Introduction

Attended the Flo founders talk in London where Dmitry Gurski shared the Flo unicorn story. Sharing some bullet points which stuck with me 1 day after the event.

The event, part of the regularly hosted “Create What You Wish Existed” club on the Locals.org platform, usually invites great people to share their journeys in business, culture, and life. Hosted mainly in London.

Flo Femtech Founding Principles

  • Flo founders are male
  • Decision to proceed based on data, not feelings or personal experiences
  • Extensive customer research: 700+ A4 pages before any decision made to go ahead

David vs Goliath: Flo vs Glow

  • Max Levchin (PayPal co-founder) launched Glow app
  • Flo outperformed Glow despite:
    • Glow’s support from top SV VCs - they could not have any better
    • Flo’s limited capital and small Belarusian team
  • Max’s strategy: Launch multiple businesses, focus on most successful (was not Glow)

Predicting Success and Failure

“You can’t predict success but you can predict failure”

  • Early-stage success unpredictable, even for seasoned VCs/founders
  • Failure much more predictable based on e.g.:
    • Team composition
    • Founders’ commitment levels
    • Past experiences
  • Can’t predict success, can predict failure

The Importance of Attempts

  • Avoid “zombie mode” companies as it strips you of time
  • Crucial factors for founders/CEOs:
    1. Number of attempts per unit of time
    2. Speed of decision-making
    3. Quality of decisions

Future Plans

  • Exploring hardware options
  • Investigating Whoop/Oura strategies (whole team running with Whoop)
  • IPO strategy: After reaching $5B valuation

The 100 Updates Approach

  • Continuous iteration and valuable customer feedback to refine and enhance the product
  • Implement a strategic milestone of ±100 updates before making key turns (sell, pivot, etc.)