TRACTION?
Today we met Jean Claude Rodriguez @je4nc1aude, founder of puddle, a new social credit line from your peers that is making bancs obsolete.
He started his business in 2004 after a trip to Africa where he learned that small communities were self-financing their own initiatives with micro-loans.
Quickly he got many of his friends on board and puddle was growing at 10% yearly. Not enough to proof that this could be the next big thing and that the market was actually huge.
Fast forward to 2014, invested by Google and the founders of KIVA, they have shown traction.
“If you want to grow your business really fast, you are not going to achieve that with Facebook or any other PPC ads. Or have you ever seen a whatsapp ad anywhere?
You will only achieve real traction if you get your users to invite other users. And this only works if that’s in benefit for your current users. Their experience with your product must be better with their friends. Whatsapp wouldn’t make sense without your friends"
"Investors here don't care about your business model, they only care about disruptive ideas, a huge market and that you are able to proof your growth"
I have the feeling that I will get this kind of input more than once here.