Reut Rachel Geva on when the founder should be the face of the company

Reut Rachel Geva 00:30

First of all, thank you for inviting me, I'm really excited to be here. My journey started, I have a software house, and I have a couple of startup companies, and I am an investor the last couple of years. My journey started 23 years ago this month, when I was in ninth grade, and they told us we have a new program because we're now in ninth grade. It was computer science, and I started programming there. The program director really liked my stuff and encouraged me to do more, and started giving me little projects to develop. I started taking university courses while I was still in high school. My dream really was to sing, and I always got drawn into technology, into systems, into understanding how systems work and how programming works. In every job, or even in the army, people come to me to help them do their first steps, without needing a CTO or without having any startup experience.

Reut Rachel Geva 02:31

I'm not coming from the marketing world, so it took me a long time to realize how it works, or what all those letters mean, and to find my way in this. In the beginning I was doing all the C-level positions myself. For me, there's not just one right way. Just because you studied something and it worked for you, doesn't mean it's going to work for me. And when people say, no, you have to do this, you have to do that, I don't just follow that, because more than one way can work. I like to invest, research, and get all the information, and then see what's right for me. One of the things I like to do to check KPIs is: every quarter, pretty much about three months, we do a checkup to see everything, and to compare it to what it was before, and to see how we can improve, what we need to change, what's working, what's not working. Because we're living in a nonstop-changing world, especially technology-wise.

Even if it's working now, that doesn't mean three months from now it's going to work. So I love to keep changing, to see what else is out there, what else is working, how I can improve, how they can improve. There's always room for improvement, especially when we're talking digital and tech. For us, because we have a lot of startups to work with, and we have companies investing in companies, one of the things that works best for us is to keep on checking, and not say "okay, it works", because maybe tomorrow it's not going to work. So keep questioning what we do and how we can do it better, especially in a field where I'm not an expert: marketing. I can now, ten years later, build marketing strategies, and it's something I do with my clients and the people I advise. But from day to day, things change, so it's not my expertise. Even if it was, I always question if we're doing something right, or if we can do it better.

Reut Rachel Geva 06:06

What works for us: we have the big strategy, we know where we're going. When I started my software house, from day one I knew I wanted to be an international company, worldwide. Everyone knows the way, and clients everywhere know the name, the software house is a name known all over the world. Together we know we have our big strategy, our big plans, a big goal, a big milestone, but we [also] know where we are now and where we need to go. So again, every quarter, because a month is too short and six months is too long, three months is a good period, it's a good way to know if what you're doing is working, to keep it going, or to see it's not working and change it, and to keep everything alive. Every three months we sit down with our big plans and see if that's still relevant, or if we're closer or further away, and what we have to do. Then we translate it into small steps, and that's how it transfers day to day.

Even when we talk to our investors, we tell them: this is where we're going, this is where we are now, this is what we're going to do. We know the small steps aren't going to bring us the big leap on their own, but it takes small steps. We also work in two different divisions: there's the small-step division for day to day, because it's a business at the end of the day and you need to get money and keep it alive, you have to have the small things to sell, but you also have to do the work for the long haul. So we're working in two different divisions, and they work together, because the small steps take us to the big steps. Maybe someone's going to see this and it helps them: everything has a meaning, every step leads to another step, everything is calculated. Even, I'm a mentor for [name unclear], one of the programs that helps children in under-developed towns take their first steps in technology, they run hackathons and everything, it's an incredible program.

I really, really love doing that. And I also volunteer with a nonprofit organization that helps lone soldiers. Not everything is about money, but you never know what it's going to bring you. I insist that everyone who works for me also volunteers somewhere, because you get something back. Like, I went to one of the conferences for that nonprofit, for the lone soldiers, I was there with one of the other volunteers, and I met one of the CEOs of one of the biggest retail companies in Israel, and we started doing business together. You never know what's going to take you somewhere, and everything can help you get somewhere. So we're working on the big plan and the small step, because you also have to get oxygen into the business, and money is oxygen. We're working on establishing the steps further so we can build all of this.

