Behind The Scenes: My VC Investor Meeting - Building a Billion $ Company (Episode 2) 

The female vc was so kind, so patient, so willing to discuss, so counter intuitive in a positive way. I’ve got many a beef with vc, but she was actually secretive to the discussion.

Thank you for maintaining this level of transparency in your business, John. These peeks behind the curtain always provide a serious level of both insight and entertainment. Keep crushing it!

This vid says a lot about how we compete. We don’t compete on information - all numbers/ideas are true. We compete on execution - that’s what we are the best in the world at and why we win 🏆

I don’t think there are many CEOs out there that will be as genuine and honest about what they are going through! Really inspiring!

The fact that you were able to be vulnerable to not only your investor and your business partner but your viewers says a lot. I can’t imagine the amount of pressure you feel. Like bro, I run a small company, but you’re on a different scale!! 🤯 You just earned a new subscriber, keep doing stuff like this, it really motivates me.

never i would have imagined, that i could get a glimpse of what a vc meeting in a startup would look like or even a behind of scene, thank you for this love for India would love to see more videos like this

I'm absolutely loving this series so far. I want to build my own startup one day and this level of transparency is insane, really really inspiring man!

"If you aren't willing to bring in leaders then you can't grow the company." Sometimes the most simple advice is the best advice.

This is absolutely incredible. As a $3m ARR start up, this hits home on sooo many levels. Please keep this going.

This was awesome. Love the behind the scenes, as well as the emotional authenticity of fears, feelings, etc.

Wowww 🤯. This was the most entertaining business presentation I have seen so far. Amazing video, John. Would love to see more content on this topic from you.

Hi John, new sub from Ghana here. I love and appreciate the series. The videos have inspired me to double down on my startup idea. I'll be following keenly. Thank you❤

absolutely amazing! Cannot find such content anywhere else. Good luck to both of you!

This was so raw and transparent and whatever hard decisions you make moving forward, I wish you the absolute best! Thank you for taking your viewers on this amazing journey with you. I am so proud of you!

Inspired by what you do and how transparent you are with everything you do! Nice series.

The transparency you have is really inspiring. Being able to voice yourself to someone who has that much power can be so intimidating. Really appreciate you putting this content out there for other entrepreneurs🤠

goldmine of information. awesome transparency and breakdown of your pursuit. Thank you!

another great watch! loving this series and the amount of effort you're putting on this! very motivating

I have been consuming some of your content for several weeks now and I found this to be very insightful. Thank you for sharing J

I felt it when you presented the cash burn. But I also felt the energy flowing that your team can execute, deliver and land this plane. Good luck!

You're doing amazingly well, John. Running a start-up is no easy feat. I'm pretty sure Stan will be a unicorn.

Absolutely love your transparency here. Couldn't be more excited about this series.

Thanks for sharing. Love it! Good luck guys!!

Love what u do! We need more creators like that

This takes building in the public to a whole new level. Thanks guys 😊

Would be great to see more of this style of content. If you do decide to raise, for example, take us on the journey!

Thanks for sharing your journey man, it’s SO COOL and motivating

This is an awesome video! I’ve been watching your content for a few weeks now and the transparency and authenticity is super inspiring! Keep it up!

Hey I just wanted to say thank you so much for this content! I'm in high school and I've always wanted to start a company; it's super interesting and inspirational to have a firsthand look at the inner workings of a startup with such well made videos. Best of luck with Stan!

I've been following along quietly from the sidelines, but this video, in particular, really struck a chord. Other videos have been solidly real, but this one took transparency to a whole other level. Brilliant! I've looked at your jobs notion site and unfortunately, I (1 year out of college, in consulting) still don't have enough experience for any of the positions ... hopefully, amount of experience required changes someday. We're the hungriest of the bunch, and I personally would LOVE to join the Stan team. Looking forward to the next video!

wow I cant believe how transparent this is. I always have that the thought that the startup world is cutthroat

Thank you for being transparent, I’ll use this video to make the VCs and Aspiring VCs I train aware of how investors manage Board meetings. I thought it’s quite obvious your VC pushes you to raise funds as it’s the Silicon Valley model, but I also appreciate what she said about not believing that just taking a break will remove the causes for burnout. The exhaustion you feel, John, is a symptom and not a cause (although research shows that the relationship between depression and lack of sleep is bidirectional). Looking through your impostor syndrome is a good place to start. Psychologists have found that the lack of job fit (perceiving you don’t have what it takes to do the job) is a factor in the burnout syndrome. I’m going to drop a detailed post on these issues next week, underpinned by years of research for a Doctorate in Business Administration. I’ll pin it at the top of this page: thevcfactory.com/all-our-posts/

Building my own startup was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and the level of anxiety and pressure only increased significantly after we raised our first round. This was great. Thanks for sharing behind the scenes. I’m excited for the next one! Good luck guys.

