Eddie De La Cruz @EdrizioCruz Twitter profile

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Huge thank you to my family at @ycombinator for the amazing support all of these years

Y Combinator

@ycombinator

1 year

From selling guavas in a Santo Domingo barrio to selling his company to Mastercard, @EdrizioCruz — co-founder of Arcus (YC S13) and former YC Visiting Group Partner — shares his improbable odyssey in his new book: The Underdog Founder. Available now:

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

6 years

1/ Still my favorite talk on how fintech today, still ignores the majority of American’s basic needs @a16z Angela Strange

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

When I was 25, I quit my job as an Aircraft Mechanic to do an internship in Investment Banking, and never looked back. Sometimes, the only way to make progress is to burn the bridges behind you. If you can't go backwards, you have no option but to move forward. 🔥👏🙌🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Mental health is to a founder, what physical health is to an athlete

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

At my last startup, we met with 144 investors before raising our series A. I used to think we were an anomaly, I've learned since that our experience was more the norm. Fundraising is f#%ng hard, but resilience and grit is name of the game 💪🏼 #grit #fundraising #venturecapital

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Feeling blessed to be back on campus @Wharton for my 10 year reunion, and seeing all my classmates. It's a magical place and it was a transformative experience. Still can't believe this Dominican kid from Harlem that went community college got to go here.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

If you're a founder, being a perfectionist is a huge weakness - the longer you take to ship anything (product, presentation, an email), the longer it'll take for you to learn

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

8 years

Latinos start more companies than any other ethnic group in the US today (~12% of all starts). #entrepreneurship

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

11 months

To all my founders out there, remember that the only degree that matters is your PSD ( Poor, Smart & Determined)

High Yield Harry

@HighyieldHarry

3 years

Bear Stearns was based af

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

6 years

Fortunante to be featured in this month's @ariannahuff 's Thrive American dream feature.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

I have BIG news 🥁, but first, let me tell you a story… When I was 18 I had just dropped out of college, and I read Richard Branson's biography. It inspired me because, like me, he also dropped out of school, did not come from money, and started a business at an early age.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Getting in the right room is one of the biggest life accelerators. It's important to step out of your comfort zone and surround yourself with people who challenge you to learn and grow.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Stop reading techcrunch. These fundraising announcements focus exclusively on the successes, not the failures, challenges and obstacles that those startups overcame to get to those successes. Success is great for inspiration, but failure is much much better for education. 📌👏

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

You'll be surprised at who supports you in your startup dreams, and you'll be surprised at who doesn't. That's why you need to ask everyone for help. 💪🏼 #support #startup #journey

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

3 years

Thank you to the @OpportunityFund for hosting an amazing event for diverse founders at art basel

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Thank you so much @platzi for allowing me to share my story with over 5000 attendees in Bogota 🇨🇴

Platzi

@platzi

1 year

Conoce los secretos para triunfar como emprendedor subestimado. Ahora en #PlatziConf , la historia del underdog founder: @EdrizioCruz .

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

6 years

2/ 68% of Americans pay bills month to month, live pay check to paycheck, so they're less concerned with an app to manage their investments, and more concerned with paying next month’s credit card and utility bill #financial #Health

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Ways investors tell you No, without telling you No: 1. “i’m in as soon as you have a lead” 2. “We’re closing our round now, we’ll let you know” 3. “We’re in for $250k, as soon as you have a $1M committed” 📌 #investors #investment #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Founding CEOs, when chatting with your team, listen twice as much as you speak. People need to be heard. They want someone that just listens to them. If you’re busy talking, you’re busy not listening.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

It's time to build! right now is one of the best times to start a company, because a) there's never been so much for technical talent available, b) there's still lots of $$ available for seed stage, c) AI marks the biggest opportunity in tech since the iPhone in 2007 🔥📈💸

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

So much of fundraising comes down to projecting absolute unwavering confidence in your presentation. Because its one of the best proxies for determining which founders can make great leaders and attract resources like funding, employees and customers. #founders #resources 💪🏼

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

For the first time in 2 yrs, landed in NYC 🗽 the city where I grew up - South Bronx, Harlem, Queens, midtown - so many memories 🥹

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

The ideal size of a founding team is two: one who is great at building product, the other one is an animal at selling that product. 🔥💡 #selling #product #team #startups #founding

