20 VC FF 024: Raising $33m in VC Funding with Nikos Moraitakis, Founder & CEO @ Workable

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2015

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nikos Moraitakis is the Founder & CEO @ Workable, one of Balderton Capital's latest additions to their portfolio. Workable is the affordable and usable hiring software that which replaces email and spreadsheets with an applicant tracking system that your team will actually enjoy using. Prior to founding Workable, Nikos was a Senior VP of Business Development at Upstream where he played a key role in the company's growth from startup into one of the world’s top marketing technology companies, where he was actively involved in enterprise sales across 40 countries in 4 continents.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Nikos made his way into the world of startups and tech and founded Workable? What was the a-ha moment?

2.) What was it like starting a company in Greece? Were there sufficient levels of engineers? Why did Workable decide to move some operations to the US?

3.) Why does Nikos think the enterprise SaaS space has become so hot? What has changed? Has this upturn in interest made it easier with more capital inflowing or more difficult with increased company creation?

5.) How did Workable meet their investors? How was the fundraising experience? What was the challenging and surprising elements of the journey? Advice to founders?

6.) Looking back at his time founding Workable, what does Nikos wish someone had told him at the beginning?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Nikos' Fave Book: Fooled by Randomness

Nikos' Fave Blog: Bill Gurley: Above The Crowd

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Nikos on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

I would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors today, LoyaltyBay. Have you ever wished more of your website visitors would convert into a sale, signup or referral? If so, you need Loyalty Bay. With their saas conversion optimizer tool they increase any conversion metric by offering potential customers a choice of personalised rewards to get them to convert. They work with large enterprises like Virgin Media through to startups and have increased conversions on average by over 100%. Free 30 day trial at www.loyaltybay.co.uk

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings, and welcome to the third and final episode of our feature of Europe's most prestigious and successful VCs.
0:10.2	It is, of course, Baldeston Capital.
0:12.4	And for our episodes on Monday and Wednesday, we had general partners, Seranga and Daniel, on the show.
0:18.2	And today, as it is Founders Friday, I'm delighted to welcome one of
0:22.0	Baldson's latest investments, Workable. Workable is an affordable, usable hiring software,
0:28.8	which replaces email and spreadsheets with an applicant tracking system that your team will
0:33.5	actually enjoy using. And joining us from Workable is their founder and CEO, Nikos Moraiticus.
0:40.5	And prior to founding Workable, Nikos was VP of business development at Upstream, where he played
0:46.5	a key role in the company's growth, from startup into one of the world's top marketing technology
0:51.5	companies, where he was actively involved in enterprise sales
0:55.2	across 40 countries in four continents. However, before we jump into today's show, do you wish
1:02.2	that more of the visitors to your site would convert, whether that be through sales, sign-ups
1:07.6	or referrals? If so, you must check out Loyalty Bay, whose incredible SaaS conversion
1:13.6	optimizer tool can increase any conversion metric by incentivizing potential customers with a choice
1:20.2	of personalized rewards to get them to convert. These include iTunes vouchers, Amazon and Uber
1:26.2	vouchers to much, much more.
1:28.5	And they have an increased conversion on average by over 100%.
1:32.3	And also, if that wasn't enough, they've got a free 30-day trial at www.loyaltybay.com.
1:39.0	That's www.w loyalty bay.com.uk.
1:43.8	But now it's time for me to be quiet.
1:46.3	So without further ado, ladies and gents, may I introduce you to Nikos Maiticus, CEO and founder at Workable.
1:54.4	Three, two, one, zero.
	...

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