The Art of Building Great Companies: Lessons From Serial Entrepreneurs

There is no single formula for building a standout company. But entrepreneurs who have launched multiple businesses can develop a keen sense of which decisions and guiding principles can really power success.

Three serial tech entrepreneurs share the strategies behind their most successful ventures:

• David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank
• Mike Speiser, managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures; founding CEO of Reve, Pure Storage, and Snowflake
• Adam Foroughi, co-founder and CEO of AppLovin
  
  

They offer insights on building and scaling your business, including how to tackle big problems, retain an underdog mindset, build a strong business culture, and recognize when it’s time to pursue a new venture.

1. Go after a big problem to make a profound impact

When he was thinking about his next venture, David Vélez noticed something striking: Very few entrepreneurs were tackling large, real-world issues in Latin America, such as access to financial services, healthcare, and education. 

“They were trying to solve the problems of Silicon Valley engineers, which are not the problems of the average middle-class person,” he recalls.

Vélez noticed retail banking in Latin America had numerous pain points: It could take months to open an account, and many people didn’t have any access to credit. At the same time, smartphone use was skyrocketing.

Vélez connected these dots to launch Nubank, a digital-first bank built to eliminate friction and expand access. Today, it serves over 127 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, providing access to credit cards, insurance, personal loans, and more.

By focusing on large-scale social issues, entrepreneurs can create solutions that can have a profound impact and inspire others to think big.

“There was a lot of fear initially about going in some of these industries,” Vélez says. “You now see entrepreneurs going after the big problems. How do we reimagine healthcare with AI? How do we reimagine education? There’s an opportunity to make real progress,” he says.

Once you land on a problem to tackle, it should become the central focus, says Mike Speiser, managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures. “I always start with the problem,” he says. “Not the answer, not the product, not the company.” A deep understanding of the issue can help entrepreneurs develop a specialized ability that helps them recognize patterns and come up with more impactful, effective solutions. “You can become better and better at solving the problem,” Speiser says. 

2. Retain the underdog mindset

Adam Foroughi, who founded the advertising platform AppLovin, still doesn’t think he’s made it.

“I think in a competitive ecosystem you can never think you've made it. If you think you've made it, you're probably not hustling the way you used to and don't have that underdog mindset anymore,” he said.

Foroughi explained that he holds onto the mentality from the early days of building his company, resisting complacency to constantly improve and innovate his current products and processes. “I look at everything in front of us as a challenge and an opportunity. You always have to be pushing,” he said.

3. Invest in people and culture from day one

Vélez believes great companies are built by a strong team and culture, so it’s crucial to make them a priority right away. “The culture of a business is built in the first six months by the first 10 to 15 employees,” Vélez says. “And it’s an investment that keeps paying off, so you don’t want to wait until it’s too late.”

In fact, he believes Nubank’s values and team shaped the entire business. “The combination of talent and culture led us to the product, led us to the strategy, and ultimately, has been driving almost every single decision we've done over the past 10 years,” he says.

Speiser echoes this belief with a similar guiding principle: “You want to have the right problem, the right process, and the right people,” he says. “Any entrepreneur knows that growing and starting companies is emotional and hard, so you want to be on a team with really high integrity people you can trust.”

4. Recognize when it’s time to transition yourself out

You may spend a lot of time thinking about starting and growing your venture. But Speiser says that understanding the right moment to step aside is another critical skill for any entrepreneur. “There are different people that hit different levels, so you have to ask yourself: When does each person hit their limit?” he asks.

As a founding CEO of several companies, Speiser says one of the most important skills he’s learned is knowing when it’s time for him to leave. This recognition not only allows the company to continue to grow and innovate under new leadership—it lets Speiser pursue work that is most fulfilling to him.

“I’ve become comfortable saying there are better people than me to do things,” he says. “In fact, it lets me do the part that I find most interesting, which is the really early part. I get to keep on doing it over and over and hopefully get better at it,” he says.

As a company’s needs, products, and goals change over time, it’s worth reflecting on if you still have the capacity and interest to continue to lead the company forward.

If you’re interested in more strategies to build lasting personal wealth as an entrepreneur, read our latest guide, Beyond the Build: A Wealth Planning Guide for a Business Exit or IPO.

For more insights from the entrepreneurs in this article, watch the full episodes of David Veléz and Adam Foroughi on Talks at GS, and Mike Speiser on Goldman Sachs Exchanges.