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Most successful founders I know have a degree of conviction in their idea almost to the point of delusion. They power thru because they are sure they are onto something big. 🔥🔥👏 #Founders #startups #ideas

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Seek out places where people around you are smarter and further ahead than you. At first, this may bring out some imposter syndrome, making you feel shy or hesitant. However, you’ll also gain priceless opportunities to observe, learn, and grow. #GetInTheRightRoom 📷📷 #startups

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Being ok with not being like, it's a secret weapon. To do anything worth doing, you have to do something really different, which means not many will not agree with you #founders #startups #tips 📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Stripe, Plaid, Marqeta - most big fintech successes started as simple orchestration layers on top of old monolithic systems. There’s a big value in simplifying complex processes #HoneYourMarketFit #success #founders #startups 🙌🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

5 years

Leaving SF. 20 people in this flight; surreal scene.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

As a founder, you have to be willing to sleep on your friend's floor, eat cereal for dinner, hear 100 No’s from VCs - and laugh at all of it.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

"Founding a company is a lot like becoming a parent—and no parent wants to hear that their baby is ugly" - The Underdog Founder 🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

In this age of social media there's a gluttony of startup advice - how do you distinguish the signal from the noise? ONLY talk to people who succeeded at solving the problem you're curious about. For example, only take company building advice from people who built companies.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

At an early stage, CEOs wear all the hats (product, sales, finance, marketing). This is better for you, the more hats you wear early on, the more you learn, the easier it is for you to hire someone to wear those hats later #founders #startups #CEO 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

One thing that I wish us founders of color would do more of, is to take bold risks and be willing to ask for forgiveness, instead of permission. 👏👏 #founders #foundersofcolor #forgiveness #permission

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

How to sell your startup for hundreds of millions in 3 easy steps Step 1 - Have a great team Step 2 - spend year 1 experimenting in a huge market Step 3- spend the next 9 years getting your soul CRUSHED

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

If you want to be better than 99% of founders, you have to do things that 99% of founders don't do. Learn to be ok with being a contrarian #startups #founders #tips #success 🙌📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

3 paradoxes as a startup founder 1. The more you fail, the more likely you're likely to succeed 2. The more you look like you're trying too hard to fundraise, the less success you'll have fundraising 3. The more you look like you care in a negotiation, the less leverage you have.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

I think that showing that you can help a customer make $10k, is always more powerful than showing a customer you can help them save $10k 💰📌 #founders #startups #success #invest

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Being an ex founder dramatically helps a VC better help founders. Growing a company is a marathon, and who best to help you, as a founder, to run that marathon, than someone who just won a marathon themselves.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

4 years

This pandemic will go down in history as our generation’s reset button. It’s an opportunity to reset our predisposed views on race/class/religion and come together as one cohesive race.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

The problem with learning how to fundraise from reading fundraising announcements, is that those articles ignore all the struggles and reality it took that company to raise - it's like learning about love from watching romcoms. 💪🏼💪🏼 #learning #fundraising #company

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

I think the best 3 questions to determine if a founder is top 1% are ▪How do they communicate? ▪Where they are? ▪How far do they travel to get there? ▪All investors look at the first two, almost none, look at the last one. A big reason why diversity isn't improving.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

11 years

Good morning New York

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

You don't need a co-founder to start your startup, but expect investors/accelerators to have a much higher bar for you. 📌💪🏼👏 #founders #investors #accelerators

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

If you’re a non-tech founder on a holding pattern, waiting to find a CTO, to build your MVP. My advice is DO NOT wait.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

The more you give without asking, the more you get in the long run, without having to ask #AskForHelp 📷 #BeTheChief 📷📷 #founders #startups 🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

When looking for co founders or team mates, learn to accept people as they are. Understand that people can improve but they don't fundamentally change who they are #people #founders #team 🔥🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

As a founder, you think you're in the software business but, you’re in the service business. You're there to serve your customers, your employees, and your investors.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

A good co-founder is someone that’s aligned with your vision and values, but compliments you in other ways: skill set, network, etc. 🔥📌 #founders #cofounders #startups #vision

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Startups are like video games, there's levels to it. Each level gets harder and harder, but the more you play the better you get. 📈📉 #startups #journey #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Confidence is magnetic. The more you display it, the more the resources (VC, engineers, press) you need will gravitate towards you. 🔥👏🙌📌 #business #startups #confidence #resources

