00:08hey guys my name is Aaron I started
00:12their company called udemy just can get
00:15a sense who in the audience knows well
00:17what you do me is okay cool
00:20so most of you guys know is say Mike
00:22special online startups so it's a mic
00:25marketplace for online courses and the
00:28funny thing is like now you'd know you
00:30I know I'm not gonna explain what it is
00:32that much in detail but so in the early
00:34days of you DVD it was very hard for us
00:36to pitch we would always say the
00:38democratized education by doing this
00:39this is like you'll always have a super
00:42cat fancy complicated pitch as you can
00:45get more more more successful your
00:47futures you'll get simpler like it is a
00:49my class or online courses that's kind
00:51of the best definition okay I guess you
00:55hear better all right so I will tell the
01:00story of udemy a little bit so it gives
01:02context I I studied computer science in
01:07Ankara and mathematics and I like I am
01:10my co-founders we were in Turkey around
01:122007 and we decided to start a company
01:16which would be a platform for anybody
01:18who wants to teach you online and the
01:21the real inspiration comes from my
01:23personal background so very quickly just
01:24like 30-second version I was born in a
01:27village school in in southeast part of
01:30so just my primary school was like one
01:33room one teacher who was rotate between
01:35different grades and like not eighty
01:38percent of time so you would have no
01:39teacher so you are supposed to learn by
01:41yourself but to my life like later I was
01:44really good at mathematics but there was
01:45really nowhere to go but later on in my
01:48life looks at my sister was going to
01:50college so much my parents had to buy a
01:51computer for her and I started finding
01:54meth websites forums and IRC channels
01:57where people who are discussing tough
01:58mathematical problems and I start stop
02:01teaching my sometta Mattox and long
02:03story short I end up winning a gold
02:04medal in Turkey's national metal Pia's
02:06and a silver medal and international
02:08peers which was like a big success story
02:11because not because particularly
02:14important but because I was able to do
02:16almost complete my stuff that you might
02:18/ using internet so that was kind of the
02:21early expression so you could use
02:22Internet as your primary learning
02:24destination and it that was actually
02:26creating a play field that didn't exist
02:28before so but later on my lab work so I
02:32always thought about that idea like I
02:33thought that was really internal to me
02:35even in college I hope pretty much
02:37didn't go to any school so I think if
02:40you cause like all the hours I attend
02:41the school we should be like 50 or 60
02:43hours total throughout the four years
02:46like because like intent was good enough
02:48to learn anything you want to learn so
02:50anyway we started the company for the
02:53first time and it was a last year in the
02:56college I start with my co-founder up ty
02:58our first company wasn't have the
03:00education companies of you are I was
03:02really kind of excited about the graphic
03:04programming's and 3d engine so we built
03:06a 3d simulation company in the last year
03:09of the college it just it was fun it was
03:12kind of technically challenging subjects
03:14it was just not like a fun business we
03:17did it for a little while but we
03:19realized like working for the
03:20construction companies for City
03:22simulations wasn't a fun punting to them
03:24so and later on we like had some other
03:26projects and one of them was an
03:28education project and it really kind of
03:30triggered my real passion because I
03:32always as I said I thought like
03:34education could until it could be
03:35people's primary learning place why
03:37don't we build a company around it so
03:39you should we were building a software
03:41which was all going to be a live
03:42education - so we work it may be like
03:47Matthews R&D center field we've built a
03:50software for them we get some money from
03:52them it was like small amount of money
03:54but but later on like there are real the
03:56kind of passion started because we said
03:58okay what if we take all of this
04:00software we built which was like $50,000
04:03per license and we made them completely
04:05frame and gave it to anybody on the
04:07internet who wanted to teach something
04:08so let me actually didn't know the
04:11market we had no idea I have
04:12presentations from my like early days of
04:14the company it's kind of really funny I
04:16could actually show this and we could
04:17make fun of it together but but they're
04:20just very naive idea like why wouldn't
04:22they give it to everybody and more
04:24people could teach it that would be more
04:26video for the world so we start the
04:28company we build a product for years
04:30stuffed with a lot of
04:32advanced features even if before we
04:34launch the product it had a third-party
04:36development environment an API and like
04:38all to have fancy technically hard stuff
04:41but like being launched the product and
04:43two weeks later it was very clear that
04:45that wouldn't work so there were two
04:47main problems one is like the
04:49infrastructure we just it was
04:51still not good enough it was very
04:52expensive and like still it would take
04:54ten minutes for people to like set up
04:55their microphone and cameras to to learn
04:57live second was like Turkey wasn't the
05:01right place to do that
05:02so like by the time you launch it up
05:04getting lives more technical savvy
05:06because to fund the company what I was
05:08doing was I was working at night for
05:10Silicon Valley companies like for like
05:1210 hours at night I would get paid they
05:15would like full time salary then I would
05:16actually distribute that seller to like
