YouSaid · the spoken record

Joel Flory

lines on the record
21
first
2019-02-01
most recent
2019-02-01
sittings or episodes
1
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podcast

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  1. “On the personal side, as I mentioned of myself and family, is really continuing to prove on being the best dad and husband I can be. And as it relates to Visco, our missions to help everybody fall in love with their own creativity and today with a little over 2 million paid members, it's really moving from millions to tens of millions to hundreds of millions and knowing that we're helping them fall in love with their own creativity. My pleasure. I'm so excited to find them to be on the show.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “We call it the VOS rule and we ask ourselves if Voss were sitting in this meeting, what would his response be? It forces us to think through things in a different lens and has been extremely impactful for us just because of his intense scrutiny. He sometimes goes to the extreme of extremes. Like Voss, that would never happen, but he wants to stretch your mind to think along those lines. And we are where we are today because of him pushing us. And so I'm very thankful for that.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Combine both with getting married and having kids. And I think it goes back to that listening to understand. And so it's been a work in progress, but really thankful to my wife and kids for helping me grow. That the Oakland A's going to win the World Series in 2019.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “To bring to you, and over time it just improves and makes it even easier. Absolutely So, the book that's had the most impact on me is how to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk. And while it is about parenting, there's so much about it that I've applied to the workplace of really listening to understand and not just feeling like you understand, but making sure that it's being received and that someone else knows that you understand and hear them. And so for me, that's been the most impactful book. Love to absolutely get rid of this bro culture and toxic masculinity that exists today and really move towards a culture of servant leadership. Do it right if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Of your business And you might say for the coffee, here's the time that I have for it. And it might be you might end up with next month, these are the three 30 minute time slots that I have to grab a coffee. Otherwise, it really needs to fall in. And for me, so with Visco, I focus on four things. I focus on building the team first and foremost, growing the team. How do I help develop the people that are here to be the best version of themselves? From growing the team, it's setting the vision. Where are we going? Not how are we getting there. I really leave the team to kind of do that from a bottoms-up approach, but the vision of where we're going. And then finally is telling the story both internally and externally. And so if it's not one of those four things, it's really easy. The entire company knows those are my priorities. So they know if they bring something to me that's not falling in line with that, I'm going to say no. But it's also creates more area of opportunity for me to delegate and give ownership to someone else. And so being clear with what you are going to do, but even more importantly, what you're not going to do also helps give people the context on them.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “It's interesting. I actually even carved out a bit of time, and I think it's all about in context. If you were saying yes to those coffees all the time, it would add up and you'd look back and like, I spent too much time in this area. I leave unstructured time. I leave time for meetings that I probably should say no to. But I give just a little bit of my time towards that. Not a lot. And in context of the month, there might be three 30-minute time slots that I'm going to offer up for a meeting that I probably shouldn't take. And you know what? An overwhelming majority of those meetings result in exactly that. You know, it was something that maybe I shouldn't have taken. But I also gave back and really helped maybe someone else that was needing to kind of come along. And then there's other times where that leads to this, that leads to this. And the next thing you know, a lot of where our new CMO from Nike comes from is through taking those meetings, you probably shouldn't take that introduces you to someone who introduces you to someone. And the next thing you know, it's one of the key people.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Know it's like anything, you have to put the work into it. It was something that I always desired, but again, kind of back to essentialism, I had to focus on a few things and doing them really well. And it was difficult for me to say no, but I just put everything through that lens and it was a process to get there. And it's maybe less of like work-life balance, but it's work-life prioritization. And when you know how to prioritize your time, what to say no to, what to say yes to, setting those clear expectations for yourself, for your family, and for your business is great.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Fund your mission, but they're not aligned. And when it gets to scale, and you see this with so many companies today, there's external pressures to grow, grow, grow the business, but that's not actually delivering value to the consumer. It's extracting value of the consumer in order to grow the business. This sounds like a really base question, Joel, but how can you actually determine whether your business model and your mission are aligned? You know, I think if you take inventory of what you're working on, who's hired, who's at your business, you start to really see, is there anyone building or doing anything that's not directly in service of the consumer? Because ultimately, that only amplifies as you scale. Like that only just grows further and further away from direct value to consumer. And you see this a lot in kind of an ad-based model where there's the consumer product, but the majority of innovation in company and funding really is going towards building the best ad product. The real consumer or the advertiser.