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

In 15 years, I had the luck of going from college dropout-aircraft mechanic to starting and selling my startup. One of the biggest success hacks I learned was getting in the right room. If you surround yourself with successful people you become more successful almost by osmosis

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

6 years

Epic speech from Denzel Washington at @Penn in 2011, same year I graduated

Larry Kim

@larrykim

6 years

"...and when you fall throughout your life, remember this, fall forward" 🦄 Great speech from Denzel Washington! #MondayMotivation

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

“Before founders launch their first businesses, they’re told to analyze the market, the product, and the customer. I say: Did you first analyze yourself? Take time to look backward before you move forward” — The Underdog Founder (Publishing Sept 19th) 🔥

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Almost no startup that gets huge, does B2B and B2C at the same time in their early stage #NailOneThingAtaTime #Success #Startups 1️⃣✔️⏳

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Three outcomes of startup hiring : 1. Sometimes - wrong person 2. Rarely - right person, right role 3. Most times - right person, wrong role 📌 #hiring #startups #business #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

7 years

Gracias por esto, es un honor

MásPorRD

@MasPorRD

7 years

¡Conoce cómo el joven dominicano @EdrizioCruz ha cambiado la vida de miles de inmigrantes! @regalii 🎁📲 #OrgulloJovenRD #Regalii #M ásPorRD #ComparteLoBueno

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Simple advice to all graduating seniors: prioritize jobs in the best city for your career ( SF for tech, NY for finance, etc). Physical proximity to working with the best, allows you to become the best faster. 🔥📌🎓 #proximity #advice #founders #graduatingseniors

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Getting in the right room is magical. In many ways, you really do become the people you spend time around—which includes colleagues, friends and partners. You can dramatically change your habits by just changing your social circle #GetInTheRightRoom 📚🎓📈 #founders #startups

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

You should want to work with people who see a problem, have the enthusiasm to solve it, and the intellect to critique it at the same time. Someone who can approach things with the eyes of an optimist, but the brain off a pessimist. #optimist #enthusiasm #founders 🙌📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Listen twice, speak once. People need to be heard. They want someone who just listens to them. If you’re busy talking, you’re busy not listening

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Founders think startups fail because they run out of cash, but in reality, they run out of cash because they cant find product market fit. No Cash is only the symptom, not the disease, and it's always the disease that kills you. 🙌🙌 #productmarketfit #founders #startups

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

11 months

"Your career is like a flower. It’ll bloom where it's watered, but it’ll perish where it's not" - The Underdog Founder 🔥

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Being a founder is a tough wake up call. You learn that you are bad at many things, lucky if you're good at a few things. The quicker you can figure out those two, the better #founder #startups 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Startups don't necessarily have to sound like good ideas at the beginning - some very successful startups - Uber (riding with strangers), Airbnb (letting strangers sleep in your house) - sounded like terrible ideas at inception. #startups #ideas #success 🙌📌💵

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Finding startup ideas is hard. But the best way to discover your ultimate path, is to just start walking down any path and give yourself permission to mess up and learn.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Before starting your startup it is good to build a resume that gives you a psychological safety net. If you fail, you could always fall back on your MBA or experience from a big company - This is especially true for people who’re 1st in their family to go to college.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Where you go to school shouldn't matter, but it does to an extent. VCs look for quick signals of excellence, and good schools are one of the easiest signals of excellence that VCs can delineate. This is 2x as true for founders of color.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Founders, empathy is a superpower. Putting yourself in another person's position Is the quickest way to understand their point of view.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

An ok founder asks for intros to investors. A great founder asks for coaching on how to get investors. As they say, ask for a fish, eat for a day, ask to learn how to fish, eat for a lifetime. #AskForHelp 📷 #BeTheChief 📷📷 #founders #startups #investment

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

For the underdog founders, I've learned that being confident alone isn't good enough to fundraise. We need to become f#$&ng formidable. When investors hear you, they hear a depth of knowledge, insight, and conviction that's so profound that you go from being unseen to unstoppable

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

It takes on average 7 -10 years to exit your startup, so if you're tired and want to sell it after 2 years, you're most likely outta luck. 🙌✅💪🏼 #startups #selling #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Before founders launch their startup, they’re told to analyze the market, the product, the customer. I say: Did you first analyze yourself? Take time to look inward before you move forward.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

@0xWittgenstein Is this the reason why most VCs don't have operating experience? They've skipped the line!

