What Makes Billion Dollar Founders Different? w/ Yuri Sagalov

Follow Yuri: https://twitter.com/yuris Get your LLC! https://doola.com/exerton Yuri Sagalov is an engineer, entrepreneur, and investor with a remarkable track record in the startup world. With a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen, Yuri has built and scaled successful companies while actively supporting and investing in promising startups. He is the Founder and GP of Wayfinder Ventures, a seed fund whch invesvts in B2B startups and beyond! Starting as an engineer, Yuri transitioned into the world of entrepreneurship as a co-founder of AeroFS, a cloud storage, and file-sharing platform that participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2010 batch. Following AeroFS's acquisition in 2017, Yuri has remained an active player in the startup ecosystem. Yuri spent five years at Y Combinator as a Visiting Partner and Part-Time Partner, mentoring and guiding hundreds of early-stage startups. His valuable insights and experience proved instrumental in shaping the trajectory of numerous budding companies. As an angel investor, Yuri boasts a diverse and impressive investment portfolio. Notable companies he has backed include Flexport, Boom Supersonic, Mattermost, Spin, Nurx, Insight Data Science, Solugen, Lively, Landed, Joy, and Universe. He has invested in almost 11 unicorns! In this episode we talk about assessing founders, articulation as a founder, pitching as a founder, how to get good at storytelling, how do investors find great founders, getting referrals as a founder, what do ycombinator companies do different, how many customers should founders talk to, how to find the perfect investor, role of pattern matching in startups, how to become a great founder, do you have to likeable to become a founder, what makes the perfect cold email for raising money, do founders have an ego + so much more! Enjoy!