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 a Startup in Asia is Nothing Like I Imagined [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:56
"They join because they don't have to wear a suit." From playing board games with his children to get out of his "work" head, to solving the problem of finding risk takers willing to join his startup in Asia, Abdullah ta…
A Place for Refugees to Find a Home (and a Job) in Tech [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:47
Finding a safe haven for people fleeing some of the most chaotic and dangerous parts of the glove is a unique problem for a startup to tackle, and yet ReDI School faces some of the same issues of scale, speed, and purpos…
Financing without the Groveling in South Africa [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:36
Flip-flops in the office, tracking everything, driving out fear, and giving everyone visibility into everything are just some of ways Bridgement is building a very fast-growing fintech startup in one of the fastest growi…
Stop Breathing Down Your Engineering Team's Necks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:50
Hire people who can take over your job. Sounds simple, but then you have to really let them do it, and that's hard, especially a CTO used to getting her hands in every bit of code. Plus, how your marketing department can…
The Key to Sustaining Velocity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:21
Sehkar Madathanapalli has built systems for some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley, as well as leading venture capital firms. With his own startup Liscio, where he is co-founder and CTO, Palli has baked in some…