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Ryan Delk is the co-founder and CEO of Primer, a company helping people homeschool with superpowers. Prior to co-founding Primer, Ryan was the COO of Omni, and also spent time at Gumroad and Square. Ryan shared insights on things he wishes he would have heard in college, how he thinks about mentorship, and how to get hired at a startup. Here is his story… 

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On homeschooling and Primer:

• Primer’s goal is to help people homeschool with superpowers
• Currently very difficult to get started homeschooling
• About 2.4 million homeschoolers in the U.S., pre-COVID and basically all of them are reinventing the wheel
• Primer is trying to build modern, best-in-class products for homeschool families to be able to deliver exceptional education experiences for their kids
• COVID has accelerated a lot of homeschooling, so Primer is working on helping those who may be homeschooling in this coming year

On his career path:

• Freshman year at University of Florida, Ryan did a banking internship in Orlando underwriting $1-$10 million small business loans
  • Realized that the structure and bureaucracy of finance wasn’t for him
• Wanted to do something crazy for his next summer internship, so he emailed a semi-distant acquaintance who was working on building tech hubs in Africa and asked if he could come to Nairobi for the summer and intern for him
  • Answer was yes, so Ryan got on a plane to Nairobi and spent 3-4 months there, which was his first exposure into the tech world
    • Got to meet Marissa Mayer, who was the CEO of Yahoo at the time and also the person who told him about Square
  • Going to Nairobi ended up being his gateway into the tech world

Two things he wishes he would have heard in college:

• If you’re in a position where you can, take as much risk as you can early on
  • It’s the time where you can recover from almost anything
  • Always wishes he would have taken more risk earlier
• Find ways to add value before you ask for value (Chris Sacca told him this a long time ago)
  • Whenever he was trying to get a job somewhere, he would always try to add value for them before he would ask them for a job
  • Put in a little sweat equity to prove to the potential employer that you have what it takes
  • Very few people get hired into great roles through a standard job application anymore, so you have to find some way to stand out

On career changes:

• Going to Gumroad – saw a post on HackerNews about their launch and reached out Sahil Lavingia to ask if he could go help Sahil during the summer
  • Was passionate about creator’s making money, so Gumroad’s mission resonated with him
• Jumping to Omni – Gumroad was a digital product, while Omni was more of a physical logistics company and it seemed like a fun challenge
  • Felt like he could have a tremendous amount of impact there, and was right – he eventually became the COO
• Now Primer – couldn’t stop thinking about it and wanted to start a company that could be his legacy
  • Feels like Primer is a cause worth spending decades of his time on

On mentorship:

• Has benefitted a lot from people investing in him and answering a cold email or grabbing coffee with him
  • Also tries to be that person for others
• Doesn’t think of mentorship as finding the one person that can be his “sherpa for life,” but instead tries to have a group of people that he really trusts, that are a bit farther along in life, that he can ask for advice and perspective
• Cold-emailed Keith Rabois 8-9 years ago and since then has built a relationship that led to Keith’s firm Founders Fund leading Primer’s seed investment round
  • (Editor’s note: We interviewed Delian Asparouhov, who works at Founders Fund with Keith. You can read that interview here.)

On applying principles from Primer to college students:

• Lots of research around how our minds learn when we’re actually interested in a subject versus when we’re being forced to, so spend time figuring out how to feed your natural curiosity and building the muscle of how to actually learn well about topics which interest you
• Find a community of people with shared interests who can help push you forward
  • Try to find the people that you work harder, learn better, and are more ambitious around
    • Try to find them early in your career if you can

On setting yourself apart and getting hired:

• Spend more time trying to find the companies than applying to companies
  • Avoid a spray and pray process
  • If you can find a company that resonates with you in your heart, it’s going to be a completely different experience than just applying for hundreds of entry-level roles
• Once you find the handful of companies that you’re passionate about, take the time to reach out to the founders/executives, tell them why you’re excited about their company, and show them how you have provided value to them
  • Do your research before you reach out

Following and supporting Ryan:

• Always happy to help, so send him an email: ryan@withprimer.com
• Check out WithPrimer.com and join the waitlist
• Follow him on Twitter: @Delk – DMs are open

 

 

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