Founder's Story - Building Connectd: How Roei Samuel is Revolutionizing Startup Success Through Data, Transparency, and Accountability

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

In this insightful episode of Founder's Story, host Daniel Robbins sits down with Roei Samuel, the founder and CEO of Connectd, a platform transforming the startup and investor ecosystem by streamlining transparency, accountability, and access to expert networks. Roei shares his journey from the founding and successful exit of his first startup, RealSport, to launching Connected, which empowers startups and investors with real-time data insights and expert access to fuel growth. With a vision to build a frictionless experience for entrepreneurs, investors, and talent, Roei reveals his commitment to reshaping how startups navigate funding and growth in today’s fast-paced world.Key Discussion Points:The Genesis of Connected:After his previous company, RealSport, was acquired in 2018, Roei began advising and investing in startups. Observing recurring challenges around investor reporting and accessing talent networks, he noticed these two behaviors were strong indicators of a startup’s success.Connected was born to address these needs, using integrated technology to enable seamless investor reporting and talent discovery, allowing startups to build trust and accountability with investors while accessing the talent they need for growth.Connected’s Approach to Investor Reporting and Talent Discovery:Connected integrates directly with startups' financial and commerce systems (e.g., QuickBooks, Stripe) to gather real-time, transaction-level data, which then populates comprehensive investor reports.The platform uses this data to identify specific needs within the company (e.g., expertise in marketing for a scaling fintech), making it easy to connect with the right talent at the right time, thus creating a supportive ecosystem for startups.Why Transparency and Accountability Matter:Roei emphasizes that transparency is critical but sees accountability as the true driver of success for startups. By ensuring that investors receive regular updates, founders stay focused on key metrics and essential growth drivers, helping them avoid distractions and stay on track.This approach builds investor confidence and keeps startups consistently focused on performance.Expanding into the U.S. Market:Connected recently launched in Miami and plans to expand into New York City. Roei shares how the U.S. market, with its entrepreneurial mindset and openness to innovation, has been incredibly receptive to Connected’s mission. The platform has grown six to seven times faster in the U.S. than in the UK.Connected is building partnerships with local accelerators and incubators, offering startups in the U.S. a free year of platform access to establish a strong footing in the market.Roei’s Post-Exit Experience and Path to Connected:After selling RealSport, Roei went through a period of introspection, exploring different avenues like investing in startups and advising. The experience of letting go of his first company felt like an "identity death," a common post-exit challenge for many founders.This reflection led to the organic development of Connected, where Roei saw an opportunity to address fundamental needs in the startup ecosystem.Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Funding Climate:In the current UK market, funding has decreased significantly, with many businesses pivoting to launch in the U.S. for more reliable funding opportunities.Connected helps these companies navigate new markets, providing data and insights that guide startups to approach growth, funding, and talent acquisition more effectively, even amidst economic uncertainty.Leveraging Data for Customer Success:Connected is launching a new AI-driven feature that uses startup data to provide actionable recommendations tailored to each business’s needs and goals, such as reducing customer acquisition costs or enhancing customer lifespan.Roei shares how Connected is focused on leveraging data to improve customer outcomes, building a platform that evolves to meet the real-time needs of startups, investors, and talent.Key Takeaways:Focus on Accountability: Transparency is important, but accountability drives growth. Connected’s platform enables startups to build accountability with investors, improving their focus and performance.Partnerships for Expansion: Partnering with local ecosystems like accelerators and incubators has been crucial for Connected’s successful expansion into new markets.Leveraging Data for Precision: Using real-time data for investor reports and talent matching allows startups to identify growth areas and connect with experts to meet those specific needs.Connect with Roei Samuel and Connected:LinkedIn: Roei SamuelWebsite: Connectd.comOur Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/FOUNDERSAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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that you're collecting all the way and all the information that you're gathering around these startups. And just the ecosystem of investing and funding fascinates me a lot. Let's dive in though Roy as to what is connected. So after my last startup RealSport was acquired by a gaming company in 2018, I started investing in startups and advising startups as well. And I could see with the companies that I was invested in and working with a really strong positive correlation between specific behaviors that businesses were

making and the outcomes they were having in terms of performance, in terms of growth, and in terms of funding. And those behaviors were really twofold. One was the quality and frequency of their investor reporting, and by extension, the strength of their investor relations. And the second was their ability to access expert networks of talent. Now neither of these things are rocket science by any means, but it's amazing to see how many businesses almost take those behaviors for granted

