i'm sorry to hear that you perceive this as some sort of excuse. that wasn't my intention. we haven't started fundraising yet so i don't know which side we'll land on. this was more meant as my personal observation on the VC ecosystem and how I can see some of the dynamics leading to the crunch.
It's generally not a good idea to imply that the people you'll be asking money from don't know what they're doing or are doing it wrong.
From your lists of questions, yes, I'd say they're doing it wrong. But their questions are their questions, and you don't get to determine what they care about. It's their problem that they miss out on the next unicorn; just thank them for their time and move on to the next investor.
yes it is completely their prerogative to ask whatever questions they want. luckily a lot of investors do ask the right questions. my observation is just that a lot don't and i wish they did because it would mean a lot more interest in series A companies.
i partially agree with your point on an explosion in early stage companies. however, i think part of this explosion in seed stage companies is because companies are now raising 2-3 seed rounds and jumping straight to A rounds which in effect is the old "B round." i think part of this behaviour is driven by investors dis-interest in A rounds so entrepreneurs try to be "seed stage" as long as possible until then can raise 10 million dollar A rounds which is really a b round.
hey pbreit. i'm not saying that fitbay necessarily is a unicorn.. i'm saying that there are potential unicorns among series a start-ups that are not getting funded. but i agree that "can this team create traction?" should be the most important question that investors ask.
hey calbear81. i'm not saying that investors shouldn't ask these questions - because it helps you understand the market. however, imo the most important questions are the ones i highlight and these are rarely the focus of discussion.
Hi HN, I'd love to get your feedback on Fitbay. It lets you connect with your Body Doubles - people with your height, weight and body type. Check it out - https://fitbay.com
To sign up you take "The Body Quiz", entering your height, weight and body type to find your 'Body Doubles' – people with similar proportions. Based on your entries we match you with others who have answered similarly to questions including height, weight, body type, torso type, arm length, age, location and cup size (for women). There are 1,700,000+ possible matchings in this quiz, so it's very accurate.
We then encourage users to share photos of themselves (selfies) and tag the brands and sizes they wear. In turn, this creates a personalized shopping experience where everything is in your size, presented by people who have a body similar to yours.
I flagged the submission before reading this response. I clicked the link from my feed reader (which is how I consume HN). I was expecting some insightful commentary on the data collected, but was instead dumped on a lead generation form. In the consumer expectation context, I was "offened".
If this is your general marketing tact, I'd consider revising it a bit. The text of a link sets an expectation for users. When they click through, the degree to which the content matches that expectation will set the tone for the rest of the interaction. The feeling of being "duped" in to clicking is amongst the worst that a user can feel.
Please understand that I'm not making an indictment of the character of your marketing. I anticipate your gut reaction will be "we didn't intend that". No one intends to offend customers, but sometimes it happens.
I’ve always had major difficulties with finding clothes that fit. For as long as I can remember, I have been tall & skinny with an extremely narrow waist, and so pretty much every shirt or pair of slacks that I have ever owned have fit me poorly. To make matters worse, I decided to try online shopping a few years ago, only to realize that I was spending even more time returning clothes because they were the wrong size or fit.
While growing up, my best friend and I have always shared the same exact height, weight and body type and so we've always been able to share our wardrobes and advice with each other. It then came to me last year that this act of sharing was something people all over the world could truly benefit from.
So we slowly started building our website, www.fitbay.com, with the ultimate goal of building a community that would help everyone with discovering all the brands and products in the world in the right size & fit. Basically, you plug in your height, weight and body type and we’re able to instantly show you clothes that fit you based on the recommendations people with your exact measurements have made.
To get the initial recommendations we needed, I organized about 3-4 coffee meetings, inside & outside of work each and every day, asking friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances (and people on Reddit) to share with us their height, weight, and sizes they wear in their favorite brands. In doing so, we were able to, quite early, create the sensation of a “personalized store created just for you where everything fits” and a community of people who share the same fit-related issues.
In just 5 months we’ve now grown from just 50 to over 10,000 unique profiles on Fitbay having shared a total of 60,000+ unique product recommendations.
Help us out by visiting the site www.fitbay.com and sharing your thoughts here, and please do let us know if you have any ideas or feedback. Keep in mind that the community is still invite-only, but if you sign up using the link above I’ll do my best to make sure you get access within 24 hours.
We could really use some feedback on our site https://fitbay.com. Help us out by sharing your thoughts here, and please do let us know if you have any ideas or feedback.
hey adrian. the post was just meant to reflect what i like about entrepreneurship. if you get the same feeling in your current job then that's awesome. there are many other reasons for people becoming entrepreneurs - these are just mine.
Let me tell you what could make entrepreneurship atrractive to me:
1.- Independence from a boss, technically customers bcome your your new boss, but is not the same.
2.- Decide how much income I want, it would depend on me.
3.- Decide from where I want to work.
4.- Decide te kind of relations you want, in a vertical market you don't get much of that.
3.-
