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How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

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Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#41

Post by RussianCow »

AchieveLife wrote: post #30
dwrodri wrote: post #26

As someone who is interested in one day starting my own business, I have nothing but respect for someone who has the guts to follow through with that and pursue their vision. That being said... why did you (or if anyone else can chip in) decide to chase funding when you didn't have a business model? Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be…

"Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be acquired by someone else?" That's a sane question. IMO it's the current financial environment that encourages such "leap without looking" strategies. Fear of missing out is huge right now. I know of a startup that received a multi-million valuation and many more million in funding. They don't even…

This is very real. A friend of mine started a company with over a million in seed funding with what basically amounts to just an idea. Years later, the company isn't doing that well in terms of sales/revenue, but they still manage to raise money because they have a couple obvious acquisition targets. It seems crazy to me to throw millions of dollars at a company with the hopes that one of maybe three or four megacorps in the industry will acquire them, but investors buy into that, and that's all that matters.

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#42

Post by zer00eyz »

aldamiz wrote: post #34
bumblebee4 wrote: post #28

Looking at your own brand homepage, my impression is that it is too technical. I had expected to see many instagram-like pictures of people who demonstrate that they have managed to dress better by using your product. Isn't your value proposition that people can dress better? Maybe I have overlooked it but I think you have the perfect software to run an online shop. Pay influencers to use your product and viewers who…

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 :)

Have you ever thought of targeting by size?

As a tall person dressing and fashion in general SUCK! Online has made it easier but selection is still limited and cost is outrageous.

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#43

Post by aldamiz »

TekMol wrote: post #31

What 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 :)

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#45

Post by nostrademons »

dwrodri wrote: post #26

As someone who is interested in one day starting my own business, I have nothing but respect for someone who has the guts to follow through with that and pursue their vision. That being said... why did you (or if anyone else can chip in) decide to chase funding when you didn't have a business model? Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be…

> Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be acquired by someone else?

That's pretty common, and is basically what seed funding is. The paradox behind markets and investment is that logically speaking, if a potential company has a profitable business model, that company should already exist. After all, with millions of potential entrepreneurs across the globe and trillions in funding chasing them, the chance that an obviously profitable business model hasn't already been dreamed up and implemented by an entrepreneur is basically nil.

So what investors and entrepreneurs do is they agree to take on risk with their capital, for the potential of great reward if it turns out they can come up with a better way of doing things that isn't already being done. The only way to do this is to explore virgin territory: do things that seem plausible but haven't currently been tried by existing companies, and then see if you can create a profitable business model with the results. There's a good chance that you can't, in which case okay, it was an experiment, you spent $3.5M to learn something that had the shot of being worth billions.

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#47

Post by aldamiz »

zer00eyz wrote: post #42
aldamiz wrote: post #34

Earlier 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 :)

Have you ever thought of targeting by size? As a tall person dressing and fashion in general SUCK! Online has made it easier but selection is still limited and cost is outrageous.

In our case, size is a property in the ontology.

For some players (second hand for example) size is the number one "personalization" requirement. Imagine you see a feed of products, and none of it is your size...

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#48

Post by t222 »

dwrodri wrote: post #26

As someone who is interested in one day starting my own business, I have nothing but respect for someone who has the guts to follow through with that and pursue their vision. That being said... why did you (or if anyone else can chip in) decide to chase funding when you didn't have a business model? Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be…

Asking the real questions.

> That being said... why did you (or if anyone else can chip in) decide to chase funding when you didn't have a business model?

Biggest mistake IMHO. But is quite common these days. Everybody is chasing the unicorn dream.

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#49

Post by weiming »

Cool idea but, from watching the demo videos:

(a) That's a messy, unappealing closet.

(b) The Alexa interaction felt awkward. Probably a touch interface would've worked better.

(c) Ugh, (used?) boots on the TV stand.

(d) Many of the clothing items we own are Asian items without barcodes. Wonder how the import would work on those.

(e) The website (chicisimo) could use a lot, and I mean a lot of copywriting love. So many walls of text. Some fashion photos should be front and center. It is hard to understand what is going on in the animated iOS screen.

Re: How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?

#50

Post by pmichaud »

dwrodri wrote: post #26

As someone who is interested in one day starting my own business, I have nothing but respect for someone who has the guts to follow through with that and pursue their vision. That being said... why did you (or if anyone else can chip in) decide to chase funding when you didn't have a business model? Maybe I'm being naïve here, but isn't it kind of crazy to raise 3.5M in funds for a business that has no plan but to be…

I think a lot of the time the idea of funding is:

From the startup's side: We don't actually know the business yet, so we need resources to fund our runway while we figure it out (ie. interact with the market enough to make smart pivots toward profitability).

The the funder's side: We basically don't give a shit what the business turns out to be, we want to fund talented teams that we believe can pull off profitability.

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