We started with a Data Replication and Disaster Recovery product for Asia Pacific SME market. Had a good start, built a solid team … and then got beaten down by Angels/VCs & some market “veterans”. Thanks to a lot of guys (specially some on venturewoods) who advised, We decided to go ahead and pooled in $85K of “friends and family” money.
So like to share some thoughts, a news and need some advise.
thoughts,
My last post did help me know a lot of things about VC/Angels. We also did some introspection of our work and how we can present it.
But still, It makes me think — Is market for seed/angel investment in India mature enough for startups or its just me who got beaten down ?
We met all kinds of VCs – some showed interest and helped, some showed no interest but still helped and some cowards who fixed meetings and never came for them 🙂
News,
Someone in (i think) Virtualization conference 2007 asked amazon ppl about rumors of completion from google on S3 and EC2.
That guy answered saying, “we would love someone spend their millions educate ppl about benefits of virtualization. We don’t mind sharing the market”.
Something similar happened to us, while we were sure of market in aisa pacific . News of Reliance and Bharti opening Disaster Recovery data centers in Indian backed our strategy. We got some inbounds and gained some traction.
Now we just released product final beta on July 4th, and some good names signed in as beta customers.
I would love to demo the product over a webcast or send across an evaluation copy. Please let me know, if anyone is interested.
More about product: http://www.slideshare.net/jaspreetis/druvaa-product-overview-and-advantage
Need advice,
1. We “can” sustain couple of more months and start supporting and selling. Is it still worth trying for angel money ?
2. Any good ideas on how to conduct online product demos . I am using gotomeeting right now coupled with skypecasts.
3. Any idea on how to build product documentation and knowledge-base.
cheers,
J
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Hi jaspreet,
Angel investing in India is still very nascent while VC investments are evolving. i did a qucik research and here are the facts. a)In USA and Canda there are over 275+ angel networks and in USA alone angels invested over $25billion in 2007. b) VC investments in India in 2007 totalled about $700 million and out of this software products receveid about 20%.
I guess going forward in the next 2-3 years VC and angel investing will take off in India. You are defnitely positioned aptly to accelerate. organisations such are IAN and NEN are present in India and doing good work. do check up their website for list of angels present in India.
I have only one line that i keep reminding myself when am down. Its from Shawshank Redemption..” TIME and PRESSURE”
> 3. Any idea on how to build product documentation and knowledge-base.
Look at how MySQL are doing it. They’ve taken the unconventional route and harnessed their community. S3 and E2C are also taking the same route through their forums.
Jaspreet: Firstly, congratulations on the traction you’ve got. Good job and go with the program.
VCs and Angels will usually not say no. In cases where they don’t find your idea mindblowing they will usually dither and dilly-dally and all that – understand that, in investor parlance, this is a no. They really mean “not right now” – and if you show serious traction they want to still be around to take a part of the pie.
Second, some VCs will be brutally frank. These guys meet entrepreneurs with ideas everyday and will tend to speak their mind if they don’t like your idea. This might come across as arrogance, and starting up requires a seriously thick sking.
Third, berating VCs or Angels does little to help your cause. While stories about yesterday can be fun, remember that they can affect your story for tomorrow.
About your points:
1) if you can sustain and even get some sales there may be a way to get a small line of credit from banks – some will give you upto 10 lakhs as unsecured debt. This may help you tide through till you get cash-flow-breakeven. Anything on the angel/vc front will take months and take away from your real work.
2) Online product demos: If you’re out there to convince a group of people to decide (N approvals required types) then your collateral should allow people to share it with others (PDF files are ok, a flash video on youtube is good etc) But always have a printable version for the folks that make decisions in conference rooms.
In your case I think all your realised product demos will be face-to-face because of the decision making authority needed for something of this sort.
3) Product documentation: Man this can be complex. My experience with outsourcing this function has been quite bad, and we gave up on it in the end because of the fat golfer problem (put ball where he can hit it then he can’t see it, put it where he can see it then he can’t hit it) Technical people aren’t good writers and writers write horrible techie docs (in India). Yes, gross generalisation, but I think the best writer-techies are now management.
What I can say is do it and then refine it as you go on. If you’re going to hand hold your first customers through their setup you will realise what needs to be in the documentation.
Hi,
@darshan,
thanks for the comment. I guess you are right about the angel funding part of it.
And sorry if my post threw a wrong attitude. Had i got funding, cooking stories and throwing attitude would have been much simpler 😉 not when i am seeking it.
When you are climbing a mountain with limited supply for oxygen and someone borrows it for smoking, he better we careful. I don’t even mind sharing those names here.
We have been helped by many, even though they didn’t have much interest in funding. But i will keep you point in mind what you said, and try and look closer at the problem.
At the end of each day … I always ask my self two questions –
1. what did i learn ?
2. did i challenge myself ?
@iqbal/bb
interesting points. we are experiencing the same, while getting commitment from first few customers.
Thanks,