05:19five people in the office so during the
05:21day I would work with our normal team to
05:23be able do them in so while doing it we
05:26got like kind of save you but like how
05:28businesses working but what we realized
05:30was short steady mark this year to start
05:32in the place where you're the highest
05:35density of the influence influence of
05:37the users so this is true for Twitter
05:39LinkedIn or like quorum it was true for
05:42you to me to be head - in the place
05:44where most of differential teachers were
05:49located so that'll that do the second
05:50value so we realized Turkey wasn't the
05:52right place to start that company and
05:55the third was like lie was wrong
05:57modality because when you have a network
06:00business usually there's a huge chicken
06:01and egg problem if you don't have any
06:03strike that's why with students come if
06:04you don't only see this why we
06:05distractors come to teach on your site
06:07and libel doing this live was actually
06:10making is significantly like even harder
06:11so that's the reason like there hasn't
06:14been any live education marketplace like
06:16all of the trials have failed including
06:18google help us which is another fail so
06:21realized that wasn't the right model so
06:23we had to shut down the company here I
06:25moved over sick of a lame and we lost
06:29340 like I started I joined a startup
06:32called speed 8 as their one of the first
06:33employees so we got like we learned
06:36about growth and how to acquire users
06:38and kind of a little bit about how
06:40secure oil companies worked and four
06:43years after speed-date likes video
06:45pretty well but I was still passionate
06:47about YouTube so we decided real try
06:50udemy and my co-founder had come to yes
06:54some press quality and we brought a lot
06:56of our old engineers to San Francisco to
06:59Silicon Valley and we started reworking
07:03or like maybe we rebuilt you from ground
07:05up to be an on-demand learning platform
07:08and initially like we were trying to
07:10raise money because if you could raise
07:12my damn you could go full-time on udemy
07:13otherwise you were limited by the visa
07:15stop on in the United States so we like
07:19we built a product again to try to raise
07:21money we got maybe like 60 investors
07:23turning us down so we said okay maybe we
07:27had to rebuild the product so we built
07:28were like launched it we try to raise
07:30money again again a lot of noise noise
07:32noise like some and you just like
07:35imagine that mama so but we did try this
07:38in Turkey shall we shut it down we gave
07:40up ones like three four years passed and
07:43like finally we got the motivation start
07:46again and that's till all this smart
07:48entrepreneurs had already started
07:49building our companies like or investors
07:51who have backed amazing companies they
07:53also like how it is not gonna work right
07:55and there were pretty like smart
07:57criticism the most important criticism
08:00was content would even shall be free
08:02everywhere because the theory goes that
08:05like as you as your as a system becomes
08:08more efficient the cost of a product
08:11comes closer to the cost of product
08:14production and if you are delivering
08:16online content the cost of delivery is
08:19pretty much like zero cost of production
08:20gets close to zero as your scale goes up
08:23so this is very super smart people were
08:26saying content would become free like
08:28nobody would ever pay for digital
08:30content so what anyway that we kind of
08:34we heard there but we've like kept going
08:36I really thought that could be the case
08:38so maybe we were saying maybe we could
08:41become a free education platform and we
08:43could get some advertising revenues but
08:45then the criticism was like learning
08:47will never have that much traffic so
08:50that advertising becomes a viable market
08:52so like the odds were kind of against us
08:55but eventually Village People I we get
08:57some traction early on
08:59it's also like dummy attraction well it
09:01was a real attraction it was just that
09:03we crawled bunch of up of course we have
09:05websites to double new to me so you
09:07didn't look like Assad which has some
09:09courses and we got some like SEO traffic
09:11and like some P Arabic just like fake
09:14some usage but like we had some users
09:17like they knew that that was an original
09:18YouTube content but we made the
09:21experience of taking a course better
09:22than the open course beers websites she
09:24was still a useful for some people so
09:27you can Chile raise money I think we we
09:29got our first angel funding because from
09:32Reebok which is one of the top second
09:34well the angel investors he said like it
09:37was I think our third conversation with
09:39him like each time he enjoyed our
09:41product he liked the fact that we were
09:43really passionate about it but he had
09:45very smart criticism of all about why
09:47this wouldn't work and the final time
09:49she said you know what like just it
09:51I'm just putting 50k this is not gonna
09:54work but like I'm guessing you like make
09:56it make the right pivot and you may be
09:58able to probably find the right model I
10:01mean here just like geophys company said
10:03just a like he liquidated so he had got
10:06a lot of money so it was kind of like a
10:07time and then like once you get your
10:10first thing that season it's usually
10:11very easy to close they're like to run
10:14so we like raised 1 million dollars
10:16pretty quickly once there was one
10:17investor so going from 0 to 1 is like
10:20like very very hard if you're raising
10:22angel investment want to like n is
10:25pretty easy we could talk about the
10:28psychology of why that is later ok so we
10:32got we got the 1 million dollar funding
10:33and we were able to go full time we
10:36start getting some like real traction