when they're really pursuing the secret source that we all love in startup land. But even though those behaviors seem to really predicate success, so with Connected, we build technology that enables everyone in the ecosystem, So with Connected, we build technology that enables everyone in the ecosystem, the businesses, the investors, and the talent to take part in those behaviors in as frictionless way as possible. So for Behavior 1, the reporting infrastructure, we've built technology that integrates with the business's bank account, accounting platform, and commerce solution. So call it their Chase Bank account, their QuickBooks accounting software

and their Stripe commerce solution, for example. We ingest all of that transactional level data. So every single transaction in that business's history from inception. And then from the ingestion of that data, instantly we create that investor reporting environment. So all those monthly reports, everything historically, all the things they should be reporting on that makes an investor bought in, that creates transparency in their

business, accountability, helps them really think about growth in a way that helps them understand how they're performing against their peers, benchmarking, all the rest of it, all done instantly, which obviously builds amazing trust with investors, helps them grow better. And then we use that same data set to power discovery of talent. So if, for example, your revenue is increasing or your CAC is increasing and you're a B2C fintech within international payments, you need a performance marketing expert with a background in financial services who understand subscription models. So we started to build our ecosystems of talent, ecosystems of businesses and investors,

really all plugging into this data infrastructure to create instant, frictionless reporting and discovery, and therefore improving these outcomes and these two behaviors that we see so interlinked with success, making them easy and accessible for everyone. I'm new to the investing or funding world. I've never gotten funding for a startup,

although maybe I should have looking back. Uh, and I've only invested a handful of times and all of them basically failed. So I'm really interested though, in terms of the transparency piece, because when I invested, I never saw any really information and was barely shared anything. I was talking to a VC friend of mine about this recently and he was telling me that, you know, some funds, they, they basically, you know, take money and barely give any information. Some funds, you know,

get their LPs with some sort of involvement or, you know, give some sort of advice. It's fascinating to me how like, how people can just give money and it's total hands off and very little transparency. So what are you seeing with your platform from the investor side? Are they much happier that they get to see this information? Yeah, absolutely.

And I actually think the reason it leads to success is not necessarily the transparency, but it's more the accountability. So I know as a founder, because my investors are going to see on a monthly cadence how we're performing across these core metrics, it keeps me hyper focused on moving the needle in the things that really, really matter. It's so easy as a founder to get distracted by the million opportunities and all the different amazing things you could do. But actually, if you hyper-focus on the things that you

need to do and get that cadence of monthly growth and movement, that's what venture wants to see. That's what investors want to see. It's what the market wants to see. So it's all wrapped up in the investor reporting, but it's actually that accountability and the mindset of setting up every unit of operation of the business for monthly movement and monthly growth and accountability. That's what leads to success. Yeah, it's really easy to chase a lot of rabbits. I think when you're a startup, you get, you're just like excited about ideas, right? Most people that start a company, they're excited about ideas and they're visionary and then there's all these rabbits coming at them and a lot of problems they want to solve and it's hard to many times get like tunnel vision

and hyper focus on the thing that you are doing. It's really easy to start chasing everything. I know that you're launching in the U.S. or you've launched in the U.S. I'm sorry you're expanding in the U.S. So what are some of the markets that you're looking at? Yeah, exactly. So we launched into Miami in December just before Christmas, not because that's a really good time to launch in the new market, but more. We were really keen on ensuring we hit the ground running in 2024. So we're now servicing about 600, 700 customers in Florida.

And we're now launching up in New York. And we're really partnering with different groups, different organizations. You know, as a business that helps startups grow, we're not taking equity in startups, we're not charging commissions or transaction, you know, we're a pure subscription business. So we partner really well with others in the ecosystem. We're not competing over the same types of dollars, take gray or equity. So we partner really well with different players

in the ecosystem, accelerators, incubators, et cetera. So we're now really just trying to get our technology into as many hands as possible and just improve the outcomes for all these players. And we were talking about it before, you might get the likes of an Elon Musk type entrepreneur who can raise money left, right and center and will never have a problem in raising tons of cash. But the reality for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, first time entrepreneurs in 2024, who don't

have access to loads of capital networks, the way that you fundraise, the way that you grow is following these principles of not chasing the rabbits, showing that accountability. So we really want to just help be that, you know, be that rising tide to lift all boats by helping people understand, you know, if you're in capital networks, then that's one thing, but if you're not, this is how you grow. This is how you find talent. This is how you really build a business.

We want to be a really positive force on the ecosystem. I'm a big proponent of going global with a company, if you can. I know not everyone sticks to that same mindset, but I've done it personally and I've seen positive results, although there's challenges along the way. So how has the experience been for you? And what do you think helped you able to expand from the UK and European market to now the North America and then the US market? Yeah, it's a really good question. So one of the ways in which users distribute our technology is you've got startups distributing reports to their investors and to their experts. Investors can say, awesome, I can get everything in one place.

