How I Got Started: Tatem (non-technical solo founder who raised $2.5M in less than 2 weeks of leaving his last startup)

Excited to share the story behind Tatem & founder Chris LaFerla!

Some highlights I loved talking to him about:

• He’s a non-technical solo founder of a technical product, who was also formerly an investment banker and who grew up as a pastor’s son in Ohio

• How optimizing for learning over everything else (money, prestige, etc) has served him well

• How he got his second startup funded with $2.5M just a couple weeks after leaving his first

• Why he wishes he was still an investment banker (kidding)

Subscribe for future stories & read more about Chris’s story below!

How he knew he wanted to be a founder and his first foray into entrepreneurship
I grew up as a pastor's son in Ohio, so I knew I didn't want to be a pastor.

Once I first started making money at my first job (investment banking), that's where the risk aversion in me left. I was like “Man, okay, I hate this job and know that I don’t want to do this.” After a couple of jobs, I figured out my dream: I wanted to start my own startup. I was walking away from what was a predictable guarantee of wealth, but I didn’t care.

I was interested in business from a young age. In school, I got in trouble for selling Pokemon cards and my sister’s friendship bracelets. In fifth or sixth grade, I started a lawn mowing business. I also learned how to build gaming computers by buying parts on eBay, assembling them, and reselling them for a profit (and made around $10,000 by mid-high school).

How working at a startup (Faire) lead to meeting co-founders and starting his first company
I joined Faire as employee number 90 as the second strategic finance person, and from day one, I loved it.

After about 12-18 months, I knew I wanted to do something really early. I wanted to be a co-founder. And that’s what lead to founding my first startup.

The Head of Design at Faire (and former Head of Design at Everlane) and her husband (Head of Design at Airbnb) wanted to start a DTC furniture company (what ultimately became Companion). At first, I volunteered to help them or consult on nights and weekends with whatever they needed. I just saw it as an opportunity to learn.

After a couple months, they offered me the opportunity to become a co-founder. This was a big decision for me: I’d be walking away from equity that’d likely be worth over a million dollars.

Ultimately though, I left it on the table. It came back to, again, the opportunity cost of learning. I just thought, "When else am I going to have an opportunity to learn product and design from some of the best product and design people in the world?” So after 9ish months of working together just on weekends, I joined them full time as the third co-founder.

How LinkedIn added value for once, by leading to funding for his first startup
Within days of me quitting, I changed my LinkedIn to “Co-founder at Companion” and an associate from Bling Capital reached out. At the time, we weren’t planning on raising money - we only needed $50K to do the first order and were planning to do that with savings or investment from friends and family.

Coincidentally, Ben Ling (of Bling Capital) ended up knowing my co-founder from a previous company, and one thing lead to another, and he gave us a term sheet.

I think we raised $540,000 at a $5.4 million cap, which illustrates how early and unprepared we were. We then ended up raising another $1.3 million at a $7.5 million cap from other investors, all introduced to us by Ben.

How he founded his second startup - finding his idea, founding engineer, and raising money
About a year after joining Companion, I realized a few things: a) I wasn't passionate about the industry, and b) my co-founders and I had different views on how to run a business. I left and knew I wanted to start another company.

At the time, I thought I knew what I wanted to build: compliance management software. At Companion, I had to deal with accounting, finances, taxes, firing people, and I hated all those things.

I know I needed to get an engineer before raising, so I hired my roommate's younger brother, Jon, who became our founding engineer. It took some convincing, but he joined! One condition is that I needed to pay him a salary, and since this was pre-funding, I personally invested $50,000 into the business to pay him.

Within a week of leaving, I had hired Jon, built a deck, and reached out to multiple investors that I met through Companion or by doing early-stage work. Unlike the first time around, I had many conversations - probably around 15-20.

At the same time, an old friend from Faire heard I had left Companion and reached out - I had known him from Faire and he had kind of advised us at Companion, and he was now at Caffeinated Capital. They had invested in so many of my favorite B2B software companies, so my hopes were high. One thing lead to another, and they ended up leading my $2.5M round.

Other (fun) highlights from my interview with Chris

On optimizing for learning and passion more than money or prestige
I just turned 28 recently. I'm still very young. Be open to experimentation, and be open to taking risks. Especially if you went to a good college or you had a good first job as a consultant, engineer, doctor, etc., you can always just go back to whatever that was.

I went to Faire to learn how to operate. Then, I went to Companion to learn how to be a founder, how early stage funding worked, and to meet more engineers. This has all served me in building Tatem now.

Also, you should love what you do. I don't pay myself a salary. I live in my parents’ house. I love it.

On risk aversion vs risk seeking
I think every good entrepreneur is risk-averse to a degree. I took a risk when I started my first startup, but only because I had worked in investment banking and at a top startup before that. I knew that even if I failed, I could always go back to that startup or return to investment banking. I don't like situations where I don't have a fallback plan. I wouldn't let myself start a startup or join one right out of college, even though at that point I knew I wanted to.

On why people should re-consider investment banking 🙃
On day one of my investment banking job, I had absolutely nothing to do but they made me stay until 11PM. The culture was atrocious at that office. I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake.

On having his parents’ support
My parents are incredibly supportive, and I think they sacrificed so much to give me the education that I had. I'm in my childhood bedroom, and they fully fund my living expenses (minus my own savings) since I don’t pay myself.

My parents have always told me I’ve always been creative and entrepreneurial. They’ve encouraged me to start my own business, and if it fails, they want me to start another.

Thanks for reading! I’m always looking for more founders outside of my immediate network to feature, so if you know of any founders with interesting early stories to tell, please nominate them (or yourself) here! If you have suggestions, feedback, etc., email me at [email protected]! And subscribe below if you want to be alerted about future stories