2 ms·

Finding a VC Mentor

1 points by teacherjames 19y ago

teacherjames 19y ago
I'm not sure how many people are in this position, but I have a start-up Web 2.0 company that's completely finished and is already generating enough revenue to cover our operational costs after going live for one month and signing up one company. However, we've used up all our capital to get here and neither of the two founders are on salary. We need an additional $150-$250k for expansion, advertising, and sales staff. But before I go out all gung-ho seeking VC capital (since I have no experience seeking VC Capital), I know that I need a Mentor/Advisor. Most people who get hooked up with Mentors are introduced to them (meaning they have a contact somewhere). But how does someone who just starts a company on their own and concentrates solely on development of the start-up meet these contacts? I know we have something of interest here. We have a finished product with gigantic growth margins targeting the biggest upcoming market (China) in the world. Plus, we're on the web so our overhead costs are minimal. But before I start slapping together an amateur Business Plan to seek VC funding and maybe screw up the one or two pitch opportunities I get, I would like to see if I could find a mentor or advisor first. Any particular sites out there for these types of introductions? Does "cold emailing" work if I just emailed Marc Andressen straight off his blog? Or maybe someone on a lesser scale off of their blog? Thanks in advance for any input. Damon Chang www.teacherjames.com damon@teacherjames.com FYI BACKGROUND: Our project is called Teacher James and we are targeting the Chinese Education Market. We combine several Web 2.0 applications such as Live Private Tutors based in the US teaching Asian students in China/Taiwan via Webcam plus Social Networking apps where students select their own teachers based on "Apple" rankings. Plus we have search engines to target specific teacher qualifications and our teachers post 15 second Video Introduction Profiles so students can immediately see their native accent. Futher, our integrated Classroom Interface allows up to 10 students at a time with whiteboards, screenshares, and automatic recordings that students can download to portable players for reviewing the lesson. No other online company currently has our combination of new Web applications in this $50 billion dollar Asian market where most online companies are stuck selling Educational DVDs online or have strict cirriculum based fees. The closest successful competitor is MegaStudy of out Korean, an online English Tutorial site which sells DVDs of English Teachers, not live tutors. It went public in 3.5 years.
- sharpshoot 19y ago
  Isn't Batiq one of your competitors. www.batiq.com
  - teacherjames 19y ago
    Hi, I took a look at their website. While they are tapping into the East Asian market with mentors from UK and US, they do not specifically target "Teaching English". Instead they aim for lots of different types of mentoring. Also, you have to enroll as a mentor, and on the student side parents pay for the mentorship (I'm thinking similar to a tuition). Our site is immediate registration, searchable teacher database, and no long term commitments or tuitions. You negotiate each lesson directly with your teacher. I would not consider batiq.com as a competitor, but more as a company with similar ideals.
gibsonf1 19y ago
I tried your site: www.teacherjames.com and it took minutes to completely load the first page. Is that normal?
teacherjames 19y ago
No, that is not normal at all. We have been trying to implement GOOGLE Adwords on our site, and had some trouble with it. Maybe that's what is bugging it up. I'm checking on it right now.
jsjenkins168 19y ago
One quick tip: You need to implement server-side thumb nail creation. You are resizing the original images directly in the HTML which is wasting bandwidth and looks bad. Some of those images are friggin huge!
teacherjames 19y ago
Ahhh...yep. I'm definitely doing that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Finding a VC Mentor

1 points by teacherjames 19y ago

I'm not sure how many people are in this position, but I have a start-up Web 2.0 company that's completely finished and is already generating enough revenue to cover our operational costs after going live for one month and signing up one company. However, we've used up all our capital to get here and neither of the two founders are on salary. We need an additional $150-$250k for expansion, advertising, and sales staff. But before I go out all gung-ho seeking VC capital (since I have no experience seeking VC Capital), I know that I need a Mentor/Advisor. Most people who get hooked up with Mentors are introduced to them (meaning they have a contact somewhere). But how does someone who just starts a company on their own and concentrates solely on development of the start-up meet these contacts? I know we have something of interest here. We have a finished product with gigantic growth margins targeting the biggest upcoming market (China) in the world. Plus, we're on the web so our overhead costs are minimal. But before I start slapping together an amateur Business Plan to seek VC funding and maybe screw up the one or two pitch opportunities I get, I would like to see if I could find a mentor or advisor first. Any particular sites out there for these types of introductions? Does "cold emailing" work if I just emailed Marc Andressen straight off his blog? Or maybe someone on a lesser scale off of their blog? Thanks in advance for any input. Damon Chang www.teacherjames.com damon@teacherjames.com FYI BACKGROUND: Our project is called Teacher James and we are targeting the Chinese Education Market. We combine several Web 2.0 applications such as Live Private Tutors based in the US teaching Asian students in China/Taiwan via Webcam plus Social Networking apps where students select their own teachers based on "Apple" rankings. Plus we have search engines to target specific teacher qualifications and our teachers post 15 second Video Introduction Profiles so students can immediately see their native accent. Futher, our integrated Classroom Interface allows up to 10 students at a time with whiteboards, screenshares, and automatic recordings that students can download to portable players for reviewing the lesson. No other online company currently has our combination of new Web applications in this $50 billion dollar Asian market where most online companies are stuck selling Educational DVDs online or have strict cirriculum based fees. The closest successful competitor is MegaStudy of out Korean, an online English Tutorial site which sells DVDs of English Teachers, not live tutors. It went public in 3.5 years.

sharpshoot 19y ago
Isn't Batiq one of your competitors. www.batiq.com
- teacherjames 19y ago
  Hi, I took a look at their website. While they are tapping into the East Asian market with mentors from UK and US, they do not specifically target "Teaching English". Instead they aim for lots of different types of mentoring. Also, you have to enroll as a mentor, and on the student side parents pay for the mentorship (I'm thinking similar to a tuition). Our site is immediate registration, searchable teacher database, and no long term commitments or tuitions. You negotiate each lesson directly with your teacher. I would not consider batiq.com as a competitor, but more as a company with similar ideals.

gibsonf1 19y ago

I tried your site: www.teacherjames.com and it took minutes to completely load the first page. Is that normal?

teacherjames 19y ago

No, that is not normal at all. We have been trying to implement GOOGLE Adwords on our site, and had some trouble with it. Maybe that's what is bugging it up. I'm checking on it right now.

jsjenkins168 19y ago

One quick tip: You need to implement server-side thumb nail creation. You are resizing the original images directly in the HTML which is wasting bandwidth and looks bad. Some of those images are friggin huge!

teacherjames 19y ago

Ahhh...yep. I'm definitely doing that. Thanks for the suggestion.