Since our inception, Symphony has been deeply integrated into the Stanford ecosystem, which has influenced our work approach and client interactions.
Last week, Symphony’s Co-Founder and President, Muamer Cisija, hosted a Stanford GSB Founders Chat on the topic of building and scaling engineering teams in today’s market landscape.
Callum King (class of ‘13) and Lasse-Mathias Nyberg (class of ‘23), two GSB founders and entrepreneurs, joined him to share their experiences and observations.
Key takeaways from the webinar
- The GSB entrepreneurial appetite remains strong despite the current macro environment. In the current graduating class of '23 there are 40 founders launching 25 companies, which aligns with historical averages
- While many founders have leaned into hyped domains like AI and climate tech, recurring themes such as dating and connection building remain relevant (3 companies tackling this space in the current class)
- You can build a full product and have paying customers with only a handful of full-time employees. In the current environment, there’s a strong desire to work with external partners
- Founders are focusing more on extending the runway and increasing flexibility during the product development phase. The best way to onboard and get the full value of a software development partner is to hire a CTO or a senior technical advisor who can vet and manage the team
- You need senior technical folks to enable the scaling. Hiring a CTO is a much more scalable solution than hiring a senior engineer who can do hands-on coding
Learn more about how Symphony partners with GSB founders and generates value by visiting our page.
