Founder Leadership

Angie Hicks

Angie Hicks didn’t set out to become a name-brand entrepreneur.

In 1995, she was a recent DePauw University graduate with an economics degree and a job offer from her boss at a former internship, Bill Oesterle: to help him create a resource for homeowners in Columbus, Ohio, to find local contractors.

“I knew nothing about starting a business,” Hicks told Founder Brew.

Hicks took the lead in creating the B2B directory, tackling every task from building the database to door-to-door sales.

“Knocking on doors was the hardest thing I’ve probably done in my career,” she said.

Those tasks made Hicks the main point of contact for the small businesses listed on the platform. Oesterle suggested renaming what was originally called Columbus Neighbors to Angie’s List. Angie’s List eventually went public in 2011 and merged with IAC’s HomeAdvisor in 2017.

The company is now known as Angi, keeping the most distinctive part of its identity. It also kept Hicks, who today serves as chief customer officer and continues to be the face—and name—of the company.

In conversation with Founder Brew, Hicks spoke about her 30-year entrepreneurial journey, and why best businesses are built from the right people.

“I would take an A team with a B idea over a B team with an A idea anytime,” she said.

Over your 30 years of dealing with helping founders, what are some of the commonalities that you’ve seen in people who have been really successful?

People are way too quick to hire and way too slow to fire. You need to be super picky. Sometimes we’re like, “Hey, we should all just be co-founders, and we’re all going to be happy forever, and we’re all going to love this.” That may not be the case.

How do you make sure that you’ve got the right people that complement you and complement your skills? Let’s be a little slower. Let’s figure out and make sure that we are ready and not just love at first sight when it comes to hiring.

On the flip side, we should be quicker at firing… A lot of times the most challenging ones are attitude and not performance…They could be your best performer, but if they have a bad attitude, the impact they have on the organization could be very devastating. You need to call that shot quicker than we oftentimes do.

Read more about how “culture actually makes or breaks a company.”—MM

      

Sponsored By Fidelity Private Shares®

They’re watching how you operate and asking: Is their ownership clean? Do their numbers match their story? Can they answer follow-ups without frantically shuffling through printed copies or madly scrolling through their phones?

Most founders don’t fail on vision but can often stumble on mechanics. Scattered cap tables, last-minute scrambling of due diligence material…and do you even have a pitch deck template?

Fidelity’s Fundraise-Ready Startup Kit can give you what investors expect to see from the very beginning:

• a scalable cap table template

• a pitch deck template with real examples

• an investor update template

• a diligence checklist

Confidence comes from good prep, and the time for prep is before you enter the room.

Take a look at the demo and download the kit today.

Founder Guidance

Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Karen Wickre

More Americans are starting businesses later in life.

In 2019, the Kauffman Foundation found that more than a quarter of new entrepreneurs were between ages 55 and 64, up from about 15% in 1996.

For many, decades spent climbing the corporate ladder become the foundation for a second act in entrepreneurship. And for some older professionals, entrepreneurship is not only about pursuing independence—it can also be a response to changes in the workplace.

Karen Wickre knows that transition well. After a decades-long career in communications at companies including Google and Twitter, the then-65-year-old left corporate life in 2016 to build the solo consulting practice she’s been running since.

Unlike many first-time founders who spend years building a network from scratch, Wickre entered entrepreneurship with decades of professional relationships already in place. She spent her first two months reconnecting with people she had met throughout her career, using those conversations to understand how she could package her expertise as a consultant.

Starting a business later in life comes with its own set of challenges, from finding clients to redefining professional identity outside of a traditional career path. But Wickre said the same experience that can make the transition intimidating can also become an entrepreneur’s biggest asset: a deep network, industry credibility, and a clearer understanding of the work they want to pursue.

You’re part of a growing wave of entrepreneurs over 55. Why do you think we’re seeing more people start businesses later in life now compared with 20 years ago?

There is age discrimination. The older you are, if you’ve been somewhere for a long time, the more expensive you are. Those are just the facts of the corporate world.

I would say the closer they are to 65 the better. You don’t have to worry about Medicare, but otherwise people find, as I have found, you can live on less, and you have the freedom of more flexible schedules and time, and doing what you’re interested in.

A big driver is more jobs being eliminated, especially right now, in recent last few years, more jobs being eliminated, more people at that point in their career, where it’s not that their skills aren’t needed, but companies are saying, “We can come back to AI, but also we can hire cheaper, younger people to do this.”

Read more about starting a business during retirement age.—JH

      

AI manufacturing startup Foundational Industries, founded by Jonathan Winer, formerly of Alphabet Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, reportedly raised a $25 million seed round led by BoxGroup and Zigg Ventures. Adverb Ventures, Offline Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and Buckley Ventures participated. (Fortune)

Venture capital firm Index Ventures announced that it raised $2 billion across three funds: $400 million to a new seed fund, $900 million to a new venture fund, and added $700 million to its existing 2024 growth fund. (TechCrunch)

Simile, a startup that creates “agentic twins” of people to help brands do market research, raised a $200 million round led by Greenoaks. Existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Definition, CVS Health Ventures, Hanabi, A*, and Index Ventures also participated. (the New York Times)

Sponsored By Fidelity Private Shares®

Last-minute scramble no more. Investors usually check out your numbers before they buy into your vision. Cap table, pitch deck, investor updates, and diligence material. A lot of founders learn the mechanics too late. Fidelity’s Fundraise-Ready Startup Kit gives you the tools you need before investors see you.

Stat: 4,500. That’s the number of applications Julian Weisser received for the 10 spots available in his accelerator aimed at solo tech founders. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “We ask: ‘Will you sell to a lab in a year?’ We didn’t ask that before…It takes a really determined founder, who wants to will their vision into reality, to resist the money and hype of an outcome like that.”—Jonathan Lehr, GP and co-founder of venture firm Work-Bench, discussing his firm’s approach to assessing if a founder might exit their startup too early (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Five Guys founder Jerry Murrell recounts the early days of his 40-year-old fast-food empire, how each of his five sons are still involved in the business, and why he has no plans to retire any time soon (Alexandria Living)

^{*A message from our sponsor.}