20VC: Why "Hire Great People and Get Out of the Way" is Total BS, Why Your Upbringing Can Make You a Worse Leader & A Bentley, Two Nissan Cubes and Becoming One of Macedonia's Largest Employers; The Story of Slice with Ilir Sela

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The Twenty Minute VC

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

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ilir Sela is the Founder and CEO of Slice, the all-in-one ordering and marketing tech platform for local pizzerias. Through its partnerships, Slice has driven over $1B in earnings for over 18,000 independent pizzerias nationwide. Fun fact, Slice is also one of the largest employers in Macedonia and at one point, employed so many people there, they had to start their own school to train more people. Before Slice, Ilir started Nerd Force and sold it in 2008. Huge thanks to Jeff Richards (GGV) and Ben Sun (Primary) for some amazing questions today.

In Today's Discussion with Ilir Sela We Discuss:

1. From Macedonia to the Bright Lights of NYC and Bentley Buying:

How Ilir made his way into the world of startups having grown up in Macedonia?
How did his less affluent upbringing impact his approach to company building?
How does Ilir think about the importance of money? How did he come to buy a Bentley?
What does Ilir know now that he wishes he had known when he started?

2. Why Bootstrapped Was Best & The Decision to Fundraise:

Why did Ilir scale the business to $4M in revenue without ever fundraising?
What does Ilir believe are the benefits of scaling businesses with less money?
What would Ilir have done differently had he raised money earlier?
What advice does Ilir have for founders who see competitors raising more money than them?

3. Why Delegation is BS and Your Upbringing F***** You Up:

Why does Ilir believe that much of our upbringing can instill principles which make us a worse leader?
Why does Ilir believe it is BS to hire great people and get out of the way?
What are the single biggest mistakes Ilir sees founders make in company scaling?
What have been some of Ilir's biggest lessons in talent acquisition?

4. Decision-Making 101:

How does Ilir analyze his decision-making framework today?
Where does he need to improve as a leader today? What does he need to do to get there?
What has been the single best decision he made with Slice? What did he learn from it?
What has been the worst decision he has made in the scaling process? How did that change his mindset?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Things that we've been taught when we are young, actually, I believe, sometimes create a lot more damage than good.
0:06.9	Okay, higher grade people get out of the way and I've done that. It's complete bullshit.
0:10.4	A company's growth trajectory is a collection of mini pivots. You don't have to make this huge company pivot, but every decision tree is a little pivot.
0:19.2	I just don't believe in like getting out of the way of
0:21.7	anybody. This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and what an incredible story we have for you today,
0:26.3	a company that went from bootstrapped and profitable with the founder buying a Bentley to changing
0:30.9	the way a generation of small businesses work and being one of the largest employers in Macedonia.
0:36.5	This is the story of Slice.
0:38.1	And joining us is Slice's founder, Elie Seller.
0:40.9	Through its partnerships,
0:42.1	Slices has driven over a billion dollars in earnings
0:44.4	for over 18,000 independent pizzerias nationwide.
0:48.3	And before Slice, Elyr started Nerdforce and sold it in 2008.
0:52.4	I want to say a huge thank you to Jeff Richards at GGV and
0:55.3	Ben Sun at Primary for some amazing questions suggestions today. But before we dive into the show today,
1:00.6	you know all those mind-numbing tedious tasks that seemingly take up half your day. Well,
1:05.7	Coda is here with their new AI-powered work assistant that helps you and your team, not just
1:10.7	finish tasks,
1:11.4	but make progress. So your product team can bring a feature to market faster by using Coda
1:16.7	AI to tag customer feedback, draft PRDs, suggest target audiences, summarizing product discussions
1:23.2	and more. Your sales team can engage more customers by bringing in data from sources like
1:28.0	Salesforce and then use Coda AI to suggest action items, meeting agendas or lead scores,
	...

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