The Need To Move Upstream

As the VentureStorm team and I continue our journey, I believe many will benefit from reading what we’re going through every step of the way. I’d like to highlight some recent events that have happened, things we’ve learned, and how we’re continually adjusting course towards a sustainable and successful business.

Past Few weeks

A little over two weeks ago, my team and I decided that raising an initial round of funding would help us reach our next milestone. To give some background, we have bootstrapped our company thus far. We’ve been working on it, with a few pivots, over the past year and a half. It’s been approximately 8 months that we’ve been working on it full time with no pay whatsoever.

With our current platform we charge a $30 monthly fee for premium features. We have been making some money, but every amount made has been put back in the business in order to grow. Currently, we’re not making enough to have a sustainable business or pay ourselves. Our goal from the start has been to create a sustainable business, not continually raise money to survive. However, with this pricing we’re only going to win at scale. Hence our thinking that raising a round of funding would help us achieve our next milestone.

I’ve been doing outreach to investors and have lined up a few meetings thus far. While many are open to us pitching and hearing about our raise, some have already expressed feedback that we’re still too early for them. I understand investor concern that we’re a young team and still have a lot to figure out. I don’t mean to vent, but I find it frustrating that I know people who have raised large sums of money on losing concepts and worse teams.

Moving Upstream

That leads me to my main point of writing this piece. Our mission from the beginning has been to help entrepreneurs and startups go from idea to launch and beyond. We decided that focusing on connecting entrepreneurs with tech ideas to the right software developers would be the best way to start since that’s something we originally had trouble with. The demand for technology talent is so high right now that it’s a difficult task to find the right person, especially when you’re starting out.

While our original mission is what we intend to stick with, we have learned that many early stage startups don’t have the financial resources to afford expensive solutions. (Shout out to all those people that say starting a startup to help startups is a near impossible business model. You’re nearly right.) This knowledge is nothing new to us, however we still believe in our mission wholeheartedly and don’t plan on giving up any time soon.

What my team has accomplished thus far, strapped for resources, is the foundation for something amazing to come. Our community has been a lively marketplace to recruit for early stage ventures from the thousands of developers on our platform.

We have decided to move upstream to target larger companies to help them source, screen, and on-board tech talent while maintaining and growing the current community. This will be a test of the team tenacity as well as my “sales” skills. I will be leading the effort of reaching out to larger corporations to learn more about their tech recruiting process. After conversing with these companies, we will take what we’ve learned and determine the best way to proceed with providing value to these established businesses. Nothing is guaranteed, but it will be another part of this journey.

If you are or you know someone that would be interested in learning more about what we’re working on at VentureStorm, then please connect and reach out. I open my network to those that are willing to do the same.

To me, entrepreneurship is more about who is along for the journey above all else and I’d love for you to be a part of it. I look to document more of my entrepreneurial journey as it progresses. If you’re interested in hearing some honest perspective on entrepreneurial subjects, digital marketing, and what’s going on with VentureStorm, then please follow along on Medium, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin.