, the case study methods taught me how to feel confident in making decisions without perfect information and how to use data to kind of then review once youve launched, whether it was right or wrong. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. I think the startups end up wasting a lot of cash that could really extend runway but thats a different conversation. 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? Theyre both incredibly smart as are my executive team who are also like critical to fundraise where Ill go in and sell the vision often alone. 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. Yeah, I think its probably the DNA of your culture is I think a lot of it is built in the tough times. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah, I think its probably the DNA of your culture is I think a lot of it is built in the tough times. Based in San Francisco, Anth leads the company in its mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. So Ill read it if anyone tweets anything interesting or if I can be helpful in anyway. So I think three months is an efficient round. The company was incorporated in California, Texas, and Florida ten years ago. Your job as the CEO and the founder is to convince your investors of the reason to do this. Thats just part of the game. So what is the best way, Anthemos, for people that are listening to reach out and say hi? Yeah. And investors love that story because its easy to believe that you can continue to do that. In terms of investors, I guess two comments. 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. True to its reputation, Comfortbilt's HP22 pellet stove comes with a heating capacity of 50,000 BTU. Got it. I know entrepreneurs who spend nine months raising their rounds which is a long time but they got great rounds done. 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. Anthemos Georgiades: Yeah. 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. In terms of investors, I guess two comments. So I learned a lot from a few companies that I loved, a few companies that I thought are doing crazy things I learned so much. You know its interesting that you mentioned the chicken and the egg. Had worked at the Boston Consulting Group. 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. They were [sexy 23:47] company and really fantastic fundraisers but the rounds just take a long time, due diligence take a long time. And so I wouldnt be too pressured. Anthemos Georgiades: Its part of the game. I think its easy not to set those expectations and get caught in the relationship where neither side is being clear on what they expect. Youre right that is wrong advice. But oh we must have had like 20 persons or 20 people say not now or later. 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. Got it. Pat Mapper caters to 25 and under and kind of big college populations. Anthemos Georgiades is co-founder & CEO of Zumper, the largest startup in the rental industry. Alejandro: Just out of curiosity, Anthemos, like how many nos did you get for example on your seed round if you have to count it? I have no experience doing that. Vishal Makhijani President & COO. 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 it was never I want to be an entrepreneur journey. And investors love that story because its easy to believe that you can continue to do that. I knew the CEO for a while. Thats quite motivating for people. He had actually interviewed me for a job at a different consulting firm and we stayed in touch. So I guess without further ado, Anthemos Georgiades from Zumper, welcome aboard. So we solved it to the first two years purely by getting landlords on board through various kind of product strategy and so our growth cuts for the first two years that we raised the [27:41] were purely about landlords and listing. Fantastic. He's raised $39.2 million in venture capital, grown the team to 70+, and completed the acquisition of apartment search platform PadMapper. How flat is the company? So it doesnt always work out and I think thats fine. 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. "These markets had a huge net migration from New York and California, and they have held up," he says. So all good companies have multiple offers on the table. 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.