Lessons From A Master Fundraiser
Interview with Dane Atkinson founder at Odeko
Odeko: Helping Small Coffee Shops Compete With Starbucks
I've had other serial entrepreneurs on the podcast before, but never a serial entrepreneur AND serial CEO! Dane Atkinson has had tremendous success with his previous startups but also as a non-founder CEO. Among other things, Dane spent four years as CEO of Squarespace before they went public (currently has a market cap of ~$4bn) and has lived through the early 2000s dot-com crash as a founder, advisor, and CEO of dozens of startups. They say grey hair is a crown of glory…
Odeko, Dane's latest adventure, is the culmination of many of the themes and big ideas we've been discussing in this forum lately:
i) The future of work —> Leverage tech to let people do what they truly love.
ii) The SMB opportunity —> How to compete in one of the largest and most attractive segments out there.
iii) Creating a moat around impressive value propositions —> Things that are so incredibly good, they feel like magic (e.g., Odeko literally restocks the shelves of coffee shops at 3 am while the owners are still sleeping).
Plus, this episode is all about coffee. Need to hear more? Odeko helps mom & pop coffee shops compete against large coffee chains like Starbucks or Dunkin'. A caffeinated David and Goliath story.
As a consumer, you might have never heard of Odeko. This is by design. Odeko and other similar B2B marketplaces operate as an invisible hand, or more like an invisible octopus, touching almost every aspect of the SMB's back-office operations. Starting with less than 50 coffee shops during the pandemic, Odeko now services more than 14,000 coffee shops around the country. To put things into perspective, roughly ONE IN THREE non-large chain coffee shops in the US is serviced by Odeko.
So... more than ever, grab your cup of coffee and enjoy the show!
You can listen now on Spotify, Apple or watch the video below. Please reach out with any feedback or comment, always happy to chat.
Bonus track: having raised hundreds of millions of $$$ for his startups, Dane was kind enough to share an old Odeko deck and walk us through the key ingredients of a successful pitch.
In this Sobremesa, we chat about:
(00:00) Coming Next: Sobremesa - Dane Atkinson @ Odeko
(01:30) Dane as Serial-CEO with ADHD
(03:26) How to approach tech platform shifts like the internet or AI?
(05:49) Similarities between dot.com crash and today
(13:33) Pitching 101 from one of the best fundraisers I met
(25:14) Additional tips after the pitch
(27:43) Coffee deliveries at 3am in the morning
(31:20) The huge invisible hand of Odeko
(33:31) New trend: make software invisible
(37:23) Commandments when building B2B marketplaces
(41:55) The secret of selling to SMEs
(44:06) How will this new marketplace category be valued in public markets?
(47:31) New York vs SF coffee culture?
(49:28) What are the emerging trends in the world of coffee?