Nov. 5, 2021
Fundraising for an open-source startup, how do you explain it to investors? By Michel Tricot, Airbyte
Michel Tricot Co-Founder at Airbyte talks about raising capital for an open-source startup. We talked about how Airbyte plans to monetize and how they managed to get into Y-Combinator. We also touched onto the effect that a good background in a relevant field has on your fundraising efforts (spoiler: it makes fundraising too easy)
Michel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheltricot/
Airbyte's website: https://airbyte.io/
Link to our course on fundraising - The Science of Getting in front of Investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Here is a Tech Crunch article on Airbyte if you would like more info on the company: https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/25/airbyte-announces-26m-series-a-for-open-source-data-connector-platform/
Transcript
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They're releasing to fundraising
video a podcast about
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fundraising for early-stage
startups, the major rule that we
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follow here is no bullshit on
this podcast.
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No music to relax, you know,
advertisements of our sponsors.
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We only talk about fundraising
here and nothing else.
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So let's jump into the episode.
And today's guest speaker, we
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have Michelle to record
co-founder and CEO at are B.
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And in this episode we'll talk
about how they raised over
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thirty 1 million dollars up to
date and how much Michelle's
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background in data space and
specifically over 15 years and
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data space.
Help him raise the rounds for
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are B.
So Michelle, let's kick it off
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by you, giving us some
background on yourself and on
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are bite.
Of course, thank you,
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Constantine for having me.
So a little bit about myself.
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So I've been walking the data
space for the for the past 15
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years, different scale,
different type of use cases,
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whether it's like financial
data, whether it's customer
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related data, are you to data?
And yeah, I've been living data
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teams over the past few years.
I would say, one, one of the
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company where I got the most
Battle Scars about what we're
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building today.
A company record live Ram, which
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I Journal was a very small
started.
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By the time now it's a public
company and over there was
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leading a team of 30 30 people
and we basically build maintain
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and scale thousands of different
data integration.
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And that's basically after Labor
and went for a different company
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that a team to solve a similar
problem than 2020.
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That's when with my co-founder
we decided It to start our B &
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and really tackle, the problem
of getting data to move from
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point A to point B, without
having to think about the
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complexity and the technical
complexity that goes with it.
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So that's what it says there.
All right.
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So in that case, the first
question is actually about the
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structure of your company or the
structure of the product itself.
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So your structured as an open
source product, which I to be
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completely honest, after years
working in the industry, still
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Didn't understand how you
monetize that thing.
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So let's start with discussing
desk, at least understand what's
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going on here.
So first of all, how do you
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monetize an open source product?
And secondly, how do you
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investor react to?
The fact that is open source or
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to most investors understand how
this works unlike me now, of
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course.
So when you think of
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open-source, I think you can
always make the parallel between
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an open source product,
especially early stage.
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And non across first product
where you're going to measure
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very similar metric but maybe
this one's will not be tighter
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on you, but they might be tied
to adoptions in might be tied to
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contribution and basically
engagements of your community to
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really like show that this is a
project and a product that
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people actually need.
And that after that it's a
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matter of fact figuring out
okay.
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Now that I have this huge
reduction in We went from zero
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user to hover 5000 users in a
matter of one year and I think
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that shows a lot about how the
market has been evolving around
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in the product that for Billy.
And in general this is a metric
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that is so impressive that for
an investor it's easy to make
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the piling.
It's just now matter of like
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figuring out, what is the right
trigger on?
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What I have, the type of
features that you need to
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monetize to make Get a paid
product.
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But for us doing, open source,
was really a matter of getting
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adoption and creating the
standout for the program or
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solving and other option is the
most important is like getting
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production usage from your
principles project from the open
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source.
Community is the most important
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is, and now we're focusing on
the monetization.
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Nice.
That's interesting.
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Let's, let's talk about the
monetization.
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I will literally start out my
purchasing career.
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I'm not going to call that a
career person.
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I started my packaging journey
by interviewing one of the
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co-founders open open source
project and they had about
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30,000 active daily users, which
is an insane number, especially
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at the time of like 2008, when
not, everyone was using internet
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and they feel because they
couldn't monetize their this
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product properly.
How exactly do you plan to
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ensure that you do not repeat
the mistakes of other people who
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have tried to, you know, go from
open source to monetizing the
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open source.
So in general, when we think
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about open source, we think
about you know, when you you're
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looking at acquiring a product
for your organization, you
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always have this thing between
Bill versus by and depending on
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what exists on the market and
what what are your requirements?
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You might go for building.
You may go for by and open
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source is basically here to
replace the build.
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So it means that it's going to
solve very specific you Us cases
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my solar program for a small
team or an individual
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contributor and that has been
our philosophy behind.
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How we BL are B, which is we
want to make sure that
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everything that serves the need
of an individual contributor and
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a small team is open source.
Everything that serves the need
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of an organization, which is
generally.
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Something you would be buying,
then this is not open source and
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this is something you have to
pay for.
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So weather is by building
additional.
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Jurors or like security feature
compliance feature user access
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management.
Feature, it's all about whom.
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Do you want to serve in the
organization?
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Nice.
Those.
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That's true.
Yeah, I hope you figure out
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properly and I will not injure
you years later down the road
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talking about how you fake
mistakes there.
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But let's talk, let's talk about
the major subject of the entire
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podcast, which is fundraising.
And what I saw one we were
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talking with you on the prince
recall is that you've actually
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skipped the precede ground and
started raising directly from
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see grounds.
I forgot the exact number that
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was in the seed round but it was
definitely Seed round.
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How exactly do you manage to
keep the precede ground?
