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April 23, 2024 • 30min
Preserve start-up spirit at scale: Techstars’ Maëlle Gavet
Masters of Scale
Mayel Gavet is the CEO of Techstars, a global startup accelerator and pre-seed investor. She has had a remarkable international career as an entrepreneur, founder, and C-suite executive at major companies like Ozon (the "Amazon of Russia"), Priceline Group, and Compass. In this episode, Gavet shares lessons from her journey, from childhood bike rides with her grandfather in France to scaling e-commerce in Russia to leading a global network supporting early-stage founders.
Preserve start-up spirit at scale: Techstars’ Maëlle Gavet
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Key Takeaways
- Embrace fear and excitement - Mayel Gavet says when she feels both fear and excitement about an opportunity, it's a signal she should pursue it
- Have a strong moral compass - Gavet credits her grandfather for instilling values that guide her decision-making, like fighting for what you believe in
- Balance technology and human touch - Finding the right balance between high-tech solutions and human relationships is critical for business success
- Maintain entrepreneurial spirit at scale - Large companies can maintain agility by allowing acquired brands to retain independence, as Priceline Group did
- Provide mentorship and support - Gavet was drawn to lead Techstars to provide entrepreneurs the guidance and network she wished she had early in her career
- Look for overlooked opportunities - Techstars invests in founders outside of Silicon Valley, believing talent is evenly distributed but opportunity is not
- Define your values - Gavet advises founders to clearly articulate their personal values and company values to guide decision-making
Introduction
Mayel Gavet is the CEO of Techstars, a global startup accelerator and pre-seed investor. She has had a remarkable international career as an entrepreneur, founder, and C-suite executive at major companies like Ozon (the "Amazon of Russia"), Priceline Group, and Compass. In this episode, Gavet shares lessons from her journey, from childhood bike rides with her grandfather in France to scaling e-commerce in Russia to leading a global network supporting early-stage founders.
Topics Discussed
Early Influences and Values (00:32)
Gavet credits her grandfather Pierre as a major influence who instilled important values during her childhood in France. On early morning bike rides, he would share life lessons and wisdom:
- Nothing worth doing is ever easy
- Always ask "why" to get to the bottom of things
- Gratitude is crucial - say "thank you" not just for small gestures but for life's opportunities
- Fight for what you believe in
Gavet says these values became her "compass" and guide her decision-making to this day, both as an entrepreneur and leader. As she puts it:
"I feel like that gratitude, that way of looking at the world in a glass half full type of way, is so important to me. As an entrepreneur, I see a lot of the decision making that I follow use this set of values that my grandfather drilled into my brain."Taking Risks and Embracing Challenges (05:46)
Gavet describes how she left a partner-track position at Boston Consulting Group to join Ozon, a small Russian e-commerce company, as sales and marketing director. Though there were no guarantees, she was drawn to the entrepreneurial opportunity:
- She felt both fear and excitement, which she sees as a signal to pursue something
- As a former entrepreneur, she was excited by Ozon's potential to become Russia's largest e-commerce company
- The challenge appealed to her competitive nature
Gavet explains her mindset:
"When I feel that combination of like, there is something big and maybe I'm not going to get it, that, I don't know, maybe my inner competitive double is like, yeah, sure, let's do it. Let's just prove to the world that this can happen."Building Ozon in Russia (10:32)
As CEO of Ozon from 2011-2015, Gavet faced unique challenges scaling e-commerce in Russia:
- Half the population wasn't online
- Over 80% of transactions were cash on delivery
- Branded delivery trucks risked armed robbery
Key to Ozon's success was building Russia's first nationwide retail delivery network, including 2000+ pickup points. Gavet notes they invented pickup points before Amazon, out of necessity for cash payments.
Under her leadership, Ozon raised a $100 million round (largest in Europe at the time) and reached a $1.5 billion valuation. But Gavet emphasizes she insisted on running a "squeaky clean" business, refusing to pay bribes despite pressure.
Balancing Technology and Human Touch (13:58)
Gavet stresses the importance of finding the right balance between technological solutions and human relationships in business:
"I think in Silicon Valley there is this tendency to look at everything through the lens of technology and forget the human. And then in other company, there's a tendency to look at everything through the eyes of the human and forget that technology is actually a great way to complement and enhance human. And so it's constantly finding this balance between high tech and high touch difficult. But when you hit that right balance, like, that's where magic happened."Learning from Priceline Group's Model (18:06)
After leaving Ozon in 2015 due to Russia's actions in Ukraine, Gavet joined Priceline Group (now Booking Holdings) as EVP of Operations. She was impressed by how they maintained an entrepreneurial culture at scale:
- Allowed acquired brands (Kayak, OpenTable, etc.) to maintain independence
- Many founders still ran their businesses post-acquisition
- Created commonality while preserving unique brand cultures
Gavet contrasts this with many large companies that take an "I own you" attitude after acquisitions, stifling innovation. She admired Priceline's ability to trust founders' decisions even when leadership disagreed.
Leading Operations at Compass (22:27)
As COO of Compass, the largest US residential real estate company by volume, Gavet found parallels to her Ozon experience in balancing technology and human relationships:
- Compass aimed to be both a tech platform and people-first business
- Founder Robert Reffkin focused on supporting real estate agents as customers
- Reffkin made personal calls to agents daily, building strong relationships
Gavet saw this hybrid approach as critical to Compass' success, similar to running both e-commerce and physical pickup points at Ozon.
Leading Techstars (24:09)
In 2021, Gavet became CEO of Techstars, the startup accelerator and pre-seed investor. She was drawn to the role by a desire to provide entrepreneurs the support she wished she had early in her career:
"I wish I had people who deeply cared about my business and had this unbelievable network and would be a safe space for me to talk about all the crazy stuff that I have to deal with. Because let's face it, being an entrepreneur is basically a marathon full of crazy stuff happening one after the other."Gavet's first task was reframing Techstars as an investment business focused on founder success, rather than just a community builder. Key aspects of Techstars' approach:
- Operates 40+ programs globally, mostly outside Silicon Valley
- Believes talent is evenly distributed but opportunity is not
- Invests in overlooked founders as an opportunity
- Takes common shares to align with founders' interests
- Over 70% of companies raise capital within 3 years
Advising Founders on Values and Decision-Making (28:31)
Gavet describes how she advises founders to articulate their values to guide decision-making:
- Write down personal values and lines you won't cross
- Define company values (often overlapping but not identical to personal values)
- Use values as a framework for deciding when to speak up on issues
- Generally advise not commenting on issues unrelated to the business
She emphasizes separating personal views from company stances, as founders' statements are seen to reflect the company.
Conclusion
Mayel Gavet's journey demonstrates the power of having strong values, embracing challenges, and providing support to entrepreneurs. Her experiences scaling businesses in diverse environments highlight the importance of balancing technology with human relationships. As CEO of Techstars, she now works to empower founders globally, driven by a belief in entrepreneurship as a force for good. Gavet's story offers valuable lessons for leaders navigating growth and change while staying true to their principles.