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

One very common mainstream use for AI is an assistant ( “AI do x for me”), I think an even more powerful use is a coach (“AI teach me the best way to do x”). As they say, give me a fish, I eat for a day, teach me to fish I eat for a lifetime. What do you think? 🔥🔥 #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Demo day at startup accelerators is not just about fundraising, it's about creating an artificial deadline that forces founders to answer existential questions - is this really what I want to build? Is this the co-founder that I want to build it with? 💪🏼💡 #Demoday #fundraising

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Vulnerability is a superpower. You can only begin learning and improving when you let down your guard and begin to see your weaknesses.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

9 years

If there’s such a thing as a #startup success blueprint, @ycombinator figured it out #airbnb #dropbox #stripe #zenefits

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Fear setting is a good habit as a founder. The more you talk out loud about your fears, the smaller they become.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Startup fundraising is a volume sport, the more at bats you take, the better your swing gets, the more home runs you eventually hit 💪🏾 ⚾💥 #startups #fundraising

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Be nice to everyone everyday — if someone wants to be an asshole, that’s their problem. Smile at the world and eventually the world, eventually, will smile back.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

It took me 8 years to get my 4-year college degree. Not everything happens when you think it needs to happen. There's a Dominican saying "uno propone, pero dios dispone", (you set plans, but God decides). Sometimes you have to learn to wait months or years for your shot. 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

"To succeed in an environment of success, expect to feel intimidated. Get comfortable with discomfort and even overwhelm—that’s how you know you’re where you need to be" - The Underdog Founder 🙌📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

"In fundraising, I got many many no’s, but I knew I only needed one ‘yes’" - The Underdog Founder (Publishing Sept 19th)🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Don't expect your next fundraise or next hire to solve all your problems - There are no silver bullets in startups

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Believe that you can’t, and that'll become your reality. Believe the opposite and you'll be unstoppable 🔥🔥💪🏼💪🏼 #unstoppable #mindset #founders

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

The problem with investors pattern matching founders, is that all pattern matching is based on historical data of founders, who look a very specific way. #patterns #investors #founders #startups 📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

I think that entrepreneurship teaches you more about yourself than any other career track, because you learn how to make tough decisions when you’re getting punched in the face, again and again and again #Entrepreneurship #teach #decisionmaking #learning #journey 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

A big part of success in startups is just staying alive, just don't die. Keep making small progress every day and good things will happen eventually.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Your spouse is the most important career decision — Your choice of a partner in life is the most important determinant of your future success and happiness. Out-of-sync relationships make everything harder.

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

We need to stop talking about investing in underrepresented founders as social impact, and start talking about its incredible economic impact. 💰 #startups #investing #founders #impact

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

11 months

"As a founder, you know where all the problems are, and many of them, only you can fix. There’s no value in spending your time on the things that are going right, so you spend most of your time on things that are going wrong" - The Underdog Founder 📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Good advice I heard from a founder “You have to be like a swan, look elegant on the top, while paddling like hell at the bottom” #founders #startups #advice 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Product-Market fit happens when customers are knocking on your door (inbound leads), invite themselves in, don't want to leave (retention) and invite their friends (referrals) #startups #productmarketfit #founders 🔥

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

Launch fast and start charging as soon as possible - if customers don't pay at least you have new data on what doesn't work

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react" - The Underdog Founder 📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Your job as a founder CEO is to create a vision, a culture, to get the right people on the bus, and to motivate them. When you look around at a team that believes in the vision as much as you do, it's a feeling of bliss that can't be explained #founders #startups #vision 🔥🙌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

In fundraising for your seed round you won't need any lawyers. You can get every variation of the safe doc from the Y Combinator website #fundraising #founders #startups 🔥📌

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

1 year

Most startups don't die from homicide (competition, market), they die from suicide (Co founder drama, founders give up) 💡✅ #founders #startups #business

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Eddie De La Cruz

@EdrizioCruz

2 years

As a founder, above anything, you need to know your WHY? Because the journey is brutal. It’ll beat you down at every turn. I promise you will sweat, cry and bleed for your business. Your strength and resolve will be tested again and again and again.

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