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Even though you have an open
source product, which
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automatically makes fundraising
quite a bit harder than normal
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fundraising?
So I wouldn't say we skip the
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proceed.
We did some proceed with Angel
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investment.
Most young people that we've
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worked with in the past because
building a software like the one
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we're doing requires a lot of
investment because it's solving
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a very messy, very big need and
it requires a lot of
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customizability, a lot of
features to be fully so that
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organization can fully adopted
and so we did ready to proceed.
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And we actually also did y z in
a January 2020.
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So part of that, part of that
initial fundraising, we had like
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the waist here the way I see it,
check That's after that, we
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started to do a seed last like
in I don't know, it was May 29th
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2020, but what you did is really
and that's what we to make sure
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we can build the technological
asset and its really in November
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2010 key that we raised the
largest chunk of the of our
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students and we did it on
several stages.
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At that point Interesting.
So let's let's talk about how he
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reached out to you.
Those especially proceed
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investors.
We mentioned some people that
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you worked in with in the past
how do you reach out to the
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angel?
Investors who you might have not
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known as well as your ex
colleagues.
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How do you reach out to them now
with like product proceed?
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I think you need to have people
who can we know you would trust
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you and we only focus on people
that we work with in the past.
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So I don't think we've had The
problem of like reaching out to
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people that we didn't know.
So for the proceed, what we are
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looking for is also to surround
our set.
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This was not just about the film
that we weren't getting.
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It was also about the like the
fact that the people we want to
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bring in where people that could
also be helpful to us and could
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advise us on like the product,
the company, the problem space.
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So it was both fundraising but
it was also about bringing in
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Advisors for us.
Hmm, as precedes always should
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be.
That's, that's right.
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Way to do this.
I would imagine that for the
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follow-up rounds.
You couldn't just raise from
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your, you know, Inner Circle,
the people who knew very well
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because I was just too much
money and very few people can
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afford to do this stuff so I
would imagine that you did reach
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out to quite a few outside
investors.
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How do you approach that?
Do you reach out to a very
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specific experts in the field?
Did you reach out to maybe
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people who work with data?
But not not not necessarily
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investors and just you know, try
to convince them to actually
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invest or how do you approach
that you mean father proceed for
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the seed and Fallout for the
city?
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Yeah.
So I'm just going to focus on
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the one we had in a November.
I think we, we had a very like
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the industry of data had a lot
of very strong exit during 2020.
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You had you had segment, you had
snowflake, you had, and you had
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a few others like that.
And I think it has awakened how
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people are looking at data and
the pieces that were unsolved in
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the data integration.
Because the typical example, you
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had snowflake is a is a super
Efficient, great data warehouse.
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But ultimately if you cannot
bring data to it, then that that
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becomes an issue.
You cannot favorite the way you
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want.
And we had some contact with
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investor that we've created over
the past the past month.
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And when they saw the soft
launch of the products, they
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started reaching out to us.
And we've received 50 60, 70
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emails from investor and that's
probably also why Having worked
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in the dairy industry, having
the experience of build like a
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serving that kind of foreign can
help because investors are
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looking to de-risk, also the
investment.
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So, if they see someone who's
been doing it in the past, and
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have been successful as a doing
it, that obviously, make your
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story a little bit less risky.
And we, what we did is we
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actually asked all of them to to
talk to us a few months down the
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line.
And what we did is we basically
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schedule all this call over the
course of two weeks.
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And then we started like we
continue to focus on the product
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until that week of these two
weeks of tenderizing arrived,
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but it was really about grouping
everything to make sure that one
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we keep our focus on building
the product because building the
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products probably, one of the
most important thing you need to
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do but also to make sure Sure,
that we have the full picture
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and the full context and we're
very, very focused on this
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fundraising.
I cannot agree with you on
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building the product and it
being the most important part of
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it, but that, that might be the
case in deep Tech or at least
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closer in deep Tech than, in
other fields.
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But yeah, you mentioned, why
commentary?
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So let's talk about that on our
print recall.
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You mentioned that you've
actually slightly changed.
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The idea behind are B after you
raise the seed round, which
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erased during way, see ya.
Just attack your series a did
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Investors were investors
concerns.
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Do you have enough?
Do you get enough Milestones?
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After you've changed the idea to
new idea, or was it more like,
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you know, kind of seed approach?
Yeah.
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So and that's why we're
basically grouping the early.
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See that we've done in 2020 with
the one.
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We've we've done end of 2020, so
sorry beginning of 2021, but
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When we came into YC, John and I
had a very good understanding of
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the problem space that we wanted
to address.
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And when we were at YC, we
started to build a product.
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And we're getting some very good
traction on the product, and we
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started to get pulled from from
investors while we were at YC.
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And what happened on May 8th,
March, 15 is that covid, hit us.
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Close down.
And at that point it was fire
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heavy.
When like whether it's on like
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portfolio company of disease or
whether it's on the marketing
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team who were building a tool
for marketing teams and we
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managed to a to fundraise with
the, with the early signals,
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we're getting on this issue of
product.
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But what covid showed us that
that one is the product.
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We are building was more of a
good to have more than something
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that people actually need and we
were getting Harder and harder
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time, like closing deals.
And at, that point, what we did
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is we John and I just sat down
and said, okay, this product is
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not going to be is not going to
make ourselves is not going to
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make the the company successful.
And you want to make sure that
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when you have that kind of
signal you do the best for what,
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for what for your investors, and
what we did is we reached out to
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them and tell them, you know,
the project that you invested in
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is not going to maybe we don't
believe it's going to be a
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successful product and we're
going to give up and at that
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point it becomes.