But basically, I keep saying it, we're working on two different divisions, and we always know where each division is and where it needs to go, and they're always connecting to one another and working together. It's not this or that, it's both of them, because they both have to succeed, they both have to work. They're two different divisions, two different parts, but they work together, because it's the whole thing: the tech needs the sales, and the sales need the tech. So everyone is working together, everyone, all the parts of the company. Every startup, and the software house itself, knows my goals. It knows where I'm going, where I want to take it. Everyone on the team knows where we're going, knows where we are now, and they're all on board. If you're not on board, if you don't believe in me, if you don't believe in what we do here, if you don't think I'm right, then you cannot work with us, because we need everyone on board, especially marketing, because they are the front, they are the leading ones.

If they don't know where we're going, or what the plan is, show them, because long term, nothing is going to work. That's one of the things I believe in: transparency. To clients, to investors, to the company, to the workers, to everyone. Everyone knows I'm not hiding anything, because I don't have anything to hide. A client knows he's working with us or he's not, and he's part of my plan. So I'm going to give him everything to make him happy, not happy because he got what he wanted, but happy because he got the product he needs, and it's working for him, and I stand behind it, and I do what I said I would do, because he's part of my big plan, and he's part of my success. It's the same with marketing: everyone knows what we're going to do, the big strategy, the big plan, the milestone, and everyone knows where we are and when I'm planning to get there. Everything is changeable. I know where we are now, but maybe tomorrow it's a little further off. No one thought there was going to be a crisis, no one thought there was going to be a coronavirus. We're living in a world where everything can change, we're not just us, we're affected by everything in the environment around the world.

Reut Rachel Geva 12:33

No matter how you're going to try to hide from it, and after the failure, I see it as a failure, my first startup was so identified with me, and everyone knew that it's me, and when I left, it collapsed. No matter how you try to hide it. I'm also a very private person, and it took me four years to realize: I have to be in front. No matter how you try to hide it, if you're the founder, you're in the front. Especially at the early stages, especially when you go to investors, especially with the first sale, the first pitch. It's your idea, it's your passion. And if you're afraid of it, give it to someone else, because it's you, you cannot hide from it. The startup is you. You're the founder, you're the main founder, it's your idea, and there's no way to hide from it.

Reut Rachel Geva 13:29

That you're doing it for the money, "you're in high-tech, you're in technology", so, no. It's a lot, a lot of work, a lot of grinding work, a lot of hard work. You don't hear about the startups that fail, you don't hear about the startup that did a small exit, not a big one, that doesn't get millions and billions of dollars, you get a couple of hundred, because that's what it was worth, because all you had was an idea. It's a lot of hard work, and it takes years, and at least in the first years, not only do you not have profit, sometimes you don't even have income, definitely not in the beginning. And even after you have income, or profit, it would be reckless of a founder to take money or a salary for themselves, because the profit first goes either to the employees or back into the business, because it's money making money. If you take money for yourself instead, you're hurting that. It's not easy money, it's a lot of hard work, and everyone who makes a big sale earned every cent of it, because it's a lot of hard work. No one sees the person who sold a startup and thinks about the people who failed elsewhere trying.

Reut Rachel Geva 15:05

They're part of it, because again, you don't have a salary and you're working nonstop, and they don't understand it. It's not just being an independent worker, it's not like being a business owner, it's something else. You have to be on it 24/7. Again, it's a lot, a lot of hard work.

Reut Rachel Geva 17:24

I would say, the obvious: good ROI, good CPA. But also monitoring information, assessing the situation, and diagnosing the data you have, and adapting to the situation and the market. I keep coming back to that, because we're living in a world where, two hours from now, maybe every computer in the world could crash, it's possible, a fire can happen somewhere, the clouds could go down, it can happen. So: always adapt to the market, adapt to the situation, always read the situation, monitor your data, especially when we're talking about our clients, our targeted clients and targeted audience. We have the information, we have the technology, we have the tools to do that. Even the smallest startup can monitor with three tools.

