How He Raised $10 Million For A Dating App
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- In this video, we look at what it takes to raise an A-round in 2022. We’re looking at a full funding journey for Smitten a rapidly growing dating app from Iceland that is taking on the world. We see the full journey from Angel Round, Pre-Seed Round, Seed Round to the A-Round that just closed.
David Simonarson, CEO & Co-Founder at Smitten, tells the full funding story all the way from building a different product to doing a big pivot that totally changed the trajectory.
There are a lot of great fundraising lessons here, David and his team raised money in a different way and at a really high pace.
David Simonarson, CEO & Co-Founder at Smitten:
/ dabbisim
Download Smitten:
smittendating....
#fundraising #startups #around
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"Just like dating" was an awsome statement!
Thanks!
Great video! I've been bootstrapping my chat app for 5 years from Goa, India. I'm learning how to go about applying. Also gathering all the metrics etc.
This is a great video! I would love to hear more about how they improved their marketing channels!
Thanks great idea!
This is a perfect timing. We're raising our Series A
Yes perfect timing, enjoy!
We have finally landed our seed round for 800k with an awesome incubator, it took 5 years bootstrapping, you my friend have helped me, A Series will hopefully next year. Much love from San Diego bro 👍🏼
Very pleased to hear it, congratulations!
Thank you my friend, I will keep you updated, it’s a dash of social networking with a next level service model.
Amazing content! Sometimes we should not judge a video by the number of views or like! Thanks for sharing!
You did get it one more view thank you for that!
Awesome. Love the whole journey and how much was shared around raise, metrics, and pivots. Very straightforward. It be amazing to go deeper into the consumer app side. how they started to grow organically + paid, especially is such a competitive space. How they work and iterate. Thanks for all these, Heini. Congrats to you + the Smitten team. I'll definitely check out when released in the US (if I'm still single). Happy holidays
Thank you very much for the kind words! Maybe we do a deeper dive at some point. Happy Holidays!
Bro it was really educative n helpful. I mean standout info🎉, thnks..🇩🇪
Great video Heini 🙌
Thank you!
Great info
Thanks, glad it was helpful!
What can I say: thanks Heini and good luck Smitten
Very welcome, glad you liked it!
Great info! Their evaluation had to be pretty low at the start, so how much were they giving up of the company, every time they raised money? (BTW, I'm loving your channel!)
Thanks, it was pretty standard around 20%
Your name caught my attention, Had to say hello. I share your background in production. Great content on your channel. All the best!
Great video.
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Well look at that, what a coincidence this is an app for love, just so happen that my startup is also about love too. We certainly need more love injected into the world. And there is nothing more enjoyable than to be distracted from the stresses of life, than with love right? ❤
True!
How are they doing now
Still doing well have not raised further funds yet!
When you raised 150k, how much equity was it.
Decided yesterday that I need to raise capital. Found You... Amazing man- Priceless! I started a pro-audio Loudspeaker brand quite some time ago. (added side brands in led video and lighting) Post-Covid we are starting to come back strong. Many new products, etc. Very small team. This year will finish around $8 mil with a net of $2 mil. Need to grow the team and the sales footprint. To date all sales are word of mouth. That needs to change. Company is like a Mini Harmon. (Samsung bought them all cash in 2016 for 8 billion) Anyone in your world that could consult and tell me what next steps are? Do we go for an A round? Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Also, THANKS SO MUCH for the great content!
Thanks it sounds like you have a great business. Why don't you just invest the $2 million into sales, is that not enough? Really hard to say from here, but my initial take is that you don't get outside investors to grow, I would much rather just use all your profits for growth, start with the $2 million and then keep doing that. You do that right and you should see some pretty aggressive growth and you still own the entire company!
@@RawStartup Need a much bigger team to expand the footprint quickly. Also need to carry larger inventory. So need more capital. Probably $10m. Two of my competitors are at $100m annual. Ardian Buyout Group bought one of them in 2016 when they were only doing $15m. Lots of headroom in this space but need to market and build a team. Any sense of % of stock I would need to sell to raise $10m? Thanks so much for the feedback!!!
Ok that makes sense, sounds like you have a good business with a solid profit. Valuation will really come down to growth too. I would say the company could be worth anything between $20 and $80 depending on the growth.
How do you go about building critical mass for a social media app.
You build THE BEST product
Hi man, big fan here of your content, I have started my own startup and we are raising money, the target was 600k but only able to raise like 60k. So what will be your advice, should we return the funding, because with that funding we will reach the milestone in a year which we are suppose to deliver in 2 to 3 months. and to clarify we are still building the product with or without the investments. But we need the funding to grow our team and to do marketing for our app. Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you
Thanks, I would love to give you a good answer here, but it is just too hard as I don't understand all the aspects. If you can't reach any milestone with the $60k you should probably be transparent with the investors. I would being transparent with them almost always helps!
@@RawStartup Yeap thats the plan, we will be presenting the new timeline for milestones to our investors. I wish i had found your channel before, In one of your videos, you have suggested that not associate the product with celebrities to much. And that was our mistake raising funds, The celebrity we had decided to part ways with us just 2 days before the launch and made it public that he was not part of the project. (due to personal issues - not related to project) This really hit us hard, But i guess you learn lesson from these kind of mistakes. We are surprised that people still invested in our project after all that. So we are going to build this product no matter what, because i think if we can survive something like that and still show up to the task, that means something.
I have been following Michael Seibel for a long time, But the points you have raised in your videos, they are more in depth and very insightful. (giving you a clear picture as a startup ) Looking forward to learn more from you moving forward. Thank you
I have a question. Why do you need 10 million dollars to promote a dating app?
Getting attention from the young audience will take a lot of marketing. So basically to pay for growth to really get the wheels spinning!
Thank you for your reply. Is that the only way to get the wheels spinning? I'm in the middle of developing a dating app with a very good app name and a couple of very important features of which almost no dating app offers. Would it be possible to ask you some questions regarding what I'm going through with a company in India that I've hired to develop my app? I ask because between the first person named Mark who scammed me out of almost $5,000 and the current people who I've already sent $10,000 I almost don't know what to do anymore. I'm all in with this journey and I refused to give up on this no matter what. Even if I end up without a penny. I haven't shed a tear since I was a child but just last week I cried myself to sleep because of what I am going through with the current team in India. Is it possible to get some guidance from you?
Hello is it possible to get some advice from you?
But they are still not profitable I believe
You mean a full 180 😀
Yes, I got a little to excited!
𝐩𝓻Ỗ𝓂Ø𝓈Ｍ 😞
Thanks, I think!
@rawstartup
Great timing, as I am preparing to kick off the seed round fundraising campaign. Inspired by Vivino, I'm building a marketplace for 12M strong wine consumers in South Korea. Launched MVP and reached 5,000+ organic users - $0 paid ads. We are changing the way people discover & shop for wines. It would be fantastic to have your feedback on the seed round pitch deck. I think you'd be a great angel investor for us too.
Great, good luck!