A matter of fact I have you
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picked the right investors
because investors especially at
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the silver level, they are
investing on your team.
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They are investing in the files
and at that point, I said, okay,
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fine, that's that's okay.
We invested in the gym, like in
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the process, you have to
validate or invalidate ideas the
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way you, your ability to You to
recruit and surround yourself
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under for with the right people.
And in the end, what they want
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is just to make sure that things
move forward.
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If we were just going in the
direction of building in the
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wrong product, the not going to,
I'm just going to do good
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either.
So that's why it's not that was
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not the issue and yeah and the
Futures program to be to be
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correct in the injury we made
the decision to Pivot with like
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the dying.
From our investors, we we we
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work for 33 months on releasing
an MVP.
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And after that, we finished the
house around.
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Nice and yeah, I mean, most
investors are very cool that
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work if you choose investors
right?
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If you're very transparent about
the pivot, a lot of them are
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actually happy about it and even
more excited about the new idea
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that you're working on.
So yeah, Founders.
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As long as you don't just, you
know, hide out and ignore your
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investors, you can Just fine.
So yeah, happy to hear Michelle,
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that it went well.
So let's talk about the thing.
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That was prompting in the
beginning of the episode, but
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have not even touched on to that
quite yet.
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You've been working in the data
space for over 15 years.
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Did that actually help you fund
raise?
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00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,800
Was that a big?
You know, like in a huge trip
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did you put it on your slide
deck somewhere?
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00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,100
Or do you just, you know, in the
first 30 seconds of the pitch,
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00:16:29,100 --> 00:16:31,500
did you?
You scream out, I worked 15
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years in data industry.
Or did you just you know barely
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touched on it and it didn't have
much effect on the fundraising?
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00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:41,200
No, it hasn't.
It is important.
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And now I know that not
everybody has had like 15 years
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in data and someone else
straight out of college studying
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00:16:49,500 --> 00:16:57,000
could accompany but definitely,
you know, Yeah, that started I
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00:16:57,008 --> 00:17:02,300
said, stop studying a company's
how so everything you can do to
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00:17:02,300 --> 00:17:05,300
make it successful, whether it's
by having successful,
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00:17:05,300 --> 00:17:09,500
fundraising like, or like hiring
the right people, you need to do
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00:17:09,500 --> 00:17:14,000
it.
So if by really talking about my
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experience and my founder, my
co-founder experience like if
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00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:20,800
that can help the story of a
bite, you have to say it's
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because it will give you
potentially better terms on
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00:17:24,700 --> 00:17:26,400
fundraising you.
Have access to.
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00:17:26,500 --> 00:17:28,600
Those are type of investors,
etc, etc.
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So everything that is in your
favor, you should use it during
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00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,900
fundraising because that will
give you a hedge.
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Compared to a certain enzyme
might be like one of those often
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00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:44,700
trying to do their product.
But if investors you one of the
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teams and one single, tell them
how these two Founders have 15
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00:17:48,900 --> 00:17:51,100
years of experience behind them.
Wrong eyes are building
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00:17:51,100 --> 00:17:53,200
companies are building data
product.
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00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,600
Maybe that's a better investment
than someone who never done it.
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100% that definitely helps.
I just wanted to hear from you,
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00:18:01,300 --> 00:18:07,400
just as a confirmation.
So let's let's talk about one
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00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:10,000
actually, they're right.
Maybe two last questions in the
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00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,600
episodes.
One of which is one of my
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00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,900
favorite which is what do you
think?
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00:18:14,900 --> 00:18:17,400
Were the major mistakes that
you've made while fundraising?
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00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:21,300
So you know, if you could
teleport back in time three
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00:18:21,300 --> 00:18:24,400
years ago and start fundraising
all over again.
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00:18:24,500 --> 00:18:30,100
What would you do differently?
So that's a very hard question
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00:18:30,100 --> 00:18:34,500
because the way I think about it
is I don't have regrets for the
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00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:38,600
best because I am in the present
because of what I've done in the
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00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,500
past so I could tell you maybe I
wouldn't have dot not done the
300
00:18:42,500 --> 00:18:46,600
first fundraising but actually
I'm glad that we did it because
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00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:51,000
that's we got access to two
people and two teams that we did
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00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,700
not have access before and that
helped us figure out the our
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00:18:54,700 --> 00:18:59,000
pivot.
So, So, fundraising wise, I
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00:18:59,700 --> 00:19:05,400
don't see something that I
consider to be something bad
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00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:10,100
that we've done.
And I would say that this thing,
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00:19:10,100 --> 00:19:14,000
I would advise people to do when
they defend raising is, make
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00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:19,700
sure you understand the The
motivation of the people
308
00:19:19,700 --> 00:19:25,100
investing because you're
basically getting married with
309
00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:29,500
investors until the exit of your
company and you want to make
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00:19:29,500 --> 00:19:35,100
sure that they are very much on
board with your vision, with
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00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:41,900
your team and that that has a
lot of that will have a lot of
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00:19:41,900 --> 00:19:47,300
impact on the, on the, the
success of your company Kikyo.
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00:19:47,700 --> 00:19:51,000
Pick your investors wisely.
Absolutely 100%.
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00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,400
That is true.
Speaking of picking the
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00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,100
investors wisely any
recommendations on that, because
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00:19:56,100 --> 00:20:00,000
I mean families have to speak to
literally hundreds of investors
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00:20:00,500 --> 00:20:02,900
and they also have to build a
company.
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00:20:02,900 --> 00:20:06,000
Meanwhile.
So how can they make sure that
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00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,700
they understand what actually
motivates the investor?
