YouSaid · the spoken record

Uri Levine

lines on the record
89
first
2024-06-09
most recent
2024-06-09
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “So obviously this is the book Amazon Barnes& Noble's are basically places that you can find it. You can follow me on LinkedIn. This is pretty much the only network that I'm actually engaged. If you read the book, then you will find my emails in the book and then you can email me as well. And I do answer all of my emails. I want you to read the book. I don't want you to buy the book. I want you to read the book. And the reason is that I have a purpose in life. And this is creating value. And I believe that this book is going to be the best return on investment that you ever made, not the 20 or $30 that it costs, but the time that you're going to spend on reading it. And therefore I can be valuable for you. And if I can be valuable for you, then I... My purpose”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “AI of the medical knowledge, so trying to improve doctors, in particular in clinical decisions. That is going to change the world. But if you'd ask me, then I will give you some examples, right? So mobility is still a problem, right? You look at many areas in our lifetime and mobility is still every year. It's instead of getting better, it's getting lesser. So mobility is still a problem. Medical services, right? US medical services are five to ten times more expensive than they are in Germany. Now it's not that they are better. They're simply more expensive. So obviously you ask yourself, okay, where is this inefficiency? Where is it? At a lot of places of inefficiency in the medical services, if they're so expensive. Education. Anything that I will tell you that we are still doing the same way that our parents did.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I probably will never be done. I have 10 different startups in multiple areas. One of them, Pontera helps people to retire richer, which is one of the biggest challenges in the world in general, but also in the US. If I would ask 100 people on the street that have 401k plans, what is your 401k plan invested at? 95% of them will tell me I don't know. I do know, by the way, in the default. Whatever was the default when they joined, right? Now, obviously, if you didn't do anything and you think it's right, no, it's not right. It's probably simply not enough. So this is a big problem. I have one in the medical space that is trying to create, I would call that the...”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “So I can bet that most of the people say the chatGPT. But actually, no, I recently downloaded the Chess app and I returned to play chess with the computer or something that I haven't done for so many years and I really enjoyed that.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Mark Randolph of Netflix, that will never work, right? And by the way, it's funny Mark Randolph wrote endorsement to my book. And I reached out to him because I read someplace that he's answering all of his emails. And I sent him an email and said, look, we have at least three things in common. Number one, I do answer all of my emails as well. Number two, I'm using your product, you are using mine. And number three, I heard more time that will never work than you did. And I think that understanding this journey is really, really important. This is definitely a book that I would recommend. Atomic habit. Getting habits and improving them, measuring and improving. really really important”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “At the end of the day, as parents, there is only one thing that we really like. We want our kids to be happy in their own way. We don't know what it is. They don't know what it is. We want them to explore, and they will only explore if they are not afraid to fail.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “So, number one, I reserve the right for my biggest failure yet to come And look, I keep on trying new things, right? I keep on doing things. And so eventually I will fail as much as maybe I'm more successful statistically than Arrows, but I will fail. This is very, very important part to realize don't be afraid to fail. In your journey, you're going to fail multiple times. And when you fail and get up, you get up stronger. This may be something that I will tell all the parents in the ward. Biggest advice that I can give you is teach your children to fail. Because when they get up, they get up stronger. And when they know that, they will get out of their comfort zone. And they will eventually discover what makes them happy.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “You know, occasionally what happened is that we speak with the wrong customers. So just imagine that we have what I call funnel of use, right? So on top of the funnel, we have people that are download the app, let's say, or have entered their website. And then the next phase is that they registered. And the next phase that they're trying to use it for the first time. And then the next phase is that they're getting the value and then coming back. In this funnel, what we usually try to do is pick with the users at the bottom of the files, those that were successful. But in order to improve, we need to speak with those that fail. Those that were unsuccessful, those that did not register, they did register and did not use or they did use and did not come back. They know something that we really need to know. Why?”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “In your journey of building a product, we basically say this is iterations and iterations and iterations, but in many of those, you add features and you add features and you add features until you all of a sudden you add the features that people are using. you really want to do next is remove the rest of the features that people are not using because they are adding complexity Now most of the product owners They're either innovators or early adopters. You cannot understand an early majority person if you belong to one group. You cannot understand a person from the other group unless you watch the monstrosity. So, the most important part of understanding users is actually seeing those users. And they are not wrong. This is how they beh”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So, if you have salesforce.com, which is absolutely amazing, their reaction is going to be what's wrong with Excel. Because they're afraid of change. Are not going to try something new now. The reason is that at the end of the day, they're afraid