Michelle Valentine is the Co-founder and CEO of Anrok, the sales tax platform for software companies.

We talked trends in software consolidation, lessons working with Anrok’s first customers, advice on fundraising, scaling a sales team, and early tricks for founders to avoid future tax-related headaches.

Timestamps

(00:00 ) Intro
(02:19 ) The trend of software consolidation
(03:00 ) Why billings and payments isn’t consolidating
(06:09 ) Early tricks for avoiding future tax headaches
(08:42 ) Founder lessons from first being a VC
(09:28 ) The two catalysts that led to Anrok
(17:15 ) How software companies used to figure out sales tax
(22:51 ) Raising Anrok’s Seed round in 48 hours
(25:42 ) How to join a VC's scout program
(28:24 ) Fundraising lessons from being an investor
(34:24 ) Surprising results from the very first “easy file” product
(38:30 ) Lessons getting the first customers from outbound
(40:19 ) Why you should make your first two sales hires at the same time
(41:50 ) Sales advice when scaling into enterprise customers
(46:19 ) How your Seed round helps raise your A and B
(47:24 ) The reason AI and LLMs are so hard to predict
(50:58 ) Michelle’s favorite Claude use cases
(53:51 ) Predicting market sizes, and why Figma’s seemed small
(57:39 ) How to invest in AI right now
(1:01:01 ) Advice on changing your opinion
(1:04:10 ) Getting outside your comfort zone
(1:05:04 ) Michelle’s go-to interview question
(1:34:50 ) The most ridiculous SPACs
(1:07:23 ) Lessons from Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit

Referenced
Check out Anrok: https://bit.ly/3YTb0ED
Anrok’s Journal Entries Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3AxrtUV
Anrok Mid-year SaaS Sales Tax Review: https://www.anrok.com/resources/mid-year-saas-sales-tax-review-2024
Michelle’s Article on AI, Part 1: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fog-ai-what-investors-missing-part-one-michelle-valentine
Part 2: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fog-ai-what-investors-missing-part-two-michelle-valentine
Part 3: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fog-ai-what-investors-missing-part-three-michelle-valentine
Superintelligence: https://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-Nick-Bostrom/dp/1501227742

Where to find Michelle:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_vltn
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellevalentinehk/

Where to find Turner:
Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak⁠
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/⁠
Newsletter: ⁠https://www.thespl.it/