Week 2

The emphasis on week two was cleaning up the website, while getting technical advice on strategic implementation.

This week Udoka and I worked on adding a YouTube plugin into the website. After 3 long days of trying to implement the YouTube video without glitches, the project was abandoned as it disrupted other working parts of the website. Now we are strictly focusing on Vimeo and perfecting the video sync.

On Friday, I visited a lead at Google for feedback on the product. She was blown away and was enthusiastic about the project. As she worked for YouTube, she took time to explain the components of a video platform and how to grow it.

By Tuesday, the website should be fully ready and user acquisition will start. I've been advised to use a grass roots approach and only allow passionate users onto the platform. This will create a core following upon which generic users can be acquired.  

The primary objectives for this week are as follows:

• Talk to potential members of the founding team (two leads)
• Get legal advice on patent protection (towards next funding round)
• Start user acquisition (grass roots)

I have also been invited to an event held by the London Technology City Initiative, hopefully it creates leads. 

Week 1

The purpose of this Blog is to keep you in the loop with the progress being made on FitBud.

I was able to set-up a few meetings and get a feel of the start-up environment in London.

I had a meeting with two associates from Kima Ventures and Octopus. The purpose of the meeting was for them to have a feel of the product and give advice in terms of what I need to raise another round. 

They both found the product very interesting, and asked me to keep them in the loop with the progress. The feedback I got from the meeting are as follows:

• Investors say a lot of things like traction and money, but its all a lie because they are never specific. They mostly operate on fear of not investing in the next Facebook. So, the best thing I can do it act like the next Facebook and scare them into investing.

• Investors don't like projections and business reports for consumer technology companies (Only for B2B companies). I need to take a scientific approach (more like an experiment) and present my findings rather than selling them.

• Early stage funds in the UK aren't really early stage funds. They are series A and want a working and scalable product. This means the next round of funding will likely than not be another angel investor. 

I also visited a few Tech Events, and met a good lawyer which will be sorting out the legal agreements. 

In terms of the product launch and testing, a few bug fixes are still needed on the site. Before then, I have reached out to a few personal trainers and have gotten replied (talks in progress).

The primary objective now is to get the product in front of customers and get feedback which should start but Tuesday next week.