Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures

LAUNCHDARKLY IS A PIONEER IN THE FEATURE MANAGEMENT SPACE. FOUNDED IN 2014, WHILE THE AGILE AND CLOUD MOVEMENTS WERE STILL RELATIVELY NASCENT, LAUNCHDARKLY WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME. THEY HAVE NOW SCALED TO A $3 BILLION COMPANY, SERVING OVER 4,000 CUSTOMERS. In this episode, LaunchDarkly Co-Founder and CEO Edith Harbaugh takes us back to her initial insight as an engineering manager and product leader at TripIt, deeply versed in the value of systematic feature flagging, and keenly aware of how underutilized it was by many other dev teams. She shares the conviction required to build a product that most buyers in Silicon Valley weren’t yet looking for, and how she engaged her network to gain initial design partners for the product that would come to define the feature management space. Join us as we discuss: * Honing a founder insight and being early vs late to an emerging sector * Hypothesis testing and building with design partners * Community-building and marketing a movement * Fundraising when VCs are skeptical of a new sector About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya [https://twitter.com/sandhya]) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/]). Further reading: * Identifying initial customers — https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/ideal-customer-profile-and-personas [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/ideal-customer-profile-and-personas] * Early-stage pricing — https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pricing-your-product * TOOL: Founder prioritization heatmap — https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/ceo-founder-prioritization * Building a self-serve motion  — https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/self-serve-user-buyer-journey

JASPER IS A LEADING AI-DRIVEN CONTENT PLATFORM WITH OVER 80,000 CUSTOMERS. GOING FROM LAUNCH TO UNICORN STATUS IN 18 MONTHS, THEY HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE FASTEST COMPANIES TO CROSS $1M IN MRR WITH A NEW PRODUCT. In this episode, Jasper Co-Founder Dave Rogenmoser shares his story of persistence, pivots, and market validation as he and his co-founders went from building a digital marketing agency to a hypergrowth AI unicorn. Join us as we discuss: * External and internal signals that it’s time to pivot * Validating startup ideas and how to let the user shape product decisions * Product-led GTM and getting users to buy a product before it exists * Building AI products and how to partner with foundation AI companies About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya [https://twitter.com/sandhya]) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/]).

Aurora Solar [https://aurorasolar.com/] is a solar design platform that has accelerated small business growth in the solar energy industry. Through it, vendors and homeowners have instant access to crucial data about home solar projects. In this episode, Co-founder at Aurora Solar Chris Hopper [https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-hopper/] shares how he went from installing solar panels to managing a $4B climate tech unicorn that has powered over 10 million solar projects. Join us as we discuss: * Building a product around ignored customer needs * Bootstrapping growth with SMBs for momentum * Expanding up-market in a concentrated enterprise segment About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya [https://twitter.com/sandhya]) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/]). Further reading: * How to raise Seed and Series A capital: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/fundraising-milestones-valuations [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/fundraising-milestones-valuations] * Building a product roadmap: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-product-roadmap [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-product-roadmap] * Unusual Ventures video series: the guide to fundraising: https://www.unusual.vc/post/unusual-founders-video-series-the-guide-to-fundraising [https://www.unusual.vc/post/unusual-founders-video-series-the-guide-to-fundraising]

Before Webflow, creating a website required both a designer and a coder. Now, designers can build websites without code or sacrificing their artistic vision. Listen, as Co-Founder of Webflow [https://webflow.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=general-paid-branded&utm_term=keyword-targeting&utm_content=branded-ads&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=Google-Search-Brand-Core-SS&utm_term=kwd-11668981_webflow_e_615901391963___ss_paid-bb&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgribBhDkARIsAASA5btTU1mAwKAwUtSd_1mfttPkVVZOh-6aS7WI36KNGOYw8CUoTUN19zYaArFiEALw_wcB], Bryant Chou [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryantchou/] talks about his journey turning a simple idea of simplifying website-creation into a $4 billion dollar company. Join us as we discuss: * Webflow’s organic marketing strategies * Lessons learned from Webflow’s private beta * How Bryant discovered the product-market fit for Webflow * Webflow’s product roadmap positioning * Building a team that amplified Webflow’s vision About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya [https://twitter.com/sandhya] ) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/]). Further reading: * Creating a product roadmap: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-creating-product-roadmap [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-creating-product-roadmap] * Fixing Seed-Stage sales for enterprise businesses: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/sales-fixing-seed-stage-sales [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/sales-fixing-seed-stage-sales] * Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) and personas: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/sales-intro-to-icp [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/sales-intro-to-icp]

SOC2 certification is a daunting process for startup founders but increasingly necessary to land customers. Our guest today was among the first to understand how startup founders thought about security and compliance and set out to create the automated compliance category. Listen in as Christina Cacioppo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccacioppo/], CEO and co-found er of Vanta [https://www.vanta.com/?utm_medium=social] talks about her journey to creating the leading automated security and compliance platform that is valued at $1.6B today. Join us as we discuss: * How Christina approached finding product-market fit for Vanta * What productivity looks like for the sales team at Vanta with $10-20k ACVs * How Christina has invested in her own evolution as a leader and CEO * Christina’s best advice for seed stage founders just starting out on their journey About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya [https://twitter.com/sandhya]) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/]). Further reading: * CEO/Founder prioritization tool: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-ceo-and-founder-prioritization [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-ceo-and-founder-prioritization] * Modern GTM: Scale your sales team to win the early majority: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/the-modern-gtm-scaling-your-sales-team-to-win-the-early-majority [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/the-modern-gtm-scaling-your-sales-team-to-win-the-early-majority] * Product testing process: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/product-testing-overview [https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/product-testing-overview]