10:37some real this case it's like the chairs
10:39always pretty small even like right now
10:42udemy like via Robert like 9 digits like
10:46numbers but still like the traffic is
10:48not like a snapchat traffic try this
10:49it's relatively small but there's some
10:52real use case of people like taking
10:54courses changing their lives finding
10:56jobs like so we have created a new job
10:59which is like teaching or my so they're
11:01really like important values so our
11:04video is pretty high anyway so we raised
11:061 million dollars the first year one
11:08year after that we raised three million
11:10and then one year later it was 12
11:12million dollars and like around the
11:15beginning of last year we raised another
11:1732 million dollars so the total money
11:19raised is 48 million dollars today we
11:22have 4 million students 25% of tomorrow
11:24paying for courses so to the surprise of
11:27most of our investors people are really
11:30indeed paying for content it's like an
11:33hour inside was that like people weren't
11:35paying for motivational content
11:37like like this one right so this is this
11:40is this is like motivational
11:41content this is meant to be freely
11:43available but if you give them like real
11:45tactical advice like our first course
11:47first pace course was called raising
11:49money for startups I could still like
11:51suggested two bites from univis 99 $19
11:54so it was okay this is the pitch
11:56dagestan this is the entry mail this is
11:58like how we closed illegal so it was
12:00real tactical so I can't big inside was
12:02the people were indeed paying for
12:04tactical content and technical content
12:06wasn't fun to produce so you were you
12:09still have a kind of exclusive access to
12:11content that other people weren't just
12:13do it for free so Matt eventually rather
12:16as I said like we have 48 million dollar
12:17funding roughly 15,000 instructors have
12:21courses on the websites some of our
12:23instructors made more than million
12:24dollar like I think our table Easter Egg
12:26is made with five million dollars so far
12:28but there are other instructors who are
12:30making like three four hundred grand per
12:32year and every month we are sending six
12:35thousand checks meaning like six
12:37thousand people are making some income
12:39from YouTube every month and this is one
12:40thing I'm proud of we created a job
12:42which didn't exist before teaching
12:44online like is a kind of freelance job
12:46right now like I think I meet because of
12:50so those are like as I said not the
12:52company is going well but I want to talk
12:53about more like early days and I know a
12:58lot of you guys are gonna pitch your
12:59ideas so I want to kind of give a few
13:01kind of technical advice there so and I
13:04want to focus on like things that I
13:05really countering - mistakes like
13:08mistakes that I'm guessing 70 percent of
13:10the audience is like doing today so
13:13first of all like wanting us to realize
13:15most of the successful company is like
13:17when they're in the early stage they
13:19weren't the best pictures they weren't
13:21the best fundraisers so being
13:22they would fundraiser and being a good
13:24start up like ponder doesn't necessarily
13:27like equate to the same thing like if
13:29you are a good business for like new
13:32salesperson you are expected to be a
13:33good at pitching but if you are too
13:35engineers people expect you to be like
13:37average at pitching so like don't try to
13:39be perfect about everything and most of
13:42the successful companies like on a
13:43successful because they are amazing
13:45about everything around creating
13:47startups they are usually amazing about
13:49one thing and they're like pretty better
13:51they like suck at a lot of other things
13:53and that doesn't matter because like
13:55eventually you become successful so and
13:57investors especially good investors are
13:59like looking for that they are not
14:00looking for this guy is like a
14:02well-rounded person on like everything
14:05about starting a company that that's not
14:07what they are looking for they are
14:08looking for just like kind of this one
14:11like interesting thing about you that
14:13will make you successful while everybody
14:14else is feeling and all the advice I'm
14:17going to give just to guys like
14:18understand is advice for good investors
14:21so there are a lot of bad investors when
14:24you like pitch them they will like are
14:26strong bad questions they like even
14:28wrote like bad critics yeah like this is
14:31true just like know that like don't not
14:33every feedback you get from investors is
14:36it a true even it's the best investors
14:38endure like it's still there's a good
14:40future says it's not very true so you
14:42should realize like like I'm really
14:45focusing you're like the best investor
14:46who kind of ego pick the right thing so
14:48first of all what investors are looking
14:52for is not that you are very likely to
14:54be successful it's not what they're
14:55looking for what they're looking for is
14:57most likely you will not be successful
15:00but if you become successful that's
15:03gonna be a massive company that's what
15:05they are looking for this is
15:06counterintuitive but like don't try to
15:08like close all the holes like if you
15:11were pitching you Burt I could bring out
15:13a fifty reasons why it would fail but
15:17that's not like what the rest is Kerry
15:19versus Cara but like okay if somehow you
15:22close all these like 50 holes could you
15:24come in like like ten billion dollar
15:26company and it were is that right like
15:29the most people thought this was a
15:31TV message thought it was probably a
15:34but if not it would be a lie
15:36Multi multi billion dollar idea this is
15:37what vistas are looking and what they
