When raising capital, step 1 is why?

Building in public forces you to stay laser-focused on what you need to accomplish next.

For everyone not wrapped up in the jargon of Silicon Valley, building in public is a simple concept. Instead of building in secrecy (called stealth) and then showing users once finished, you include them throughout the journey so they can see what you’re building, why you’re building it, and most importantly, they can weigh in. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with our commitment to radical transparency. Everything at TIKI is public.

When we started TIKI, the question was, does anyone care? We’re proud to say 100k people do. In 5 months, we defined our message, mission, and vision, validating it with a scalable user acquisition program.

So, now what? Deliver the product to the 100k+ people who signed up.

How do we do that as fast as possible? Hire more engineers, at least until Anna can’t keep up. Then more product people, followed by more engineers. I know it sounds silly when it’s put that blunt, but we’ve already established a large customer base. They’ve told us what they want; now, it’s our job to build it.

The more we raise (within reason), the faster (and more) we can build. It’s that simple. We will be hiring mobile, cloud, and blockchain developers. If that’s you, send us a note at careers@mytiki.com.

Building in public forces you to stay laser-focused on what you need to accomplish next.

For everyone not wrapped up in the jargon of Silicon Valley, building in public is a simple concept. Instead of building in secrecy (called stealth) and then showing users once finished, you include them throughout the journey so they can see what you’re building, why you’re building it, and most importantly, they can weigh in. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with our commitment to radical transparency. Everything at TIKI is public.

When we started TIKI, the question was, does anyone care? We’re proud to say 100k people do. In 5 months, we defined our message, mission, and vision, validating it with a scalable user acquisition program.

So, now what? Deliver the product to the 100k+ people who signed up.

How do we do that as fast as possible? Hire more engineers, at least until Anna can’t keep up. Then more product people, followed by more engineers. I know it sounds silly when it’s put that blunt, but we’ve already established a large customer base. They’ve told us what they want; now, it’s our job to build it.

The more we raise (within reason), the faster (and more) we can build. It’s that simple. We will be hiring mobile, cloud, and blockchain developers. If that’s you, send us a note at careers@mytiki.com.

Anyone whose met me knows that I don’t worry about the “competition,” maybe frustratingly so. Here at TIKI, we’re doing our own thing. Additionally, I’ve been working on correcting a bad habit. In tech, everyone judges success by money raised and valuation. Customers, not investors, define a company’s success. It’s a trap we all fall into if we’re not careful, TIKI included.

So, with all those caveats about competition & investment rounds, here are two proof points we’re heading in the right direction. Mine (saymine.com) & Jumbo (jumboprivacy.com) raised corresponding $9.5M & $8M Series A financing with traction of 100k users (not signups, users).

Exciting times. The rocket moves faster and faster.

Anyone whose met me knows that I don’t worry about the “competition,” maybe frustratingly so. Here at TIKI, we’re doing our own thing. Additionally, I’ve been working on correcting a bad habit. In tech, everyone judges success by money raised and valuation. Customers, not investors, define a company’s success. It’s a trap we all fall into if we’re not careful, TIKI included.

So, with all those caveats about competition & investment rounds, here are two proof points we’re heading in the right direction. Mine (saymine.com) & Jumbo (jumboprivacy.com) raised corresponding $9.5M & $8M Series A financing with traction of 100k users (not signups, users).

Exciting times. The rocket moves faster and faster.