Aaron Patzer

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• Hi Aaron. Did you have any co-Founders when you started mint.com? When did they come on board and how did you find then? How do you determine the right fit?

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    I had no co-founders.

• What are your thoughts on people verification online? How do I know that I'm talking to Aaron Patzer?

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    You don’t. I could be faking it. But why would I spend an hour impersonating Aaron Patzer?

• Hi Aaron. I have a question for me and a question for you. My company is your typical lean startup, with a tiny budget, and a small team of highly motivated team members. We are launching our product in about a week, and must face the challenge of marketing with a small budget & not enough $ to hire someone. Advice? My question for you is - Are you investing in other companies since the acquisition of Mint? If so, how does one go about pitching to you?

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    If you want to pitch me, you have to meet me in person somewhere. I get too many unsolicited pitches from all over the world from people who think their idea is the best thing ever. Or, join the Founder Institute (http://www.founderinstitute.com) where I teach.

• Would you encourage other startups to try to launch at TechCrunch like you did for Mint.com? How did it help you (if it did)?

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    TechCrunch 40 was the most important 7 minutes of my professional career. It launched Mint into the world, attracted tons of press and bloggers, and winning meant that I could go to traditional media and say “don’t you want to talk with the winner of TechCrunch?” Highly recommended.

• Hi Aaron - your pitch deck has become *the* deck for startups to emulate - I was wondering if you could go back and change anything on the deck or add anything, would you? What advice do you have for someone currently trying to raise?

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    If you’re looking to raise money, you need to show three things: 1. You solve a real problem, and therefore have a real business. Creating a company that say, helps manage Twitter lists better, is a feature, not a business. You’d be surprised how many people have features, and not real businesses. Think long and hard about your own business here. 2. Prove you have a big market. I’ve been pitched many, many times on businesses where if you do back of the envelope math there are only say 100,000 potential customers worth maybe $100 / year = $10m / year = too small. It might be a good lifestyle business, but will not attract investors. 3. Have a sustainable advantage. That’s either tech that’s hard to replicate, or patents, or an experienced leadership team. If you have none of the above, you’re hosed.

• What's the best piece of advice you have for someone just getting started with their idea?

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    1) Solve a real problem. You shouldn’t be starting a company just to start a company, or because you like the idea of being your own boss. You should solve a problem that will still exist in 5 years or 10 years. Do not start a company that’s based around creating better Twitter groups – that’s a feature, it’s not a business.

    2) Address a big market.

    3) Have a sustainable competitive advantage. That means you have technology / patents, or you are an expert here, or a proven executive.

• How did you forecast your future revenue/growth when you were just getting started?

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    In short, you can’t accurate project. Everyone’s projections look like a hockey stick up and to the right any way.

    What’s more important is to show how much money you can make per user or per transaction. Some businesses (like Social networks) only make a couple of dollars per user per year, and therefore need 10m+ users before they will make any real money. And getting to that level is rare. Mint is at 4.0m users have 3 hard years.

• What should I look out for when evaluating potential investors?

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    Money is money, so look for someone with good connections and reputation who can help you raise your next round of funding (this is the single best function of a VC, regardless of what expertise they think they bring to the strategy of your business). And look for a good personal fit. I go out to a 3 hour dinner before I take on any new major investor to make sure I can stand to be around them and that they are actually good people.

• How big was your team when you started Mint?

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    I started Mint alone. I worked in my apartment 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6-7 months before bringing on two other engineers.

    We were about 8 people when we launched a year later.

• What were the key metrics you monitored in the early days trying to grow the business?

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    Registered Users = front end demand, active users = product quality, and revenue. Those are still our three key metrics.