15:39want to see is an opportunity so I think
15:42the traditional pitch advice is like
15:45start with the right problem like right
15:47solution like they're kind of like
15:48structurally correct but what do you
15:50want the investor to see is there like
15:52this there's an approach into here like
15:54they will make money because now they
15:57saw something that other people probably
15:58will not see so I can approach it is
16:01really interesting because most of the
16:03like boring startup pitches like still
16:05have a pretty solid problem that they're
16:07trying to solve they have a relatively
16:10like reasonable solution idea it's just
16:13not interesting so the opportunity is
16:15something like this like some like maybe
16:17this thing wasn't possible before and
16:19like because of the recent rise in
16:22technology it's all of a sudden it
16:24became possible or maybe like there is
16:27something that most people are not
16:28seeing so when I was pitching for
16:30example my big kind of edge was like I
16:33was saying the problem with education is
16:34an excess problems so the quality
16:36problem everybody was focusing on
16:37creating this super adaptee like fancy
16:40awesome learning environments which are
16:42super hard to build so they were only
16:44targeting a very small audience I was
16:46saying you know what like major to the
16:48people in the world don't have access to
16:50pretty much anything for learning so
16:52let's just like make it scalable my miss
16:54overview so we could distribute a lot of
16:56different courses relatively easily
16:58today right to the right audience so we
17:00never like we did not over care about
17:02the the platform to teach we care about
17:04like okay making this a sustainable
17:06thing around the world and I'm like I'm
17:08my person said was coming from like
17:10Turkey like seeing like a different part
17:14of the coin that investors worth nothing
17:15because 100 percent of the investors is
17:18sick and where they are coming from
17:18elite universities they're coming from
17:20usual value backgrounds so I was able to
17:22say like you guys not like you under
17:24seeing only that point of a person's in
17:26the world like I saw the other 99
17:29percent so like another thing could be
17:32like maybe this was possible on weapon
17:35but now like if you move to mobile
17:36there's an interesting thing maybe you
17:38have this like super unique insight that
17:40other people are ignoring maybe this is
17:42a really boring business and you could
17:44even say like like this an amazing
17:46business which is so boring that noise
17:48entrepreneurs tackling it and I'm not
17:51gonna just like take the hard world
17:52tackle them and become successful you
17:54know what like this piece really works
17:55out by the way like amazing page like
17:57strive the payments company like nobody
17:59was tackling the boring payment problem
18:01and I just saw a company like yes like
18:04sorry three days ago
18:07they are like putting teachers who are
18:11not working like substitute teachers
18:12they've made a platform to better places
18:15substitute teachers when there is a
18:17theorem so if it teacher has to go for
18:19like a ten-day vacation they need to
18:22find a substitute teacher there are a
18:23lot of substitute teachers like the beta
18:25platform which makes that process more
18:27efficient they are making like hundred
18:29million revenue right now from like
18:31three years from zero to hundred million
18:33like it's so boring like I have never
18:36heard about anybody whose techniques and
18:38even remotely close to this thing these
18:40guys are tackling it they put all the
18:42like two year of work to do this like
18:44they go back to the boring sales process
18:46and they become successful so this is
18:48thing like the message I want to see
18:49something that's kind of kind of
18:51different about the situation so it's
18:53like a gold there's a gold mine that
18:54most people are missing that's what they
18:56want to feel and they want to feel like
18:58if they miss your product company like
19:00used to become successful and they will
19:02just miss it and that's what they want
19:04together so what they don't want to get
19:06is like if I put money they became a
19:09these opposed on what they want to get
19:11like and this is what most investors are
19:13looking for saying oh we are not very
19:15successful yet because you don't have
19:17any - if he wasn't money like you may
19:19become successful that's not what we are
19:20they are trying to try here so again
19:24like few more or kind of very obvious
19:26what about like business models usually
19:30they don't matter that much the only
19:32time when it matters is if your business
19:35needs a profitable paid technician for
19:37growing then business models like are
19:39important and one mistake that most
19:41people are doing is like having five
19:43different business models like seeing
19:45I'm gonna like if it's udemy like we are
19:48gonna sell paid courses we are also
19:49gonna do advertising and we are going to
19:51do some lead generation and we will have
19:53it like a premium company product which
19:55we will sell for so that that's usually
19:57like sounds terrible especially on early
19:59days you should have just like one is
20:02like we're gonna sell courses and our
20:04competitors that you probably know like
20:06Coursera Udacity they all wanted to come
20:08up with like super smart intelligent
20:10business models like oh people are gonna
20:13take courses and some of them will be
20:15amazing then we'll be actually helping
20:17companies to hire from people like from
20:20best students and they will give us a
20:22referral fee like like I mean this is
20:26they and they were thinking this was a
20:27super smart business model and even some
20:30investors bought this but it's this
