Ростислав Чайка “raise money in silicon valley: mission impossible?”
TRANSCRIPT
How to raise money in SV ?Rostyslav Chaykawww.rchayka.com
Meet Rostyslav Chayka
●Lviv Startup Club since 2009●Lemberg Tech Business School●StartupLine.com.ua●Startup Consultant
SF Bay Area
8 milion people
2nd most Fortune 500 Companies in the US
NYC - SF Bay Area bilionares
1 milion in IT
35 000 potential unicorn founders
Most expensive area in US
Who should try?
Global product
US customers
Ability to move to SF Bay Area (at least 40-50% time)
Why ua teams have chances again?
UA people do not understand US market
Software eat the world
A lot of derivatives
UA people do understand technology landscape
Digital lifestyle is the same
$5m-$10m projects are not interesting
Hardware and some B2B project are slow
Succesful UA startups
Doomed to fail ua global startups
B2C services / solving direct customers needs
Fast growing products
B2B targeting over $100m valuation
Mainstream new tech
Option #1: Incubator
TOP incubators: YCombinator, TechStars, 500Startus
Industry incubators
3-5 months in SF Bay Area
Work hard
Target big stories
Option #2: Ninja
Adoption
Education
Industry expertise
Early customers
Partners
Investors
Tip #1: Good American English
Read, write, communicate, deliver presentations
American english is not english :)
Local slang, idioms, jokes, proverbs
Tolerance go immigrants and mistakes
Tip #2: Integrate to business culture
Be smart:) understand what you are doing
Goal-oriented
Time-saving
Meaningles ignored
Manipulations are funny
Openless to opportunities
Locals are helpful / other immigrants are rude
Easy to share information & connect
Tip #3: Focus on your industry
Bad news: Generic events are senseless
Good news: There are tons of industry events
Facebok
Quora
Incubators / Accelerators / Coworkings
Tip #4: Build your network
Store connections
Communicate regulary
Ask about connections
Be proactive
Help people :)
Tip #5: Persistence
Be local :)
Keep contact
Able to meet
Expenses
Airflight: 800$ - 1000$
Appartments: 350$ - 1400$
Transport / Car: 500$ - 900$
Food: 300$ - 1500$
Events: 200$ - 10K$
Contacts
FB / LIn - Rostyslav Chayka
+1 (408) - 650 - 23- 70
+38 (050) 522 - 88 - 75
www.rchayka.com