20VC: Is Speed the Most Important Thing from 0-1 | Why Hiring Inexperienced People is Better | The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation with Rujul Zaparde, Co-Founder and CEO @ Zip

Rujul Zaparde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, the world’s leading Intake-to-Pay solution, adopted by leading enterprises and startups including Snowflake, Canva, Airtable, Webflow, and others. In 2023, Zip raised $100 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Before founding Zip, Rujul was a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and a product manager at Airbnb.

In Today’s Episode with Rujul Zaparde We Discuss:

1. From Airbnb PM to $1.5BN Founder

• How did Rujul’s first company fail? What were his lessons?

• What did Rujul learn from his time at Airbnb?

• How did Rujul come to co-found Zip? What was the aha moment?

• What did Rujul wish he’d known when he started Zip?

2. Standing Out in a Hyper-Competitive Market

• Why did Rujul pick such a competitive market? How did they stand out?

• Does Rujul think founders should focus on pain points or platform solutions on day one?

• What is Rujul’s advice to founders who are in the discovery process?

• Does Rujul agree with Trae Stephens @ Founders Fund that serial entrepreneurs doing B2B enterprise SaaS are wasting their talent?

3. The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation

• Which key moment caused Zip to accelerate?

• Why does Rujul think speed is the most important element in startups?

• Why does Rujul not believe in design partners?

• Why does Rujul believe repeatability is the most important thing when pitching?

• Does Rujul think AI will destroy outbound sales?

4. How to Hire & Manage Teams

• What was Rujul’s “rude awakening” building a sales team?

• What was Rujul’s biggest hiring mistake? What did he learn from it?

• How does Rujul decide where to focus his attention and resources?

• Why does Rujul believe younger managers are more creative?