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00:20:08,700 --> 00:20:11,800
I mean you're not going to ask a
question like hey investor what
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00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,700
motivates you in terms of you
know why G Investment Company
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00:20:14,700 --> 00:20:17,300
and expect like 100% honors
honest answer there.
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00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:19,900
Any advice on understanding
investor better.
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00:20:19,900 --> 00:20:25,700
Any advice on game?
The driving forces behind the
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00:20:25,700 --> 00:20:29,900
investors decisions better?
Yeah, I mean I can't give you my
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00:20:29,900 --> 00:20:31,600
perspective with my Corners.
Yeah.
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00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:35,300
It's both axial and and
Benchmark.
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00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:42,700
So when we when we raise end of
2020, we basically we will not,
329
00:20:42,900 --> 00:20:46,300
we did not really need Capital
at that time because we had
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00:20:46,300 --> 00:20:51,200
raised a small seed Earlier in
the year and what we are looking
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00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:59,800
for is who are the investors
that we want to have for either
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00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:03,500
Series be as absurd as a
receives a or like to continue
333
00:21:03,500 --> 00:21:10,900
our C and you can very quickly.
So, first of all, you want to
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00:21:10,900 --> 00:21:16,300
find an investor that
understands the like first was
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00:21:16,300 --> 00:21:19,700
that understood open too?
Us and help how open source can
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00:21:19,700 --> 00:21:23,200
be a successful business.
So like if the first question
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00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:26,500
you get from an Investor's that
and you're talking to them about
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00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,300
open source and your at the
situation, the first thing they
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00:21:29,300 --> 00:21:31,700
ask you is like okay how do you
commercialize?
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00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,000
Yeah this is not right, this is
not the right signal because
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00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:41,000
building some commercialization
around open source text time and
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00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:42,800
you want to make sure that
you're working with people at
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00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,800
that patient, that will give you
the right advice that I've done
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00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:47,900
it.
Also in the past, So that
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00:21:47,900 --> 00:21:52,900
allowed us to basically narrow
down our selection.
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00:21:53,500 --> 00:21:56,300
And then, what made the
difference, for example, when we
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00:21:56,300 --> 00:22:02,700
when we went with, with a meat
ax L was, how much can they push
348
00:22:02,700 --> 00:22:06,600
your thinking around your
company and your product and
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00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:11,900
your strategy?
And, you know, I remember it was
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00:22:12,100 --> 00:22:14,600
a Friday just going on the
weekend.
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00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:18,400
We received a large document and
it was a Walking document with
352
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,600
Emmet and we're discussing about
all the completion.
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00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,400
Like what what's making us
different as cetera?
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00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:33,800
And I think the way it was like
helping us Like be more precise
355
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,900
with how our strategy was a
very, very strong signal,
356
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,400
because this is what you want
from the people you bring on
357
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,800
board, you want people that
elevates you, and that is make
358
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,200
that help, you be better.
And that also understand what
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00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,300
open source and open source
medication in.
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00:22:51,300 --> 00:22:56,500
So, that's how we went for, for
example, not for Benchmark.
361
00:22:56,500 --> 00:23:01,200
It was a very similar process.
We we met with Shit them.
362
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:05,600
And the kids are Phantom a few
times over Zoom.
363
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:12,100
We had like maybe five or six
walking session but it was very
364
00:23:12,100 --> 00:23:15,000
interesting not only to learn
from the experience working with
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00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,300
open.
So I mean they've been that
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00:23:16,900 --> 00:23:22,100
mongodb elasticsearch like very
successful open source company.
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00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,600
And so they've seen some pattern
and seeing how this pattern
368
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:28,600
could apply to us and how they
were pushing.
369
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:35,400
The reasoning was But also, what
basically convinced us to a to
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00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,700
start working with them as well.
Hmm, right.
371
00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:42,300
Yeah, that is good advice and on
this good advice, let's move on
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00:23:42,300 --> 00:23:45,700
to the very last question of
today's episode, which is a call
373
00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:47,500
to action.
So hopefully some some more
374
00:23:47,500 --> 00:23:50,900
advice on this question.
So Michelle, would you want to
375
00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:53,400
listen to do?
As soon as the episode is over,
376
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:57,200
like right, this moment.
Go on our website.
377
00:23:57,300 --> 00:23:58,600
I mean, use their bike.
No, no.
378
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,200
Honestly, if you want to have
more detail about how we need
379
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,600
fundraising with published
everything, we've done the wrong
380
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:07,800
thing.
Raising outsides are available
381
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,100
what we're saying.
During the during our meetings
382
00:24:12,100 --> 00:24:15,900
with investors, it's a is
completely open and you can find
383
00:24:15,900 --> 00:24:18,000
them on air by dot io on our
block.
384
00:24:18,100 --> 00:24:21,100
So that's I think that could be
a very good resource for for
385
00:24:21,100 --> 00:24:24,500
entrepreneurs who to look at.
I'm present.
386
00:24:24,500 --> 00:24:27,600
That is actually great.
Send, I think a lot of Founders
387
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,100
would love to see it.
Even better document.
388
00:24:30,100 --> 00:24:33,400
I hope I did some, you know,
overview of the fundraising
389
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,500
process stay in this episode but
if people you want to check it
390
00:24:36,500 --> 00:24:39,800
out in depth, definitely take a
look at the links that will
391
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,500
leave in the description of this
episode.
392
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,800
There is going to be linked to
Michelle's LinkedIn.
393
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,700
There's also force can be linked
to air bites website and also
394
00:24:49,700 --> 00:24:54,600
specifically to the portion of
the blog bounce their
395
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,800
fundraising process.
