FF 08: Pierre Valade, CEO @ Sunrise on Being Acquired By Microsoft for $100m and Building Beautiful Products
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2015
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pierre Valade is Co-Founder and CEO @ Sunrise, the beautiful calendar app, acquired by Microsoft for $100m in February 2015, where he now works on Outlook Mobile for Microsoft. Prior to Sunrise, Pierre worked as a UX designer @ Foursquare following a successful hackathon in which he built an app in 6 hours, called Agora. Agora impressed Foursquare Founder, Dennis Crowley to the extent that Pierre was hired in the same month. As a result of Pierre's success he was named on the Innovators Under 35.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
- How Pierre came up with the idea for Sunrise?
- What made Sunrise standout above all calendar apps as the best calendar?
- What features are most requested by Sunrise users?
- How was the design process in altering the design from a iPhone to a Apple Watch?
- What was Pierre and Sunrise approach to testing and iterating products?
- Having raised VC funding prior to acquisition, how did Pierre meet his initial investors, what was his fundraising experience like? Were there any surprises or challenges?
- How did the Microsoft Acquisition come about? How has Pierre's role and Sunrise changed since the acquisition?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Pierre's Fave Book: Zero To One: Peter Thiel
Pierre Most Impactful Purchase: iPhone 6
Pierre's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 8 of Founders Friday and I am so excited to introduce today an incredible founder in Pierre Vallad. |
| 0:09.1 | Pierre is co-founder and CEO at Sunrise, the beautiful calendar app which was acquired by Microsoft for $100 million in February 2015, where he now works on Outlook mobile. |
| 0:23.1 | Prior to sunrise, Pierre worked as a U.X designer at Foursquare, following a successful |
| 0:28.7 | hackathon, in which he built an app in six hours called Agora. |
| 0:33.8 | Agora impressed Four Square founder Dennis Crowley so much that Pierre was hired later that month by Foursquare. |
| 0:40.3 | With all of Pierre's incredible successes, he has been named on the Innovators Under 35 list. |
| 0:45.3 | I'd also like to say a huge thank you to Kevin Carter at SV Angel, who introduced Pierre and myself, and this interview could not have happened without his help. |
| 0:54.8 | But before we dive into today's show, I have just finished reading the seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. |
| 1:01.8 | And he says that recruitment and selection are the most important part of running a business. |
| 1:07.0 | Well, that is why I use hiring screen. |
| 1:09.4 | They are quite simply the smartest and farthest way to find the relevant candidates for your job. |
| 1:15.3 | They help me find my assistant Jackie, and I've never looked back. |
| 1:18.8 | Thank you so much HiringSreen. I couldn't have done it without you. |
| 1:21.8 | And you can find them at www.hiringscreen.com. |
| 1:26.0 | But without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to welcome Pierre Vallad, CEO and co-founder at Sunrise. |
| 1:37.7 | You have now arrived at your destination. |
| 1:42.6 | Pierre, welcome to Founders Friday. |
| 1:44.4 | It's absolutely fantastic to have you on the show. |
| 1:47.3 | Hey, hello, everyone. |
| 1:48.4 | Hello, Ari. |
| 1:49.4 | Now, since James Weiser-Boulson showed me Sunrise, |
| 1:52.7 | I've been using it fanatically to organise everything for the 20-minute VC. |
... |
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