Thanks for the transparency! What a weird world we live in.

Amazing content. Thank you 🙏

Completely agree on your points about the future and love the transparency!

Amazing content. Many thanks for providing us access into a space normally excluded from public view. Felt amazing to see the human aspects of a principal at a leading VC firm and humanize the whole experience. Thanks again for demystifying the interactions.

I'm a pre-seed technical cofounder in a B2B AI SaaS company, also a first time founder. Unfortunately accelerators put a heavy focus on repeat founders and avoid first timers. Here's hoping I can live vicariously through this vlog and sound less like a first timer during these VC interviews lol. Best of luck to y'all! Can't wait to see what's next

Cant wait for episode 3! These are my favorite vids on the channel by far.

Your content is incredibly informational, thank you Jay!

This is amazing! I wish you both the BEST!!!! You guys are truly champs ❤

Thank you so much for recording this. This was insightful and very honest.

Getting really interesting to know the people behind Stan! I believe in your product and hope for your success!

this was really good! best of luck to y'all :)

Damn, that last part with the scales makes total sense. Never thought about it like that. You guys telling stans story is my current top 3 youtube channels. Rooting for you!🥰

Another great vid! Love this type of "in the board room" type of content. Keep it up!

This content is super transparent and I’m excited to see this journey. Love it

this channel is about to grow pretty fast - haven’t seen anything like it. Keep it up!

Awesome content and very insightful behind the scene ! keep up the good work Jay and enjoy the journey 📈

This channel will blow up, calling it now. This is incredibly insightful thank you!

Amazing video❤❤ thank you Would love more vids like these❤❤❤

Wow! This was a crazy level of transparency. Subscribed!

Take that weekend and then grow that team! You've come this far - time to level up!

Cant wait too see the first billion dollar company to document from the first day to the end

This is some really cool content - keep it coming. John its right you feel scared if the mission is big - anything small enough not to scare you isn’t a problem worth working on

This series is so cool. Seeing the behind the scenes of creating a SaaS business is so entertaining! Keep it up guys!!

Great show man! Keep it up.

Gosh. Thank you for showing vulnerability. It makes you more likeable! I’m a fan .

Thanks for this video man. I can totally relate to this. Love your authenticity and the way you operate with your mindset. All the best bro. Lets fight together!

Loved the video

More of this! 🙌

This is a great video. Thanks for sharing insights!

This is so cool. I’m going through something similar with my startup and love seeing this

It is so cool to just watch how a start up really works. Keep going John, you got this. When you feel burnt out just think of the 1000s of creators you are helping to change their life. That is what I do to fire me up to edit even when i'm burnt out. Can't wait to see this company and channel grow together.

Hey Jay, you doing great and I think your optimistic attitude is amazing. Keep it up!

Why have I discovered this channel just now?! Subscribed & will binge watch all your videos + all future ones 🫡

Excited to see your journey of pursuing your passion. Subscribed!

Major props for being that transparent about impostor syndrome to the investor and showing us too. Not sure how many CEO's would be willing to swallow their pride and admit that in order to figure out what's best for the company moving forward.

Hey Jay, here are some thoughts: - your growth is great, but 12% churn is a bit high, and it can be dangerous. Spend Q2 trying to drop this number to 8% and Q3 to 6%. Ideally, SMB needs to be bellow 5%. A healthy churn is 3% max. - your investor is right: the growth is nice but it can fluctuate. 12% MoM on a 2.5M ARR is great, another reason to fix churn so you’re in a good place when growth might get stuck. - fundraising in 2023 is not a good idea, better to focus on execution and think about raising series A in early 2024. Your cash position is good, 2 years runway. Just make sure that you’re default alive, which seems to be the case. - it’s going to be tough to hire experienced execs now, maybe a Head of Marketing is a great idea to help with demand Gen. Don’t go for for VP, but for Director level. When you raise A, then hire other leaders per each function. - make sure you manage your burn out, the company is too early to replace you. Push to at least series A, you’re so close. Keep it up, brother. ❤

