How One Obsessed Founder Failed with 20 Different Start Ups Before Achieving a $9bn IPO

Morning Innovators 👋 This week (in less than 5 minutes!) we’ll explore…

🛒 How one obsessed founder failed with 20 different start-ups before achieving a $9bn IPO
👕 How one company tricked entire university campus’ into using their app with nothing but fake signs and T-shirts
🏡 How one ground-breaking PropTech plans to help the next generation of adults actually get on to the property ladder

Each week we’ll be writing about crazy pivots, secret stories of how huge companies almost failed in the beginning, the untold journeys that the most successful founders took to get to where they are today, breakdown mind-blowingly successful acquisitions and investments whilst spotlighting some of the most exciting start ups that you haven’t heard of yet, plus throwing in a few tips and tricks along the way.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for next week’s edition let us know.

Happy hustling,
Rich & Gary

Where were they before? This week we’re looking at the man revolutionising grocery delivery - Apoorva Mehta. At the age of 30, Apoorva stands as the Founder and Executive Chairman of Instacart, a San Francisco-based grocery delivery start-up that has grown exponentially in a short span. Over four years, he guided the company to embrace more than 300 full-time employees and tens of thousands of part-time grocery shoppers, offering on-demand and same-day grocery delivery services across hundreds of cities in 20 states.

Apoorva Mehta's journey into the tech world started with a fascination for the inner workings of technology. Growing up in Canada, he nurtured an eager curiosity, spanning from atoms to the interfaces on computer screens. This inquisitiveness led him to pursue electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo, uncertain about his post-college path.

Post-graduation, Mehta embarked on a diverse professional journey, from Qualcomm to BlackBerry, and even a stint at a steel factory. Seeking a well-rounded understanding of potential career directions, he explored various roles. Ultimately, he found his way to Seattle, joining Amazon.com as a supply chain engineer. Here, he honed his passion for software development and discovered a desire for constant challenge.

After two fruitful years at Amazon, Mehta yearned for more substantial challenges, prompting him to leave. He then ventured into entrepreneurship, attempting around 20 start-ups over two years, embracing a multitude of industries and ideas. These initiatives ranged from building an ad network for social gaming companies to creating a social network tailored specifically for lawyers. Despite the diverse ventures, none of these initial forays into the entrepreneurial world yielded the desired success. However, this period of experimentation yielded a fundamental realisation—he needed to solve a problem he genuinely cared about, something that resonated deeply with him.

Living in San Francisco without a car, Mehta faced the challenge of obtaining the groceries he desired, leading to the inception of Instacart in 2012. He envisioned a solution to modernise grocery shopping, developing an on-demand grocery delivery platform. He swiftly prototyped the app, testing it himself during the initial stages.

Recognising the potential and the shifting landscape of online transactions facilitated by smartphones, Mehta pushed forward with his vision. Despite challenges and a competitive market, he believed in the timeliness of his idea and the societal shift toward app-based service consumption.

Instacart faced its share of obstacles, including a class-action lawsuit in 2015 regarding worker classification, eventually propelling the company to transition some workers from independent contractors to part-time employees, eligible for benefits.

Despite challenges, Apoorva helped grow Instacart’s journey from start-up idea, to a $7bn public company. His perseverance demonstrates that success doesn’t happen overnight, and what you often don’t see is the struggles that happen before successful founders strike gold.

Are you facing some hurdles at the moment? Could your big break be just around the corner from all of these difficulties?

🪙 Europe saw the lowest number of deals on record since Q4 of 2015
Sifted
Europe saw just over 2,000 deals in Q3 2022 — the lowest number on record since Q4 of 2015, and down 31% from the 2,900 deals done a year ago, according to Dealroom.

🚚 Start-up CEO claims he can completely decarbonize the cement industry
CNBC
Brimstone Energy, a California-based start-up, is one of several companies trying to reduce the carbon emissions from the production of cement.

📈 Peak XV invests $35 million in wealth and asset management start-up Neo
TechCrunch
Peak XV Partners has invested $35 million in Neo, a fintech start-up founded by industry veterans that is increasingly challenging incumbents.

🚛 Trucking start-up to slash hundreds of jobs after being just weeks away from running out of money
Fortune
Convoy, a Seattle-based trucking start-up whose investors include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, will slash hundreds of jobs in the coming days as it prepares to woo prospective buyers.

Each week we’ll be spotlighting some of the most exciting start-ups you haven't heard of yet. This week we decided to look at some prop-tech start-ups...

Keyzy offers a rent-to-own solution, making homeownership achievable. With no deposit required, potential buyers can build a deposit by converting up to 25% of their rent. Keyzy simplifies the buying process and handles all details, offering financial stability by locking in today's home price. Buyers can buy the home at any time, with a buy-back price based on the initial cost minus converted payments. The process starts with assessing the budget, and Keyzy may offer up to 6 times the buyer's income. Payments are locked, reducing the overall purchase cost over time. Extensions or selling the property are flexible options at the end of the lease.

