Hey friends,
Back again with another edition of The Founder recap - this is Episode 35. If you’re new here, my goal is to give you a quick synopsis of what got me thinking from this week’s episode of The Founder Podcast in 5 minutes or less.
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Mission control:
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And who am I?
I’m Kallaway - a future founder trying to get some answers before I jump in the ball pit myself.
Let’s get it.
This Week’s Episode (Ep 35) 🗄️
Guest -> Sib Mahapatra, Co-Founder of Branch
Mission -> Branch’s mission is to furnish your office (both at home and at work) with beautiful products that don’t break the bank
Discount -> Use code “Kallaway” or click this link for 10% off of Branch products
Episode available on -> Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Website
In this episode we talk with Sib about…
🔍 How to analyze markets and identify viable startup ideas
🔨 Prototyping without industry expertise
👀 What to look for in a Co-Founder
↔️ Pivoting from a B2B -> B2C company in a pandemic
🔮 The future of office working and office furniture
Summary 🔍
What is Branch and how did Sib get started?
Sib got his start studying philosophy at Yale during his undergrad, realizing a love for systems and technology at an early age.
After school, he spent time at real estate tech startup Redfin and had a versatile role supporting several functions across the business including developing and launching new products.
He quickly realized that he had an affinity for building and knew that for his next project, he wanted to try his hand at making something from scratch, without having a major corporation as a backstop.
He spent some time exploring a few different problem spaces before settling on real estate technology, inspired by his time at Redfin.
He became an entrepreneur in residence at Notation Capital to begin incubating his ideas where he met his Co-Founder (Greg) and started Branch.
Today at Branch, Sib and his team have created a modern office furniture brand that sells directly to businesses and consumers.
What started out as a rapidly growing B2B business for furnishing offices with 25-250 people, Branch and its founding team hit a major roadblock when Covid struck in late February of 2020. A rich pipeline full of corporate clients went to essentially zero when businesses had to shut down their offices.
Like any scrappy entrepreneurs, the Branch founders never panicked, and quickly pivoted to make high quality furniture for the home office.
Today they’ve supplied furniture to thousands of professionals at home and are poised to scale a hybrid model as we return to normalcy in 2021.
Upgrade your office today with code “Kallaway” for 10% off all Branch products.
Here’s why I’m a fan and excited about the future for Branch:
They identified an inefficiency in a massive market and exploited it. Prior to the pandemic, Branch was at a $10M annual run rate supplying high quality, affordable furniture to offices. Before Branch was introduced to the market, corporate offices had their choice of either (1) the super premium, ultra expensive Herman Millers and Steelcases of the world or (2) the lower quality IKEAs. Branch was created to provide a high quality alternative at an affordable price point. Perhaps their most radical innovation was a flexible exchange program - where businesses can turn in their furniture as they grow for credit on a future purchase.
When the pandemic hit, and nearly all offices closed, Branch’s revenue was cut by 90% overnight. They realized that they needed to temporarily pivot to a DTC office furniture company. In a matter of days, they needed to rethink messaging, customer acquisition, shipping, unboxing, packaging, and assembly. They were able to completely revamp the company in just 6 weeks, replacing their lost revenue within the next few months.
Sib’s Startup Manifesto 📜
What’s a Startup Manifesto?
At the end of every episode, I ask all of my founder guests the same question:
If you had to write a Startup Manifesto with 5 of the most important key lessons or pitfalls to avoid when starting out, what would they be?
Here’s what Sib had to say:
Don’t start a venture-backed business for money. “I never believed this was true and have seen a bunch of my friends starting businesses for money and they’ve been a slog and didn’t work out.” Do it for an intrinsic reason, not just money.
Ensure that you have Co-Founder alignment. Be on the same page with values, goals and complementary skillsets.
Think about distribution first or a very close second. Design your product around there being a clear way to distribute it and a core channel where you’re going to get economies of scale and your marginal cost of attribution can decline overtime.
Go deep before you go broad. Start with one problem and then scale it up category by category.
Every 6 months, reevaluate your alignment with what you’re working on. If something is speaking to you and you don’t feel like you’re enjoying it or burned out, get to the root cause of why that is. Maybe it’s because you’re not aligned with your co-founders, or maybe you’ve drifted from the mission? Either way, check in and figure out why. Journaling can be a big help here
What Got Me Thinking From the Episode 🤔
After reflecting on my conversation with Sib, here’s something that really got my wheels spinning:
Co-Founder dating & alignment 👍🏽
One of my core takeaways from Sib was how important co-founder selection and alignment is.
Most people focus all of their attention on coming up with a great idea. Less spend time thinking about how to execute on that idea and get reliable distribution at scale. It seems like even less focus on co-founder selection.
Choosing a co-founder is like choosing a spouse. Heck, you’ll probably spend more time with them than you do with your spouse during the life of your startup.
For Sib, he was already looking to start a company in the broader real estate tech space when he met Greg, his now Co-Founder at Branch. For clarity, Sib has a third Co-Founder as well, Verity, but when we chatted, Sib highlighted his early exchanges with Greg.
Sib said that the very first thing he and Greg did was talk about why they wanted to start the company. Sib was looking for someone that wasn’t purely driven by financial motives and that cared deeply about building something and creating a culture that was special.
After they found alignment, Sib wanted to better understand Greg’s core values. Was he a good person? Is he the kind of person that Sib would enjoy spending time with?
To me, matching on personal core values is one of the most underrated components of the co-founder “dating” process. Nothing can erode a relationship faster, in business or in life, than misaligned core values.
Lastly, Sib wanted to ensure that he and Greg had complementary skillsets. In the early days when there are more things to do than you have hours to do them, it’s vital that your founders are able to tackle different core areas.
For Sib, he loved product and Greg loved operating and managing the business. Their third Co-Founder, Verity, owns the ops.
After Sib was able to ensure alignment across those three areas, he felt confident jumping in headfirst.
I’m fascinated by the way different startup founders come to meet and join forces. Sometimes it’s due to a common thread, like school or former employer. Other times, you hear stories of a mutual friend introducing two people and it’s a match made in startup heaven.
Who’s your favorite Co-Founder duo or trio?
Wrapping it Up 📕
I hope you found this interesting and inspiring! If so and you want to help support our journey to bring The Founder to millions of people across the world, here’s a couple things that would be really valuable to me and the show:
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Till next time ✌️
Kallaway
Want more? Check out other companies we’ve featured on the show!
— 🙋♀️ 33. Farrynheight | Farryn Weiner
— 🛌 30. Eight Sleep | Matteo Franceschetti
— 🌵 25. The Sill | Eliza Blank
— 🥦 22. Levels | Josh Clemente
— 🧑🦰 17. Kombo Ventures | Kevin Gould
— 💍 11. The Clear Cut | Olivia Landau and Kyle Simon
— 🥘 7. Kettle & Fire | Justin Mares
— 🥾 2. Thursday Boots | Connor Wilson
See any mistakes? Let me know (kallaway@thefounderpod.com)