As much as I love the idea of being bootstrapped and building a business the old fashioned way, it has slowed us down and meant that we’ve missed out on opportunities. Out of the number of directions we could take Glimt.it into this year, one road could be to raise a seed round.
I’ve always had big and global ambitions with Glimt.it and as proud as I am of what we’ve managed to accomplish on our own, being so bluntly aware of what just a little money could and would do for us, it’s been frustrating.
It’s been a deliberate choice not to go after funding until now. To some extent it’s been a practical one. There’s no way I could get the business side ofGlimt.it off the ground and work on fundraising at the same time. Both are full time jobs. Combine that with managing and training the team and all the work I’ve so far had to do on the design and development of the site as well as project manage Glimt.it, it simply hasn’t been feasible.
The other side of it is that until now I don’t think we’ve had anything to, so to speak, shout about. I’ve been told that I’ve been too modest and should have shouted about Glimt.it sooner, and that’s probably true. But for me there’s been a lot of things that we ought to figure out first. To try and test before we potentially attempt to raise that first round.
I’ve always believed that there was something in the idea behind Glimt.it. Those wireframes I have of the vision of Glimt.it still makes me and the team incredibly excited and it’s our plan to build those out. But, there’s been a lot of unknowns. Would our business model work in praxis? How would things actually work on an operational level? What’s our unique selling point when it really comes down to it? For users and for the brands we work with? And would anyone be willing to pay?
Over the last year and last six months in particular, we’ve confirmed all of those questions, and more. We’ve got a tested and clear way for how to make money and we want to go big. Really big. I’d love to give the team the experience and opportunities it’d bring if we had more capital behind us. We could accomplish this the old fashion way, but it will take longer and there’s a risk that someone else beats us to it. Since we’ve been live, we’ve seen an increasing number of brands pull out gift ideas based on person, occasion and interest on their websites, even those who don’t focus solely on gifts. It’s great to see that this is a growing trend. Users want a direct way in and it’s also something that benefits brands. A way to cut through the wealth of products and bring users straight to what they may be looking for. It provides a “trusted voice” from the brands in questions, their recommendations of what to get your mum, that coffee lover or good gifts for weddings, for example. Part of what we aim to do is gather all those recommendations in one place so you can just “glimt it” when you need a gift.
This morning we found out that we’ve been selected to pitch at Match Capital’s market place pitch event next Wednesday. It’ll be our second ever pitch, but the first one that is with a public audience. I’m really excited about starting to talk more about Glimt.it and to get the response, the hard questions and to see where this might all lead.
Image via Flickr user GotCredit
