Life Inside a Fast Growth Startup - Zach Garippa, CEO, Negotiatus

The Bob Johnston Podcast

Creating something out of nothing is a mystery for many of us, particularly if you’ve worked in the corporate world for many years. In today’s podcast. I sit down with Zach Garippa, Co-founder and CEO of Negotiatius, to look under the hood and discuss life inside a startup.

We dig into the business and personal sides of launching a startup and de-bunk myths about the entrepreneurial mindset. Counter-intuitively, risk mitigation – i.e. “calculated risk tolerance” – is one of the overall thematics of successful founders. Zach left a good job at Morgan Stanley and his co-founder, Tom Jaklitsch, dropped out of college to launch the business. Clearly, they both had high conviction and courage. And, would it surprise you to learn that they spent nearly 24 months researching the industry before deciding to quit job and school? That’s a lot of smart leg work around calculated risk tolerance.

We also discuss (the necessity of!) Flinstone-ing things in the early days of a startup...pressure as a constant...the hunt for traction and learnings...and how to get through problems quickly (i.e. "indecision is the killer").

And, finally, Zach gives us a primer on raising money as well as finding and keeping talent and customers – note that there are parallels across all three areas. Zach is also a big fan of picking up the phone and talking with industry folks to help problem-solve and solicit views that are contrary to his own. He also is a fan of short-form material when it comes to reading for business but prefers long-form reading for personal pursuits (hint: baby #2 on the way in March).

Zach Garippa is the CEO and Co-Founder of Negotiatus, a category-creating B2B software at the intersection of finance, operations, and procurement that radically simplifies spend decisions.

Founded in 2016 with a mission to empower businesses to make better spending decisions faster, Negotiatus serves hundreds of customers across the small and medium sized enterprise space. Negotiatus establishes itself as core spend management infrastructure by working within their client’s existing purchasing and payment process - from spreadsheets to ERPs and everything in between - and adding simplicity, automation, and insights to deliver value every step of the way. Negotiatus has been recognized as a pioneer by industry publications including Spend Matters and Inc, and is backed by leading investors such as Rally Ventures, 645 Ventures, Green Visor Capital, and Stage 2 Capital.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Castbox, or your preferred podcast platform.

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