20:32turbo like if your business model takes
20:34like 10 minutes to describe like it's
20:36the turbo business model most business
20:38models are super straight like I give
20:40you something I give you Apple you give
20:41you me money so this is like the basic
20:43most basic one maybe it could be two
20:45stairs maybe like I'm letting somebody
20:47else sell Apple and I'm taking a card
20:48from it but the more complicated is like
20:50the less likely it is going to work and
20:52like ideal there should be a one stupid
20:55business model so don't don't complicate
20:57it just find a lot of creativity in your
20:59main business but not in how you make
21:01money so in other kind of small detail
21:07like relative numbers matter more than
21:09absolute numbers how many users you have
21:11how much traffic you get is like that
21:13not very interesting what's more
21:15interesting is like how much are you
21:17growing week over week so if you are in
21:19a very early like pre-funding stage you
21:21should be going at least 10 percent per
21:23week right yeah otherwise your gross
21:26look way too small to be really
21:28important so things like how much money
21:30are you making per user how much are you
21:32making my how much money are you making
21:34per active user like these kind of
21:36relative numbers are a lot more
21:37interesting because they made they
21:39usually cause kind of smart insights
21:41like one thing we were pitching early
21:43days was yeah we were making $5 per ma
21:46yeah like every time like somebody's
21:48actively maybe make $5 and the same
21:52number if you can look at four Zynga was
21:54like kind of like around three hundred
21:56times less than us and the nice thing
21:59with this kind of relative numbers is
22:01like if you can compare a large company
22:03with a small company and create some
22:05like it's just in size you could say
22:07like what we have is so different that
22:09we are making like 10 times more money
22:11than Google around this particular use
22:14that might be the kind of an unfortunate
22:15instructor the investor wants the same
22:18and other thing you should realize is
22:21like a lot business development deals
22:23contracts those things usually don't
22:25don't work especially when you are small
22:27you should really care about like to
22:29you should spend your time on absolutely
22:32two things while going from idea to
22:34product building your product building
22:36an amazing product and talking to
22:40customers everything else I get to kind
22:42of cut it off like go to this eval like
22:44other stuff reading investments just cut
22:47it off try to like build an amazing
22:48product everything has become you'll
22:50become a waste of time and when you are
22:52raising money than you to raise money
22:54but you turn our fundraising ideal you
22:57finish it and then you just turn it off
22:59and go back to talking to users and
23:01getting products one thing about like
23:03building products is I have been doing
23:06the talking at home it last for years I
23:09think once every year so I had the same
23:11we like code like sure not embarrassed
23:13from your first world lack you'll wash
23:15it too late that's kind of changing a
23:17little bit the expectation for the FERC
23:20from the first product has dramatically
23:21increase in the last few years because a
23:23lot of like even early stage like two
23:25people can place a decent-looking
23:27products and design have been a lot
23:29easier than it was before deploying is
23:31easier and like there is a lot of kind
23:33of focus on minimalism so people learn
23:35that they have to start a very minimal
23:37product which is supposed to work better
23:39so the the bar has gone up like so right
23:42now even if you are early stage
23:43pre-funding they are look people are
23:46looking for a polished product
23:47unfortunately like this is somewhat
23:49unfortunate they're not looking for a
23:50stuffed product with all the features
23:52and like bells and whistles they don't
23:54know are not looking for about but they
23:56are looking for an elegant solution to
23:57the core problem as I said this is just
24:00like just a matter of barrier going up
24:02your competitors are doing good jobs you
24:04have to kind of chat with that another
24:07thing you should specially important for
24:09this audience low competition is small
24:12market doesn't pitch well meaning like a
24:15lot of people say okay US has a huge
24:18market is super competitive but this
24:20like this is a small place there are not
24:23a lot of competitors will actually
24:24become the winner of the
24:26the big fish in this small bucket that
24:29doesn't usually work with people you
24:30still want a large buckets right so
24:33because one thing that you can never you
24:36cannot easily change and which is really
24:37important is the total addressable
24:39market like everything works perfectly
24:42and if you just keep expanding your
24:44product how much can you expand and this
24:46bull market is not market size market
24:48size is in your current business line
24:50how much money can you make total
24:52addressable markets kind of like the
24:54parent of that right for us like that's
24:56education I mean or online education
24:58let's say right because you'll never the
24:59physical but anything in your managed
25:01case you can close to the rest total
25:03addressable market so even if our
25:05general education market wasn't large
25:07enough you could always pivot into
25:08corporate education where there were
25:10there was more a lot more money so just
25:12like in our to losers but at least like
25:14education or higher education was large
25:16enough market if you have a pretty like
25:18tied kind of boundary around what you
25:20could do and that bond is pretty small
25:22there's gonna be a problem and it's
25:24especially important for countries like
