Viaka Newsletter: A look back at 2022 (Part 2)
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A look back at 2022 (Part 2)
This is Part 2/2 of my look back at Viaka’s inaugural year, 2022. For Part 1, see below:
The initial phases of a new project are all about validating the assumptions or institutions that led you to launch the project in the first place (and pivoting away from those institutions, if necessary).. I’ve broken our first year into 4 stages, during each of which (I realized in retrospect), Viaka was trying to validate an initial assumption.
For each stage, I’ve written a brief summary of Viaka’s activities and bullet points of key takeaways.
This post will focus on the 3rd and 4th stages in 2022.
Viaka at the end of 2022
Partners
9 startups worked with
82 introductions made
70 Founder NPS
Network
160 Members
61% Current or Former Founders
40% VC or Angel Investors
10 Average Years of ExperienceStage 3: Can Viaka deliver something valuable to early adopters? (June - October?
By May, Viaka actually kicked off its first pilots. In September, we added a 3rd, smaller pilot with Sturgeon Capital. All of them took on much of the same process - our VC partner would take a look at the challenges their portfolio startups faced, identify the ones that could benefit from connections to investors or advisors through Viaka, and then introduce them to us. We’d dig a bit further into their needs on a call or two with the founders, and then start making introductions.
During this time, we made connections to help startups with a really wide range of challenges - early stage fundraising, market research, product market fit, increasing paid subscriptions, recruiting an early leadership team, and B2B sales in MENA to name a few. All things said and done, we probably worked with 9-10 startups during this phase and made upwards of 80 connections for them. Founders that we worked with gave us a 70 NPS score overall and ranked 90% of the introductions “useful.”
The summer slowdown and some personal milestones ended up elongating these pilots a bit. I was also offline for much of July getting married and honeymooning :)
Throughout this entire period though, we continued to publish our weekly newsletter, starting by highlighting the startups from MENA that we were working with, but eventually also highlighting members of the Viaka Network itself.
Takeaways:
Human-to-human connections are hard to get right and hard to track, but can be extremely rewarding: It may seem intuitive, but it’s worth repeating over and over again - working with humans is messy. They get busy, they stop responding, and they don’t fit into nice boxes. I was surprised by the number of people who agreed to speak with a startup, but then never ended up following through. We also made some connections that didn’t end up being as useful as we initially envisioned. HOWEVER, we also had some introductions go above and beyond what was expected of them, and have an outsized, positive impact on the startups they spoke with. As much as Viaka could try to match up needs and characteristics, the most successful connections came down to the engagement and preparation that both sides of the conversation (startup & expert) brought to the table.
Content is good for credibility, but much harder to drive desired actions: Our social media following grew steadily during this time (300+ on Linkedin today), and our newsletter held a steady, respectable open rate around 50-55%. However, these channels haven’t driven the “actions” that we initially hoped they would - namely, that readers would “sign up” to connect with MENA startup opportunities after reading about them in our content. Instead, content has been a great compliment to a more active connection-making strategy.
The Network concept was super valuable, but underserved: Viaka Network members accepted about 60% of our requests to connect them to MENA startups, a rate 2x- 3x higher than those who hadn’t signed up. I found this positive, especially given that Viaka didn’t really offer any benefits to Network members during this stage. I felt that by increasing our benefits to Network members, we could easily grow the network and up their acceptance rate.
Stage 4: Can Viaka grow into a sustainable business? (October - December)
October saw us host a virtual demo day with a 4th partner, Flat6Labs Tunisia, where we brought North American and European investors to hear Tunisian startups pitch.
By the middle of the Fall, we had gathered relevant data and experience to start addressing the next big question - will VCs actually pay for this service? To do so meant not only establishing formal partnerships with our pilot partners, but also using our pilot results to start conversations with a bunch of other potential partners. I think I’ve spoken with close to 40 VCs, accelerators and startups during this time - not all of them explicitly to “sell to,” but at least to gauge their needs and build relationships for future growth. I’ve definitely learned more about business development in the past three months or so than anytime previously in my career. Fortunately, Viaka managed to lock down one formal VC partnership before year end, and is in ongoing discussions for at least two more. We’re also exploring working directly with startups (i.e. not through their VC) via a small beta cohort launching in Jan/Feb 2023.
At the same time, the team had an influx of bandwidth during this time, allowing us to incorporate new, relevant benefits for Viaka Network Members. This included the launch of a Monthly Members-Only Bulletin, virtual coffee chats and a “request an introduction” feature for Members to connect with each other, and our first “Demo Day” for Network founders and investors.
Takeaways:
VCs are a tough customer base: Running free pilots with VCs made sense - they were lightweight and provided access to a bunch of vetted, high-quality startups for us to build our service and credibility around. All of that remains true, but I definitely also fell prey to the misconception that VC = lots of money to spend. Turns out that most of them have pretty strict budgeting rules, somewhat opaque decision-making processes and hierarchies, and extremely busy schedules. This can make for a long and arduous sales process.
But the market is there: Still, if I look back at my notes from 30-40 conversations I’ve had over the past couple months, it only reinforces my conviction that there is a need for Viaka in the market. Startups and their backers in emerging ecosystems are looking for advocates in developed ecosystems, like North America. Finding the right advocate and “fixer” can be a game-changer. On top of that, these emerging ecosystems haven’t completely collapsed, despite shaky global financial markets, and in some cases have continued to grab global attention.
Network members are craving for more connectivity: Network members have responded really positively to the new ways we’re trying to connect them. Our Members-only Bulletin has an open rate in the 60-70% range, and we’ve seen about 30% of our entire member base participate in our virtual events (coffee chats & demo days).
The next stage: 2023!
I’m so excited for Viaka in 2023. The vision of “a digital road network that facilitates the flow of capital, talent, expertise, and more between developed and growth markets.” remains the same as it was at the start of 2022, but now the pavement is actually being laid. Viaka has paying clients, a Network of 150+ members, an even wider newsletter and social media audience, my own growing ‘rolodex’ of investors and startup operators, and a whole year of learnings and experience under its belt.
The top two priorities for Q1 of 2023 are simple to write and hard to deliver (as all good goals should be, right?):
Deliver outsized tangible value for our first paying partners and build the Viaka Network into a truly engaged, connected digital community.
If you want to be a part of that, check out our website for ways to get involved!
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to all the folks who have helped Viaka answer these questions throughout the year. I especially want to shout out Zane Salameh, Timothy Motte, Zeena Ojjeh, Maya Tamimi, Louis Awdeh, and Layss Majed, who have played essential roles at different points in each of these stages!
Thanks for Reading!
That’s it for this week.
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