From Social Chain to Venture Gains: Oliver Yonchev's Bold Play with Cocreatd

Founders Espresso Shots: featuring shot-size inspiring stories, key lessons, and practical tips from Hidden Champion Founders to boost their entrepreneurial journey.

Jan 14, 2025

🚀 Growth Hack

Mastering Focus and Building with Passionate Talent

Oliver’s approach to growth hinges on two principles: hiring exceptional, unconventional talent and maintaining a laser focus on a single channel. In the early stages, he emphasizes the importance of building a passionate, versatile team, as the first 10 hires often shape a startup’s long-term success. For marketing, he advises against spreading resources thin. Instead, dominate one platform—such as LinkedIn for B2B businesses—to scale effectively.

"Your first hires and the singular channel you master can define the trajectory of your startup’s growth."

Advice: Focus on recruiting outlier talent with creative flair and prioritize excellence in one high-impact area instead of diversifying too early.

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💡 Founder Spotlight

A Venture Studio Born from Experience

Oliver's journey to Cocreatd was anything but conventional. With 15 years of experience spanning corporate roles, startups, and exits, he developed a deep understanding of team-building and marketing challenges across different business stages. Cocreatd’s mission reflects this journey: to back and mentor the next generation of marketing and creative entrepreneurs, paying forward lessons learned.

"This venture studio isn't about chasing trends—it's about building enduring value with people and ideas I believe in."

Advice: Build on your accumulated experience and focus on domains where you have passion and expertise.

🗝 Founder Tips

Discipline, Micro-Goals & Smart Decisions

Oliver prioritizes discipline over fleeting motivation, committing to consistent habits like posting on LinkedIn three times weekly. He combines small, actionable goals with ambitious aspirations, ensuring steady progress.

In uncertainty, he applies a Bezos-inspired framework: irreversible decisions, like hiring, demand careful thought, while reversible ones call for speed and experimentation.

"Success comes from discipline, consistent effort, and learning from every decision."

Advice: Stick to simple systems, act fast where possible, and let experience guide you.

🛠 Startup Tools

Unconventional Talent, Singular Focus

Oliver's hiring philosophy is unconventional: seek mavericks with unique skills, like community builders or meme creators, over traditional candidates. Additionally, his marketing advice is laser-focused: master one platform rather than spreading resources thin.

"Great results come from exploring untapped talent and obsessing over one high-impact channel."

Advice: Find overlooked talent and focus your marketing efforts on dominating a single channel.

☕ Cup of Founders Wisdom

The Courage to Have Tough Conversations

A self-identified people pleaser, Oliver has learned the importance of radical candor. Avoiding hard conversations leads to bigger problems down the line. Today, he embraces honesty paired with compassion.

"If letting someone go shocks them, that's a failure of feedback."

Advice: Tackle tough conversations early and openly. Clear, honest communication builds stronger teams.

🔋 Boost of Inspiration

Creating Value with People You Love

Oliver’s “why” centers on three pillars: the joy of building, working with people he likes, and creating generational wealth. These motivations drive him through tough days and fuel his vision of fostering creativity and innovation.

"I like building new things. I get a lot of fulfillment out of creating value out of nothing, building things with people I like, while building a legacy for my family."

Advice: Align your goals with personal fulfillment, team synergy, and long-term aspirations.

Stay tuned for more founder stories and actionable insights in the next Founders Espresso Shots!

Sip up, and Scale up together.
Andrea Marino - Founders Espresso