So, That sounds.
396
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,400
I should pray, exciting.
Probably going to go check it
397
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,800
out myself right now and we're
recruiting.
398
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,400
So oh, nice.
And it would exist is arguing
399
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,300
for.
So we're getting for head of
400
00:25:09,900 --> 00:25:12,500
Dimension.
We're recruiting for PMS
401
00:25:12,500 --> 00:25:16,400
engineering.
So across the across the ball,
402
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,600
we are about to launch our
commercial offer for a ride.
403
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,200
So from the nice, that is the
organization.
404
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:25,000
Great.
That's great.
405
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,600
Al Chicken with Michelle, after
the episode, to make sure that I
406
00:25:29,608 --> 00:25:32,000
include all the necessary links
in the description.
407
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,500
So go check it out.
That's my call to action, as
408
00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:36,700
usually check out descriptions
episode.
409
00:25:36,700 --> 00:25:39,500
And also, as usually have a good
day,
00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:07,800
They're releasing to fundraising
video a podcast about
2
00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:11,400
fundraising for early-stage
startups, the major rule that we
3
00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,600
follow here is no bullshit on
this podcast.
4
00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:17,800
No music to relax, you know,
advertisements of our sponsors.
5
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,100
We only talk about fundraising
here and nothing else.
6
00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:25,300
So let's jump into the episode.
And today's guest speaker, we
7
00:00:25,300 --> 00:00:29,200
have Michelle to record
co-founder and CEO at are B.
8
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,500
And in this episode we'll talk
about how they raised over
9
00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:36,200
thirty 1 million dollars up to
date and how much Michelle's
10
00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,400
background in data space and
specifically over 15 years and
11
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,600
data space.
Help him raise the rounds for
12
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:44,800
are B.
So Michelle, let's kick it off
13
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,300
by you, giving us some
background on yourself and on
14
00:00:47,300 --> 00:00:49,700
are bite.
Of course, thank you,
15
00:00:49,700 --> 00:00:53,100
Constantine for having me.
So a little bit about myself.
16
00:00:53,100 --> 00:00:55,700
So I've been walking the data
space for the for the past 15
17
00:00:55,700 --> 00:01:00,500
years, different scale,
different type of use cases,
18
00:01:00,500 --> 00:01:03,900
whether it's like financial
data, whether it's customer
19
00:01:03,900 --> 00:01:07,800
related data, are you to data?
And yeah, I've been living data
20
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:13,000
teams over the past few years.
I would say, one, one of the
21
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,700
company where I got the most
Battle Scars about what we're
22
00:01:17,700 --> 00:01:21,200
building today.
A company record live Ram, which
23
00:01:21,300 --> 00:01:23,300
I Journal was a very small
started.
24
00:01:23,300 --> 00:01:27,100
By the time now it's a public
company and over there was
25
00:01:27,100 --> 00:01:32,100
leading a team of 30 30 people
and we basically build maintain
26
00:01:32,100 --> 00:01:35,500
and scale thousands of different
data integration.
27
00:01:35,500 --> 00:01:40,500
And that's basically after Labor
and went for a different company
28
00:01:41,300 --> 00:01:45,600
that a team to solve a similar
problem than 2020.
29
00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:50,800
That's when with my co-founder
we decided It to start our B &
30
00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:56,400
and really tackle, the problem
of getting data to move from
31
00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,400
point A to point B, without
having to think about the
32
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,400
complexity and the technical
complexity that goes with it.
33
00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:05,400
So that's what it says there.
All right.
34
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,800
So in that case, the first
question is actually about the
35
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,800
structure of your company or the
structure of the product itself.
36
00:02:11,900 --> 00:02:15,900
So your structured as an open
source product, which I to be
37
00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:18,500
completely honest, after years
working in the industry, still
38
00:02:18,700 --> 00:02:21,000
Didn't understand how you
monetize that thing.
39
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,500
So let's start with discussing
desk, at least understand what's
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going on here.
So first of all, how do you
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monetize an open source product?
And secondly, how do you
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investor react to?
The fact that is open source or
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to most investors understand how
this works unlike me now, of
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course.
So when you think of
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open-source, I think you can
always make the parallel between
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an open source product,
especially early stage.
47
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And non across first product
where you're going to measure
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very similar metric but maybe
this one's will not be tighter
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on you, but they might be tied
to adoptions in might be tied to
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contribution and basically
engagements of your community to
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really like show that this is a
project and a product that
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people actually need.
And that after that it's a
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matter of fact figuring out
okay.
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Now that I have this huge
reduction in We went from zero
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user to hover 5000 users in a
matter of one year and I think
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that shows a lot about how the
market has been evolving around
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in the product that for Billy.
And in general this is a metric
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that is so impressive that for
an investor it's easy to make
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the piling.
It's just now matter of like
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figuring out, what is the right
trigger on?
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What I have, the type of
features that you need to
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monetize to make Get a paid
product.
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But for us doing, open source,
was really a matter of getting
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adoption and creating the
standout for the program or
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solving and other option is the
most important is like getting
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production usage from your
principles project from the open
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source.
Community is the most important
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is, and now we're focusing on
the monetization.
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Nice.
That's interesting.
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Let's, let's talk about the
monetization.
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I will literally start out my
purchasing career.
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I'm not going to call that a
career person.
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I started my packaging journey
by interviewing one of the
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co-founders open open source
project and they had about
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30,000 active daily users, which
is an insane number, especially
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at the time of like 2008, when
not, everyone was using internet
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and they feel because they
couldn't monetize their this
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product properly.
