Hacking AngelList (or "social proof") • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#21

Post by mikegreenberg » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:12 PM UTC

Regardless of your feelings on cashing in on your social capital, it's clear that reputation goes a long way. Yes, it doesn't come cheap but the results come from long-term, compound effort. I don't doubt the 25,000 hours Matt quoted in that pitch. But the long-term, compound effort is an important catalyst. (You guys might know it as 'hustle'.)

I can second what auston (and others) have echoed about Matt. I had the pleasure of having Matt do a presentation on Price Hacking for Hack and Tell in South Florida (where he's very active in the community) and it was easily one of the best presentations we've hosted.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#22

Post by aresant » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:13 PM UTC

Don't miss one of the best "are you sure you've got what it takes to build a start-up" posts chronicling Matthew's 7-odd year journey with SP to date:

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

For a guy that's spent 7 YEARS building his product he does a remarkably good job talking about the market, great write-up and post Matt!

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#23

Post by jonmc12 » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:18 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #20

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 lea…

Thanks for the note - I was disagreeing with the message / sentiment of article. I meet so many first-time entrepreneurs and worked at funded startups where the founders think it is about impressing investors.

Kudos to Stormpulse for the hard work and the cool product. I just did not like the message of the article because I was considering how it would be interpreted by other startups..

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#24

Post by callmeed » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:18 PM UTC

I've pretty much given up on AngelList for the time being. I'm not in in the valley (although not too far) and not in a large metro. All of my past success has been bootstrapped so I know no one in the VC community.

I did reach out to a few people I met at conferences but that got me nowhere. I thought being a TechStars finalist might help too.

Meh. I decided it's really not worth the time/effort now. Maybe I'm doing something wrong (yes, I've read all the relevant posts on "hacking angellist") but for now, I'll focus on the product and growth. Perhaps I'll try again later.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#25

Post by diolpah » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:21 PM UTC

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…

"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."

There's another side to this story. Once you've built the product, have the customers, cash flow, and earnings, you're left with a vacuum in the social sphere. You don't know anybody other than your customers and vendors.

And if you try to raise money at that point( expansion, growth, acquisition, etc ), you can't get so much as a single introduction because you don't know anybody. The reality is that product does not speak for itself.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#26

Post by rguzman » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:46 PM UTC

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…

this seems to be a bit of a false dichotomy.

your social capital is not useful only to raise money. it is useful to market your product. marketing your product gets it used which is the best way for it to improve.

that you can use social capital to help raise money is a great side-effect of the real reason it is necessary for startups: marketing.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#27

Post by wensing » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:52 PM UTC

auston wrote: post #14

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…

Thanks, auston! Speaking at RefreshMiami and the South Florida HackNTell were big confidence boosters that also contributed to the good outcomes.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#28

Post by wensing » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 7:59 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #17

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 ge…

Wow, thanks.

I'm definitely getting more comfortable with pitching, but don't consider myself a master by any stretch. I think the next frontiers are frame control and getting a better grasp on market sizing and pricing.

But yes, hopefully not much more hacking required to close this round of funding. :)

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#29

Post by wensing » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 8:02 PM UTC

jonmc12 wrote: post #23

aresant wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lea…

Thanks for the note - I was disagreeing with the message / sentiment of article. I meet so many first-time entrepreneurs and worked at funded startups where the founders think it is about impressing investors. Kudos to Stormpulse for the hard work and the cool product. I just did not like the message of the article because I was considering how it would be interpreted by other startups..

I guess a direct link to our chronicles of toiling outside of the limelight could help.

Re: Hacking AngelList (or "social proof")

#30

Post by _delirium » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 9:15 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #20

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 lea…

This part is strange to me:

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

Isn't the whole point of there existing a separate class of tech-oriented investors and investment managers, who get paid pretty well for their work, that they are knowledgeable and well-positioned to evaluate things like market prospects? If who they fund depends so heavily on social proof and slickness of the pitch to investors (as opposed to the actual product and market potential), seems like capital is being allocated pretty inefficiently...