Not only with traditional ways, like Google Analytics, which is great, but also deeper, to see what people are doing after they land. We have all the technology, and especially now there are so many free tools to do that, you don't have to spend money, because a startup, again, is a lot of hard work at the beginning and you don't have income. Know your audience, monitor what they're doing, monitor where they are, adapt to the situation, diagnose all your data, and then take action. Understand that everything is changeable, nothing is permanent, what works today doesn't mean it's going to work tomorrow. Always question what you're doing, and whether it's the right time. Again: adapting to the situation, adapting to the market.

Reut Rachel Geva 19:53

For me it's more about seeing the marketing team, because they are, like I said, the heart that keeps popping oxygen into the whole company, because without marketing you don't have sales or money. It's one of the most important divisions. After that, [I look at] the development of the startup itself: whether they're working as a unit, and not arguing about who's leading, because it doesn't matter, everyone is working together as a unit, for one goal. You don't have to have the same leader every time, it can be, on this campaign we're working on those things.

Reut Rachel Geva 20:38

I think one of the big marketing mistakes they make is that because everything is so approachable, they automatically go to the same regular routine, and mainly focus on social media and publishing there, and don't really challenge themselves on where their audience actually is. You know, like: you're starting a startup, you're starting a business, you want people to know you're out there, so you have to have a Facebook page, you have to have an Instagram, but it doesn't really matter, maybe your audience isn't even there, and then you're wasting your energy, your resources, and your time, and time is so important. One of the things I love about a startup, instead of a regular business, is that you build everything as you go: you have an idea, you start working, and you adapt to the situation when you have to.

It's like saying, we're going to launch in six months, and it's going to take eight, and something can happen, because it's a startup. But here, no, I'll say it plainly: startups tend to fall back on old, familiar marketing ways, because we're living in a digital world, and they run into advertising, social media, and don't stop to analyze where the clients actually are, when they're going to buy. My software house has a Facebook page, but we work mainly on LinkedIn. We do advertising, but on a budget, so it matters where our clients actually are, where the money is valued more, where it's going to work better. Stop marketing, stop, and think, instead of just doing the regular thing because it's familiar and easy. Because we're living in a digital world, people stop thinking, stop working their mind about how to get the right clients, the right audience, how to work, instead of just doing A, B, C, D, E, even when A, B, C, D, E and F are [all] relevant to that type of startup.

Reut Rachel Geva 24:06

I think, both as an entrepreneur and as an investor, I would have said to myself at the beginning: keep going. Your dreams are bigger than everyone around you right now, and they're just small-minded. It doesn't mean you're crazy, it doesn't mean you're weird, it doesn't mean you don't understand, it doesn't mean they know better, it means they're too small-minded, too narrow-minded, to understand your idea, to understand you. Not everyone shares your view of the world. So keep going, and keep believing in yourself, that's the most important thing, and never give [it] [unclear @ 24:33] more than a second [unclear].

Reut Rachel Geva 24:53

I did think, because I'm not coming from the marketing world, and when I started it was something that really, really intimidated me, and I'm not afraid to say it, maybe just: how do I perceive myself as a marketer, how am I an expert in marketing today, what made me an expert? A lot of failures, a lot of kept trying. Most of my answers keep repeating themselves, because they're alike, because it's what I believe in. I don't like to follow someone else's patterns, and the way I think is different. I had advisers at the beginning who kept telling me I was too opinionated. I know it's my company, my startups, my business, it's me who's going to fail.

Yes, opinionated, that is the thing that made me become an expert. I kept investing, investigating, and doing research, since it's easier for me because I come from the technology world, and marketing is becoming more and more technological. I kept looking at what works for me, what doesn't work for me, what works for my clients and what doesn't work for them, and failing, failing a lot, trusting the wrong people, realizing I cannot trust people, because I have to do it myself, at least at the beginning, because it's my company, it's my name, and I have to market it the way I believe it should be done, not the way other people say it works. So, like everything in life, you become an expert by failing.