25:25Turkey where a lot of the biz like
25:27Marcus businesses have very small market
25:29sizes like total addressable markets so
25:32it usually is not like large enough to
25:35create a business ideal you pick in the
25:37market which is already larger so if you
25:39take a company which is let's say you
25:41take a 100 million dollar company in the
25:43United States and think about okay I'm
25:46gonna do this something like this in
25:48Turkey that's where all we're gonna be a
25:50too small market you have to like even
25:53if you are gonna be a company which is
25:55comparable to him Silicon Valley company
25:57pick one that's at least like worth a
26:00I think more than that's going like even
26:02you dim it in Turkish will be too small
26:03like because even for you to me are like
26:06number one problem we had a board
26:07meeting three days ago still the number
26:09of problem is like how largest
26:11casual education markets like meeting is
26:13maybe like five six billion dollars
26:15c-section not that big if this is 100
26:18billion dollar I would be worried but
26:19there's still something I like I'm
26:21worried about so if you do like it in
26:23Turkey it's just way too small
26:26yeah I think these are some of the most
26:28kind of common mistakes I see that I had
26:29more knows but let's switch to the true
26:32name world I think there was gonna be
26:34more interesting conversation
26:46hi I'm Val thank you for the
26:48presentation in the beginning of your
26:51speech you were talking about your very
26:52early stage when you had no real
26:54traction and my question is how did you
26:57get an investor who believed in you to
26:59take a risk in that very early stage and
27:01then the challenge of or the easiness of
27:04raising the first million after that
27:10what investors want to see like its
27:13progress because for them the progress
27:15is the best indicator like the you put
27:18the progress before fundraising is the
27:20best indicator of the potential progress
27:22of the fundraising right so they were
27:25simply thing whatever you are able to do
27:28right now if I like you if you raise
27:30$300,000 maybe you can do like two times
27:33more than this like but but as I said
27:35like the pre-funding progress is the
27:37most important and the the progress step
27:41that you are supposed to have differs by
27:44the market if you're in a market which
27:47is a super high market this one but low
27:49technology is like a like another photo
27:51application right that's kind of most
27:52popular example if you're making another
27:54like a social photo sharing application
27:57the technologies is not very high most
28:00people can do it but the market is
28:02market risk is super high so they will
28:05expect some traction some interesting
28:07numbers otherwise like it's a when you
28:11already can build a product that's not
28:12very interesting but if you're in a
28:14market which is a higher technology risk
28:15then the program like you may not even
28:18me have a live product you may not even
28:19have even users but if you show some
28:22signs of being able to do that that that
28:24might be good enough if you are like
28:27doing a cancer research company then
28:29obviously they're not gonna expect you
28:31to have like five patients cured
28:32completely they are going to expect from
28:34like some signs of interesting research
28:36that would be like more than enough so
28:40in our case like I think like our
28:42dresses didn't think like market
28:43response wasn't was that high they
28:46thought the like biggest was the
28:47morosely surest like this would normally
28:48would pay for just content and other big
28:52was like people would be like spanning
28:55time in this courses like on taking
28:58online courses so even if he didn't tell
29:00a lot of traction we had the
29:01OpenCourseWare courses and we had a lot
29:03of interesting data but like how much
29:04people consume those courses
29:06it wasn't very high but even the fact
29:08that we had data about how people
29:11learned was actually very interesting
29:12that because no other company had
29:15scalable data about learning before so
29:18that that kind of compound was going
29:19like very interesting for them so they
29:21they put money the first investors put
29:23money on that and the second reason the
29:25main reason he put mine is as I said we
29:26talked to them three times in like kind
29:29of three four months intervals and each
29:32time it came back like we were signaling
29:34in the batter and we weren't even
29:36full-time we had a date like we had a
29:39fool like heavy daytime job and we were
29:41working at night but still every two
29:44months he met us like like we had do up
29:46a lot of things where they should solve
29:48some of the problems we have more data
29:50so I think like he was it was primarily
29:52press from the progress we were making
29:55like without money and just one key
29:59thing here is if they if they only look
30:02at your current product they they
30:03probably won't understand how well you
30:05are progressing but if they see like two
30:08months intervals like then they should
30:10see like how much like how much better
30:12you got you said that you needed
30:24students in order to attract teachers
30:26and you needed teachers in order to
30:29attract yes so that's like a big area so
30:33I had a fool I think I have two full
30:36videos on YouTube about I made like one
30:39fool like one hour speech about how to
30:43solve the earn interaction problem at
30:46if you can't like searched on YouTube it
30:47was in a Singapore conference and their
30:51jump bar to articles that kind of
30:52transcribed it I have I have like full
30:55answer there this is too short to a good
31:08I might do it just so you know like we
31:09tried a lot of things which failed you
