Sam Udotong is one of the scrappiest founders in tech
In 2016, he moved to San Francisco with $100 in his pocket.
Today his startup Fireflies raised $14 million from top investors.
This is the story of his "overnight" success 👇👇👇
Sam's journey has been far from easy
• He moved to San Francisco with $100 in his pocket
• For years his daily diet consisted of a bottle of Soylent and three slices of pizza
• He and his co-founder pivoted the company *7 times*
•He grew up on the U.K.’s equivalent of welfare
•He sold clothes, started a magazine, and managed a rapper
•He pitched 50 startup ideas to someone at a random music studio encounter, and convinced him to be his co-founder
Harry's upbringing shaped him
His mother raised him, his brother, and his sister on government benefits that amounted to less than £600/month.
They lived through food, financial, and social insecurity.
This insecurity has driven Harry throughout his career.
Figma is a startup valued at more than $2 billion dollars.
Co-founder and CEO Dylan Field is a Forbes 30 under 30 list alum.
This is a story about the messy reality of building a startup and the myth of overnight success.👇
Building Figma was messy
Dylan is really open about it:
• The company idea was originally around drones
• He questioned dropping out of Brown after "the worst week of Figma"
• John Lilly passed on their seed round, saying "I just don’t think you know what you’re doing yet."
Dylan dropped out of Brown University to become a member of the Thiel Fellowship in 2012
He and co-founder Evan Wallace (Dylan's friend and former TA) began work on what started as a Drone company,