James Richards | Founder of Teleborder | YC S13 | $3.5M Seed | Exit to TriNet

James Richards, founder of Teleborder (now acquired by TriNet) discusses his experience building the business from the ground up. He dives into his original business plan and how it developed into Teleborder. We dive into his experience with Y-combinator Summer 2013 batch, fundraising $3.5 million, his exit strategy, and the valuable life lessons he learned from watching the business take a downturn.

1:42 – James Background, jumping in unprepared and his inspiration to leave the corporate world
6:50 – The ideas that he started with and finding the right with a co-founder
9:20 – Properly utilizing your strengths instead of improving weaknesses & starting Teleborder
12:00 – Going niche instead of broad
14:19 – The lows before the high, Hitting rock bottom
17:00 – Getting that first customer
19:25 – Business Model
23:30 – First investment check & pitching to first investor & expectation of investors
28:00 – 30 Second Teleborder pitch & Raising seed and Evaluation cap
30:43 – “My big mistake & what I would have done differently”
34:30 – The Exit
38:57 – The big lesson & Advice for other founders

TriNet
https://www.trinet.com/

Book mentioned:
Fundamentals of Power System Economics
https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-S…

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