Ep157 – David Shein (General Partner – Our Innovation Fund) on lessons from building Australia’s first unicorn

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep157 – David Shein (General Partner – Our Innovation Fund) on lessons from building Australia’s first unicorn October 14, 2021 rohitbhargava Podcast I’m delighted to be welcoming back David Shein, the Co-founder and General Partner of Our Innovation Fund, as my guest for Episode 157 of The Startup Playbook Podcast. We last spoke on the podcast a year ago, where David shared his lessons and journey as the Founder of Com Tech, a business that over 14 years he grew to 1,400 staff before being acquired by Dimension Data for $1B. We also spoke about David’s role as the Co-founder & General Partner at our Innovation Fund, an early stage VC fund that has just closed it’s 3rd fund worth over $100M to invest in exciting Australian startups. David is coming back on the podcast to discuss his recently published a book titled; “The Dumbest Guy at the Table: How I founded Australia’s first unicorn” to uncover many of the lessons he picked up from his time as a founder & investor. Not only is the book full of fantastic insights and lessons, the book is supporting a great cause as well with 100% of the proceeds from this book going to The Black Dog Institute to raise money for mental health research. In this episode we discussed a wide range of topics including: The importance of keeping A players and how to deal with bad hiresWhat David looks for in early stage investmentsLessons from having legendary sports starts such as Bob Dwyer and Ian Chappel on the Com Tech BoardWhy founders should keep it simple& much more Ps – as mentioned at the end of this episode, I will be doing a giveaway of a few copies of David’s book. To enter, head over to the LinkedIn post here and share your favourite lesson from this or any previous episode of The Startup Playbook Podcast. Alternatively you can buy David’s book here Timestamps  2.45 – Introduction to David and his new book6.07 – How David started his first company and how business has changed since then7.30 – Knowing when your business isn’t working out and when to leave it 11.41 – Why someone isn’t always an expert just because they know more about something than you14.14 – Managing people and the importance of letting people go when they aren’t the right fit18.16 – Why you should hire for attitude and teach specific skills20.53 – What David looks for in founders and a founding team to invest in23.55 – Making intuitive investment decisions 27.40 – Building culture and why an Employee Share Option Plan (ESOP) isn’t the answer to all company culture problems31.19 – Implementing company culture effectively 37.29 – Focusing on getting a core product right before doing too many different things40.47 – The similarities between sport and business culture46.02 – Defining the business focus and whether the systems or people are most important 50.36 – Why profits are made on the buying, not the selling53.24 – What David believes will always be true and relevant in startups 57.23 – Where to find David and how to get a copy of his new book  Links Mentioned  David’s Links:  David’s LinkedIn The Dumbest Guy at the Table Book Our Innovation Fund Website Our Innovation Fund LinkedIn  People Mentioned: Satya Nadella Bob IgerElon Musk Jeff BezosMark Zuckerberg Reed HastingsAnthony EisenNick MolnarMelanie Perkins Cliff ObrechtMike Cannon-BrookesScott FarquharLarry DiamondMatt Browne Jack WelchBob DwyerIan Chappell Emily PheifferBen CroweAsh BartyDylan AlcottGabby Leibovich Neil Perry  Companies Mentioned  Black Dog InstituteCiscoMicrosoftAfterpayCanvaZipNetflix  AWS XeroAmazon AtlassianBlack Nova VenturesGeneral Electric (GE)Richmond Football Club Deliveroo CatchSquare Rockpool Other Links Mentioned Netflix Show – The PlaybookNetflix Show – Bad SportApple TV Show – Ted LassoCatch Of The Decade Book Past Episodes Mentioned  Episode 133 – David SheinEpisode 156 – Matt BrowneEpisode 135 – Gabby Leibovich Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. Find all links to the podcast here. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep157_-_David_Shein_General_Partner_-_Our_Innovation_Fund_on_lessons_from_buildimg_Australias_first_unicorn.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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