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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Why Virtually All Companies Hire The Wrong Way, Why EdTech Is The Most Brutal Market & How To Scale Your Sales Team for Engineering Founders with Mike Sliagadze, Founder & CEO @ Top Hat

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Tech News, News, Business, Investing

4.4693 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike Silagadze is the Founder & CEO @ Top Hat, the market leader in student engagement software, and is used by millions of students at three-quarters of the top 1,000 colleges and universities in North America. To date, they have raised over $47m in VC funding from many friends and former guests on the show including Albert Wenger @ USV, Boris Wertz @ Version One, Uncork Capital, Felicis and Emergence just to name a few. As for Mike, prior to TopHat, he was a developer at MioVision Technologies.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Mike made his way into the world of startups and came to realise the current method of learning was so broken?

2.) Why does Mike believe that investors have an automatic dislike to edtech? Why does he believe it is the most difficult to market to enter? Why is go to market one of the biggest challenges? How can on innovate on this antiquated go-to-market to enable the rapid scaling required? How did TopHat achieve this?

3.) Why does Mike believe that most companies hire in fundamentally the wrong way? How does Mike balance the complex elements of raw IQ over culture when hiring? If there was one predictive factor Mike uses to hire, what is it? What is the framework and methodology Mike has constructed to ensure the best hires?

4.) What were the biggest mistakes Mike made in scaling out the sales team? Why does Mike think he made them? If he were to advise a younger self, what would be the biggest advice and tips with regards to scaling the sales team, from an engineer's mindset?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Mike's Fave Book: Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

As always you can follow HarryThe Twenty Minute VC and Mike on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Leesa is the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Leesa have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is ordered completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com to start the New Year with better nights sleep!

Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don't take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back. You are listening to Founders Friday on the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings,

0:04.1

and you can see more from us behind the scenes on the 20 minute VC on Instagram at H. Stebbings with 2Bs.

0:09.5

I'd love to see you there. However, to our episode and a very special Founders Friday today,

0:13.8

and I'm thrilled to welcome Mike Siligansi. Mike is the founder and CEO at Top Hat. The market leader in student engagement software now used by millions of students

0:22.3

at three quarters of the top 1,000 colleges and universities in North America. To date, they've raised

0:27.7

over $47 million in VC funding from many friends and former guests on the show, including

0:32.7

Albert Venger at USV, Boris Vers at version 1, uncourt capital, Felisysus and Emergence, just to name a few.

0:39.6

As for Mike, prior to TopPad, he was a developer at Maya Vision Technologies.

0:43.6

And I do also want to say a big thank you to someone who supported both me personally and

0:47.3

the 20 minute VC throughout our journey.

0:49.3

So a huge thanks today to Boris at Version 1 for the intro to Mike.

0:52.4

I really am so grateful for all you've done.

0:54.5

But before we dive into the show today, what are we without a great night's sleep? And that's where

0:58.6

Lisa comes in. Lisa is the Warby Parker or Tom's shoes of the mattress industry. They've done

1:03.4

away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating this luxury premium foam mattress

1:08.7

that's ordered completely online and shipped for free to your

1:11.7

doorstep. The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with three unique foam layers

1:16.7

for a universal adaptive feel, including two inches of memory foam and two inches of a really cool

1:21.8

latex foam called Avena, designed to keep you cool. All Lisa mattresses are 100% US or UK made, and for every 10 mattresses

1:29.3

they sell, they donate one to a shelter. So go to Lisa.com for your perfect night's sleep, and if you're

1:34.3

like me and lose sleep worrying about the quality of conference calls and communicating remotely,

1:38.9

then check out Zoom, the fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one

...

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