Built AI redefines commercial real estate investment by expediting deal screening and analysis. It ensures no missed opportunities and provides a competitive edge. The platform offers automated financial analysis, generating tailored cash flow models within minutes, minimising errors and ensuring consistent financial modelling. It visualises leasing events and provides a market database with access to 200+ brokers for comparable transactions. Additionally, it acts as institutional memory by leveraging stored deal data, ensuring knowledge continuity. Built AI integrates natural language processing for swift data extraction from property brochures, aiding in informed investment decisions.

Green-Basilisk BV, a spinoff from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, targets the trillion-dollar concrete industry, a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Their bio self-healing agent extends concrete lifespan, reduces steel usage, and lowers costs. Patented products can be applied to new or existing structures, offering a vast market to decarbonise. The innovation, Basilisk Self Healing Concrete, utilises limestone-producing bacteria to autonomously repair cracks in contact with water and oxygen. This process converts nutrients to calcium carbonate, sealing the crack and enhancing concrete durability without manual maintenance.

Want people to view your company in the same calibre of company as Meta, Instagram and Snapchat? Bumble did that within only a month of trading. How? The genius founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd, managed to do it with one sign that she plastered all over her University Campus. The University had recently warned students against using their phone, and social media apps in particular, when in class. Whitney took this warning and absolutely ran with it. Whitney quickly drew up a bunch of signs that read “No Facebook, No Instagram, No Snapchat & No Bumble”. Every student that read it immediately knew who the first 3 companies were, but none knew who Bumble were. This prompted them to think along the lines of, “Why don’t I know of Bumble if it’s in the same category as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat?”. The curiosity embedded within human nature forced them to search Bumble, leading to a huge increase in traffic, and in users!

That’s not all though! We all know that any good sales and marketing tactic always has great follow up. So, to really reinforce Bumble’s new found popularity, Whitney would get all of her friends to wear Bumble branded T-shirts and walk into their classes 10-15 minutes late, thus, interrupting the entire class. Everyone would, of course, be looking at the girl as they walked into class late with the Bumble t-shirt on, leading them to think, “Why am I seeing Bumble everywhere?”. Great marketing hacks are always reinforced with follow up stunts!

Could you use famous brands to your advantage? Maybe even leverage a competitor’s reputation to catapult your brand to the next level!

As start-up founders ourselves, one of the areas we’re really passionate about is raising awareness of opportunities. If you’re not mixing in the right circles, it can be really easy to miss a pitch event, or job opportunity that could be game-changing for you. We’ve included a few upcoming events and opportunities below, but this is where we really want to leverage our community of innovators. Please reply to this email with any tips and opportunities you think we should be featuring.

💼 Job opportunities

📚 Community Growth Manager, Reedsy
✈️ Product Experiences Manager, Flash Pack
🧑‍💻 Associate Software Engineer, Turnitin

🎤 Events

If you’re looking for co-working space, Springhub in Cwmbran are hosting a launch event on the 8th November, from 10am to 11:30am. There’ll be coffee and pastries available, plus a tour of the space.

There’s also a couple of great virtual SeedLegals events worth checking out:

At midday today, there’s a session on How to value your start-up. If you’re raising for the first time, this is well worth attending.

They’ve also got an event next week on How to build your first sales team. If you’re at the stage to super-charge your start-ups growth, there could be some really valuable information here.

💷 Funding opportunities

Paris-based VC Breega, an early backer of quantum start-up Alice & Bob and French unicorn Exotec, has announced a new €150m early-stage fund — with a strong focus on UK start-ups. Around a third of the new fund, which has closed, will be invested in British start-ups, with a focus on software, fintech, deeptech, the future of work and climate tech.

Each week we’ll be highlighting our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

This week we came across the perfect tool for start-up founders seeking seamless podcast creation - Adobe Podcast. With AI-powered audio enhancements, it transforms voice recordings into professional-grade content effortlessly. Say goodbye to sound worries and focus on your narrative. The AI streamlines recording setup, ensuring optimal sound quality even without pro equipment. Editing audio is as simple as editing text, thanks to its transcription feature. Capture high-quality solo or guest audio effortlessly. Plus, choose from pre-edited royalty-free music to elevate your podcast. Wanting to create top-notch podcasts and voice-overs - then try Adobe Podcast.

Next week we’ll be looking at how one CEO went from building one of the most played online games for kids in the world to building the world’s biggest mindfulness app, how one company got millions of eyes on their dating app using nothing but cardboard and a sharpie, along with highlighting more great tools and start-up news.

P.S. Connect with us on LinkedIn…