20VC: Is Speed the Most Important Thing from 0-1 | Why Hiring Inexperienced People is Better | The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation with Rujul Zaparde, Co-Founder and CEO @ Zip

Rujul Zaparde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, the world’s leading Intake-to-Pay solution, adopted by leading enterprises and startups including Snowflake, Canva, Airtable, Webflow, and others. In 2023, Zip raised $100 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Before founding Zip, Rujul was a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and a product manager at Airbnb. In Today’s Episode with Rujul Zaparde We Discuss: 1.

From Airbnb PM to $1.5BN Founder 2. •

How did Rujul’s first company fail? What were his lessons? • •

What did Rujul learn from his time at Airbnb? • •

How did Rujul come to co-found Zip? What was the aha moment? • •

What did Rujul wish he’d known when he started Zip? • 1.

Standing Out in a Hyper-Competitive Market 2. •

Why did Rujul pick such a competitive market? How did they stand out? • •

Does Rujul think founders should focus on pain points or platform solutions on day one? • •

What is Rujul’s advice to founders who are in the discovery process? • •

Does Rujul agree with Trae Stephens @ Founders Fund that serial entrepreneurs doing B2B enterprise SaaS are wasting their talent? • 1.

The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation 2. •

Which key moment caused Zip to accelerate? • •

Why does Rujul think speed is the most important element in startups? • •

Why does Rujul not believe in design partners? • •

Why does Rujul believe repeatability is the most important thing when pitching? • •

Does Rujul think AI will destroy outbound sales? • 1.

How to Hire & Manage Teams 2. •

What was Rujul’s “rude awakening” building a sales team? • •

What was Rujul’s biggest hiring mistake? What did he learn from it? • •

How does Rujul decide where to focus his attention and resources? • •

Why does Rujul believe younger managers are more creative? •