First up on the ‘Surviving a Recession’ candid conversation series is Mitch Coopet with ‘The Adventures of Code42 Post-9/11’ — Mitch cofounded Code42 a month after 9/11, in the midst of the dot com bubble bursting. Despite the timing, he helped grow the company from three people in a basement to $100M and 500+ employees. He successively pitched and raised Seed, Series A and B rounds ($2.5M, $52.5M, $85 M, respectively) before exiting and stepping into the role as CTO at Branch.
QUICK CONVERSATION TAKEAWAYS
1. Know your business deeply as a founder.
2. You can't buy success with high profile hires.
3. Do at least one thing great in early stages and base your early growth on it.
4. Find an advocate or influencer who can bring new clients on board.
5. Act very quickly to pivot and/or make operational changes during downturns.
6. Test your assumptions, learn and implement continuously.
7. If you’re not finding the journey fun, it isn’t for you!
ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER
Mitch Coopet is the co-founder and former CTO of Minneapolis tech company Code42, CEO of CEO of Rambl, a startup that used artificial intelligence to analyze the content and information of sales calls and now he is CTO at Branch, where he leads the company's product and engineering teams, while helping scale the organization as a whole.
While at Code42, Coopet and his founding team grew Code42 from 3 people in a basement to $100M+ and 500+ employees. He is focused on helping high growth stage startups, solving big market problems and building teams that can seize opportunities.
His journey in tech began in software engineering with a primary passion around products, end users and the markets they impact. Mitch has built and lead world class engineering, product, and support teams. He is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully pitched and raised Seed, Series A and B rounds ($2.5M, $52.5M, $85M).
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
This session is moderated by Cihan Behlivan, Entrepreneur in Residence at BETA. Cihan Behlivan is a technology entrepreneur and operations executive, who led the first tech IPO out of Turkey in 2000. He joined his first tech startup in 2002 as the first employee, and oversaw product development and engineering teams, while managing sales and marketing efforts. Cihan started his own tech company in 2009 and sold it to a CRO company in 2017. Learn more about Cihan and the BETA Team.
ABOUT THE SERIES
"Surviving a Recession" is a five-part series presented by BETA and Launch Minnesota featuring local and national thought leaders sharing how they are applying lessons learned from their experiences weathering multiple recessions (such as the dot com bubble, September 11 and the 2008 housing crisis) to their businesses today.
OTHER CANDID CONVERSATIONS YOU MAY LIKE
Staying Grounded During Times of Economic Uncertainty
Moderated by Mike Gietl, J.P. Morgan Industry Executive
J.P. Morgan Industry Executive, Mike Gietl hosts Jodi Hubler in a discussion about Jodi’s experience at Definity Health (the VC backed insurance innovation bought by United) during 9/11 and the dot-com bubble burst, leading Lemhi Ventures during the Great Recession and thaw of 2008-2010, and the how she’s applying those lessons to today.
How to Survive and Thrive When Your Business Doesn’t
Moderated by Kelly Buhl, Operations Lead at BETA
Elaine Rasmussen, Founder and CEO of Social Impact Strategies Group (SISG), shares how she overcame losing everything in 2001 to become a successful entrepreneur and community activist today.
Moderated by Eri O'Diah, CEO at Collective.ly Digital
In this session of ‘Surviving a Recession’, Seena Hodges, Founder and CEO of The Woke Coach, guides us through an unfiltered conversation around becoming our best, most understanding, and empathetic selves during challenging times.
How Rapid Adaptation Can Save Your Business
Moderated by Casey Shultz, Executive Director at BETA
Lili Hall, Founder & CEO of Knock, Inc, Janet Johanson, Founder and CEO of BevSource and The Lab, and Scott Burns, Co-founder & CEO of Structural are no strangers to global recessions. All three were leading companies in the aftermath of 9/11 and through the housing crisis of 2008, but each agrees that something about COVID-19 feels different.
