Hustlers, Hipsters, Hackers and HOMYHUB

“Isn’t there an app for this??” Thought an exasperated Enzo Zamora as he rifled through his belongings searching for his garage door opener. He was riding his bike, so he had it tucked away in one of his bags or pockets. This was his Aha! moment. He decided then and there that the garage remote control problem had to be solved with 21st century technology and he was the guy who was going make it happen.

But he was alone.

Zamora had just moved to Spain and did not know anyone. “I set out to build a team,” he recalled, “I remembered the three H’s of building a startup team: a Hustler, Hacker, and Hipster.” He knew he was a Hustler. He could bring the team together and work hard to make connections, find users, generate sales, raise money and all the Hustler type work. He needed a Hacker, someone to engineer and figure out how to build the product. And lastly, he needed a Hipster, some to create his marketing and brand image.

Zamora and the startup team for HOMYHUB

Networking the Startup World

His first step was networking like crazy. He went to university tech centers, maker spaces, coworking spaces. He attended startup events and meetings. He posted on job boards and social media. He interviewed 52 people in all searching for the right mix of founders who believed in the vision of making the garage a convenient, safe access point for homes.

“From the beginning equity was part of the discussions,” said Zamora. He was not a rookie, he had created startups before, but this was the first time he had brought on a team of cofounders right away. “I found Slicing Pie on Google and bought the book. It was an easy read, but I read it 2-3 times to be sure I understood everything.”

Everyone agreed right away to the Slicing Pie model. “The model was fair to everyone, and they all got it,” Zamora reflected, “at first I was afraid that nobody would want to keep track of their time, but most of the people I spoke to were already tracking their time as freelancers so it was not an issue.”

The Changing Startup Team

After building a team of five co-founders, HOMYHUB was born. The concept was an app and device that can replace an old-fashioned garage remote control and allow users to control, monitor and manage access to their garage, anytime, anywhere using their smartphone.

Slicing Pie isn’t just for allocating equity to participants, it also provides the logic for recovering equity, if appropriate, when someone leaves the company. Not long after getting started one of the team members quit to join his family’s business. This was considered resignation without good reason, or a bad leaver. This means that the participant must face the consequences of their action, specifically they lose their slices in the Pie from non-cash contributions and cash contributions are paid back prior to the distribution of any dividends. “The guy left the company on good terms knowing the impact of his decision. We are still friends today. I don’t think that would have happened without Slicing Pie,” said Zamora. Some months later another team member felt burned out and left facing the same consequences. The Slicing Pie formula kept it fair for everyone.

The team terminated the Slicing Pie model when it raised a substantial round of financing. Slicing Pie ends when there is enough cash on hand to pay people fair market rates for their contributions.

The HOMYHUB team today

Now when Zemora rides his bike up to his house his garage door opens automatically. He can provide access to guests, housekeepers, dog sitters, even the delivery guy (so long porch pirates!) Thousands of happy users enjoy the benefits of HOMYHUB everyday.

“We used Slicing Pie for almost three years until our funding round. It was a key ingredient to our success,” said Zemora. Now a frequent guest at local universities in and around Madrid, he mentions Slicing Pie to all of his students!