How exactly do you plan to
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ensure that you do not repeat
the mistakes of other people who
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have tried to, you know, go from
open source to monetizing the
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open source.
So in general, when we think
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about open source, we think
about you know, when you you're
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looking at acquiring a product
for your organization, you
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always have this thing between
Bill versus by and depending on
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what exists on the market and
what what are your requirements?
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You might go for building.
You may go for by and open
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source is basically here to
replace the build.
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So it means that it's going to
solve very specific you Us cases
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my solar program for a small
team or an individual
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contributor and that has been
our philosophy behind.
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How we BL are B, which is we
want to make sure that
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everything that serves the need
of an individual contributor and
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a small team is open source.
Everything that serves the need
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of an organization, which is
generally.
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Something you would be buying,
then this is not open source and
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this is something you have to
pay for.
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So weather is by building
additional.
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Jurors or like security feature
compliance feature user access
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management.
Feature, it's all about whom.
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Do you want to serve in the
organization?
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Nice.
Those.
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That's true.
Yeah, I hope you figure out
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properly and I will not injure
you years later down the road
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talking about how you fake
mistakes there.
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But let's talk, let's talk about
the major subject of the entire
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podcast, which is fundraising.
And what I saw one we were
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talking with you on the prince
recall is that you've actually
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skipped the precede ground and
started raising directly from
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see grounds.
I forgot the exact number that
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was in the seed round but it was
definitely Seed round.
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How exactly do you manage to
keep the precede ground?
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Even though you have an open
source product, which
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automatically makes fundraising
quite a bit harder than normal
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fundraising?
So I wouldn't say we skip the
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proceed.
We did some proceed with Angel
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investment.
Most young people that we've
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worked with in the past because
building a software like the one
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we're doing requires a lot of
investment because it's solving
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a very messy, very big need and
it requires a lot of
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customizability, a lot of
features to be fully so that
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organization can fully adopted
and so we did ready to proceed.
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And we actually also did y z in
a January 2020.
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So part of that, part of that
initial fundraising, we had like
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the waist here the way I see it,
check That's after that, we
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started to do a seed last like
in I don't know, it was May 29th
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2020, but what you did is really
and that's what we to make sure
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we can build the technological
asset and its really in November
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2010 key that we raised the
largest chunk of the of our
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students and we did it on
several stages.
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At that point Interesting.
So let's let's talk about how he
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reached out to you.
Those especially proceed
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investors.
We mentioned some people that
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you worked in with in the past
how do you reach out to the
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angel?
Investors who you might have not
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known as well as your ex
colleagues.
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How do you reach out to them now
with like product proceed?
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I think you need to have people
who can we know you would trust
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you and we only focus on people
that we work with in the past.
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So I don't think we've had The
problem of like reaching out to
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people that we didn't know.
So for the proceed, what we are
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looking for is also to surround
our set.
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This was not just about the film
that we weren't getting.
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It was also about the like the
fact that the people we want to
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bring in where people that could
also be helpful to us and could
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advise us on like the product,
the company, the problem space.
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So it was both fundraising but
it was also about bringing in
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Advisors for us.
Hmm, as precedes always should
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be.
That's, that's right.
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Way to do this.
I would imagine that for the
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follow-up rounds.
You couldn't just raise from
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your, you know, Inner Circle,
the people who knew very well
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because I was just too much
money and very few people can
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afford to do this stuff so I
would imagine that you did reach
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out to quite a few outside
investors.
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How do you approach that?
Do you reach out to a very
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specific experts in the field?
Did you reach out to maybe
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people who work with data?
But not not not necessarily
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investors and just you know, try
to convince them to actually
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invest or how do you approach
that you mean father proceed for
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the seed and Fallout for the
city?
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Yeah.
So I'm just going to focus on
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the one we had in a November.
I think we, we had a very like
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the industry of data had a lot
of very strong exit during 2020.
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You had you had segment, you had
snowflake, you had, and you had
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a few others like that.
And I think it has awakened how
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people are looking at data and
the pieces that were unsolved in
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the data integration.
Because the typical example, you
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had snowflake is a is a super
Efficient, great data warehouse.
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But ultimately if you cannot
bring data to it, then that that
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becomes an issue.
You cannot favorite the way you
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want.
And we had some contact with
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investor that we've created over
the past the past month.
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And when they saw the soft
launch of the products, they
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started reaching out to us.
And we've received 50 60, 70
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emails from investor and that's
probably also why Having worked
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in the dairy industry, having
the experience of build like a
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serving that kind of foreign can
help because investors are
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looking to de-risk, also the
investment.
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So, if they see someone who's
been doing it in the past, and
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have been successful as a doing
it, that obviously, make your
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story a little bit less risky.
And we, what we did is we
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actually asked all of them to to
talk to us a few months down the
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line.
And what we did is we basically
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schedule all this call over the
course of two weeks.
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And then we started like we
continue to focus on the product
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until that week of these two
weeks of tenderizing arrived,
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but it was really about grouping
everything to make sure that one
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we keep our focus on building
the product because building the
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products probably, one of the
most important thing you need to
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do but also to make sure Sure,
that we have the full picture
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and the full context and we're
very, very focused on this
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fundraising.
I cannot agree with you on
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building the product and it
being the most important part of
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it, but that, that might be the
case in deep Tech or at least
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closer in deep Tech than, in
other fields.
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But yeah, you mentioned, why
commentary?
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So let's talk about that on our
print recall.
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You mentioned that you've
actually slightly changed.
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The idea behind are B after you
raise the seed round, which
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erased during way, see ya.