that this is going to be too complex for them, and they will not get it. And they don't want to be embarrassed and they don't want to feel like idiots. And, you know, guess what? People don't like to feel like idiots. And so they are not going to. And you need to see those people to understand their barriers for starting to use your service. And by the way, the solution is always the same. Simplicity. Leonard or Da Vinci say that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. If you want to make it simple,”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “They care about this subject and they're going to be the first one to hear about it and they are going to try that out because it's new. The second group is usually what we will get to see as the first users are the early adopters. As soon as they realize that there is value, they're going to give it a try. And if there is value, then they will keep on using it. And if there is no value, then they will quit. The third group is the most important group. This is where market leaders are, right? This is called the early majority. This is about one-third of the population. And the one that wins the early majority wins the market. Challenge with those group, with the people in this group is that they're afraid of change. So, their state of mind is don't rock the boat. Whatever I am currently doing is good enough for me.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Because this Y is the one that is going to make your product successful. You understand the Y and the next version you're going to address that. Now this is in particular when it comes to understanding users. Obviously, there are a lot of users, but we can group them Into several groups of their ability to adapt something new. Something new is not necessarily new technology, right? We think about it as a new technology, but it's not necessarily about technology. It's about new behavior. And then we look at the entire population and every time that we look into large numbers, they will have normal distribution. So the bell curve of the distribution. And then we will have about 2% of the populations that are the innovatives. Innovatives are going to use something new because it's new.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Now, if you are using ways in a certain way, up until this moment, you didn't know that there are other people that are using it differently. And to be frank, you don't care. You getting your own value the way that you get it, and you don't really care that there are other people that are getting it differently. But if you're building a product and you don't know that. You are building the wrong product. You don't know that there are other people that are not like you. And you think that you're building the product for yourself, then you're making a big mistake. And the way to figure it out is, by the way, two things. Number one, watch new users. Simply watch users and see what they're doing. And number two, if they are not doing what you expect them to do, then ask them why.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “And so I took a selfie with him holding the phone like that and clicking on the volume button. And he said, finally. I said finally what? Finally, someone using it the way that I meant it to be. Now you realize that there is no right or wrong. There are different people that are using different products in different ways. And occasionally if I would have large audience, then I would ask the people, okay, how do you use ways, right? So you go to your destination and you enter the destination and then ways guides you through the screen with the display of the maneuvers that needs to be made or with the audio guidance of turn right, turn left, and so forth. If you're watching the screen, raise your hand and then I would have about 70% of the people who raise their hand. Then ask people to watch around them and see those people. Then ask if you're listening to the audio prompt, raise your hand. Then I have about 20 or 30 more percent of the people raising their head. And again, I send people to watch around and see those heads, right? There is no right or wrong. Different people are using it differently.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Okay, then let's stick with understanding answers. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, wrote The Foreword to My Book, and he called the Bible for entrepreneurs. And when I send them the first chapter, he said, wow, I wish I had that when I started. I met Steve Wozniak for the first time about 10 years ago. We spoke at the same conference in Guatemala. And look, when I grew up, Steve Wozniak was my technological guru, right? So he was the most important person in the technology space in my mind. And then we spoke at the same conference and we had dinner the night before. And the only thing that actually was really important for me is to have a selfie. With my And so I took up my iPhone and with the iPhone. You can take pictures by clicking here on the screen. Or using the volume button on the side, right?”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “If they will tell me yes, then I would ask them why didn't you? Someone asked me for a reference on someone that I really enjoyed working with. I really think highly of them. And he asked me if they can schedule a course for half an hour. And I said, look, I'm traveling. I don't really have time. But if you want an email in one word, take the guy. And then he was trying to outsmart and ask me back. And I have that into Warden. I said, yeah, take the guy fast. When you know, you know, that's it.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “For reference That's pretty simple. Would you hire him? Or would you hire her right Essentially, at the end of the day, you want to nail it into yes or no.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Know there are tons of advisors in the book, and eventually I will tell, even in the hiring process, right, most of us are going to interview candidates and then decide that they like or dislike the candidate, right? But they don't know. Speak with someone that does know. Speak with the reference.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “No, this is different, right? You go into this journey of having children with the understanding that this is a long journey, go into this journey of building a startup with the understanding that this is a long journey. The fact that it's going to be hard, okay, so it's hard. It is hard, by the way. But yeah, you... The decisions Obviously, they need to be relative to their duration, right? So, yeah, raising heat is a long change.