I met Assel in September '22 when she liked one of my posts about our thesis at Jemison Alexander. I reached out cold to her to thank her for her kind sentiment.
I chatted with her and Vadim shortly after and started to get to know their business Paperstack (Techstars '21). It was clear that they were building something exciting. What was more clear was that they were diligent and rigorous, but also fun, good people. They're the kind of people you root for.
Every month the email updates came, and after the third one, I remember thinking "shit, they're onto something".
I haven't (yet) raised a fund for Jemison Alexander. All of the deals we've done are individual deals. That means that founders pitch me and once I develop conviction in a business, I go pitch it to my group of investors. If we're going to invest, we spin up an SPV (special purpose vehicle) and write one collective check to the company to invest.
I pitched Paperstack to my group of investors in mid-Q4 '22 and I wasn't able to get enough demand to put together an SPV. This was my first memorable failure with Jemison Alexander. There have been more since, and there will be more in the future. That's how it goes.
A core part of my thesis is that our family is only writing personal checks into deals that Jemison Alexander does. I've stuck firmly to that on every deal over the past twelve months. Except for Paperstack.
Our family wrote a personal check to Paperstack as part of their pre-seed, and I'm incredibly happy we did. If you look at the Paperstack business, you'll see the revenue growth that founders and investors dream of. What you won't immediately see is what's captured in this video below. Assel and Vadim are maniacally focused on understanding and delighting their customers. They're building products that their customers want, need, and love. We text and talk on the phone pretty often, and I can't tell you how many times they texted back that they were with their customers.
And look what that gets you. This team is ridiculously close to real, scaleable product-market fit. They've stayed lean, focused on revenue, and above all built products that people wanted.
Paperstack is the model. Aspiring entrepreneurs should look to Assel and Vadim and how they've stayed true to their north star.
And $1M in ARR ain't bad either.
Paperstack (Techstars '21) Co-Founders Assel Beglinova + Vadim Lidich went from $0 to $1M in revenue in under 18 months.✨ How did they do it!?
Check out Ep. 2 of our $0 to $1M series, where our favorite #Brex ambassador, Jeanine Suah, uncovers some of the factors that went into Paperstack reaching that $1M mark.
One of their biggest strategies? Staying close to their customers.
By enabling customers to contact them ➡️ directly ⬅️ and strengthening their relationships by even visiting their customers' warehouses, they were able to find product-market fit and get from $0 to $1M...real quick.⚡
Tune in to get inspired by this savvy team, and keep your eyes peeled next week for more Founder best practices!
#startups #founders #venturecapital
4X Founder 1 Exit, Fractional CEO, VP-GM Fortune50
3wWell said. In this tight market, especially for cybersecurity tools, founders not only need to deliver 10X value prop; but provide a clear plan to replace one or more legacy tools.