Just attack your series a did
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Investors were investors
concerns.
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Do you have enough?
Do you get enough Milestones?
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After you've changed the idea to
new idea, or was it more like,
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you know, kind of seed approach?
Yeah.
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So and that's why we're
basically grouping the early.
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See that we've done in 2020 with
the one.
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We've we've done end of 2020, so
sorry beginning of 2021, but
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When we came into YC, John and I
had a very good understanding of
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the problem space that we wanted
to address.
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And when we were at YC, we
started to build a product.
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And we're getting some very good
traction on the product, and we
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started to get pulled from from
investors while we were at YC.
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And what happened on May 8th,
March, 15 is that covid, hit us.
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Close down.
And at that point it was fire
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heavy.
When like whether it's on like
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portfolio company of disease or
whether it's on the marketing
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team who were building a tool
for marketing teams and we
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managed to a to fundraise with
the, with the early signals,
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we're getting on this issue of
product.
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But what covid showed us that
that one is the product.
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We are building was more of a
good to have more than something
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that people actually need and we
were getting Harder and harder
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time, like closing deals.
And at, that point, what we did
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is we John and I just sat down
and said, okay, this product is
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not going to be is not going to
make ourselves is not going to
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make the the company successful.
And you want to make sure that
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when you have that kind of
signal you do the best for what,
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for what for your investors, and
what we did is we reached out to
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them and tell them, you know,
the project that you invested in
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is not going to maybe we don't
believe it's going to be a
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00:14:31,700 --> 00:14:34,700
successful product and we're
going to give up and at that
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point it becomes.
A matter of fact I have you
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00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:39,800
picked the right investors
because investors especially at
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the silver level, they are
investing on your team.
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They are investing in the files
and at that point, I said, okay,
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fine, that's that's okay.
We invested in the gym, like in
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the process, you have to
validate or invalidate ideas the
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way you, your ability to You to
recruit and surround yourself
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under for with the right people.
And in the end, what they want
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is just to make sure that things
move forward.
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If we were just going in the
direction of building in the
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wrong product, the not going to,
I'm just going to do good
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either.
So that's why it's not that was
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not the issue and yeah and the
Futures program to be to be
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correct in the injury we made
the decision to Pivot with like
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the dying.
From our investors, we we we
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work for 33 months on releasing
an MVP.
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And after that, we finished the
house around.
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Nice and yeah, I mean, most
investors are very cool that
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00:15:44,100 --> 00:15:46,100
work if you choose investors
right?
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If you're very transparent about
the pivot, a lot of them are
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actually happy about it and even
more excited about the new idea
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that you're working on.
So yeah, Founders.
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As long as you don't just, you
know, hide out and ignore your
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investors, you can Just fine.
So yeah, happy to hear Michelle,
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that it went well.
So let's talk about the thing.
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That was prompting in the
beginning of the episode, but
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have not even touched on to that
quite yet.
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You've been working in the data
space for over 15 years.
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Did that actually help you fund
raise?
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00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,800
Was that a big?
You know, like in a huge trip
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did you put it on your slide
deck somewhere?
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Or do you just, you know, in the
first 30 seconds of the pitch,
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did you?
You scream out, I worked 15
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00:16:31,500 --> 00:16:34,700
years in data industry.
Or did you just you know barely
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touched on it and it didn't have
much effect on the fundraising?
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No, it hasn't.
It is important.
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And now I know that not
everybody has had like 15 years
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in data and someone else
straight out of college studying
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could accompany but definitely,
you know, Yeah, that started I
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said, stop studying a company's
how so everything you can do to
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make it successful, whether it's
by having successful,
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fundraising like, or like hiring
the right people, you need to do
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it.
So if by really talking about my
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experience and my founder, my
co-founder experience like if
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that can help the story of a
bite, you have to say it's
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because it will give you
potentially better terms on
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fundraising you.
Have access to.
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Those are type of investors,
etc, etc.
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So everything that is in your
favor, you should use it during
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fundraising because that will
give you a hedge.
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Compared to a certain enzyme
might be like one of those often
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trying to do their product.
But if investors you one of the
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teams and one single, tell them
how these two Founders have 15
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years of experience behind them.
Wrong eyes are building
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companies are building data
product.
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Maybe that's a better investment
than someone who never done it.
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100% that definitely helps.
I just wanted to hear from you,
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just as a confirmation.
So let's let's talk about one
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actually, they're right.
Maybe two last questions in the
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episodes.
One of which is one of my
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00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,900
favorite which is what do you
think?
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Were the major mistakes that
you've made while fundraising?
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So you know, if you could
teleport back in time three
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years ago and start fundraising
all over again.
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What would you do differently?
So that's a very hard question
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because the way I think about it
is I don't have regrets for the
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best because I am in the present
because of what I've done in the
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past so I could tell you maybe I
wouldn't have dot not done the
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first fundraising but actually
I'm glad that we did it because
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that's we got access to two
people and two teams that we did
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not have access before and that
helped us figure out the our
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pivot.
So, So, fundraising wise, I
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don't see something that I
consider to be something bad
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that we've done.
And I would say that this thing,
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I would advise people to do when
they defend raising is, make
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sure you understand the The
motivation of the people
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investing because you're
basically getting married with
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00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:29,500
investors until the exit of your
company and you want to make
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sure that they are very much on
board with your vision, with
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your team and that that has a
lot of that will have a lot of
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impact on the, on the, the
success of your company Kikyo.
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Pick your investors wisely.
Absolutely 100%.
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That is true.
Speaking of picking the
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investors wisely any
recommendations on that, because
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I mean families have to speak to
literally hundreds of investors
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and they also have to build a
company.
