Building a Company with Darrian Mikell

Darrian Mikell is the Co-Founder and CEO of Qualifi, a SaaS platform that powers the fastest phone interview experience in the world and helps recruiting teams hire great candidates faster than ever before. He is based in the Indianapolis area and is a dedicated husband and father of three.

We explore what it takes to launch a start-up and secure funding, the emotional pressures of entrepreneurship, and the leadership responsibilities of a founder and CEO.

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0:00 Intro 

1:21 Darrian attributes his drive today to ambition he felt as a child  

3:34 Qualifi was co-founded by brothers  

5:25 What problem within the hiring process does Qualifi solve for?

9:12 What makes Darrian passionate about building his company?

10:26 Using the Notes App 

11:08 What few metrics do you measure at Qualifi and why do they matter the most? 

13:09 Is Qualifi the only product on the market right now or is it the best? 

14:43 How did you determine early adopters within the total addressable market?

18:20 An error made when first starting the company 

19:46 Understanding which key factors will drive your company’s growth

20:39 “Learn to sell, learn to build, if you can do both, you will be unstoppable” - Naval

22:17 Figuring out what it means to be an effective leader

24:01 Jobs of a CEO

26:18 When you hire people, are you thinking about cultural fit or cultural add?

27:40 Thoughts on bootstrapping versus raising venture capital 

32:03 Describing the experience of raising money 

34:40 The steps to take that can lead to a successful seed round

38:49 What company or founder origin story stands out as special?

41:43 Raising a family with 3 kids while running a business  

45:35 Competitiveness as an athlete versus competitiveness as an entrepreneur 

47:53 Misconceptions of building a business

48:44 Life lessons learned by playing golf 

54:44 How seeing success leads to more success

57:29 Focusing on the future

1:01:18 “One Final Question”

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