We were in the same situation 4 years ago for our computer vision company, same team size. We targeted the wrong industry (beauty) and that was a mistake. Lessons to be learned and plenty of contacts for you as we went through the process of an acquisition. PM me, I am easy to find.
How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
191–200 of 209 posts
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair point. But if after 2 years you haven't found a business model, it might be better to fire couple of the product people and get dedicated biz people, as opposed to waiting 5.5 years and then go belly up.
Out of curiosity, do you have direct experience with entrepreneurship? This is extremely easy to say from a distance, and so naturally everyone does, only to bite their tongue once they've gone through it.
I do -- founder of a funded company with customers -- and my observation is it's very very difficult to bake a business model into a business after the fact.
And fwiw, a founder friend with a successful exit counts his biggest mistake as not having a founder immediately focused on sales. He built a two-founder (PM, eng) business that had a successful exit but probably nowhere near as successful as could have been possible.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks bumblebee4 - fashiontasteapi.com is a the b2b side of the company and the value prop is that we can help retailers automatically classify clothes and understand/classify people. It is for technical and business people, not the end consumer. This is a line of business we were just starting, and hopefully will continue. The consumer website is chicisimo.com :)
FYI, I get an error when I click on "Outfit Ideas": undefined method `split' for nil:NilClass
thanks rurp - fixed.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Autocomplete just gave away your European origin. > Devs and designers simply lack that customer-development focus That’s an unfair generalization. They will have that focus if imbued on them by the company, and the right motivated hires are made.
Alameda, CA now in Seattle. Me generalization is made from 20ish years as a dev who's now a CEO and was doing a bunch of hiring along the way. You said my generalization was unfair, and carved out a narrow exception where it would be great. Maybe proving my point. Query...does your dev team talk about tooling and stack more than customer feelings? Is it "ohh react native on k8s" or fix the accounting reports and that…
The latter for sure. The platform is a nuisance and not a source of fun, and priorities come from product. But I’ve never worked in the US, things might be different. What I was trying to say is that people will adjust to the culture/goals of the workplace. It might be true that an engineer left to its own devices would not care, if it doesn’t affect his performance; but if it the company is clearly focused on the customer everyone will follow.
My comment was regarding “tram” ;)
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#195> We finally found the right path 36 months ago, but we haven’t found a relevant business model.
The best use case for such technology is a B2C fashion app targeting 16-36 women with an extremely well-designed UX, that doesn't force to signup or enter any payment details.
Look at the Fashion Finder[1] by Daily Mail, and how it was successfully monetized via affiliate networks[2].
I could easily see such an app being acquired by one of the latest unicorn fashion startups, such as TheRealReal[3], Poshmark[4], thredUP[5], or Vinted[6].
[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/fashionfinder/index.html
[2] https://skimlinks.com/resources/case-studies/case-study-the-...
[3] https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/23/luxury-consignment-e-taile...
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2018/12/14/next-billi...
[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/glendatoma/2019/08/21/thredup-r...
[6] https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clo...
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alameda, CA now in Seattle. Me generalization is made from 20ish years as a dev who's now a CEO and was doing a bunch of hiring along the way. You said my generalization was unfair, and carved out a narrow exception where it would be great. Maybe proving my point. Query...does your dev team talk about tooling and stack more than customer feelings? Is it "ohh react native on k8s" or fix the accounting reports and that…
The latter for sure. The platform is a nuisance and not a source of fun, and priorities come from product. But I’ve never worked in the US, things might be different. What I was trying to say is that people will adjust to the culture/goals of the workplace. It might be true that an engineer left to its own devices would not care, if it doesn’t affect his performance; but if it the company is clearly focused on the cu…
Yes, 100% at my Co now, we are (not just lip service) customer focused. After some bumps we got a new dev, was unhappy at the old places, specifically about that empowerment. Now the customer to dev feedback loop it tight and they are enjoying it - and it shows from the contribution.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks bumblebee4 - fashiontasteapi.com is a the b2b side of the company and the value prop is that we can help retailers automatically classify clothes and understand/classify people. It is for technical and business people, not the end consumer. This is a line of business we were just starting, and hopefully will continue. The consumer website is chicisimo.com :)
Hot take: You need a woman to design this website. None of it screams fashion. When I think fashion, I think instagram influencer not "Omnichannel Personalization." Your killer app could be a simple FB quiz. People give you their FB/insta and you spit out what looks that they'd think are wicked sick. Ideally culled from Instagram. This web page sounds like nerds talking about fashion rather than fashionistas. I'm fai…
I'm even a nerd who consulted a dictionary regarding "ontology", and I can't figure out what they're talking about.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#198I empathize completely with this team because my company was in a very similar situation in 2018. We had two very technical computer vision products, had found traction and a growing enterprise user base but revenues didn't grow fast enough and all of the major companies were entering the market. We were lucky enough to find an acquisition off ramp last year but all of the feels are the same. The big takeaway I learn…
> ... it leaves me questioning what the value of doing really hard technology is as a startup Totally agree with this sentiment. I think this is why most "hard technology" problems are left to huge R&D departments or the government. Both of which aren't particularly nimble or profitable. There are a few notable exceptions (Oculus comes to mind), but most unicorns don't generally deal with solving tough problems. It's…
That tech isn't left to them it's just Survivor bias. Those teams fail at hard tech all the time. They're just still here
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#199I empathize completely with this team because my company was in a very similar situation in 2018. We had two very technical computer vision products, had found traction and a growing enterprise user base but revenues didn't grow fast enough and all of the major companies were entering the market. We were lucky enough to find an acquisition off ramp last year but all of the feels are the same. The big takeaway I learn…
Let me share another aspect, the Chicisimo and their company should go down. The whole idea is terrible, instead diversifying between people, they are streamlining wear and if they succeed everyone will look the same. As happened with pop music after ai generators were involved... some things shouldn't be touched by machine.
I have a hard time understanding the value that Chicisimo provides to anyone. The people who might actually use the app are people for whom fashion is not a chore, but a hobby.
Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?
#200What strikes me as odd is how unstylish everything in that post and on the fashion taste api website is. Is that intentional? Because I would think with $3.5M in funding, you can hire professional photographers, models and stylists to make the photos and the videos. And a webdesigner to make the site. The appstore pages look better. And you have good ratings from thousands of users. So why do you want to close it dow…
:) You are right, the fashion taste api website does not intend to be stylish. It tries to convey a message to business and tech teams, and we know it could have a better design. Take a look at the consumer product https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMMmdCB1-Wg hopefully you like the design better :)
> and we know it could have a better design
You've REALLY underestimated the power of design.