This past Friday, November 17, Foxmont had our annual summit. Foxmont puts on a summit that is geared toward the pain points and needs of our founders. This year, we were lucky enough to have a wide array of industry experts come together to share their insights and experiences with our portcos. Read about the takeaways from each session below:

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Training Like An Athlete: How to Avoid Burnout

• In the role of a manager or leader, prioritizing self-care and attending to your own needs is extremely important.

• Embarking on the journey of a founder is similar to running a marathon, not a sprint. Prepare yourself for the long game.

• Identifying your unique window of tolerance, situated between hyper- and hypo-arousal, is crucial. This optimal state allows your body to seamlessly balance reason and emotion.

Discover, Define, Develop: Building Your Distinctive Brand

• Out of all the countries in SEA, the Philippines has the largest chunk of local sellers within Lazada, making the Philippines an interesting market to be in. 

• The forgiving nature of Filipinos serves as a unique strength when a company makes a mistake, but can only work when genuine connections are forged within the customer community, the concern is quickly resolved, and the brand has built good equity with its customers.

• While branding is essential for any company, you cannot just write it or create it. A brand is defined through the emotional response of the consumer, emphasizing the importance of consistency when attempting to convey your brand.

Scaling Successfully: Minimizing Burn While Maximizing Growth

• Don’t try to make your numbers look good, you’ll only be fooling yourself.  Honesty in assessing your financial health is not just important but essential for informed decision-making.

• Founders are better served by prioritizing client retention; engaging existing clients in a dialogue about their needs is a vital step for startups. This invaluable feedback provides insights into areas of potential growth.

• Channel your attention towards data analysis, fostering meaningful relationships, and creating those "magic moments" that serve as defining elements for your business's key growth drivers.

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Adapting to Change: Push or Pivot?

• There is so much importance in listening to your market because this is what determines the need to push or pivot

• Don’t be afraid to steer away from your initial business plan. As a founder, it is important to believe in your product, but also have the ability to be malleable.

• Pivoting does not always have to be when your business is close to failing. It can also occur if you realize that there is a greater potential for growth elsewhere.

From Founder to CEO: Navigating the Leadership Transition

• As a company matures, the founder will have to transition into becoming a CEO, which means shifting into a more strategic and future-oriented mindset versus day-to-day operational activities.

• A CEO plays a key role in forming a team with experts in different areas. Moving from founder to CEO can be tough because it means letting go of doing everything yourself and learning to trust your team. 

• As a leader, the CEO needs to empower employees and believe in their ability to handle their own tasks. This includes getting comfortable with letting go of things you used to control as a founder.

Cracking the Code: Strategies for a Successful Seed

• Investors, especially at the early stage, are founder-centric. Investors want to understand your DNA as a founder. The investor-founder relationship is a long-term commitment and investors need to gain comfort on who you are as a business partner, in both good times and bad times. 

• When coming into a pitch, you must know the story of your company. Whether that story is the product you are building or your journey as a founder, make sure to tell that story and ensure that your investor sees that story and vision. 

• Companies at the seed stage come in different stages whether still building out an MVP or having a few months of traction. Founders must know where the company currently is and frame the pitch accordingly. This will help investors understand where the company is and what it could be. 

• Clean cap tables at the early stage are especially important, investors want to see that founders have enough skin in the game up until later fundraising rounds. 

Cracking the Code: Strategies for a Successful Series A

• Be transparent with your investor. Make sure to be candid, and proactive, and communicate lessons learned, especially the bad ones. In order for investors to take on the role as your biggest supporters, they need to see that you are proactive and honest with yourself and your business.

• Ensure your governance is up to par; Series A investors want to see that your financial reporting, board governance, and organizational structure are solid and able to meet investor standards.

• Clearly articulate your understanding of the market you operate in; during the Seed stage you focus on ideation, but in Series A, you emphasize your achievement of product-market fit, a defined go-to-market strategy, and therefore a solid understanding of your sector's dynamics.

• Be prepared to delve into internal financials. As a Series A startup, investors expect you to be fully aware of your unit economics, channel performance, client base, and other critical aspects of your business.

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Engage, Empower, Excel: HR’s Guide to Retention and Performance

• You don’t always need a big budget to attract and retain good talent. A lot of the time candidates already have managed their expectations when applying for a startup. Find ways to personalize benefits that matter to your talent which can include building out good career development opportunities. 

• Rewarding performance doesn’t always have to mean having a good bonus structure in place. Sometimes rewards can be as simple as an additional 5 days of leave. 

• While startups may not have as clearly defined career paths as large MNCs, this doesn't imply that you cannot offer career development opportunities at your startup. Career development extends beyond promotions; it involves recognizing areas where employees can improve and providing them with opportunities for learning and growth. This might involve enhancing soft skills for some individuals, focusing on technical skills for others, and tailoring development paths to individual needs and goals.

The Tech Team Dilemma: In-House or Outsourced?

• Outsourcing makes sense when costs are a concern, but it's crucial to keep an in-house product manager. They are vital in steering the overall direction of tech development, especially as the startup collaborates with different tech teams over time.

• When you are hiring a CTO, you should look for someone who is experienced enough to lead project management, manage developer teams, and the ability to train young talent in order to retain them long-term.

Finance Function Foundations: Building Blocks for Growth

• The founder should be involved with accounting and finance from the beginning, and at least understand the fundamentals of their company.

• It is important for the founder to actively engage in accounting and finance from the very beginning and have a fundamental understanding of the fundamentals of their company.

• The decision to outsource or manage financial operations in-house during the early stages is a company-specific choice. In either scenario, the key is to include and view finance strategically.

• Integrating a financial strategy will support making informed decisions from the start. Paying proper attention to unit economics, runway, allocation of resources, and so on can help avoid issues in the future.

Third-Party Marketing Platforms: Essential or Expendable?

• Make sure to choose a CRM platform that caters to you and your team’s needs.

• Don’t worry about having the most advanced CRM program. As early-stage startups, it's okay to use more basic CRM tools like Google Sheets. CRM tools do not have to be complex to be useful. 

• Take into account the cost of a CRM tool. Make sure that the benefits outweigh the cost when choosing a tool.