Founder Feedback gives you insights from the startup trenches. This article was written by Matthias Galica, the Founder and CEO of ShareSquare and a Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute. It originally appeared in The Startup Cafe - "the home for Los Angeles startups and entrepreneurs."
As a first-time entrepreneur, it brings rare pleasure to see my team’s herculean efforts usher us into the home stretch of closing a second funding round on AngelList. Our project, ShareSquare, is a platform for connecting offline audiences with the bands and brands they love, via the mobile web & QR codes, with real-time analytics. We’re positively elated to be able fortify an early lead in the music & entertainment verticals, in addition to building out mCommerce features so highly requested it keeps me up at night.
Raising money for your startup is always a character-building experience, but doing it without a car in a city like Los Angeles adds some unique challenges. In the interest of passing along some wisdom to those of you who intend to take the concept of “bootstrapping” VERY literally, here’s a few critical tips based on my experience:
- Under no circumstances allow anyone to know you don’t own a car, which is Hollywood shorthand for “loser”. See this Slate article for the origins of the sentiment, captured well by the Art Buchwald quote: “People are broad-minded. They’ll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn’t drive, there’s something wrong with him.”
- Make frequent use of hooded sweatshirts to avoid being spotted in the act of walking or riding the bus. In LA, these activities can only ever be one of two things: an indicator of your socio-economic status or a political statement. For safety, prepare a cover story concerning the latter in case you’re discovered.
- When choosing a home base for your startup, strongly consider downtown (aka “Skid Row Tech”- home to LA’s leanest startups) as it is the point of origin for most public transit in Los Angeles. Bonus: cheapest rents in town.
- If you’re meeting a VC with an in-building parking lot and you’re offered validation, say the following: “It’s ok, I’m down the street”. This does well to deflect without explicitly lying about the car you don’t have.
- Never take a meeting further than half a mile from a bus stop, give yourself plenty of time to spare, and beware unforeseen changes in elevation. Not heeding this rule can result in arriving at (Ad.ly founder) Sean Rad’s house bathed in your own sweat (and nearly killing yourself on the way down if you’re riding fixie with no brakes). Fyi, Sean will not invest if you’ve sweated through all your clothes.
- If it’s absolutely necessary to be in an area inaccessible by bus or bike (like picking up a check at Paige Craig’s mountain fortress) I highly recommend Rent-A-Wreck. I suppose you could also borrow a friend’s car, but as my favorite Founder Institute quote (courtesy of Burstly founder Evan Rifkin) goes: “If you’re running a startup and you have friends, you’re probably doing it wrong.”
- Use AngelList. On the AngelList, nobody knows you’re a dog without a car.
- Finally, when your girlfriend dumps you because you’re spending too much time on your startup and you don’t own a car (even if she may have been indirectly responsible for losing the car you did have) the best advice is: put your head down and paint that sh** gold.
An aside to all ShareSquare investors: I plan on not getting a car until we’re cash-flow positive, though I’ll probably be copping a sweet new Aerospoke for the fixie so I can get around in style.