This Entrepreneur Raised $49 Million To Help You Skyrocket Your Productivity
Adam Nathan went from working in the White House to launching a tech startup that has raised sizable seed and Series A funding rounds.
During his appearance on the Dealmakers Show Nathan talked about whether or not you should become an entrepreneur, skiing and competitiveness, managing your fundraising process for oversubscribed rounds, productivity, and solving big problems.
Adam Nathan was born and raised in NYC. A city he loves for its diverse culture and endless stimulation.
His parents were entrepreneurs that ran their own small business together. They taught Adam and his brother the values of persistence and hard work. How to really put your all into something, as well as the responsibility of giving back and improving the world.
Adam recalls watching his mother stay up late doing the accounting for the company, while they ate candy and watched TV. From a young age he was inspired by the self sufficiency entrepreneurship could provide, and how it enabled you to control your own destiny.
Although he took the scenic route to becoming an entrepreneur, by first going to work for other companies, he credits those work experiences with helping him find his way to what he is doing now.
Still, some of his top advice for others considering starting their own businesses today is to put off the fear, knowing that no matter what you do it is going to be hard, and just jump in sooner anyway.
With that said, Nathan doesn’t believe that entrepreneurship is for everybody. Despite how it is portrayed as being sexy, glamorous, and full of riches, he says that it is an extreme exercise and persistence and grit. There is a lot of difficulty, self-doubt, and pain involved.
Of course being stuck in middle management, and dealing with all of the corporate politics and inefficiencies there can be hell too. In a startup it is finding product market fit, scaling, team building, and fundraising. It’s all about what type of pain you want to deal with every day.
Adam says that he feels he was definitely built to be a founder. He believes waiting any longer to take the leap would have certainly limited the potential of his career. Yet, he says it is only something you should do if there is nothing else you can do. Or if you have a nagging idea that keeps you awake at night, every night.
Adam Nathan’s father was a big skier. Growing up they spent many winters skiing together. Adam specifically took to racing on skis.
It’s an individual, highly competitive sport. One that requires moving very fast, and balancing a lot of risk with precision. One which clearly carries a lot of similarities to founding a startup.
Though after competing on the junior national ski team he left the sport behind for college. Today, he gets on the slopes for fun with friends, and fulfills his competitive nature in his business, working as a team instead. Experiences which he says come with a lot more purpose, than just trying to get empty awards for doing things that please other people.
During his senior year studying at Duke Nathan received a call from an anonymous phone number. It was the White House, asking him to come and intern there.
It was early in Obama’s time in office, when he was working on Obamacare and the Dodd Frank Act.
At just 21 years old, and never having had a full time job before, he was thrust into doing a lot of work in these projects. Managing people, scheduling meetings, and engaging with bank CEOs and advisors to the president.
There he says he learned that you can have a big impact, and that working hard does make a difference.
Next he did some consulting, got his MBA at Harvard, worked for a couple of other companies, and also did internships with Apple and Lyft.
Adam told the Dealmakers Show audience that he was always interested in complex system design, and ways to change the world.
After seeing the inefficiencies in big corporations like airlines, as well as in nonprofits, and federal government agencies, he saw technology as the tool to make that happen.
Finally, in early 2019 he and a cofounder saw instant traction with one of their ideas, and decided to quit their jobs, and jump into their own startup, Almanac.
Today, Almanac has really evolved into a productivity tool, enabling faster work, and speedier decisions, in the new world of remote work. Without all of the cringeworthy, inefficient meetings.
He sees this as the way to empower people to spend time on real work, and work they thrive doing. While accelerating the ability to solve the world’s biggest and most pressing problems.
On the journey they’ve already raised a $9M seed round, and $40M Series A.
Managing your fundraising process · Oversubscribed funding rounds · Productivity · How Almanac is making a difference
