00:00I think when you walk into a room, we're not walking to him because it's on zoom, but when we are zoom into a room
00:06Yeah, we zoom into a room and we are kind of in the position where we feel like we're asking for money
00:11We're not in a position of power. I think those are the times that we've struggled the most
00:15Because I think that kind of energy really exudes and people can feel that
00:19But when we you know do a pep talk before being like, you know
00:22We are in the driver's seats. These people are should feel like special to be a part of our journey
00:28I think those in those times like I think it really
00:32You know people in the room can feel it and we've seen a lot more success
00:35I'm a pretty strong believer that like everyone's greatest strength is also the greatest weakness
00:39So until I have an understanding of what that is, I don't really feel confident and understanding them enough to make a bet myself
00:45but I think more broadly the things that I look for while I'm spending that time are a mix of like taste and competency taste I
00:52just define is like a
00:54Competency that means that they have high quality standards that they can actually actualize
00:57mixed with commercial instincts like they need to
01:00they know how to capture the value that they create for it to make sense for VC as well as I
01:06Think just like a hard-won determination something steely about them
01:09That makes me sure that they're going to continue pushing again and again and again
01:13one of the lessons that page money is one of the founders of pair VC told us is
01:18Fundraising is like a soccer game
01:20It's
01:21You know all 90 minutes count and even if it's 0 0 or 1 1 till the 90th minute and you get a goal in the in
01:28Extra time it it's still a win right and that's all that matters
01:32And I will say that that was that was very true. I mean we obviously, you know had a
01:37Great number yeses from amazing partners who are very fortunate to be able to work with but we had a lot of notes
01:42We had a lot of notes and that's very common here in this field
01:47And it's something that I think you know folks just need to recognize and realize it's not everyone's gonna you know
01:52Resonate with what your idea not everyone's gonna be a believer. But when you find the right person who?
01:59Believes in the technology at that point. It's it's magical. Well
02:03Great scientists are not
02:06Super excited about funding or investors. They're excited about working with other great scientists
02:11Okay, right. So the number one strategy for our team has always bring class a players
02:17So what that means is not settle down for like B or C players
02:21But always having the best of the best and that's exactly been our approach is compounding effects
02:26Once you bring someone that is really really good
02:28The next person that you can bring can be really really good as well
02:32Honestly, the number one thing is just picking something that you're genuinely passionate about like you can't since I'm genuinely an artist and designer
02:40Genuinely, I just care a lot about this problem enough to where it doesn't really feel like I'm building a company
02:45It's like I'm just trying to solve a problem for myself and other people just happen to also have that problem
02:50So I think as long as you can get across that one the problem that you're solving is extremely big and can be really really
02:56big but to that
02:58You're the person to do it, right? It's
03:01It just makes a lot more sense and I think a lot of investors and things when they see that they can kind of see
03:06Longevity of the founder really being subscribed to that problem because they have a very close connection to it personally
03:12So that would be like my two cents or advice is like finding something you're just naturally passionate
03:17I shouldn't ever feel like you're trying to do something
03:19The reason I saw like that
03:22I want to be a founder in myself is
03:24Because the moment I was in as a freshman in Berkeley people start dropping at I'm building companies and I'm like no
03:29I want to be one of them and I think I have the great ideas
03:33And that's kind of started pushing me
03:36to try and there's so many stories that people don't know like I actually started a company and like
03:42exited it and failed so many times before Calder and
03:46Those were kind of trials right and in even in Calder
03:50We are so like like like we are so happy with our lead investor who like and our partner there
03:56Is the one who built United mileage plus like today and he built the back end for it
04:02So like we have the perfect people on around the table now
04:06but before this like there were times like
04:09again, I like bootstrap Calder for six months like started like trying to get attraction and customers and
04:16And being in front of like the right people
04:19The only thing I would say is like it's everything looks perfect from the outside and I think the I guess the founders out there
04:26Everything always looks perfect from the outside to everyone
04:29It's not it takes perseverance and just survive through it and then it happens
04:34Create a vision have a mission of like what you're trying to accomplish what you're trying to do
04:38Differentiate yourself and like stick to what's working, you know
04:42like test a bunch of different things and really believe in yourself and like also like
04:46understand when maybe you're not on to the right thing and be willing to pivot and move on to what's next I think like
04:52The biggest thing for us was creating really high-quality
04:56Tech and we really wanted to be able to hire the best people in the software space. And so
05:02Most of our funding goes towards like hiring really really good people
05:07And that's like really the why behind it and most of our cash is just personnel cost
05:14and then we'll go to conferences every now and again and stuff, but
05:18Really goes towards like hiring the best people in the software space and being able to bring on like the best advisors
05:22In the philanthropic space and compensate them accordingly
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