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Relationship in general. Direction that you're going Still like that. Five children, and they're all in their 20s and beginning of 30s. And they struggle with their career path, right? And I basically tell them, look, if you're going to work in a place and you don't like it, then what I want you to do is ask yourself why you're not liking it and whether or not there is something that you can change. And I'm going to ask you the same question in 90 days from now. And if this still is the case, then quit.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “By the way, I can tell you that for everything in your life, right? In your life, ask yourself. Knowing what you know today, would you do something different? The answer is yes, then do something different today. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “One of my companies had a pretty good year, and they decided to have an annual bonuses. By and large, to nearly all of the employees. And then I asked the CEO, so how did you end up with the list? And said, okay, we had... These people that are getting twice as much as the arrows and then the errors and then there are four people that are not going to get anything. Ask them, are they still here? Shouldn't be here, right? If there are so much underperforming, then they shouldn't be here. But generally, you need the time to ask yourself the tough questions. Because only then you can answer them. If you don't ask the tough questions, then you don't answer them.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “The rest of the team and to themselves, right? They deserve to be successful, but it's not going to happen here. They deserve to find someplace else that they can be successful. But it's not going to happen here. And that decision is really, really dramatic. Now, in many cases with hard decisions, We know what is the right decisions. We're looking for confirmation You look for confirmation, then go and speak with the top performing people and tell them, ask them the following, right? Assuming X, Y, Z person is going to leave, how sorry are you going to feel? you will be surprised that they are going to tell you it's not a big deal. Is your confirmation.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “The conclusion of this chip, there is really, really interesting. If everyone knows within a month, then every time that you hire someone new, what I really want you to do is mark your calendars for 30 days down the road and ask yourself one question. Knowing what I know today would I hire this person. At the end of the day, I like to naggle that into yes or no, right? Because this is where decisions are being made easily. You ask yourself that question if the answer is yes, then go to this person and tell them that you are really excited that they've joined there exceeding your expectations and give them more equity. And you buy their loyalty for life. The answer is no Fire them immediately. Are already set on a trajectory of not being successful. They are creating damage to you.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Whatever it is, right, 20, 30 people. And there is someone that shouldn't be there. And I don't care if that someone shouldn't be there because they are way underperforming or because they are assholes. I don't really care. They shouldn't be there. Everyone knows. Everyone knows NSEO doesn't do anything. That's the nature of the beast. And this is why the top performing people would leave. Now, building a star is really, really hard, right? Hard if you have the right team, but if you have people that shouldn't be there, that are still there and the top performing people are leaving, then it's going to be a mission impossible.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Then you say, wait a minute, if you knew within the first month that the team is not right and you didn't do anything, the problem was not that the team was not right. The problem was that the CEO did not make our decision. Making her decisions is hard. Making easy decisions, this is why no one likes to make the hard decisions. Because you need to live with the consequences. In a small place like a start Her decisions will always go to the top. If the CO does not make that hard decision, the result is always the same. The top performing people would leave. They would leave because they don't want to be in a place that is unable to make her decisions and they have a choice. The nature of the beast is different. Startup is a small organization. Just imagine that you are in a small organization, right? It could be a team.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Many dialogues that I had with entrepreneurs that their startup failed and asked them why what happened? And about half told me the team was not right. And I kept on asking, okay, what do you mean the team was not right? And what I heard the most is, you know, we had this guy not good enough and this guy not good enough. So this is what I heard the most. Another thing that I heard quite often is that we had communication issues, right? Something that I actually called ego management issues. And then ask them the most interesting question when did you know that the team is not right? The answer was actually rather scary. All of them told me within the first month.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So, you know, I send the book proposal to many publisher and there is one chapter that says firing and hiring. And many of them came back and said, oh, it should be hiring and firing. And I said, no, firing is a hard decision. Hiring is easy decisions. You have to first of all learn how to make the hard decisions. The inspirations for this chapter came from”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Then he met the Seo, and Seo told him exactly the same story about the mother. And I went, I tell that, it says by microwave, right? This is personal. This has happened to me. And so he told the investor called me up later, he said, this is, you know, he told me exactly the same story. So that was really funny. But at the end of the day, one of the things that make story Is details Because otherwise it's not, right? So if you're going to tell me, okay, this is the use case of the product and you end up with This is not authentic. If you watch your real users, then what happened is that you actually, and you speak with them, then you have the authenticity to tell a good story. Really, really critical. If you want to tell user story, these needs to be real. Or you have to learn how to tell a story with many details.