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Taking advantage of Startup Ecosystems with Asra Nadeem from Draper University.

Summary: Saif talks with the Asra Nadeem, the President of Draper University, about how to get the most out of startup ecosystems, starting a new company during Covid-19, and resources available to new entrepreneurs. Check out some of Draper University’s programs and a special deal for FoundersList on our Deals page. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:00:19] Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us for the FoundersList podcast. My name is Saif Akhtar and I'm here with Asra Nadeem who is the President of Draper University.  Thank you so much for being with us Asra and welcome!

Asra Nadeem: [00:00:31] Thank you. Thank you for having me! This is exciting. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:00:33] So I'm actually personally very excited to have Asra as a podcast guest. She's actually an old friend of mine as well. We've worked not only in the U S but also in Pakistan. So   kinda tell us a little about, you know, your background and obviously some of the awesome work that you've done.

Asra Nadeem: [00:00:49] Sure! So I grew up in Pakistan and I  am like a lot of women of my generation in Pakistan. I'm the first girl in my family who went to college. From there I started economics and I  was very set on a career in politics, and like every young person, I wanted to change the face of politics in Pakistan!

And then from there, I very quickly realized that I want to pick and choose my battles and that's not a battle I want to fight. Personally, I wholeheartedly believe that there is no freedom without some sort of financial freedom. Pakistan is a very patriarchal society. So you're dependent upon your own patriarch in your house for his financial support. There is no freedom of expression. So from there very quickly went into, okay, how do I kind of go into that mode? And technology was a great way to do it. 

So my first business, I kind of started it off of mIRC - smuggling foreign chocolates into Pakistan! And it kind of just stuck from there! I think technology is a great enabler and it really opens up so many doors for people. I got hired by this young guy who had just moved to Pakistan from Stanford Monis and he was starting a matchmaking website and I was hired as a customer support person.

Within two weeks you don't know what your customers are saying! This is not what you do! So I was hired full time. And then from there on, we built a whole bunch of interesting products in Pakistan. We raised money from the Valley, from Draper Fisher, and a whole bunch of other people. Then I moved to Dubai, built on an infrastructure there, I moved to Canada, and then moved down here to the Valley.  It's been an exciting journey, but I worked kind of in multiple places, always on technologies that empower people to lead better lives.

Again, going back to the financial piece of it. It's very important for me to have that financial independence and angel investing was like a great way to kind of, you know, figure out where am I going to find that balance. So I started right. I wasn't an accredited investor in the US so I started by writing small checks for international companies.

Because... They don't really care, they just need money! And really helping them do well. So that's kind of how I forayed into investing. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:03:34] That's awesome! Tell us a little more about Draper university - You've been there for a really long time, kind of a little background about what got you started and how you moved up to the top.

Asra Nadeem: [00:03:46] Yeah. So I've been here for five years and Tim Draper, he's a venture capitalist who started Draper University. It's a very Socratic model of learning where you actually learn from other people,  learn by doing and within his network, he had a lot of successful founders. He wanted to see how we could transfer that knowledge over to very. Early founders or people who are just thinking about starting a company. It's a very superhero themed place because he really believes that the world needs more superheroes to solve big problems! 

And then in 2015 is when I connected with him because obviously we'd raise money from him before. So I kind of knew of him. And I came down to check out the school and I kind of never went back. And it's exciting because you get to work with so many people from all over the world. One of the things that we did is then we built partnerships with various governments across the world, and we've worked with very early students or aspiring entrepreneurs and really open up our Silicon Valley network for them, either for hiring, fundraising, or networking. Two years ago we started a small fund that I manage within the university. that invests anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 in companies. So it's been a great experiment. 

What's happened organically is that as we started working with more and more of these ecosystems, we kind of became that connection or something that made that ecosystem grow. Something that always annoys me is how Governments spend millions of dollars in fancy looking buildings without any real work being put into leadership or  into the network that's going to help these people or giving them financial resources. The biggest challenge is the financial resources, right? And then the term sheets that people get are horrendous. They want to give them $10,000 for like 50% equity. So that's what we started changing. And over a period of time, we've seen our term sheets being used to set more terms that are founder friendly.

And that in itself has been an amazing journey to see. We have 32 funds in our ecosystem - 32 Draper venture network funds and, Draper University is the education arm of that ecosystem. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:06:43] Yeah, no, that's fantastic. Especially for our listeners. If you're ever in San Mateo, definitely go check out the space. There are plenty of free events also that Draper University hosts for the community and just some awesome people all around to network with. So we talked a lot about startup ecosystems and you've been a part of so many different ones. A big issue that we've seen and something we're also trying to solve at FoundersList, is how to really engage or help entrepreneurs who are really bogged down with so many things they need to do, but they still need to be able to go out and network and join a community. Any advice for how these kinds of entrepreneurs should find and engage with startup programs in order to extract the most value out of them? 

Asra Nadeem: [00:07:34] So one of the things I personally do is look at everything as a sales funnel. Be that your network, be that your actual customer pipeline, whatever you're doing - it's a funnel. And you have to kind of go broader on the top - these are multiple communities that I can be a part of, but then you really start stress testing them and really see what's working for you. Have very specific asks for each one of them.

I remember when I was younger, when we were working on my first company, it was like, "Can somebody please help?" A lot of times you're trying to figure out what you need, but you're looking at somebody else to help you with that, which is never a good place to be at.

Even if you're very, very early, or you're a founder who doesn't have a lot of resources, have a plan - This is what I'm going to get done in the next three months. And to get there, these are the things that I need. Do I need resources? Do I need hiring? Do I need capital? What is it? Although these are the three things people usually need.

