Scrappy tactics and a huge post-COVID pivot | Adam Guild (Co-founder and CEO of Owner)

Adam Guild is the co-founder and CEO at Owner, an online food ordering system for independent restaurants. Within a year, Owner went from being about to run out of money to having hundreds of customers. Last year, they raised a $33M Series B. Adam’s entrepreneurial journey began as a teenager when he built a successful Minecraft server, which led him to drop out of high school to become a founder. His passion for helping small businesses was sparked by his mom’s struggles running a dog grooming shop, which led him to launch the early iteration of Owner. In today’s episode, we discuss: • How working with a small business kickstarted Owner • Adam’s unusual outbound strategy • Why the pandemic accelerated Owner’s success • How Owner’s pivot led to “hyperbolic” product-market fit • The two qualities Adam looks for in new hires Referenced: • Alex Bard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbard/ • Dean Bloembergen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanbloembergen/ • Guisados: https://www.guisados.la/ • HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ • Jack Altman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman/ • Kimbal Musk: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbalmusk/ • Modern Restaurant Management: https://modernrestaurantmanagement.com/ • Naval Ravikant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navalr/ • Neil Patel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel/ • Peter Thiel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterthiel/ • P.F. Chang's: https://www.pfchangs.com/ • Sean Rad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrad/ • Thiel Fellowship: https://thielfellowship.org/ • Tim Ferriss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timferriss/ • Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ Where to find Adam: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamharrisonguild/ Where to find Brett: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:29) Adam’s first business (04:15) The transition from Minecraft to Owner (05:58) The dark side of the gaming industry (14:20) Adam’s scrappy strategy to landing his first customers (16:52) The COVID pivot (21:31) The quest to find product-market fit (30:53) What actually worked to get new customers (36:03) Inside Owner’s explosive growth (46:41) How Owner secured its crucial first round of funding (53:34) The bet on going multi-product (1:04:28) What Adam wishes he knew at 17 (1:16:22) Sales-led vs. product-led growth