How is the interview with the most famous accelerator 500 Startups. Our experience

    Workly - 500 Startups

    Recently, information appeared on the network that the company should have a minimum of $ 1 million (I attach a photo). However, you need to look at the document. It says that the company "even involved companies with a million turnover in acceleration."


    A little bit about the accelerator. Headquarters The apartment is located in San Francisco, and annually produced about a hundred startups. Basic rules for participation:
    1. You must have at least 2 people in a team;
    2. You must have at least developed a prototype IT product;
    3. You must know your market.

    A little bit about our product. Workly is an innovative time tracking system. Workly - allows you to control the visit of employees and know with accuracy which employee arrived at what time and for what time. Our market is a small and medium-sized business, with up to 1000 employees. A multilocation business is like a chain of shops, coffee houses, restaurants and hotels. Manufactured business is factories, factories, etc. The Workly system will save huge amounts of money on working time and identify the most disciplined employees. The system also considers the salaries of employees in accordance with the number of hours that he (a) worked (a).

    What was the application process and our interview.



    Initially, it was necessary to fill out a long form on the site, then upload the video about the company to Youtube. David came to us with feedback. And planning a day, we contacted him on Skype.

    His questions and our answers:

    - What is the company’s market?
    - It is obvious that at the local level the market cannot be compared with the American or European markets. However, the development in the post-Soviet region is noticeably noticeable every year. There is a market, and moreover, it is ready for our product. In the international arena, the market has long been ripe for such projects.

    - Who are the main competitors of your startup?
    - It all depends on the market of the country in which we operate. We can say with accuracy that in the CIS we have no competitors. There are many companies involved in access control systems, access control systems and video surveillance. But in terms of time tracking, we are the first company. Especially in the market for mobile time tracking. In developed countries there are many such companies. The brightest of them can be distinguished WhenIWork.

    - What are the advantages of your company product?
    - There are enough advantages. However, our main advantages remain the affordable cost of goods, mobility and, of course, cloud cover, which allows you to have access to all features of the product and company information from anywhere in the world.

    - Why did you choose 500 startups ?
    - It is obvious. We know that you primarily invest in international companies. This is a clear advantage of your company over all analogues, since this approach is not available in other venture funds. It is in our interests to contact a company that wants to stimulate companies in emerging markets for those who do not have a developed eco-system like in Silicon Valley.

    - What is the income of your company?
    - The income of our startup for the previous year amounted to about xxx xxx US dollars per year.

    - At the expense of your product, do you have a garter of events for geolocation?
    With geolocation, we started working with our first project - Maxtrack GPS vehicle navigation. We are now introducing office geolocation staff in the arrivals and departures of Workly.

    - What is a company's product?
    - The system of accounting of working hours "Workly" is intended for companies of 5 to 1,000 people. If necessary, a technical support service can arrange it for use in larger organizations. Its application is especially convenient in the field of trade, catering, hotel industry, that is, in companies where work goes beyond the scope of using a computer.
    Using the system allows you to reduce workflow, keep records and inventory of assets.

    - You have listed other products of your company. How are they managed?
    - The MyTaxi project has other co-founders and a member of our team, Akmal, acts as a consultant. Maxtrack has already been established by us and it works independently and it was necessary to launch the Workly project, as it is tough with investors and investments. It should be noted that after problems with biometric equipment for which Workly was created, this product was recreated from scratch and now works without the need for expensive hardware.

    - Did you attract funds to the startup from outside investors?
    - The Workly project was created from our own funds. The Maxtrack project allowed us to reinvest sales revenue in the development of Workly's time tracking system.

    So the conversation went on. David thanked us and promised in a short time to unsubscribe about the results. In the end, his answer was: Thank you guys for your time. I like what you do, and it seems very promising. At the moment, I do not think that you are suitable for us, but remind yourself in the future. To this we answered him. It is very important for us to go through acceleration in 500 Startups, so please write the reasons why we were not selected. And the final answer from David: For 500 Startups, to be effective, you need to have a 100 percent focus, and it's good that you have several projects, in your place I would separate the business so as not to be distracted.

    1



     

    2



     

    3



     

    Actually, that was our conversation. They did not take us for the simple reason that we are developing several projects at the same time.

    I hope this article will be useful to those who want to apply for participation. I wish you success!

    Also popular now: