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Avni Patel Thompson at the Seattle Female Founders Conference
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Avni Patel Thompson is the CEO and Founder of Poppy - https://www.meetpoppy.com Here's her talk from the 2018 Seattle Female Founders Conference. If you’re curious about applying to YC, Avni recently wrote a great post called “Is Y Combinator for me?” - https://avnipatelthompson.com/2017/09/20/is-y-combinator-for-me/ If you'd like to attend a future Female Founders Conference, you can learn more here: http://www.femalefoundersconference.org/
Segments Timeline
Welcome to the Female Founders Conference
Avni Patel Thompson introduces herself as the co-founder and CEO of Poppy, a platform connecting parents with caregivers. She expresses her excitement about the Female Founders Conference and highlights its significance in her journey, emphasizing the energy and potential of gathering women with bold ideas.
"so the first speaker you're gonna hear today is omnipotent Thompson the founder of poppy poppy is a site that connects parents with great caregivers for their children so Omni and her co-founder went ..."
Building the Modern Village
Avni shares Poppy's mission to create a modern support system for families by connecting vetted caregivers with parents in need of childcare. She discusses her personal experiences as a parent and the challenges faced when traditional support systems fall short, motivating her to start Poppy.
"so amazing to see you all here today it is amazing for me to have the FFC up here for those of you that know me and my story the female founder conference is an important part of my story and I've jus..."
The Genesis of Poppy
Avni reflects on her journey to founding Poppy, driven by the belief that technology can solve the challenges of parenthood. She emphasizes that her lack of a tech background did not deter her from pursuing her vision of improving childcare for families, highlighting the importance of addressing the broken aspects of parenthood.
"this is pretty exciting to me because I'm a parent my husband and I have two little girls SIA is almost six and Aria is three and we have been there we have been there where both of us are working we ..."
Overcoming Obstacles as a Founder
Avni discusses the challenges she faced as a founder, including self-doubt and external obstacles. She stresses the importance of focusing on solutions rather than barriers, encouraging aspiring founders to pursue their ideas and contribute to solving significant problems in society.
"somebody was going to be building a future that solved this it might as well be me and so that really was the genesis for poppy where I thought I could use technology to be able to solve a really impo..."
Phases of Growth: Getting Started and Growing
Avni outlines the two critical phases of her entrepreneurial journey: getting started and scaling the business. She shares her hope to inspire more founders to embark on their journeys, emphasizing the potential impact of diverse companies solving various problems.
"to you today it's something that I'm super passionate about if I think about this last three years I think there's sort of two big phases this sort of phase one that I like to call kind of get going o..."
From Corporate to Entrepreneur
Avni shares her background in corporate America, detailing her experiences at Procter & Gamble and Starbucks. She explains how her traditional career path shaped her understanding of consumer problems and fueled her desire to start her own venture, leading to the creation of Poppy.
"that's what I hope to do today and share just a couple of the things that I've found not necessarily so intuitive and hopefully in doing so we can start a dialogue and start getting more people starte..."
Lessons from a Failed Startup
Avni recounts her experience with her first startup, Papaya and Post, which aimed to promote cultural curiosity in children. She discusses the challenges of customer acquisition and the importance of aligning business models with market demand, ultimately leading to the decision to shut down the venture.
"at that point for me my entrepreneurial sort of bug had been I was bit by the entrepreneurial bug and at that point I said you know what I want to start something it was about 2012 lots of people are ..."
Identifying Real Consumer Needs
Avni reflects on the lessons learned from her previous startup and emphasizes the importance of understanding consumer needs. She highlights the recurring theme of childcare challenges among parents, which ultimately inspired her to focus on building Poppy as a solution.
"to the decision to shut that down and that was a hard process but I think the right process because you have to be true to what your intent is and my intent has always been to build a scalable company..."
The Equation of Community Support
Avni introduces her concept of approximating community support through technology. She explains how trust, matching, and scheduling can be integrated into a solution that addresses the child care dilemma, laying the groundwork for her startup, Poppy.
"talked and basically said we could go a year without you taking a salary and I did used pretty much all of that year up and I'd used a pretty much all of the money that I'd set aside for startups the ..."
Validating Your Idea Under Constraints
Avni shares her strategy for validating her business idea within tight constraints of time and resources. She emphasizes the importance of solving immediate problems and outlines her approach to testing the market with a four-week plan.
"I could already see how I could I had a hypothesis on how I might approximate village using technology at each of these key kind of pieces which brings me so to the point and the idea of papi and so n..."
