20VC: Hopin, The Breakout Startup of 2020 on Scaling from 10 to 230 People and $174M in Funding in just 13 Months, The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, How To Lead Remote Teams Effectively, The Future of Events Post-COVID and more
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Johnny Boufarhat is the Founder & CEO @ Hopin, one of the fastest-growing companies on the planet, providing an online events platform where you can create engaging virtual events that connect people around the globe. In the last 13 months, Johnny has raised over $174M for Hopin from the likes of Accel, IVP, Slack, Northzone, Coatue, Salesforce and of course, 20VC Fund. With the funding, again in just 13 months, Johnny has grown the team from 10 people to over 210 people in 37 countries. In October of this year, Semil Shah awarded Hopin the label, "The Breakout Tech Startup Of 2020".
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Johnny made his way into the world of startups and how severe health challenges led to his realisation and founding of Hopin?
2.) What have been Johnny's biggest lessons scaling the team from 10 to 235 in just 12 months? What starts to break and when? What does Johnny believe are the 3 stages of startup growth? What have been Johnny's learnings on what it takes to acquire the very best talent?
3.) Why does Johnny believe that remote has so fundamentally changed the game? How does remote culture differ from physical culture? What advice does Johnny have for those shifting from physical to remote? Where does Johnny see so many make mistakes with the remote model?
4.) Why does Johnny believe fundraising is a game of leverage? How does Johnny advise founders to structure their raise? Should they shop their term sheets around? Should founders always be raising? How should they think through a pre-emptive round? How does COVID change the world of fundraising?
5.) What does the world of virtual events look like in a post COVID world? What events will remain virtual? What will not? How does Hopin expand beyond purely events into the much wider "connection" space? How does that look both from M&A and product expansion?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode
Johnny’s Favourite Book: Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the 20 minute VC and my web. What a special show today. So a little backstory for you here. |
| 0:04.6 | I first met this guest in October last year. And transparently, I thought he was one of the most |
| 0:08.5 | special founders I'd ever met, period, since we've become great friends. And this show was one that I wanted |
| 0:13.6 | to do all year. And so with that, I'm very, very excited to welcome one of the fastest growing |
| 0:17.2 | companies on the planet, Hopin, and their founder and CEO, Johnny Bufahad. |
| 0:21.2 | For all those that have been living under a rock, Hopin is an online events platform where you can |
| 0:25.7 | create engaging virtual events that connect people around the globe. In the last 13 months, |
| 0:30.7 | Johnny has raised over $174 million for Hoppin from the likes of Excel, IVP, Slack, North |
| 0:36.9 | Zone, Co2, Salesforce, and of course 20 VC |
| 0:40.1 | fund disclaimer. And with the funding, again, in just 13 months, Johnny's grown the team from |
| 0:44.9 | 10 people to over 210 people across 37 countries. And in October this year, Semmel Shah awarded |
| 0:51.7 | Hoping the label, the breakout tech startup of 2020. I'd also want to say |
| 0:55.4 | huge thank you to Chris at Co2, Julia at Excel, Alex at Salesforce for some amazing questions suggestions |
| 1:00.8 | today. I really did so appreciate that. But before we move into the show today, I'm sure you've |
| 1:05.5 | heard about it on the show before, but my word, I love the product that is Carter. Carter simplifies |
| 1:09.9 | how startups and investors manage equity, track cap tables and get valuations. |
| 1:14.6 | Go to Carter.com forward slash 20VC to get 10% off. |
| 1:18.7 | More than 800,000 employees and shareholders use Carter to manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity, |
| 1:24.5 | and Carter now offers fund administration. |
| 1:26.2 | So you can see real-time |
| 1:27.6 | data in the Carter platform and work with Carter's team of experienced fund accountants. |
| 1:32.0 | Go to carter.com forward slash 20 VC to get 10% off. And speaking of products like Carter that |
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