Founder interview: Mindaugas Petrutis @ Coho
Meet Mindaugas, On Deck & InVision alum and community-building veteran, now founder of Coho, the community for startup leaders. Learn more about him, his startup, his team and vision.
Mindaugas Petrutis is CEO and Founder of Coho, the premier community for startup leaders. He shares exclusive insights to his founding journey and startup adventure.
Tell us about yourself
I am the CEO of Coho, a curated learning network for career professionals. Born in Lithuania, I moved to Ireland in my early 20s, then ended up in the Canary Islands where I spent nearly a decade working in hospitality before entering the tech industry. I founded a design recruitment agency in 2016 and later joined InVision and then On Deck. Last August, 2022, I became the CEO and co-founder of Coho.
What motivated you to become a founder?
I have always been entrepreneurial and initially had a dream of opening my own restaurant. I knew I didn't fit in as an employee and wanted to try different things, I was always playing around with different ideas and side projects, especially when I’d get to a stage in my day to day role where I’d lack the creative energy. I’d always start some time of side project or explore an idea. Initially my motivation to become a founder was to make enough money to realize my dream of starting a restaurant which then led me to what I’m doing today. I definitely have a very non linear career path to ending up as a founder and CEO!
What’s your philosophy about building a company?
I believe in building a sustainable company that focuses on the community experience rather than rushing towards an exit. I also believe in distributing wealth among the team, which is why I don't own 80% of the company. My goal is to create a business that doesn't necessarily have the pressures to scale when it doesn’t need to but build those foundations while delivering a great customer experience. The other big goal is to prioritize long-term relationships and bringing others along the wealth creation journey over short-term personal gains. Don’t get me wrong, I want to find financial independence but that does not mean I want to use the work of others for just me to get there.
What do you do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I go to the gym, spend time with my dogs, and cycle along the river in Lisbon. I also challenge myself to learn new things, such as writing more, learning how to make beats and researching AI technologies.
Tell us one thing about your company or founding team you can’t find on your website
One unique aspect of our company is the complex structure we've adopted to build a sustainable, community-based business. Our founding team members have put immense trust in me and each other, joining the team with limited context and information but a strong desire to continue building our communities. How we become Coho is a pretty unique story and it was evolving yet I had to pick a team before we know all the details - this team said yes without much context.
What does your startup do?
Coho is a highly curated membership network for experienced Tech, GTM and CoS Leaders. We enable professionals untangle career challenges and goals by surrounding them with a curated network of peers and a tailored experience. We focus on providing nuanced advice and support that can't be found through generic resources like Google or blog posts.
What’s your vision?
Our vision is to enable and create more empathetic leaders in the future by creating a supportive network for professionals. We hope our members will become the future leaders who shape the way work and company cultures evolve, opening doors for others. And they’ll be the ones leading and creating the companies of tomorrow - our relationship with work is changing and we’re playing a part in addressing that.
I look for candidates with the ability to learn quickly and adapt to new concepts. I believe in giving people space to grow and find their true passion.
What stage are you / how much have you raised?
Technically we have been building our company for a couple of years while at On Deck, with around 700 members in our community. We are currently raising funds through an angel syndicate, seeking $1 million from angel investors to enable us to continue growing without the need for additional fundraising in the future. We have a clear path to profitability but naturally a lot of work needs to be done to get there since we became our own entity during the spin out.
Tell us about your company culture and team
Our team consists of 15 people, most of whom have worked together for quite some time at On Deck. We have a unique advantage in having a history of collaboration. We aim to create a culture that enables individuals to do their best work when it works for them. We are fully remote and highly asynchronous, but also recognize the need for synchronous time. Our unique ownership structure ensures that team members think and act like owners, which is evident in their work and communication.
What culture are you trying to build?
We are building a culture that enables individuals to do their best work when it works for them. We value flexibility, ownership mentality, and providing space for employees to explore their potential and grow professionally.
What function drives the company?
No single function drives the company; it is a joint combination of marketing, product, and the fellowships team. We work closely together as a small team, collaborating across functions to create a seamless customer experience from admissions to onboarding and the fellowship experience itself.
What qualities do you look for in your candidates?
I look for candidates with the ability to learn quickly and adapt to new concepts. Raw talent, regardless of how junior the candidate may be, is important, as well as openness to trying different things and exploring potential. I believe in giving people space to grow and find their true passion.
Who is your competition?
Our competitors could include companies like Reforge. However, I view competition differently as I believe in partnering with potential competitors to achieve greater impact together. Our focus on creating smaller, curated communities of peers means we have a vast number of potential customers, making competition less of a concern but more an opportunity to partner up.
What sector are you in?
We are often perceived as edtech, but we are more of a highly curated peer-to-peer learning network. It's challenging to define our exact sector, as we differ from traditional education providers and we do not aim to be an educational institution. Sure, there’s an aspect of learning within the experience we offer but our core focus is on creating an incredibly strong network and those nuanced conversations in safe space.
What makes you stand out?
Our meticulous attention to curating our community. We spend a significant amount of time reviewing applications and interviewing suitable candidates to ensure that our members are surrounded by amazing people who can provide immediate value.
What content (blogs, podcasts, books) do you recommend?
We are launching our blog called The Blueprint, featuring learnings from our community, including contributions from our members and team. I also recommend the podcast "Technically Speaking" by Harrison Wheeler, the director of design at LinkedIn, which features interviews with amazing leaders.4
What tools do you use that are valuable?
I've been using ChatGPT, which has found its way into my daily workflow. While it's not perfect and requires attention to biases and inaccuracies, it is a helpful tool for certain tasks. As an example - I’ve always wanted to write more but struggle with a blank page or getting my ideas out as a starter base. I tend to have a lot of interesting people nearly every day which lead to some insightful conversations - I now can just drop some of the transcript into ChatGPT and very quickly get a base for a post to get me started.
What’s your view of the current market?
I've been feeling that the market is going to be pretty unstable in the coming years, with all the layoffs and countless folks impacted by new tech. I really think we need to talk more about how these innovations affect us and what kind of help we can give to those feeling the brunt of the changes. It's super important to me that we keep chatting openly with our teams and think about ways to teach new skills or retrain, so we can all keep up with the times together. Like any new tech, eventually things will balance out and create more opportunities and new types of jobs but in the meantime there’s likely a lot of uncertainty. Smaller teams will continue to stay small but be enabled to do a lot more as this new tech evolves, what that means for larger companies - I’m not sure but history does show that they’ll likely view this as a cost saving and start reducing teams even more.
Thinking about Coho - I actually think there’s no better time to be building a community business, there’s a real chance that more folks will need a space to get real insights from peers.
How to get in touch?
Email :mp@joincoho.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindaugaspetrutis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MindaugasLT