And customers! Just go out and talk to them, put each one of them into a bucket and see which bucket works best for you. That's kind of my philosophy. I don't believe in networking. I don't think that you should go out and meet people just because - your time is extremely valuable. Think about how to make your time more and more efficient. Communities like FoundersList or Product Hunt are extremely useful because you can find your kind of people who are extremely helpful on these communities. Ask something. Be very specific. You'll find so many people who'll raise their hands and say, "We'll help you with this!" So have a specific ask and then really hone in on what that ask is. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:09:42] Absolutely. Considering the amount of communities that are out there, that's pretty relevant because you can get overwhelmed with the amount of events. Everyone will be bombarding you, they'll offer free milk and cookies, but you really need to focus on what exactly you want to get out of that event.

Asra Nadeem: [00:10:02] Yeah. And you should also question other people's motives, right? Why is this event being organized? What are the organizers getting out of it? That's extremely important because by the end of the day, you're giving away your time to somebody and it should always be some sort of an exchange.

What are you getting out of that time? If you're going to an event, always ask who else is there? What's the agenda? How much time does the speaker have? A lot of times events will advertise a speaker who will come in two minutes before they start and leave a second after. That doesn't help you. You should ask how much time the speaker has after to answer questions. 

If you're a startup, a lot of these events offer great discounts and perks. Sometimes they have resources that you can tap into. So always have some sort of an agenda. I mean, I've gone to events when I was younger for free food! It's a great agenda, but always have one. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:11:15] Definitely. During the college days in larger kind of ecosystems, you always find larger companies or universities hosting these entrepreneurial events with free food. Along the lines of networking - Your own community is centered around San Mateo. With the current crisis, how do you think starting a company is going to change? If somebody wanted to start today, any tips on how things are different than they were before? 

Asra Nadeem: [00:12:06] Just start. It doesn't matter. When you're starting a company, it's very isolated! You don't need to go to a coworking space to start a company. As long as it's something that you're passionate about, that you know people are willing to pay for - go ahead! Build something. Try it, talk to people, see if they'll use it or pay for it. A lot of things are easier because it's easier to get access to people online. People aren't commuting so some people have slightly more time but others may have children or parents or other dependents who they have to take care of.

So you can be fighting against a lot of things that are high priority for them. Make a list, go through that funnel of what you want out of somebody, and reach out to them. You just have to go ahead and do it. And online or offline, it's pretty much the same process, right?

90% of the founders don't have a network. I still don't have a network because I live in a bubble! So tomorrow, if I want to do something, I'll start exactly the same way. Start by reaching out to people  that you think are the most relevant to what you're doing, or would be the most interested in what you're doing whether they're customers or investors. It's slightly more efficient because you can do a 15/20 minute Zoom call and get stuff done that would otherwise take a two hours commute. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:14:09] Yeah, things have definitely changed, but we're also seeing a lot of interest from people wanting to learn either about entrepreneurship or need a little assistance in terms of taking that next step. I know Draper University has a new program out called "Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship." Would you mind kind of telling us a little more about that and who that's for?

Asra Nadeem: [00:14:33] Sure. That's our program for anybody who wants to start a company but doesn't know where to go. We essentially bring together people who are exactly in the same phase of their life and they can be of any age. In our last program, our youngest participant was 15 and our oldest participant was 52.

It doesn't matter what phase of life or what stage of life you're in - You're all in that same phase which is wanting to figure out how to start. Or I want to start something but I'm very early and I don't know where to go. I don't know what I need. Like I don't know what growth hacking is! 

If you don't know how to make a business plan, or how to look at numbers - Those are a lot of things that we help with. It's a two week program. Every day we have a lecture, breakout sessions, and then a team activity. It's very hands on and helps people really flush out their ideas.

You also use the program to build a network with other founders from across the globe. Since we're plugged into our network in the Valley, we bring investors and industry experts to do office hours. It's a fast 2 weeks!

Saif Akhtar: [00:16:00] Everyone in the Valley at least knows about the Draper network. So being able to leverage that through the university, into the funds and into the larger kind of scheme of things is tremendous value. 

Around that, we're also announcing that Draper University was kind enough to provide FoundersList with a discount code for their program. For early bird pricing on the "Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship", visit the link in the description. There's also a one-seat giveaway which will be through a raffle. Thank you so much for that Asra - we really  appreciate it and hope it's a tremendous value for our users.

Asra Nadeem: [00:16:41] I'm happy to do that and looking forward to seeing what kind of people we are able to access through FoundersList. 

Saif Akhtar: [00:16:49] I appreciate it. We're definitely going to try and send you some high quality people over! Before we end, one thing I really want to reiterate for this episode is how you're not only the President of Draper University, but are also active in multiple ecosystems. You're considered a tremendous advisor, a mentor, just a tremendous resource for people to reach out to.

Can our listeners reach out to you and for what?  

Asra Nadeem: [00:17:22] I'm happy to! Again, be specific. I'm really good at figuring out where your initial customers could be potentially and how do you reach out to them. That's kind of what I've done before I started doing this. I'm good at CRO sales. And obviously we have funds that I can connect you with. Email is the best way to reach out to me. I reply to all of my emails whenever I get them. It's just asra@draperuniversity.com.

Saif Akhtar: [00:18:03] Fantastic. Well, I think that's it from us on this episode. Thank you so much again, we really appreciate your time and as always stay safe and we hope you take care. 

Asra Nadeem: [00:18:15] Thank you so much for doing this. This was fun. Thank you.