Welcome to 2025!
As we kick off the new year, how about a fresh mindset to help you achieve your goals
A lot of startup advice says to be customer obsessed (or some similar verb). Billionaire businessman Richard Branson famously flipped this on its head, saying a focus on employees will lead to customers being taken care of. Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, Co-Founder of online car marketplace MintList, agrees with Richard Branson and goes one step further: treat all stakeholders as investors. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained how this mindset drives growth.
Key takeaways:
- Investors provide resources with the expectation of a return in some form.
- When customers, employees, partners, and even extended families of founders and employees are considered investors, we ask ourselves more honest questions about what we’re doing at work.
- More honest questions leads to better ideation and more room for creativity, since you’re focused on delivering commensurate returns for everyone involved.
Co-Founder/Producer, SAAS NORTH Conference Editor, SAAS NORTH NOW
OVHcloud provides scalable, flexible solutions that grow with your business. Enjoy reliable performance and predictable pricing as you expand, ensuring your cloud infrastructure evolves with your needs. Learn more!
A lot of early-stage startup growth advice butts heads with itself.
Your customer is your sole focus… but what about employees? You should only ship what makes sense for your vision… but what about customers?
And where do families of founders and employees fit into all of this?
Mehra Raeiszadeh, co-founder of online car marketplace MintList, suggests a mindset shift: every stakeholder is an investor.
Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained how this mindset drives growth for startups.
Advertisement
What’s in an investor?
Mehrsa explained an investor is any person who puts their resources into an organization, with the expectation of a return.
Every stakeholder in a company fits this definition, not just venture capitalists or bankers:
- Founders are dedicating their time and career opportunity cost to build the company.
- Employees are also investing their career and time, typically trading market salaries for equity.
- Channel partners are opening their networks and social capital to you, hoping for mutually-beneficial outcomes.
- Grant providers are investing taxpayer dollars, expecting a mission-aligned outcome in the future.
- Customers are investing their money into your business, trusting your product over a lasting incumbent.
Mehrsa said this definition even extends to families of founders, as they are investing missed dinners and family time, all for the sake of your success.
“They’re all contributing to your success, and they’re supporting you one way or another,” said Mehrsa.
Advertisement
Fellow is the privacy and compliance-focused AI notetaker built for enterprise. Keep your meetings data safe while leveraging powerful AI capabilities like recording, transcription, and summaries—all designed for seamless integration into your existing tools and meeting workflows.
Asking better questions
When you consider everyone as an investor, the questions you ask yourself change—which in turn changes the trajectory of the company.
Founders, for example, are able to be more honest with themselves.
“Realistically, do I see that I’m filling a real gap here?” said Mehrsa. “Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing? Am I distracting myself with this partnership just because I’m desperate? Am I sharing this authentically? Am I sharing my problems and my and my concerns with my board so they can solve this problem with me rather than putting this happy face on?”
When it comes to customers, the questions are more about someone’s underlying motives. It’s not just the product they are buying, but the experience with your organization versus another.
For example, someone buying from a new startup may want its technology but also want to feel like they are at the cutting edge of innovation.
“What moves the needle for them—what is their bleeding neck wound?” said Mehra. “Instead of reducing the price or splashy promotions; what is it they’re looking for, for them to invest their money from their budget into the product or services of my company?”
The same mindset extends to employees.
When employees are investors, you begin to ask what you’re giving back to them in exchange for their contributions. This might be as simple as appreciation and gratitude, but it extends to giving people autonomy, room for creativity, opportunities to learn, and an overall enjoyable workplace.
“Is that aligned with the promises I made when I brought that person on board?” said Mehrsa.
We are a sell-side M&A advisory firm with core expertise in B2B Enterprise Cloud, SaaS, and IT companies. Strategic mergers, exits, and carve-outs for technology companies are all we do.
Facing reality
The questions we ask ourselves to serve investors also have an additional value: helping us face reality.
When you ask yourself honest questions about whether you’re solving a real need, you might notice the answer is “no.”
If that happens, you can look for your next authentic move—a recalibration, an exit, changing the product, hiring the right person, firing the right person, or even stepping down as a leader.
“It helps us face the reality head on and provide the guardrail to stay on the right path,” said Mehrsa. “And if we’re not on the right path, take the next exit.”