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “And then there was a long story about the microwave working. And I bought a new one and really long, long, long story about with the details, right? How you make a story make believe with details. The more detailed people think that this is real, right? If there are no details, then this is not real. And so I told him this story that was like five minutes explaining, trying to fit the microwave into the closet and it didn't fit in and into the cabinet and it didn't fit in. And I had to return it to the box and so forth and whole story. And then I spoke with an investor in Israel and I told him about this new company that I'm going to invest. And I told him the same story about this microwave And he said, This is interesting. I would like to meet the”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “One of the earlier startups that I was guiding was about. Eventually rolled into gift cards. But in Israel, when you return something to the store, you don't get your money back. What you get is a gift card for that particular store, right? And obviously if you return something, then it's not necessarily that you have something to buy in this store. And you ended up with having a gift card that is never being used. And so why not sell this gift card? What happened is that I heard the story of the CEOs and I thought that the story is not good enough. And I told him, look, you have to tell a better story. And he asked, can you give me an example? And I said, yeah, just imagine that”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “I do a lot of public speaking, and usually my last slide is one more story. And I decide on this story based on the audience and the dialogue so far and so forth. But I have many stories, many last stories that I would like to tell. The important part is that no one is going to cut you off the stage if you have just one more story. And so, this is where you can recap everything. This is where you can do whatever you want, right? Because no one is going to tell you, okay, time is up.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Maybe size of the market. Maybe description of the problem Whatever it is, right? The strongest point is there The second most important slide is the last one, not the summary, the one that says thank you. The time to repeat that. So most of their presentations will end up with Thank you and my email, right? And this is going to be the last slide, right? Which makes sense. You just missed the opportunity. This is going to be the second longest displayed slide of the presentation, maybe the first.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “The longest period of time in the presentation, this slide is going to be presented on the screen. And you didn't say anything there. Is the place that you're going to put your strongest point?”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “So, I would add here another very strong advice. Most people are missing the most important slide of their presentation. The most important slide of your presentation is the first slide. Not the one that you think about it. The first slide, the one that says company XYZ intro. This slide is going to be presented for the longest period of time.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “At the beginning, you look at it and you say, okay, they say, they decided not to invest because of XYZ, right? Whatever it is, right? Google can do that in no time. Or the market is not big enough or the market is complex or whatever it is, right? And then you try to argue and you don't know that it's useless, right? It's like you go on a date and she said no and you try to argue, right? No, this is There is nothing to argue anymore, right? That's no.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “I call that they open up the big book of excuses why not, but in general they are not going to invest, right? Now you look at it from that other side. A venture capital partner is likely to see between 100 and 200 companies a year and invest in one or two 1%. That's it. So, if this is the case, then it's going to be the same case for you. One out of a hundred. If you want to increase the likelihood, learn how to tell a good story, start with the strongest point at the beginning. Remember that their users do, so their emotional engagement is going to come through the usage, the use case, and not through how big the business is”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “So if it's relevant for them and they don't think that they're going to use it, they will basically dismiss it. They will basically say the market is not there. So these are two main things. The third thing is A different ballgame, right? So if you have Product and you tell the story to potential customers. The right order of magnitude is that about one third of the listeners will buy. So in a more mature company, their pipeline is going to be 3X in order to sell at the end of the year 1X. One third are going to say yes. In investors, it's 1%, not one-third one percent. So you're going to hear a hundred times Until you hear one yes. In that hundred times no is something that you need to understand from the beginning. Because that's really discouraging, right? You go and speak with investors and they tell you,”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Because if I bring other people, then at the end of the day, they might say, yeah, I like the team, but the CEO was not specific, right? Was not unique, was not jumping out of the pages. So CO goes along and tells the story. The other part is that they need to tell a good story. Good story is not about facts. about creating emotional engagement it's about creating the sense that the listener would like to be part of this story For investor, it's two things. Number one is that they want to believe that this is usable. And number two, they want to believe that you can build it. And this is the story that you need to tell. I would say always start with the problem, right? Because guess what? Investors are also users. If they don't think that they're going to use it”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “So, this is the first conclusion. The second conclusion is that I spoke with early stage investors, right? Those that invest the first money. So company has. Story to tell. That's about it, right? No traction, nothing yet is built and so forth. And ask him, why did you decide to invest in this company and this company and this company? And I spoke with many investors. And what I heard was actually pretty consistent. I like the CO, I like the story. That's it. I like the CO, I like the story. Now, if this is the case, then there are two immediate conclusions. The first one is that the CEO goes alone to the meeting. I need the headlight on me. I don't need any disruptions. I don't need my team members. I don't need anything else in the room, just me.