31:11tried other stuff which works so there
31:13are a lot of things you can try and I
31:15was actually asking this to everybody
31:16everybody so and they all do like other
31:20entrepreneurs get ideas from them you
31:21tested several lost - some of them work
31:24this is kind of quick answer but I
31:26haven't like more detailed kind of
31:28tactics that you can apply for just like
31:34three four things which we worked we
31:37couldn't get any people to create paid
31:39courses so instead we organized events
31:41and each event was like around a
31:44particular subject the first one was
31:46called raising money for startups so and
31:48we gave each speaker a particle subject
31:52they were supposed to talk about and
31:53then we kind of videotaped it sank like
31:55edited those we chose to make a course
31:57this was how what we equated the first
31:59three paid courses then we we started
32:02kind of promoting that course in your
32:03newsletter and we kind of played the
32:05middleman between bunch of nice tethers
32:07that group the daily deal say yeah it's
32:10always forcing so I'm like we kind of
32:13like went back and forth in between them
32:15just kind of both worlds as more
32:16traction but then they were like other
32:18stuff like over the time which which
32:19work just one kind of quick thing you
32:21should realize that for any startup the
32:23growth methodology in the early days and
32:27the growth in like later stages
32:29completely different so if you don't
32:31have your first hundred thousand users
32:32or like something like that
32:34it's gonna be very different thing than
32:36like your late stage growth techniques
32:37so don't try to I focused on like scale
32:40a little big things in the early days
32:41you to figure out like how can I get my
32:44cousin to use your product and this
32:45particular guys use the product hi my
32:51name is gear I think for speech I want
32:54to ask you how and when it's 45 mr11
32:59exactly you made the decision to go to
33:01San Francisco and would you tell us
33:05about the process of moving the company
33:07like did you get an invitation from an
33:09investor or kind of go with an
33:12accelerator or something and also what
33:14are the main differences between
33:20recorded anywhere sir okay so I mean our
33:27like baby had to go to some Roscoe's
33:31pretty straightforward I think I did at
33:33the time we were starting a lot of
33:34people had already graduated in the team
33:36and they were kind of postponing the
33:38military service by Christine like just
33:41getting all these like medical reports
33:43and stuff I'm not sure whether I should
33:47say or not but so they change the law so
33:49all of our team had to go to military
33:51service in like two weeks
33:52so like officer Li we can lost everybody
33:54my co-founder and all of our engineers
33:57and I had like ten days to leave the
33:58country so I kind of I just like took of
34:01life went there but I was already
34:04working it nice for second really campus
34:06it wasn't hard for me to switch our
34:07full-time simply like I I was kind of a
34:12consultant removed to offer for speeded
34:14I became full-time so what do you say
34:18like you like investor sending a
34:20mutation that's kind of that's their
34:22science fiction like like I mean the
34:25first investor that kind of took me
34:27serious after who was like four years
34:29after I moved to second Valley yeah I
34:36mean from like a totally 100 like 6070
34:40like in the first round and actually
34:42toured even later on yeah I mean the
34:50ultimate is the first round is about
34:51like 60 to 70 something like that yeah
34:55so we like just kept teaching gifts I
34:57mean today the easiest way to do this
35:00like investor says no he's you know he's
35:02like an idiot so just like switch to the
35:04next person so that's this way kind of
35:08you like I mean it really like a lot of
35:10things today they say we'd be like
35:12correct like I mean like a lot of things
35:14we were saying was kind of wrong and
35:16they were right about certain criticism
35:18but in reality like they just like
35:20didn't matter like we start doing the
35:22business and like two weeks after we
35:23started getting extra podcast with video
35:26I realize okay like what does investor
35:28was saying was right but we just like
35:29changed it over time so you don't have
35:31to be perfect in the beginning that's
35:32kind of the key thing
35:34you just need to like to kind of be
35:36right enough about the kind of initial
35:38hypothesis that's good enough everything
35:40else like and you will say wrong things
35:42investor will catch them and not invest
35:44in your like so if an investor doesn't
35:47want to invest in you in Europe you can
35:49always make like reasons about like
35:52pretty good arguments about why your
35:54idea won't work and then and if an
35:56investor that does want to invest in you
35:58then they make very good arguments about
36:00like why it will work and these two are
36:03lecture true at the same time there is
36:07one more question here that I kind of
36:08like skip that so you said have I banter
36:10so as I said it was pretty easy there
36:13was a pretty strong motivation and the
36:16second part was differences I mean yeah
36:20I mean differences there's a lot of talk
36:23I didn't maybe the big main differences
36:26there are more successful startups in
36:27Silicon Valley so there's more good
36:29advice so you can talk to people who
36:31have done this before who I mean like
36:32somewhat successful and they will give
36:34you like pretty good advice versus in a
36:36place like this where this successful
36:38startup some more sparse like a lot of
36:41the advice you get you'll be like wrong
36:43so that's the biggest depress and this
36:47like and the other big big difference is
36:49the market is a lot larger in United
