033: Why Paul Forster (Co-founder, Indeed and Investor) said yes when other investors said no скачать в хорошем качестве

033: Why Paul Forster (Co-founder, Indeed and Investor) said yes when other investors said no

Paul Forster co-founded Indeed and scaled it from 6 employees to 1,000+ with 100% year-over-year growth before selling. Today he's an active angel investor with 90+ portfolio companies, including Griffin. Paul invested in Griffin twice: at seed when institutional VCs couldn't (or wouldn't) touch a company building a regulated bank, and at Series A when others hesitated about commercial traction. On this episode of Griffin Uncut, Paul sits down with David Jarvis to discuss what made him say yes when the market said no, how he evaluates co-founder dynamics in a few meetings, and why he thinks Griffin's biggest challenge ahead isn't regulatory or technical—it's deciding what NOT to build. Paul also shares the Indeed story: how their wives introduced them as co-founders, why they didn't use recruiters to hire (eating their own dog food), how they built millions of users without paying for marketing, and what he'd do differently if starting Indeed today. This is episode 33 of Griffin Uncut. Learn more about Griffin: https://griffin.com Building something Paul might want to invest in? He's open for business. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:50 How Paul ended up at business school (near-death story) 02:24 Building the first business: a financial job site 03:16 Bootstrapped to profitability, sold in 2003 03:55 Starting Indeed: doing it right the second time 04:35 Applying the Google model to classifieds 06:25 The DNA of leanness: how they stayed scrappy 08:17 "You wouldn't even hire your mother" 08:36 100% YoY growth, year in, year out 09:13 Why go back into the same industry? 10:09 How their wives introduced them as co-founders 11:52 Transitioning from operator to angel investor 12:44 The super angel model: between angel and VC 14:57 Investment thesis: application-led software, big markets, differentiated products 17:24 Providing advice without being pushy 18:19 The cap table feedback story 20:13 Why Paul invested in Griffin at seed (contrarian bet #1) 21:19 Why institutional VCs couldn't invest in a regulated bank 22:48 Building a "theoretical bank" before having products 24:27 Why Paul invested again at Series A (contrarian bet #2) 25:46 Serving on Griffin's board for three years 26:37 David's unusual combination: engineering + passion for regulation 28:45 How to evaluate co-founder dynamics 31:51 Griffin's biggest challenge: strategy and focus 32:21 The roadmap is huge, but you can't do everything 33:18 "What's your AI strategy?" is the wrong question 35:36 Platform shifts and when to embrace change 37:33 "The problem was you wanted to do everything" 38:52 The platform thesis: bank accounts are the fulcrum 39:36 What's next: cards, then stablecoins 41:13 What Paul would do differently starting Indeed today 42:47 Why building consumer networks is harder now 43:50 What excites Paul now: healthtech and bio