04 Sam Yagan - CEO of ShopRunner and Co-Founder of OKCupid on How to Hire the Right People and Scale Your Business
Sam Yagan holds quite the entrepreneurial resume. During his college years, he co-founded SparkNotes, which sold for $30 million to Barnes & Noble just one year later. He then co-founded a little dating site called OKCupid and from there went on to run Match.com. He’s currently the CEO of ShopRunner, a members only online shopping site with more than 4 million members, and runs the venture capital firm, Corazon Capital.
As a regular advisor to Monica, Sam is never short on game-changing advice. Listen in today as he reveals insider tips on how to pick the right investor and the number one thing you should do after you raise your first round of capital.
He also reveals the number one book he swears by that completely changed the way he looks at hiring employees (and what to do when a hire doesn’t go well) and gives invaluable insight into how to maintain culture as you scale.
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“If it’s not working for you, it’s almost certainly not working for them.” - Sam Yagan
Show Notes:
- What is Shoprunner
- How to create a mentor relationship
- Why mentors aren’t looking for perfection!
- How to successfully scale up a team
- What is the tipping point for a CEO to scale
- How to manage a remote team and maintain culture
- What to do when a hire doesn’t go well
- How to quantify people’s jobs
- What is a hiring scorecard
- What are the first steps for a new e-commerce brand
- Sam’s advice for raising capital
- Explains difference in investors: financial and operating
- What Sam likes about investing and what he looks for
“Understanding what mountain you have to climb to sustain your business and raise more capital is critically important.” - Sam Yagan
Links Mentioned:
- Get a copy of Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
- Check out ShopRunner
- Learn more about TechStars Chicago
- Connect with Sam:
Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin
“A mentor relationship or even an investing relationship is a very personal one.” - Sam Yagan