36:51States that makes it easier to start a
36:53lot of companies a lot of people think
36:55like they'll figure there's more money
36:56is the big difference that section not
36:58as important as the difference that's
37:00like true but there's also more
37:01competition there are a lot more
37:03startups which are looking like a lot
37:05better than you they know how to pitch
37:07the hello Uncas who are hedge fund
37:09managers so like the figure this more
37:12money doesn't necessarily make it easier
37:13for people like us to go there and to
37:25before talking to investors over there
37:28incorporating is very easy but going
37:31there I'm being full-time on your
37:32product is very hard so like you the
37:36problems are you need a kind of a lot
37:38visa to be able to stay in the United
37:40States so anybody can incorporate
37:42company like but you cannot work in that
37:44company but in that case I guess you'd
37:46have a time limit of six months or
37:48something before you mean in our case we
37:52start work we were working full time as
37:54another company like so for us that six
37:56month was more like three years like or
37:58four years so but I mean just you guys
38:04understand what like if you start a
38:06company United States probably your visa
38:09document won't be very like it won't be
38:13super like correct it will be like
38:16there's games like some tricky knobs so
38:17it's very clear like you cannot study
38:19companies and immigrant in United States
38:22the laws are pretty clear it's just like
38:24people also know that more than half of
38:27the companies is second where they are
38:28started by immigrants so they kind of
38:31ignore certain things and then you kind
38:33of forget some details in your
38:35applications and it kind of goes like
38:36that money like I went to USC is like
38:41like advisory board and the official
38:44advice from them was like sorry guys we
38:48cannot change these policies it's really
38:49hard to change these policies this is
38:51how we work around our current rules
38:53they actually teach taught entrepreneurs
38:56how to like work around the official
39:02so I'm actually ignoring everybody in
39:05the back for the questions okay so like
39:07if you won't take if you should ask you
39:09question you may need to kind of move
39:11forward I have two questions like hi my
39:13name is what one thing would you tell
39:16yourself if you meet yourself at the
39:18beginning of this startup journey yeah
39:20the biggest mistakes people do like
39:23doing was kind of obvious in today's
39:25talk so like we didn't start with a few
39:28customers which were super happy instead
39:31we try to kind of like skill to a lot of
39:33of different things pretty early on it
39:37wasn't the right way to start like we
39:39should just start with like kind of like
39:41a small nation a few very good courses
39:43and make sure those cores are amazing
39:44and I kind of move from there
39:46instead like we kind of to to harder
39:48path which was trying to get like
39:50hundreds of course we should kind of
39:51average an over time like making them
39:53better like it worked out as I said like
39:56you kissed him make me success to be
39:58successful this was one of them like we
39:59were wrong it still worked out but I
40:02would do it very differently and the
40:04other big thing like I says especially
40:07like engineers like don't know the
40:09difference between hard and important
40:11like hard an important number there are
40:14different things like several times we
40:16did this mistake with chose like
40:19something because it was hard to do and
40:21we thought it would be a successful
40:23because it was hard to do I searched
40:26about like what was actually important
40:27and he's like for education like there
40:31are a lot of super hard things to do in
40:32education and like people keep trying
40:34doors but what really like the world
40:37needs from education technologies have a
40:40consistent like courses teaching
40:44different subjects which are relatively
40:45affordable and I kind of look boring
40:48tonight the world needs something which
40:50is boring to do in the educator side but
40:53it's actually the most important all
40:54right my second one is I would like to
40:56hear very much short term sheet advices
40:59I mean Tom sheet advice is like you you
41:02get the best you can so like if you like
41:06if you are a hot startup and obviously
41:08you're like five term shits
41:09term she's from different investors then
41:11you can get the best term sheet and I
41:13can kind of give you like smartest
41:14advice if I like what - like which want
41:16to bake but it really is all about your
41:18options if you don't have a lot of
41:19options you can take whatever you have
41:22but a few kind of quick things like
41:25billy-o she's not that important the the
41:28controller eyes are super important so
41:31the budget this is not very important
41:32for from Europe for your early stage
41:34funding for your like seed funding
41:36because these funding controls are
41:37pretty like me usually if you see this
41:41is asking for a super heavy control
41:43items which some kind of angel
41:48feels easily like groups in Turkey are
41:50asking and whenever like I see that I'm
41:52saying like this like this
41:54investor doesn't know share so I just
41:56like in orders investors use they even
41:58have to negotiate it but like later
42:01stages becomes more important to
42:02yourself start giving some controls but
42:05the controls are like permanent but
42:06relation is temporary so you have to
42:08kind caring or about controls then
42:10really then malicious what we like
42:13usually did was he'll ask people about
42:15what was the standard terms and we try
42:18to get something which is coming the
42:20average so we try to like make kind of
42:22get whatever everybody else was getting
