Gaper had the opportunity to talk with Amos Schwartzfarb from TechStars. With years of varied experience at his disposal, Amos shares more about his book, VC strategy & Accelerators’ role, managing remote teams, and more.

Sell More Faster:

“The book is an intentional misnomer.”

Hitting it off, Amos shares how companies actually need to start slower in order to become more disciplined on principle. He shares that what he stated in the first couple of chapters of his book is actually more critical than ever. Summing it up it is about the W2:

• Who is buying
• What are they buying
• Why are the buying

In such times of controlled spending, it becomes even more important to understand your W3. This would give you the best rate of success. He urges people to at least find value in the first couple of chapters that are free on Amazon and to give it a read.

Rethinking Venture Capitalism and VC Strategy:

“Accelerators become more important than ever.”

Startups are looking for sustainability through COVID. “It becomes imperative for companies to become metrics-driven and capital-efficient,” as VCs are looking for risk-averse options. In such times, “accelerators should be … helping entrepreneurs figure out the best way to navigate any time, and how you get wind in your sails for the best possible outcome.”

3 Pieces of Advice followed by How to Manage Remote Teams:

Here Amos shares his top 3 pieces of advice to entrepreneurs and others to sustain and grow.

• Build financial models to survive for the next 24+ months through sales
• Use the W3 model
• Going back to 1, constantly readjust your plan, based on what you’ve learned.

He wraps his conversation up by sharing how companies should look towards managing their remote teams.

• Don’t assume your team wants to be left alone. Some like the banter, some like to be micro-managed while others don’t. Each member is unique so treat them individually.
• Productivity is different, company to company. Bottom line is that you need to be patient with your team and try to maintain the bottom line.

We do have a surprise interruption by someone during our podcast with Amos – can you figure out what is being requested? Share your comments and let us know!