Inside Angel Investing: Chris Mairs’ Embarrassingly Long History of Getting it Right

Inside Angel Investing: Chris Mairs’ Embarrassingly Long History of Getting it Right

Author: Amazon Web Services July 2, 2020 Duration: 45:19
Telecom software maker Metaswitch Networks was bootstrapped for the first 25 years of its profitable existence before the team decided to take outside investors including Sandhill Road standout Sequoia Capital. A few years after Sequoia invested in the London-based company, Chris Mairs, who was Metaswitch’s chief scientist, asked a Sequoia partner what the key requirements were for investing in a company. As Mairs recalls the conversation, the Sequoia partner highlighted three things. 1. The people. 2. The business needed to be quite young so there was plenty of opportunity for growth. 3. The Sequoia team needed to be able to bicycle from Sandhill Road to the company’s head offices. Metaswitch had only one of those right. The only one that mattered.

Building a company is a messy, exhilarating, and deeply personal journey. The AWS Startup Podcast, from Amazon Web Services, moves beyond theory to capture the real voices from the trenches. Each conversation is a direct line to founders who have navigated the specific challenges of scaling a business, offering an unfiltered look at what actually worked when the pressure was on. You'll hear them break down the practical technology choices and operational tools that powered their growth, but also the less-discussed human elements-the leadership decisions that shaped their culture and the hard-won lessons that never make it into a business plan. This podcast digs into the gritty details of creation, from initial architecture to managing a team through uncertainty. And because a founder's life isn't all pitch decks and code, these discussions often touch on something equally precious: how these dedicated builders actually step away to recharge during their scarce moments of downtime. It’s a collection of stories for anyone curious about the tangible mechanics and the personal resilience behind today's most interesting companies.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 38

The AWS Startup Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Building One of the Tech Giants of Tomorrow in Pakistan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:10
For being home to the fifth largest population in the world, Pakistan has a comparatively small startup community. That said, the country is hitting an inflection point, with internet and smartphone usage becoming more a…
Applying AI to the Ever-Expanding Music Industry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:14
The music industry has gone through massive changes in recent decades. Gone are the days of being able to track each week’s new releases. Now, over 40,000 tracks are uploaded on to music platforms each day. While new tec…
Using Data to Reinvent the P2P Lending Market in ASEAN [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:43
Fintech as a sector has been exploding for the better part of a decade now. Fueled by mass amounts of new data and powerful algorithms, startups around the world have sprung up to innovate within a once stagnant industry…
Connecting the Dots to Launch a Travel Startup in Myanmar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:47
When users head to Oway’s website to book travel in and out of Myanmar, they arrive at an easy-to-use portal where planning a trip end-to-end is within a few clicks. Much like U.S.-based Expedia, the 8-year-old startup o…
Optimizing Waterflows Using Machine Learning and IoT [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:05
From large metropolises like Singapore to smaller villages in places like Thailand, water is a constant need that flows through any community. And with climate change accelerating, the demand to properly manage this vita…
Betting on a New Wave of Pakistani Entrepreneurs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:01
For Kalsoom Lakhani, investing in the future of the Pakistani startup ecosystem was something of a homecoming. Having grown up in Pakistan before moving to the U.S. for university, Lakhani watched as her native country b…