Jay - You & Vitalii should've hugged at the end to seal that moment!😂 Great to see you have an LP like Eurie that you can confide in and be yourself. Good content bro! Subbed for the culture.

wow amazing content !!!!🤩

This is golden content thank you

a next-level transparency that's truly inspiring

You are killing it. Learning alot from you guys. Are you open to seeing my MVP. I want to know what to do next

Amazing to see your path

I'm an middle age guy, but I've learned so much from just watching some of your videos. Thank you for the great content.

What an awesome insight into the startup company and the thoughts and operations involved in it!

Really appreciate the transparency and insight! Echoing what the other comments say -- you really humanized the experience of building a startup and this was really meaningful to watch.

Wow this was an awesome behind the scenes look!

This content is INCREDIBLE, can't wait to see you blow up 📈📈

Thank you for uploading this ❤. Stan will be big soon

Hello John. Firstly being a first time founder myself, I will always have the greatest respect for anyone that takes the leap and decides to build a company from scratch. I have worked on my startup for the last 3 years and we still haven't launched. Almost everything that could be thrown our way has been. We have experienced difficulties that could have ended a lot of startups before they even had a chance to really begin. From facing off a multi billion dollar company in trademark court, and eventually winning. To delaying the building of our app because our developers were now in the middle of a warzone. To so many other things. And yes it has been difficult and there have been times where I was tired and burned out dealing with everything. But I never once thought about no longer being the ceo and passing it over to someone else. Along with your co founder or co founders. It's your vision. You cannot delegate your vision to somebody else. You may need to hire someone to deal with all the non visionary day to day stuff. But stepping away is a mistake. You have to decide though. Is building a company and potentially a unicorn really what you want. Or are you more in love with the idea and this is just your new shiny thing that has your attention for now. And I have not fundraised. My co founder and i have bootstrapped everything so far. However what investor is going to see that you may want to hire a new ceo and want to give you 5 to 10 million dollars or more. They will think that your heart is not in it, and you're asking them to believe in the vision. Without the lead visionaire running the show. Now you're going to get a lot of positive comments on here. And rightly so. But most of them will not know what it's like to be in the startup space. If this is really what you want. Keep on the path. Keep going. But what do I know. Just a random guy in the comment section. And atleast you have launched bro. I'm still in dock.

Solid series man! Great vid :D

I am not in the room but can already sense the amount of pressure and stress you are carrying on your shoulders. Good luck man!

Wow John! Your videos are so good. Why is this channel not getting recommended to everyone!

love it

So cool to see the behind the scenes of Stan!

i love the transparency

Good job for being 1000% transparent! Admitting to feeling “imposter syndrome” is the right step to not being an imposter. Bravo. Many people are too scared to admit it, but everyone experiences some form of imposter syndrome in their journey. It’s ok, this is where you will find deep personal growth. You’re a brand new baby founder learning how to build a product and run a business like a baby chick learning to fly. You will grow into those wings as a byproduct of searching out solutions and trial and error and then one day you will soar! Keep up the good work! Keep being transparent…it’s a sign of courage. Courage is doing something even though you ARE scared. It’s ok to be scared. You’re gonna be alright 🙏🏼✝️

Another Dub video, super insightful!

Love the content I always wanted to start a startup but don’t really kno how to start or where to get investors or user love to see someone that doesn’t have it all figured out but is taking action n learning as they go

I just love this channel, the coolness and sympathetic of you John - wish you all the best of luck to achive your goal buddy, you truly earn it! Greetings from Germany

Hey man, you just inspired me to take my group's project idea seriously. We're continuing it over the summer and I wasn't entirely stoked over it, but we're excited to see where it'll go.

love these behind the scenes look, awesome content man

You guys are such an inspiration, hope to see you more succesful soon.

12:35 articulated incredibly well

Keep up the good work my guy! 🙌🙌

Thank you, yet again, for inspiring all of us immigrant kids who want to make a difference in the world. I'm also a UNC (gdtbath) student so I feel connected to your story. You're the most honest and genuine person in the industry - I can't wait to follow you and Vitalii along for years to come and mention that I was there from the beginning (:

You guys are inspiring

Nice video