As the co-founder and CTO of LivingSocial, one of the first unicorns, Aaron Batalion lived the highs and lows of start up life. Now, as an angel investor, he shares his hard-won wisdom to help others navigate the choppy waters of entrepreneurship.

Aaron Batalion was just 25 when he co-founded Hungry Machine – the company that would become daily deals juggernaut LivingSocial. At its height, the online marketplace reached more than 80 million consumers, scaled to 25 countries, and hit billions in global sales.

With Aaron as CTO, the company went from four employees in 2007 to more than 4500 four years later. “It wasn’t just a job,” says Aaron. “It became my identity.”

Leaving the company in 2013, then, was an emotional decision. “It very much felt like my baby, so it was really hard,” says Aaron, who spoke at Assembly 2024: A VC Catalyst Conference.

“But I came to the realisation that my superpowers no longer moved the needle at that stage [of the company]. I decided the best use of my time was either to go build [a start up] again or work on the other side of the table and learn how that piece of the process works.

Shifting gears

In 2018, Aaron joined leading venture capital firm Lightspeed as a partner. As a founder, he had been consumed with hands-on problem-solving – building a product, creating value, growing the business – whereas investing was more about analysing trends across companies and markets to lay strategic bets.

“The investor’s role revolves around so many other things, like fundraising, filtering, winning deals, and not just product and growth,” says Aaron. “The winning part was often politics, and when you’re at a large venture capital firm, writing a $50 million cheque, there’s only one winner per round, which I found quite annoying. I am a very competitive person, but that’s just not the kind of politics I like to play.”

Focus: a founder’s superpower

Aaron has since left the VC firm and embraced angel investing, which allows him to work directly with entrepreneurs and help shape their visions. His advice to founders?

“Focus is everything.” Too often, founders keep busy and might feel productive, but fail to focus on the thing that matters most: the “known unknown” – the toughest problem that needs to be solved. 

With the ambitious goal of launching 100 cities in 100 days, for example, LivingSocial tackled two known unknowns: finding customers and sourcing deals. To hire 150 salespeople across 100 markets, they flipped the recruitment process on its head, flying 100 candidates to their office each week.

“By Saturday morning we’d hired 20 people,” he says. “We repeated that for 10 weeks. We found a unique solution to a very hard problem. Sometimes you have to be a little audacious.”

People over product

A computer scientist with a degree in East Asian philosophy, Aaron once toyed with becoming a Buddhist monk, but jokes that his ADHD wouldn’t let him sit still for the next 50 years. Asked what philosophies guide his investment decisions now, he says he looks for a strong, passionate founder and a grounded purpose. “I prioritise people over products,” he says. “Markets and ideas evolve, but resilient, resourceful founders adapt. I also focus on businesses that solve real problems rather than chasing trends.”

From builder to backer – and back again

Today, Aaron balances angel investing with his role as a full-time father following the recent loss of his wife. “I jokingly say I work for Dad.com,” he says, “and I have two wonderful customers.” When his kids leave home, though, he suspects he will build something again.

“It’s in my blood,” says Aaron. “You get to build teams, change lives, change industries. You get to put your dent on the world.”