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Ask HN: Pivoting my startup, how should I submit to AngelList?

19 points by pupeno ↗ HN
I'm in the process of pivoting my startup, and for this new product we'll need to raise money. The product was half built some years ago but the timing was bad and it was shelved. Today the timing is excellent for it.

I started filling up an entry in AngelList about the new product, but it's asking for questions about the operation of my company, for which the answers would show we been running for 4 years, while the product even though we built part of it ages ago, it's not in operations and it's nothing more than a landing page.

The reason why I wasn't creating the profile with my company name is that if someone look at our company's website, we have other products, including some experimental, lower profile stuff that really doesn't need the funding I'm trying to raise.

What should I do? Any advise?

This is my company: https://CarouselApps.com and this is the new product: https://Glycast.com

11 comments

[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 41.1 ms ] thread
zebra
Describe your company in detail in https://Glycast.com/AuboutUs and do not put link to CarouselApps.com.

Or redesign CarouselApps.com and spread your new product on the homepage and move older stuff in some archive type page.

iask
I agree with @zebra. CarousleApps.com is also very confusing to look at.
pupeno
Thank you both for the feedback, much appreciated.
mszyndel
If you were not working actively on this project for last 4 years because the timing was wrong then don't talk about it. Just don't.

Inactive projects don't matter while talking about it can give an impression that you were struggling for way too long didn't get far with it.

Sidenote: please clearly explain what you're doing on top of the page (above "the fold"). Each section should be explained in writing, not just a video.

Including "for investors" section also looks incredibly weird to me...

pupeno
The core tech was developed by me around 5 years ago. I co-founded a startup 4 years ago which I'm pivoting into this new product (if my market research is positive). For the past 4 years I been making and selling other products and making my company profitable.
pupeno
Some organizations that connect startups with investors, run pitching events, etc, asked for a video, so, I thought, I might as well publish it. I'll re-think it.
pupeno
I followed your advice here, I removed the investors part and added a short explanation before each video. I also got the videos transcribed, so that content is in the page as well (for SEO).
tedmiston
Focus is everything.

Pointing to the marketing site for this new product and making no mention of the old business or past attempts will better guide investor interest. You can explain in the story how you got to where you are. Overall though, the pre-seed timeline is way less important than the product you have today and the traction/growth that's in progress now.

pupeno
Yes, I tend to agree. I'll try to go in that direction. My problem is this: I say "We are a new startup, new product, market validation phase, yada yada", someone ask "Have you had any funding yet?" and reality would be "yes, $NNN, four years ago". When I'm just submitting in sites such as AngelList, where I just enter the information into small little boxes, that looks wrong, without me explaining: we are pivoting from other products that we launched and took us to profitability for the past four years. But I'll look into making that possible.
rajacombinator
Do people really "submit to AngelList" and expect anything to happen?
pupeno
There's an event here in London, Tech meet City, that requires an AngelList profile to apply to it. It's a sort of pitch fest.