They distribute it out to their portfolio companies. So although we only ever targeted marketing at the UK, initially, we found ourselves paying customers in over 80 countries through that customer-to-customer onboarding and really harnessing those product-led growth loops. So running into the US, actually, we just found that our second biggest community was already based out there. So we wanted to service the community in a better way by building technology, doing the localization and optimization

that would really make it as accessible as possible for the US market. So we had good conviction that people were using it. We were building this wait list of makeshift users who wanted to use it in a way that worked fully for that market. So we spent the second half and most of the time, 23, really rebuilding that out and then launched it last year. So now I know you're launching in New York City officially. I know you already service these areas, but you're doing like an official, hey, we're here. This is what we're doing. What do you look at in terms of the marketing that works when you want to launch in a new

city? So for us, it's all about finding partnerships and partners who have already embedded themselves in those ecosystems and really see how we can help their communities by improving those outcomes. So we tend to offer startups, one free year access to the platform, to the technology, to really get set up on it. For us at the end of the day, we know that early stage startups are really scrapped for cash.

So being able to work with partners in that way is just a good way to show that we are trying to be a positive influence, help those businesses grow. So for us, partners is really key. And then of course, you know, we, we, we find digital marketing and in the U S the entrepreneurial mindset is so strong. Um, and then, you know, in the UK, we're quite risk averse naturally, uh, in the U S I love how hiring the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all.

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Now back to the show. Jing and sentiment perspective in the US and we've actually grown six, seven times quicker in the US than we did in the UK. Obviously big part of that is down to the market size, but I think the US market just gets it when it comes to entrepreneurial and venture tooling. The startup ecosystem is 20 years more mature in the US than it is in the UK. So a lot of that education piece that we have to do in the UK is already done in the US because guys seem to get it there.

That's something that I find fascinating too when I travel. Really, the US is very big on risk. And I think that is a huge separation point from other countries where many people are risk adverse and they're taught to not question things. In the US, if you question your teacher, you're praised for it. In other countries, you're not allowed to question authority or you know, like you have to whatever they tell you is like what you have to do. But I am seeing, you know, some changes and stuff in a lot of these emerging markets and countries. So I think the startup ecosystem in 20 years from now could be completely different, but a lot to learn from the US market.

So I'm I'm glad that you shared that because I've seen similar things. Let's go back to when you sold your company and then you're, you were going to now figure out the rest of your life. I've had friends that have sold and they've become depressed and they're lost in life, you know, cause like their business was their baby. It was everything to them. And now they have no idea what to do with their life. How is it for you, the experience of exiting your company and then figuring out what's next?

Oh, that is a very good question. I mean, you're totally right. I think the exit of a company is a identity death for most entrepreneurs, right? Especially I was 21 when I started building real sports, 2021. I sold it when I was 26. So for me, that was my whole identity. I never had a job. Like I didn't know anything outside of that. And you sacrifice a lot for that business, friendships, relationships, especially at that age where every night could be a night out with friends, but it's a night at home with a laptop instead, you know?

So I think with that level of sacrifice and then suddenly, you know, one day post-transaction, it's no longer yours and you're no longer founder guy, you know, one day post transaction, it's no longer yours. And you're no longer founder guy, you know, at that stage. So it's definitely a really interesting transition. You go through like a six, nine, 12 month period where like, what am I going to be? I was like, okay, maybe I'll become a firefighter or maybe I'll work with guide dogs. Like you go through like the whole range of what should I do? But I started investing in startups, advising startups and really organically,

I saw some of the patterns that led to create and connect it. So it happened really organically, but certainly that's an immediate post exit. And there's a there's a really good podcast called the Post Exit Founder podcast, but they dive into this a lot. And yeah, it's a story you see time and time again. I like that firefighter guide dog expert. and yeah, it's a story you see time and time again. I like that. Firefighter, guide dog expert. I mean, it makes sense. Like if you, I think if you have a big enough exit where you can then basically retire for

a significant amount of time and you could just do whatever you want, I think we feel as if that's our goal, right? That sounds amazing, but then when it happens, you might be lost and not know what to do. I am curious on the data and information that you're seeing from within the organization, are there any interesting points or things that you're seeing along the way besides like what countries people are in or geography? Are there any other interesting data points? Well, I would say that in the UK anyway, because obviously that's where our data is the most

significant. The venture transaction market is being propped up by a few mega deals. But in the majority of cases, funding is down, transactions down, early stage funding is down. Things are really tough in the UK at the moment from what we can see. There's a lot of uncertainty politically around tax regimes. What does it mean for making investments? What does it mean for exits around some of the taxes involved with that? So it's a really uncertain market. And if you isolate a couple of the bigger deals that have happened in the UK over the