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Back into us that are kind of hooking us into something that we had to do in order to run our business or taking our work and using it for other gains but not delivering the value back to us. And so we set up and said that whatever we did with Visco, we wanted a business model in which we had that direct relationship with the consumer. We built something of value that they were willing to pay us for. The subscription part of it grew over time where we really started to kind of see that we wanted to move that way and it took us a little bit of time to get there. But what I do love about ultimately subscription model and really believe is the future for most every business is because it's not only building something to value, but it's continuing to deliver value and a service that people are willing to not just pay for, but continue to pay for and renew. And it aligns so perfectly. And I think the beauty of it is that as you scale, there's not this tension between your business model and your mission where for many companies, your business model is the means to”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “And I think it's something where we just got right to working and didn't really do as much of the meaningful planning as we could have. And I'm so thankful now with that alignment of business model, understanding when we raise where we're putting it and how we're putting it to use. And so really thankful and that lesson learned. I mean, Joe, you are setting me up so nicely for these subsequent questions because you mentioned the alignment of the multiple different components within the process between the customers, the LPs, the investors. I'm super interested because when we chatted before the show actually, you said you have to align your mission to your business model. Can I ask y'all, what did you mean by this and how does that maybe change how you think and operate with this go? Well, so this was an insight that Greg and I both had in starting Disco and that kind of goes back to that by creators for creators where we always felt that someone else's gain was at our expense as a creative. They either sold us products, but there really wasn't a relationship. They weren't adding value.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Is probably an area where we learn the hard way. I'm thankful we did raise what we did because it allowed us to really stabilize the business. But ultimately, now we're so mindful of what that means. When you bring on new expectations, because ultimately it's another consumer that you're needing to serve as it relates to not just the VCs, but also the LPs and knowing who that is and knowing how much to raise and knowing how much you can meaningfully deploy and really continue to build value off of is something that a lesson I've learned and been very thankful for the partners that we've had along the way. And I think there was a phrase when we first raised that I was kind of really pushed and was hearing a lot in 2014, 2015, it was kind of this like grow at all costs, spend faster, you're not growing fast enough, higher faster, this notion of our new CMO, TESA, really came in and preached this, planned the plan, resourced the plan, and work the plan.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Wanted to work with us. No, I absolutely love hearing about that process. And both As and Ryan are incredible. As you obviously know, I do have one final question to ask on the fundraising element. And as we clearly defined earlier, you're not at the epicenter of the valley, very distinct being announced. I do have to ask, you do see a lot of fundraisers going on around you and you see a lot of founders in the ecosystem. Are there elements where you see founders commonly going wrong? Maybe in the process, maybe in the relationship building process, maybe in capital deployment subsequently, are there any elements that you see frequently where you're like, this is a commonality, this is a common mistake that I'm seeing too often? I mean, I can just speak from my personal experience because not everything's been perfect here and there's an element where knowing how much you can meaningfully deploy to build value in your business and not just raising something that sounds like a great big number.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “New boss, for example, at Excel that from the day he reached out, he was there the next day for a beer. And it's not just getting a drink, but really that wanting to get to know you, wanting to see the office, wanting to see how you work. And I think it came in with no agenda. And that was able to really suss out in those early meetings where everyone else kind of came in and this is how we operate. This is what we do. This is how we come in and change. And they're more selling than they are listening. And so for me, it was multiple dinners. And that's a big thing for me to kind of really get to know them. And then when it came time to it was really clear, like Ryan and Boss at Excel, they really won the deal. This was something where they went out and said, we want you. And they showed it. And they came in and it's like, this goes it for us. We're going all in on Visco. And they really put their money where their mouth is, literally. But they showed up and they came to dinner and it was like multiple times. And these are large drives for them up from the peninsula. And they just really showed that they.