I could be wrong here but for me sustainability is more important than growth. Especially the growth that is fuelled by spending on digital marketing. Machine Dalal is not my first venture or only venture for that matter, but it is the first product that I am raising funds for, and sincerely hoping to succeed. And to succeed I would need to do things; I have not done before. Learn, what I don’t know, seek help, reach out and network.
The only problem is that while I am doing the above, I run my business, Hashbrown Systems, and build and grow the product . Last time I check I was human, a Sardar human but a human, nevertheless.
And this whole process is lonesome. It is like being an astronaut in the space, only less glamorous and without the view, but with significant higher chance of perishing. I am kind of copying Mark Watney from Martian, Joseph Cooper from the Interstellar and Ryan Stone in Gravity. That mechanism of coping with isolation resonated with me.
Of chance there are literature aficionados amongst my readers, you would do well to recall the story of, ‘The Little Red Hen.’ There are revisions to it, but I do remember the hen labouring alone and growing wheat, hence hard work, application of proven methodologies and persistence. Also, personal initiative.
This was a rough week in terms of growth, we have been steadily clocking .7% weekly growth but the final number by this Monday morning would be lower. This doesn’t dissuade me as we released V4 for Play Store and App Store, and we are not advertising or marketing. The growth has been happening serendipitously, so that makes it sustainable over a long term. Personally, I would take slow organic growth over rapid paid growth anytime. Especially during the early days when you are grappling with issues of speed, performance alongside adding more functionalities and features.
Key Figures for the week ending, May 13th, 2022
Weekly growth rate .77%
2000+ Machines Uploaded
150+ New Equipment Manufacturers
Registered professionals from 130+ countries
Android App has had over 10,000+ installs.
Apple App has had over 3000+ installs.
The Investor Deck
I have reduced the amount of text on the investor deck, also got rid of two slides as the product is post revenue, technically at least. This means that there are people willing to pay for it.
But I do not have projections. Although, there is a sense of market size and the opportunity at hand, I need to work on the projections, market size, estimated earnings, so on and so forth. There is a lot more to it than I had imagined. A part of me is content taking things slow, moving the business forward on my own with help from friends, family and those who choose to support it.
Another part of me, is keen on getting VCs on board, as more than the money bit, we could use their expertise in building an enterprise. They do help in strategic and operational guidance, connections to more investors apart from connections to new customers and positively contribute towards success.
Here is the updated deck with less words, and fewer slides.
There are few topics that I have to discuss, one is about balancing growth with feature building with a lean team. The other one is about how to calculate market size – this is something that would take longer than I had hoped but could happen sooner for all I know. But the next post would invariably be about the roles and responsibilities of a venture capitalist firm, costs that a founder pays, and address certain fears.
Until next time. Good day and Good luck. Enjoy your weekend, and keep going.