F EATURE ARTICLE: AMOS SCHWARTZFARB CONTRIBUTORS Sabeen Sadiq Emma William Sarah Harris Ayesha Irfan Hira Zahid

F E A T U R E A R T I C L E

Amos Schwartzfarb Techstars’ Investing Wizard

Amos Schwartzfarb will not sugarcoat things for anyone - that just does not work in current times anymore, not least for start-ups and budding entrepreneurs. Being the Managing Director at Techstars Austin, a seed accelerator with a market capitalization of over $18 billion USD, Amos is a seasoned investor and a capable leader with an eye for entrepreneurial aptitude. Techstars undertakes a remarkably broad range of startups with diverse profiles and helps them flourish through access to relevant expertise and resources.

Amos is also the author of a comprehensive and straightforward guide for entrepreneurs whose businesses are still in the nascent stages titled Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups.Talking with Gaper, Amos described this title as an “intentional misnomer”. This is because his sales strategy and advice is not characterised by fast-paced decision-making or the unsustainable steps taken by inexperienced entrepreneurs in their quest to generate some quick revenue. He believes in starting slower with a thoroughly disciplined and self-regulated attitude.

The W3:

Amos’ primary advice for business owners is to assimilate the three basic elements pertaining to their firm called the W3: ● Who are you selling to, ● What are they buying, ● Why are they buying?

Though evidently basic, answers to the W3 are very pertinent and relevant to the world order right now. A comprehensive, honest and rigid overview of these questions can unravel deep-seated issues and problems with a business that might have otherwise remained unaddressed.

Disruptions In The Accelerator Business Model?

With everything going virtual and remote nowadays, accelerators and other investing platforms are also finding ways to conform to the “new normal”. New businesses are admittedly in an even worse pickle since a great portion of their revenue streams, marketing efforts, and work operations have been hampered by the pandemic. Amos believes that this places accelerators in an even more significant position in the startup arena than before.

What with a global pandemic and a slowdown in world economies, it is no secret that capital flow has greatly stagnated. Venture capitalists, seed accelerators and other investors have become more cautious and riskaverse and want their capital to be exposed only to the most reliable and secure assets and entities. Amos covers these points in the first two chapters of his book which are free to read on Amazon.

Amos does not shy away from acknowledging the harsh realities of the startup world. Venture capitalists, to him, are not out there trying to build businesses up and helping them achieve sustainability in these constrained times. Their interests lie in preserving and securing capital. The common perception of VCs being the spearheads of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit may need to be put aside for the time being.

To respond smartly to the consequent dearth of fresh capital, companies and owners need to be very efficient about their use of existing capital through strategies driven by available metrics and analysis. Not only that, Amos also firmly believes that it would be unwise to fall prey to wishful thinking and not plan for the next 12 to 24 months amidst slow business activity. Due to such circumstances, accelerators become even more pivotal in helping young businesses navigate their way through these unfamiliar, uncertain territories.

The Importance of Your Financial Model

One advice Amos imparts for budding entrepreneurs is to build a usable and feasible financial model being mindful of your customers in the coming 12 to 24 months. Go through your model perpetually - every week, every month, every quarter… This approach also falls neatly in line with Gaper’s approach to doing business: being agile and flexible. Reevaluate, readjust and redesign your plans in accordance with where your company stands. No one can predict fickle dynamics of variables like customer tastes, technological developments or economic factors. Indeed, no one saw a pandemic-induced worldwide shutdown coming!

On Remote Teams And The Future

Gaper has been a staunch proponent and successful implementer of remotely operated teams of professionals even before the global pandemic. We have observed that companies that hire remote software engineers are faring far better amidst the economic uncertainty as compared to firms who relied solely on office-based workflows. Amos has spent considerable time managing remote sales teams as part of his work, an experience which lead him to draw a few useful conclusions: - Get regular updates from your team. Just because they are not working in a communal office space, does not mean you don’t check in with them. - Learn how each team member needs to be motivated and collaborated with. Everyone is different and acknowledging this would make workflow smoother. - Learn who needs to be micromanaged, and who doesn’t. - Work with your team to gain a know-how on how your business is evolving and how its productivity needs to be measured in a meaningful manner. The same metrics may not be useful across different departments. Changing business environments can also determine how you gauge your success. - Be patient with your team members.

Our chat with Amos made one thing clear: business owners need to be vigilant of the business environments they work in or will likely be affected by. They need to exercise a healthy amount of flexibility when taking their firms forward so that any unexpected challenge can be tackled head-on without the company faltering due to complacency or lack of readiness. Being consistent in assessing the progress of your business is also essential. It is better to do it with your team so that owners’ biases are filtered out when there is a need to be stringent and critical. Regardless of the type of product or services you are endeavoring to deliver, this pandemic has caught everyone off-guard. Don’t become a case study for business failure due to unwary strategies and mismanaged teams.