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Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

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Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#11

Post by wensing »

naval wrote: post #10

So, our fault for not having caught it the first time. But the reason is more innocuous than you might think. On a busy day, we can get 50-100 startups showing up. That's a lot of applications to read - so we run an algorithmic filter to decide what to even look at. My guess is that your initial pitch didn't make it past the filter. The second time did, but not because you had a ton of offline traction with press and…

For the record, I have looked at our first application again and I can see how it left something to be desired. I do think AL is working great for us now and I think hustle can create enough social proof to make things happen. The bar isn't too high, even though it is a barrier. Geography is huge, probably too much. But a few flights can overcome that sometimes.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#12

Post by diolpah »

nivi wrote: post #8

Hey, this is Nivi from AngelList. I am very happy for Stormpulse and I'm glad to answer any of your questions here. A couple things: 1. We're getting out of the "gatekeeper" business as quickly as possible. Over 70% of the intros on the site are now driven by code and community -- not us. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. We're working on the remaining 30%. 2. We don't think of it as "applying" to AngelL…

This effort to close the remaining 30% will make the primacy of social proof and popularity over team/product/traction/revenue/earnings even more powerful on AngelList.

It sounds like there is a fantastic opening here for other people in the angel/vc community to take on the task of being a gatekeeper or "talent scout" of sorts for excellent businesses who don't already have the requisite social proof.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#13

Post by wensing »

nivi wrote: post #8

Hey, this is Nivi from AngelList. I am very happy for Stormpulse and I'm glad to answer any of your questions here. A couple things: 1. We're getting out of the "gatekeeper" business as quickly as possible. Over 70% of the intros on the site are now driven by code and community -- not us. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. We're working on the remaining 30%. 2. We don't think of it as "applying" to AngelL…

Thanks Nivi. My post is meant less as a criticism and more as a fundraising how-to for others like us. I think the changes you are making are good.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#14

Post by auston »

This post makes it seem easy, I've met Matt in person, here's what is not very well pronounced in the article:

1. Matt is an amazing speaker, in person he is captivating when he discusses StormPulse.

2. He has been iterating on the idea for 3-4 years now? He actually launched it on HN IIRC.

3. His customer development skills are NO f*%kin' JOKE - he has been becoming intimate with his customers needs for a good while now.

4. He is very approachable, there are many people that you get a weird vibe from & may feel like you don't have their full attention - Matt is not one of them.

So basically - this is less of a hack & more of a culmination of years of hard work!

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#15

Post by jasonkolb »

wensing wrote: post #9
lrm242 wrote: post #2

In other words, it pays to be the pretty girl in the room. The fact that the underlying product, business, and people did not change highlights how most venture deal flow is filtered by relying on relativistic gauges of peer interest. It's pretty sad, honestly. Of course, not all are like this, for example YC and other programs with formalized processes.

We did change by committing to B2B, but insofar as we didn't change the foundational product, team, or market, you are correct. Which is why I call it a hack -- doing what it takes rather than what you think is important.

I wouldn't call it a hack so much as learning to sell to your market. Just like showing you that Tide will take the stains out of your clothes better than the next detergent, or that Bud beer will help you attract women, whatever. In this case your market is VC's and your product is your company, you finally started pushing their buttons.

Congrats!

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#16

Post by wensing »

jasonkolb wrote: post #15
wensing wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did change by committing to B2B, but insofar as we didn't change the foundational product, team, or market, you are correct. Which is why I call it a hack -- doing what it takes rather than what you think is important.

I wouldn't call it a hack so much as learning to sell to your market. Just like showing you that Tide will take the stains out of your clothes better than the next detergent, or that Bud beer will help you attract women, whatever. In this case your market is VC's and your product is your company, you finally started pushing their buttons. Congrats!

Yes! Well said.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#17

Post by tptacek »

The IBM SmartCamp pitch is extraordinarily compelling; like a good resume, it feels like you had to work hard to cut all the awesome things you had to say into a small space. It's also really well paced; for instance, the logo slide with the FedEx quote is set up to be a payoff moment for all the previous slides, which build up from smaller customer testimonials.

So my question is: it obviously took you awhile to get to this point, but don't you feel like, if you can put together a pitch like this, there's not a whole lot of additional "hacking" required?

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#18

Post by nivi »

wensing wrote: post #13
nivi wrote: post #8

Hey, this is Nivi from AngelList. I am very happy for Stormpulse and I'm glad to answer any of your questions here. A couple things: 1. We're getting out of the "gatekeeper" business as quickly as possible. Over 70% of the intros on the site are now driven by code and community -- not us. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. We're working on the remaining 30%. 2. We don't think of it as "applying" to AngelL…

Thanks Nivi. My post is meant less as a criticism and more as a fundraising how-to for others like us. I think the changes you are making are good.

Totally agreed. And I didn't thank you for writing the post. So, thank you. =)

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#19

Post by jonmc12 »

Ugh. To put this advice in context, social capitalists raise money based on reputation, hackers raise capital based on results of their startup / product. Pragmatically, success needs to be a mix.

To me - this is very clear distinction in Bay Area. The guys I know that are most impressive (and build the best startups) shut their doors, code like crazy and don't waste time with what other people other than their customers think of them. The product speaks for itself.

Then you have another set of entrepreneurs leveraging credentials, friendships and their previous successes to 'hack' the fundraising process, it detracts from delivering user experience.

Don't fall into this fundraising mindset - "if you want to raise money, there’s no substitute for working hard on your reputation". There is a substitute - its delivering measurable benefit to customers. Work hard on delivering value to the rest of the world. Its an important distinction because thinking about what investors think of you detracts from a maniacal focus on product.

Its pre-mature reputation optimization. You want to build your rep after you've proven delivering value to customers.. the product should speak for itself.

I consider social capitalism an evil because it creates conflicts of interest, and detracts from goal-oriented thinking. However, like politics and bureaucracy - it is an evil that startups have to confront at some point, or be confronted with. I balance this with a maniacal focus on delivering value while staying at low profile - its tough to create a professional persona in line with your startup before you have accomplished measurable customer value. Without this kind of timing, its very easy to detract from your startup goals because you personally have to conform to a misinformed notion of a professional persona. I'd be curious if others have had challenges along this line..

One last thought, social capitalism gets multiplied by orders of magnitude when you leverage the hub. ie, relationships for finance, advertising are going to be much more valuable in NYC. In optimizing reputation, spend cycles where they have the highest return.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#20

Post by aresant »

jonmc12 wrote: post #19

Ugh. To put this advice in context, social capitalists raise money based on reputation, hackers raise capital based on results of their startup / product. Pragmatically, success needs to be a mix. To me - this is very clear distinction in Bay Area. The guys I know that are most impressive (and build the best startups) shut their doors, code like crazy and don't waste time with what other people other than their custo…

It sounds like you're disagreeing with the post and say "success needs to be a mix" but that's the point of the article.

Don't miss that:

a) They've been working on the product since 2004 and it's best in class as a result of an insane amount of product development.

b) Every single lead they've generated has come through their "freemium" model, they've never spent a nickel on marketing.

c) Only recently have they learned that a best-in-class product isn't enough to get investors excited without talking about the market.

Matt wrote an incredible post here about the blood, sweat, and tears that went into building a market leading product:

http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/1215873671/bootstrapping-stor...

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