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Meanwhile.
So how can they make sure that
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they understand what actually
motivates the investor?
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I mean you're not going to ask a
question like hey investor what
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motivates you in terms of you
know why G Investment Company
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and expect like 100% honors
honest answer there.
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Any advice on understanding
investor better.
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Any advice on game?
The driving forces behind the
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00:20:25,700 --> 00:20:29,900
investors decisions better?
Yeah, I mean I can't give you my
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perspective with my Corners.
Yeah.
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It's both axial and and
Benchmark.
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So when we when we raise end of
2020, we basically we will not,
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we did not really need Capital
at that time because we had
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raised a small seed Earlier in
the year and what we are looking
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for is who are the investors
that we want to have for either
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Series be as absurd as a
receives a or like to continue
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00:21:03,500 --> 00:21:10,900
our C and you can very quickly.
So, first of all, you want to
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find an investor that
understands the like first was
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that understood open too?
Us and help how open source can
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be a successful business.
So like if the first question
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you get from an Investor's that
and you're talking to them about
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00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,300
open source and your at the
situation, the first thing they
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ask you is like okay how do you
commercialize?
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Yeah this is not right, this is
not the right signal because
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building some commercialization
around open source text time and
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you want to make sure that
you're working with people at
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that patient, that will give you
the right advice that I've done
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it.
Also in the past, So that
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allowed us to basically narrow
down our selection.
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And then, what made the
difference, for example, when we
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when we went with, with a meat
ax L was, how much can they push
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your thinking around your
company and your product and
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your strategy?
And, you know, I remember it was
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a Friday just going on the
weekend.
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We received a large document and
it was a Walking document with
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00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,600
Emmet and we're discussing about
all the completion.
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Like what what's making us
different as cetera?
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And I think the way it was like
helping us Like be more precise
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with how our strategy was a
very, very strong signal,
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because this is what you want
from the people you bring on
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00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,800
board, you want people that
elevates you, and that is make
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00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,200
that help, you be better.
And that also understand what
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open source and open source
medication in.
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So, that's how we went for, for
example, not for Benchmark.
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00:22:56,500 --> 00:23:01,200
It was a very similar process.
We we met with Shit them.
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00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:05,600
And the kids are Phantom a few
times over Zoom.
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We had like maybe five or six
walking session but it was very
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00:23:12,100 --> 00:23:15,000
interesting not only to learn
from the experience working with
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00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,300
open.
So I mean they've been that
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00:23:16,900 --> 00:23:22,100
mongodb elasticsearch like very
successful open source company.
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00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,600
And so they've seen some pattern
and seeing how this pattern
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00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:28,600
could apply to us and how they
were pushing.
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00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:35,400
The reasoning was But also, what
basically convinced us to a to
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00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,700
start working with them as well.
Hmm, right.
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00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:42,300
Yeah, that is good advice and on
this good advice, let's move on
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00:23:42,300 --> 00:23:45,700
to the very last question of
today's episode, which is a call
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00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:47,500
to action.
So hopefully some some more
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00:23:47,500 --> 00:23:50,900
advice on this question.
So Michelle, would you want to
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00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:53,400
listen to do?
As soon as the episode is over,
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00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:57,200
like right, this moment.
Go on our website.
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00:23:57,300 --> 00:23:58,600
I mean, use their bike.
No, no.
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00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,200
Honestly, if you want to have
more detail about how we need
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00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,600
fundraising with published
everything, we've done the wrong
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00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:07,800
thing.
Raising outsides are available
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00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,100
what we're saying.
During the during our meetings
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00:24:12,100 --> 00:24:15,900
with investors, it's a is
completely open and you can find
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00:24:15,900 --> 00:24:18,000
them on air by dot io on our
block.
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00:24:18,100 --> 00:24:21,100
So that's I think that could be
a very good resource for for
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00:24:21,100 --> 00:24:24,500
entrepreneurs who to look at.
I'm present.
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00:24:24,500 --> 00:24:27,600
That is actually great.
Send, I think a lot of Founders
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00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,100
would love to see it.
Even better document.
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00:24:30,100 --> 00:24:33,400
I hope I did some, you know,
overview of the fundraising
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00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,500
process stay in this episode but
if people you want to check it
390
00:24:36,500 --> 00:24:39,800
out in depth, definitely take a
look at the links that will
391
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,500
leave in the description of this
episode.
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00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,800
There is going to be linked to
Michelle's LinkedIn.
393
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,700
There's also force can be linked
to air bites website and also
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00:24:49,700 --> 00:24:54,600
specifically to the portion of
the blog bounce their
395
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,800
fundraising process.
So, That sounds.
396
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,400
I should pray, exciting.
Probably going to go check it
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00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,800
out myself right now and we're
recruiting.
398
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,400
So oh, nice.
And it would exist is arguing
399
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,300
for.
So we're getting for head of
400
00:25:09,900 --> 00:25:12,500
Dimension.
We're recruiting for PMS
401
00:25:12,500 --> 00:25:16,400
engineering.
So across the across the ball,
402
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:19,600
we are about to launch our
commercial offer for a ride.
403
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,200
So from the nice, that is the
organization.
404
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:25,000
Great.
That's great.
405
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,600
Al Chicken with Michelle, after
the episode, to make sure that I
406
00:25:29,608 --> 00:25:32,000
include all the necessary links
in the description.
407
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,500
So go check it out.
That's my call to action, as
408
00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:36,700
usually check out descriptions
episode.
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00:25:36,700 --> 00:25:39,500
And also, as usually have a good
day,
