Who thinks an investor is just a wallet with money, and you spend your life running around with spreadsheets? That's not the case, at least not with us! All the entrepreneurs who bought a stake from me became co-founders of the project. These are incredibly straightforward and cool people with well-deserved business achievements. They analyze probabilities and allocate their resources based on their understanding. These people don’t ask for guarantees—they have enough experience in launching projects. They ask, "What are the probabilities?"
Every month, I write in a chat for co-founders about the results of the previous month so that everyone is aware of what’s happening with the company they own. As of now, we have 26 co-founders (with shares ranging from 0.1% to 10%) and have raised over $1.1 million. Below is one of such reports, for August 2023. The content of the reports usually varies, aiming to convey the state from different significant perspectives at the moment.
Later, when the VYMEX app will have functionality for managing personal shares (vHOLD), the reports will be done there, and the system will automatically pull financial indicators and plans from the company.
"Hello, everyone! I want to share how things went for VYMEX last month. I think it’s much like the front line... The money we had at the start of the war ran out by the end of May. Then we held a general meeting with the team and decided that besides us, no one else would bring money into the company right now.
One of the fundamental conditions after March was that we would be a completely Ukrainian company, which only made the task more difficult, as we needed to work with entrepreneurs and investors who stayed in Ukraine and continue to invest in its economy.
May and June were a period of holding our breath. We improved all marketing, and as you remember, we received an award at Awwwards for development and design quality. Under high pressure on the team, we saw who couldn’t withstand the complexity of the crisis, and decided to let go of 4 people and put 4 on unpaid leave.
They are now training in other companies, and those companies are paying their salaries. As soon as we urgently need these people, we will bring them back immediately. With our goals and project opportunities, we will soon be able to 'enter' any IT company, select preferred specialists, and take them with us!
In August, the development team released Beta (v0.6), which was supposed to prove that the concept is feasible. We released full-fledged apps on iOS and Android, which have been verified by the platforms and have a very strong foundation. On this foundation, we can string together all the planned goals of the company for the next 5 years.
In July-August, we recruited 3 people to the team to develop updates. We now have 44 people on the team, and the guys have grown significantly during the war. We activated new inflows into the company, and since July, new investments have been coming in. This is not yet enough to completely eliminate risks, but the very fact that we have started attracting investments again under such difficult conditions shows that the company has overcome the necessary level and broken through the ceiling, not hit rock bottom.
Tomorrow we have the next inflows, which will allow us to keep up the momentum. This is necessary to work well in September and transition into October, where we have 6 more meetings with a potential of $400-800 thousand. With my conversion rate at meetings, this is likely $60-180 thousand, and new applications are constantly coming in.
Those existing co-founders who want to buy something more will have access to a discount. We cannot show such prices externally; it is unfair to those who enter at the planned cost. But within the system, I am happy to offer terms that will strengthen the company even more. The discount will be available for some time. Once we fully stabilize, there will be no discount.
The team had a very tough time, but VYMEX has never been this strong. With such people and technologies, I think we can win the global business Olympics.
September is not over yet; we are just starting to gather the results of the Beta launch. In the first 4 days, about 150 people registered in the app for testing, creating the first 100 companies. From August 23 to September 1, another 76 companies joined the queue. Now there are over 400 users and 170 companies there.
At the moment, the number of users is not important to us; we have enough material for work, tests, and system development. The most important thing is to implement the planned product efficiency; this will solve all problems.
Right now, what matters are the team, technologies, and investments. By correctly combining these components, an effective solution is achieved, which will ensure it has users.
Have a productive month, everyone!"
*article from facebook
