2. Building a Global Business – Lessons Learnt Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 1
3. Yola’s Successes in the Past 3 Years Began with a vision to create easy to use website building software Spun out of Clicks2Customers (incuBeta Holdings) Started as a 5 person company in Cape Town in March 2007 Pitched to over 25 investors – locally and globally before successful Raised over $25m to date from JSE-listed Reinet Ltd >3.5 Million Users to date and growing rapidly – market leader Currently employs over 60 people in 3 countries All of the above is only made possible by working with amazing people! The team you build is critical! 2 Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc.
4. My biggest success in the past year: Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 3 Name: Kavin Lingham Born: San Francisco, California Age: 12 weeks old Lesson learnt: Don’t lose sight of what’s really important in life!
7. Pitch to investors – have one person in the co-founding team look for funding while the rest work in engineering. Don’t get excited until you have a term sheet in writing!
10. Stage 2 - Series A: Proof of Concept Investment: $5 million Establish offices in San Francisco Get market traction Prove monetization model Targeted user base before next round of funding: 1 million Lesson’s Learnt Going global is expensive if you don’t know how Hiring cold is a tough strategy – referral hires are the best Building a product team is critical for funded companies Splitting engineering teams is very difficult Making friends in the valley is tough 5 Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc.
11. Stage 3 – Series B: Growth Investment: $20 million Target user base before next round of funding: 5-6m users Lessons Learnt Use analytics to make data driven decisions Viral growth is critical Focus on a target audience and serve their needs Don’t give too much away for free Excellent customer support can be a strong differentiator Focus on ease-of-use / UX Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 6
12. Inside secrets to securing investment Great team Good plan Good networking Great pitch Good demo Persistence Passion for your biz Show potential Prove execution Build products, not services!!!!!!! Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 7
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16. Reasons to be in the valley Building a global business Depth of talent and skills (people who have been there, done that) Networking Fund raising Being ahead of the latest trends (getting an iPad the day it comes out) Conferences Business Development Acquisition – Liquidity… (which hampers investment in SA) Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 11
17. Reasons to not be in the valley It’s expensive in general, unless you bootstrap Emerging market focus You are not a good networker You are very attached to your family and social networks back home Your funding is very limited You think you can be successful from South Africa Modern telecommunications make it possible to be anywhere… Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 12
18. How to get to the valley Fly Emirates – they are by far the best value for money (via Dubai) Setup an offshore subsidiary – and transfer across into it (L1x Visa) It’s easier than you think – you just need to want to do it! Total estimated cost to setup an office and move to the valley for a local Cape Town company: R100k Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it… Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 13
19. Why I’ll be back… Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc. 14
20. Thank You 15 Confidential & Private document. This remains the intellectual property of Yola Inc.
