FFo. 02 - Fintech Founders Int- Rado Kotorov.mp4

FFo. 02 - Fintech Founders Int- Rado Kotorov.vtt

English

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I am Rado Kotorov Co-Founder

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and CEO of Storied Data.

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We are a data publishing and

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information  distribution platform that

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transitioned traditional documents.

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To interactive, modern experiences

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that are on par with what information

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consumers expect from web and mobile apps.

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Most companies have data, and the

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question is, how do we give this

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data to information consumers in

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easily accessible and consumable way.

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And by that I mean having better

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documents, easy to understand the

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information that's sent them and easily

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and cost effectively to put on any device.

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It's simple.

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A conversation with a sales leader who had

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7,000 sales reps under their management.

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And he asked me a simple question.

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He said, why can't I send all

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of these people a PDF with all

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their data that's interactive?

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So can easily analyze the data wherever

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they want on whatever device they want.

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It will save me cost and

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it will save them time.

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To get the information they need to

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close deals and maintain accounts.

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Two times.

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The first time we started it as

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a reporting application, and the

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second time we realized that it's a

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much bigger one and it is actually

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a publishing application, and that

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opened a new market space for us and

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put us on the right sales thread.

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I used an analogy, the biggest hurdle

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that Tesla faced was coming into a

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market of gas cars and explaining

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why you need the same device.

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With different fuel was a very difficult

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proposition for a number of years.

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So we came on a market dominated  by PDF

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documents that are so inconvenient, hard

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to consume, hard to produce, and hard

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to distribute, but they're ubiquitous so

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that people don't even see the faults.

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So, overcoming this and bringing all the

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time savings, the usability benefits and

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the E S G benefits was really, difficult.

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Fighting the ubiquitous and making people

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see that there is a better way in changing

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our habits is a really hard problem.

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Nothing.

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Oh, nowadays, I wish I had known

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sooner that the sales cycles were

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so affected by the pandemic and they

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got so longer and we didn't expect

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that we were completely unprepared.

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And it put us in a, on a spin tail for a

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while and we had to react very quickly.

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But that happens in life and we have

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to always overcome the unexpected.

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Oh, it's a crap shoot.

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People and startups for a lot of time

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in presentation statements, whatnot.

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At the end of the day, I find

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out that venture funding comes

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in a very short conversation.

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Somebody's like love at first sight.

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They either love what you do.

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Or they don't.

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And there is not really a recipe.

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I mean, there is a chemistry

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that you have to find.

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So my advice to everyone doing

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it, speak to as many as you can.

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They all are very smart people.

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There is nothing bad that they, not all

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of them bite right away, but when you

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find the chemistry, it really works well.

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Everything is challenging

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when you are a startup.

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Markets are changing.

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Rejections are too big.

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Everyone is asking you, oh, why

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are you not a bigger company or

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come when you are a bigger company?

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So sometimes I ask them, how

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did Apple come into existence?

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How did  Microsoft come into

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existence, but what I find is that

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years ago there was less bias towards

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size, but nowadays there is a lot

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of bias against, smaller size.

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That's difficult, that's challenging, but

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once you overcome it and once companies

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trust you, it's actually a benefit to you.

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Making customers happy, and watching the

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people that have come with the company

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together with you along the journey,

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seeing and enjoying every small success

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because these are the biggest things that

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motivate us, that make us keep going.

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And these are the stories that when

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you, remember when you become big.

consumers expect from web and mobile apps.

and cost effectively to put on any device.

A conversation with a sales leader who had

the E S G benefits was really, difficult.

Fighting the ubiquitous and making people

see that there is a better way in changing

find the chemistry, it really works well.

That's difficult, that's challenging, but

trust you, it's actually a benefit to you.

Rado Korotov, Co-Founder and CEO of next-gen publishing platform, Storied Data, talks about the difficulties of changing buyer habits to using a product that is a new and improved version of something that’s seen as the default, like PDFs. He also has some advice for founders looking for venture capital funding.  

medium_Rado Kotorov.jpeg