Ep171 – Micha Kaufman (Co-founder & CEO – Fiverr) on risk, virality and frameworks

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep171 – Micha Kaufman (Co-founder & CEO – Fiverr) on risk, virality and frameworks February 1, 2024 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep171 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, was Micha Kaufman the Co-founder & CEO of Fiverr. Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger launched Fiverr in 2010 as a marketplace to connect freelancers to people and businesses. The pitch was simple, you could hire people for tasks around the world for $5 or less. Like many ideas ahead of its time, Micha was laughed at by the first 20 people he pitched Fiverr to, which only made him more convinced about the idea! Fast forward to today and Fiverr employs hundreds of employees serving millions of users around the world. The company went public in 2019 and currently has a market cap over $1B. In this episode, Micha opens up on his journey, lessons and insights including: How his parents’ journey from Argentina to Israel, and his wife’s battle with cancer shaped his worldview and appetite for risk. His transition from practising lawyer to founder and lessons from first three companies before Fiverr. The framework for assessing ideas he created that helped him land on the idea for Fiverr. Launching and growing a double sided marketplace Maintaining culture as you scale a company and much more! Timestamps  5:20 – Lessons from his parents and upbringing  9:30 – Supporting his wife through her battle with cancer, how that pushed him to transition from law to entrepreneurship 15:00 – Challenges and lessons from first three companies 18:25 – Using a “think tank” to create framework of how to think about ideas to work on 21:30 – Early concept of Fiverr 31:20 – Approaching the chicken and egg problem of launching a two sided marketplace 35:45 – Maintaining company culture as Fiverr scaled from a small startup to publicly listed company 43:00 – Advice to founders on navigating uncertain times ahead Our partners Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business.. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Get started with a Sydney-based Vanta team member today, or watch a 3-minute demo to learn more, at vanta.com/playbook. Links Mentioned  Micha’s links Fiverr Micha’s LinkedIn Micha on Twitter/X People mentioned Ben Hensman (Portfolio Manager – Square Peg Capital) Companies mentioned Uber Lyft Airbnb Amazon Etsy Square Peg Capital Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep171_-_Micha_Kaufman_Co-founder__CEO_-_Fiverr_on_risk_virality_and_frameworks.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. 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. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep171 – Micha Kaufman (Co-founder & CEO – Fiverr) on risk, virality and frameworks appeared first on Startup Playbook.