The Power of Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Avni discusses how leveraging off-the-shelf solutions allowed her to quickly prototype her idea. She recounts her initial success in connecting families with vetted caregivers, demonstrating the effectiveness of her approach in the early stages of her startup.
"front of me if I could solve the biggest problem in front of me I'd figure out the next one next and so in that instance it was I needed to buy time to do more things so I basically basically to make ..."
The Importance of Growth Metrics
Avni explains her focus on achieving consistent growth metrics in her startup. She shares how setting a goal of 10% weekly growth not only provided discipline but also led to unexpected success, boosting her confidence after previous failures.
"our first four so great I've got a baseline I've got four bookings and I just need to grow it next week by 10% which is five it doesn't sound like a lot but it's it does two things one it's discipline..."
The Search for a Technical Co-Founder
Avni concludes by addressing the challenge of finding a technical co-founder. She emphasizes the necessity of having a tech partner in building a tech company and discusses various options available for non-technical founders to collaborate with engineers.
"is that when you're talking about validating your idea your your purpose is learning it's not about optimizing for revenue or all of those things in these early days you just have to pick something an..."
Testing the Co-Founder Relationship
Avni explains how she and her now co-founder, Richard, established their partnership through a six-week test. She highlights the significance of assessing compatibility and shared commitment in a co-founder relationship, which is crucial for startup success.
"at the knees and so I'm not saying that this is easy this is one of the hardest things I almost died and I've said this before but we almost died through growing too big too quickly without somebody e..."
Leveraging Growth for Funding
Avni discusses how demonstrating growth helped her secure funding for her startup. She emphasizes that tangible results attract investors and how focusing on growth can alleviate the challenges of fundraising.
"I later learned and because this is also one of those most common questions that I'll get how did you find a technical co-founder as it turns out by me focusing on growth that also helped me solve thi..."
From Idea to Product-Market Fit
Avni outlines the stages of her startup journey, focusing on validating her idea and achieving product-market fit. She shares insights on the importance of growth and adapting the business model to meet market demands.
"this wasn't me talking in ideas it was really important and we were able to raise that money so this stage one is really about validate your idea get to a hundred paying users that love what you're ma..."
Hiring for Passion Over Pedigree
Avni reflects on her hiring experiences, emphasizing the value of commitment and passion over traditional qualifications. She shares a story about hiring a team member who was a user of their product, illustrating the importance of empathy and engagement in building a strong team.
"so the first thing here is about hiring about a team and I thought after 10 years of having experience you know with big companies and hiring I thought I knew how to do this and it took me many months..."
Building a Sustainable Business Model
Avni discusses the evolution of her startup's business model, highlighting the necessity of adapting pricing strategies to ensure sustainability. She shares lessons learned about user expectations and the importance of transparency in business operations.
"problem and can get in and get going the next thing is that you need to build a company and it needs to even out you need to do things that maybe you had a hypothesis on different business model thing..."
The Importance of Transparency
Avni highlights the critical role of transparency in building a sustainable business. She discusses the need to involve early users in the company's journey and the importance of keeping them informed about challenges and decisions. This segment underscores the value of maintaining open communication to foster trust and loyalty among users.
"those changes the last thing I'll just touch on is to sort of it seems like minor things but one is things like investor updates and the other is Mentors there's a reason I didn't talk about advisors ..."
Building a Support Network
Avni emphasizes the significance of surrounding oneself with trusted advisors and mentors as a founder. She discusses the need for accountability and the importance of having individuals who can challenge your perspectives. This segment serves as a reminder of the value of collaboration and support in the entrepreneurial journey.
"privilege of their money so that's basically what I feel like were the two most important parts for stage one and kind of Phase two for my company to get to where it is today and I guess I feel like i..."
Self-Care for Founders
In this segment, Avni stresses the importance of self-care for founders, particularly for those balancing parenthood and entrepreneurship. She shares her personal experiences and the necessity of taking breaks to avoid burnout. Avni advocates for creating space for self-care as a crucial practice for sustaining both personal well-being and business success.
"isn't maybe yes there's a lot of us startups that could use amazing smart people to work at our startups for a couple of years until you figure out whether that's the thing for you it also gives you r..."
Encouragement to Take Action
Avni concludes her talk with a motivational call to action for aspiring founders. She encourages them to focus on building bold companies and overcoming hurdles. This segment serves as an inspiring reminder of the potential impact of entrepreneurship and the importance of taking the first steps toward realizing ambitious goals.
"really important thing so YC applications are due on March 24th that is 50 days 7 weeks if you haven't started that gives you two weeks to plan something four weeks to do it and 1 week to write the ap..."