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Scale meaningfully and really intentionally. And that aspect has also been a huge value add. I mean, so many questions to our Sarah and so many elements to unpack. You mentioned the element about being a great listener and the three investors there. I'm really interested. How do you stress test maybe the qualities of your investors, the value that they provide, how good they are at listening? How do you stress test at pre-signing the term sheet, so to speak? What does that look like for you and that kind of optimal relationship building process? Yeah, so, you know, when we were first raising our office owner was in Edmarieville, so East Bay, a little out of the way, especially for anyone on Sandhill Road. And I would not go anywhere for a meeting. There was a bar around the corner called Prize Fighter, and every VC that reached out, I said, sure, I'll take a meeting. I'll meet you for a drink this day, four o'clock at Prize Fighter. And for many, you know, just even that, well, you need to come to me. Mentality just eliminated so many. But I ultimately.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “And the characteristic that Ryan embodies and that Adam and then David Glynn, the Glynn Capital Chemon Series B is all three of them are phenomenal listeners and they have helped Visco be a better version of itself, not Visco be something that's not. And so for me, that has been the key of what I've looked at. Someone that has value to add beyond their capital because quite honestly, everyone has capital. It's really not a differentiator anymore at all. And so you're looking for that other factor, that it thing. And so that's been a big part for us. And the other thing I'd throw out there that's been huge that we didn't really seek out, but I've been very thankful for is Vasnadarajan is the other partner at Excel with Ryan that works with us at Visco. And he sees the world in a different way than I do. And it's been such a needed insight through just analytics, data, finance, really thinking about how we”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Our other kind of first investor Adam Ross of Goldcrest Capital was some of that actually brought on before we had any investors. Someone introduced us and really was just drawn to how down to earth he was and really helped me think through investors who to think about adding on because kind of back to Visco in late 2013. This is post the Instagram sale to Facebook, mobile photos are hot, you can imagine we're profitable, large company everyone wanted in on Visco. And so Adam really helped me kind of think through how to build who the investors were in Visco. And where we really landed, and what I'm so thankful for was not focusing on people that would change.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “We were not going to be able to be profitable for much longer, and we needed capital to scale the business to get it to a place where we could do so much more. So I think ultimately it really comes down to doing what's right in your situation, and each one is completely unique.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Our experience here at Visco is a little unique in that, you know, I think initially we thought we wanted to raise, but we couldn't to non-technical co-founders, first-time founders. And so we launched a workshop that people paid for. And then we built the desktop product that sold for $119. And, you know, we were profitable out of the gate. And so we grew this business for two and a half years in 43 employees before we ever raised. And when we did raise, it wasn't a traditional seed or series A, really much more of a growth round. And so, you know, I think our situation is unique, but I do think for anyone out there, you need to know why. Just the press around we raised or having that capital can actually be more of a burden than it is a help. And so having a business, knowing the need, we ultimately raise because the business was scaling, the engagement on the platform was scaling. And we saw the rise of our server costs and saw the writing on the wall.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Do it when it's right for us and when we know how we're going to deploy it. And so I think that's what you're seeing is a lot of entrepreneurs in better positions where they're able to do what's best for them and for their business.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “So, the first thing I'd like to really point out is that we are founded in Oakland. So I like to think not to be at the center of the valley, but I do understand geographically if you're outside the Bay Area, it feels like that. You know, I think every situation is unique, and we've now been in business almost eight years and seeing a few different waves of fundraising and thoughts around it. And I think I do think something that's unique this time around that I haven't seen yet in my career is there's this really strong desire to start to know where the money's coming from, knowing the source and people kind of really understanding where the dollars come from. So I think on that end, that's a lot of what we're seeing. And I think also from my end, what I've come to learn is that it's not just always be raising or always taking money, but knowing what you're using it for. And so I think we're seeing people build real businesses, you know, at Fisco, we're cash flow positive. We don't need to raise. And with that, though, we can.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “So I was a professional photographer for a little over 10 years, and Greg Lutzi, my co-founder, was an art director and designer. And we were working together on a couple projects. We were always talking about what if we did something by creators for creators? We always felt that there were these companies out there that sold us products or services, but they never had a relationship with us as a creative. And so that initial aha moment really was, let's go out and do something our way and do it in a way that is focused on the relationship with the consumer.”

    2019-02-01 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How To Build Meaningful Relationships With Your Investors, 4 Key Elements CEOs Must Focus On In Scale Mode & How Top Optimise Leadership Team Dynamics with Joel Flory, Founder & CEO @ VSCO · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source