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Clarity

Roham Gharegozlou

Vancouver, British Columbia

Roham is Founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, the creator of CryptoKitties as well as upcoming titles like NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain. Dapper Labs is funded by Andreessen Horowitz, USV, Venrock, and GV, among others.

Prior to helping start Dapper Labs, Roham was founder and CEO of Axiom Zen. In the six years he served as CEO, Roham bootstrapped the company from two to 80 team members and spun out four independent businesses including Routific and ZenHub. Routific is one of the world’s most accurate routing platforms, with its API used by companies from FedEx to Doordash. ZenHub is the leading team collaboration solution for GitHub, leveraged by thousands of developers in the open source community as well as fast-moving teams at companies like docker, Microsoft, GE, and Shopify.

Before starting Axiom Zen, Roham was an investor with Newbury Ventures and Rising Tide Fund, based in San Francisco. He has also made a number of angel investments, including Intercom. Roham holds BS, BA, and MS degrees in Economics and Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

$5.00/min

Roham donates to charity: water ($100.96)

4 Calls

1 Review

32 minutes
Avg. call

Entrepreneurship Fundraising angel investing Start-ups Product Management Private Equity Venture Capital Business Strategy Investments Mergers

Answers 6
Reviews 1

Answers

Roham Gharegozlou answered

I'm juggling contract work and building an MVP. I'm trying to clear things off - but things keep piling up. How can I find more time?

you need to be very disciplined about quitting responsibilities, saying no, clearing your plate. A startup is more than a full-time job, do everything in your power to narrow your focus and avoid burdening yourself with commitments. in the same vein, be proactive not reactive. set aside a portion of your day for "work" and don't respond to emails or calls during that time. do what you decided to do, not whatever feels right in the moment. the feeling of progress will give you fuel to keep going.

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Start-ups

freelancing

Roham Gharegozlou answered

I have a good opportunity to join a startup, my role will be to design and build a MVP, so far there are 3 people involved.

Dan's answer is spot on. Based on the facts in your question I would guess you're in the 3-10% range, lower if your salary is close to market. I would add that because of the 1 year cliff, having a large equity stake makes you more likely to be let go quickly if you're valuable but not as valuable as expected to the company. I would say that's largely a good thing, but based on your risk profile you may disagree.

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Private Equity

Roham Gharegozlou answered

Run a small ad agency for 10 yrs+ with a few designers. Down to one designer, who has interest in ownership. Don't know how to structure an offer.

first, please put a bit more effort into your question, it's barely comprehensible. regarding your employee: talk to him, find out what level of ownership and what risk profile tickles his fancy. leave room for increases in the future. open communication + transparency --> make sure everyone's on the same page regarding expectations, roles, time commitments, etc. good luck.

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Building Partnerships

Business Strategy

Roham Gharegozlou answered

What are some warning signs to look for in dealings with VC firms and individual investors?

Red flags: no recent investments; bad references from previous investees;

Yellow flags: uninspired, superficial qursti

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Fundraising

Venture Capital

Capital Raising

Roham Gharegozlou answered

How do you get exposure on AngelList to attract angel investors?

Social proof. AngelList is one online component of a primarily offline and relationship-driven process. Startups are not commodities and AL is not eBay. You have to do the legwork to ensure your Co is worth the attention. Focus on bringing onboard advisors and investors who have a high angellist rank. Linking to your page would help. You want followers as well as people that engage more deeply.

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Angel Investor

Investments

Roham Gharegozlou answered

What's the best forum software to get off the ground quickly that would require minimal customization.

I'm not sure one exists. The general best practice is for businesses and communities is to go where your fans already are: Facebook groups, G+ pages, etc. the examples you mention are very Web 1.0 an quite clunky without lots of work. I'd be interested to see what the conversion of your fb fans into a stand alone community will be. Vbulletin and others are fine but, like I said, clunky.

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Community Building

Technology

Start-ups

Reviews

Roham gets startups. He is a strategic thinker who analyzes problems from the view points of founder, VC, and end user. He was very helpful with product strategy - highly recommended.

Noah Sidman-Gale Source: Clarity

Member since February 2012