last quarter, like quarter on quarter, half on half, year on year, funding stats are just so down at the moment. So we're seeing a huge trend of businesses almost trying to launch in other markets earlier, especially the US, because if they can get traction in that market and actually make that the primary focus rather than the secondary, the roots to funding are a bit clearer. So that's a really interesting trend that we've seen. Hopefully the one that will reverse post the government's latest tax announcement once there's a bit more clarity,

but at the moment it's been quite tough in the UK. So how do you look at leveraging data for other products and services? I know some companies where they start off as one thing, they realize the information that they can get can really be of value as a new product or service. Are you looking at in terms of like how you net, how you launch your next product or service?

Is it database? Is it based on, you know, what customers are asking or how do you look at that? So right now we're just hyper-focused on using our data to improve customer outcomes. So we're about to launch our first Gen.AI offering which will allow business to input its data and understand based on where it is in the journey

and based on the experts available to them on the platform, how they can work together with that individual specifically to improve their outcomes, whether it's reducing their cost of acquisition, improving customer lifespan, but really using their data and what we see from across the board when individuals are working together and things that they're doing

that are leading to positive outcomes, that's what we're just trying to really, really help make it as accessible as possible to all the players in the ecosystem. So right now we're hyper-focused on just using that data to improve customer outcomes. I can't wait to see that. I mean, I'm trying to understand exactly how that would look. It sounds amazing.

Like it's really, really needed. So I can't wait till you launch that to be able to test that out and try it. It sounds like you're really, I love how you're helping the startup, but you're also helping to make sure that the investors have the end talent, which we know is so hard, right? Like finding talent could be a make or break for an organization, just like having the right leadership could be make or break for an organization, maybe even more so than just funding in itself. I'm curious on a personal note, you said something before, you know, when you were 21 to 26, you had to sacrifice a lot of nights because you're on the laptop, which looking back,

I wish I sacrifice nights on a laptop instead of going out. But from a personal note, you know, building a company exiting now building another company. Are there specific sacrifices that you've had to make in order to do this? Or are there anything looking back where you're like, wow, you know, that was a really tough and challenging time? Well, in many ways, we're connected with this business, building it during COVID is like a builder's dream because the opportunity cost wasn't there. I wasn't missing out on anything. So this time around, it was a lot easier, you know, building during COVID. But yeah, for sure, you know, during the real sport days, you know, you give up, you get to a stage where,

and this isn't necessarily the healthier, the right way to look at it, but your identity, your ego is so intertwined with the business that you're building that you'll sacrifice things like relationships, like friendships, to almost keep your ego alive. And again, once you go through that process and you go through the sale, you go through that exit and you realize these things aren't important. And it's that that almost like reassessment of self and all the without getting too metaphysical about this. But you know, you go through all of those processes, that whole journey, to realize that actually, you know, you don't necessarily

need those things. But it's Yeah, it's a it's a very, very interesting topic. Yeah, that's why, you know, I always say it's not that, like, everyone can be an entrepreneur. It's not like they can't be one, but the mental and grit and the physical toll that it takes, I think it's not for everyone, in my opinion, for that sake. Not that everyone can't be it. You know, anyone can just start a company with no funding or nothing, right? Like you can start a company tomorrow, but the grit and what goes into it, like you need to have like an ironclad mind

that can overcome the ups and downs. Cause we know there's from the outside, you know, LinkedIn posts seem amazing, but from the inside, you know, LinkedIn posts seem amazing, but from the inside, you know, people, many times they're like miserable and they're tired and they're exhausted. And, you know, they sacrifice their relationships and they're getting a divorce because their business, we had a guest on, he's pretty well known in his space. And he said every business he ever started, he had to,

basically he got divorced every single business he started. He got divorced because he had to, he had to sacrifice and choose, was he going to spend time with his wife or is he going to spend time on the business? And I, I, you know, three years ago when I interviewed him, that really stuck with me. If you want to get in touch with you though, Roy, and they want to find out more information, they want to meet you in New York and these cities you're going to expand, how can they do so?

Yeah, absolutely. I just want to say a big thank you for the opportunity today. Really enjoyed coming on the show. Anyone get in touch with me via Roy Samuel on LinkedIn or come visit connected.com. Man, Roy, I want to see you in New York. I want to see you launch in New York, all Miami. Miami, you know, it's always a fun city, but I love what you're doing. Thanks for, I'm so glad that we are connected with connected, but Roy, Samuel, thanks for being with us today at Founder's Story. Thanks so much, Daniel. Appreciate it.