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “How long does it take you to decide if you like a candidate or not? Second, you go on a date, how long does it take you to decide if you like the date? Second, then maybe there are a few more minutes that you allow yourself to either change your mind or let that first impression solidifies. Now, if this is the case and you're looking to raise capital, start with the strongest point at the beginning. Whatever it is, and I don't care if this is the size of the problem, this is the traction that you have, this is the team that you've beat, I don't care what it is. Start with that because by the time you get there, they might be already setting up their mind. Start with the strongest point at the beginning. And by the way, finish with that as well.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Sort of. And one of the reasons is that this is a different ballgame and you don't know how to play at the beginning. I would say a few things about raising capital for the first time. Number one, I spoke with many investors in one of the conversations that I had that I really resonate with me was when I spoke with one of the leading VC in Israel and asked their partner how long does it take you to decide if you like this entrepreneur? And he asked me, do you want the right answer or the real answer? So, you know, I heard the right answer so many times. Give me the real answer. And we were sitting in a small meeting room. So the guy is looking at me and then looking at the door and looking at me again and says before they sit down. Oh, no, no, no. Say that again, right? That's the first impression. Now we all have first impressions.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Raising capital, you know, it's a journey by itself and different from the other journeys that you need only once raising capital is going to happen multiple times. And if we say that building a startup is a roller coaster journey, then I would say raising capital is a roller coaster journey in the dark.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “So, weighs raised about $50 million throughout the entire journey. We started by raising 12. That was the first investment round, and then we raised 30. And then there was the last round that we raised actually not a lot.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “You know, it's a seasonality, right? There are periods of time that raising capital is easier and then many of the entrepreneurs will be choosers and not beggars and there are periods of time that is the other way around and most of the entrepreneurs will be beggars and not choosers.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “So, this is one of the areas that investors don't like to hear the truth. The truth is that I don't know how I'm going to bring the users. I will figure that out once I get there. But the reality is that right now I don't know. But they don't want to hear that. What they want to hear is that, though, I know exactly how I'm going to bring them. And what I will say is that I know exactly where I'm going to start my experiments. But most of the investors would like to see a coherent story that makes sense, right? This is our business model. This is how we're going to make money. This is what we're going to sell. This is how much they are going to pay. This is why it's a simple business model. And these.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “High frequency of fuses is the simplest way for Ward of Mirth. The other thing is coolness. If it's really cool. You'll tell more people. In Airbnb was really cool at the beginning of the journey, right? So now everyone knows about Airbnb. But when they started, that was way cheaper in really unique experience than hotels.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Exactly. Because if you have high frequency of use, you will end up with growth coming by itself, word of mouth. And therefore, you should do that at the beginning. If you don't have high frequency of use, you are sentenced to acquire users or customers all of your lifetime. And if this is the case, then you really want to figure out the business model before you start and go and do that.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “The entire company, shift gears and move to a different phase. Now, this is really hard. Just think about it. If up until now, the product development group was the only things that matters. All of a sudden we think about marketing now because we are now in the go-to-market phase, that this is the most important thing of the company. Occasionally, I found companies that have Challenging and shifting gears, right? So they didn't figure out where the clutch is You have to because otherwise you're stuck in the previous phase that you kind of finished that journey. This journey is nearly done. And you need to shift gears. And if you don't do that, then you get stuck. If you do that, if you try to do multiple things at the same time, you will fail. Focus is not about what we're doing, it's about what we are not doing. These are the decisions.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “It's only going to happen if you have high frequency of views. So those phases require different focus of the company, right? Initially, if you focus on product market feed, then you don't need sales. You have no product to sell. You don't need business development. You don't need even marketing. You need product. You need developers and you need product lead to define the product and lead through the iterations of the product until we get to the level that it's good enough. Once you get there, you shift gears. If the product doesn't change, if we search Google the same way that we search Google for the first time in our life, then the product development is now not going to be focused about value creation. It's going to be focused about either figuring out business model or figuring out scale.”

    2024-06-09 · Lenny's Podcast · Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source