June 11, 2018
GlassDollar: Focusing On Investors, So You Can Focus On Your Passions
GlassDollar is the most efficient way for founders to take control of their fundraising. It helps them to create a profile of their startup and matches them with investors from their network. Founders are then able to select the profiles that they feel best match them and their needs. GlassDollar has created a tool that enables founders to direct their energy into the projects they are most passionate about, as opposed to constantly seeking out investors. Their mission? To change the way that we work, and to help people achieve their goals and build the companies of their dreams.
What are the biggest pain points people usually face when raising investment, and how is GlassDollar changing this?
Fundraising is super time intensive. Founders easily spend 3-6 months, full-time on this particular task, and sometimes this drags on for even longer. It is also incredibly emotionally draining to constantly collect one “no” after the other, as it’s proven that around 70%-90% of investors will say no. You want to be able to build your company without your main focus being investment. Not any company, one you really want to exist – your passion, your baby. This enormous opportunity cost makes fundraising even more painful. With every hour and ounce of energy founders do not spend on their business, their chances of receiving investment rapidly decreases. We want to enable founders to stay fully focused on their startup, while not missing out on any potential investment opportunities. Whenever an investor is interested in a startup, we simply connect them. It’s like we give founders an online door that investors can knock on.
Where do you get all of the data from and how often do you refresh it?
We want to give founders a complete and transparent overview, so we are indexing all public investment data. That means spreadsheets, directories, and platforms. Even extracting investment info from the news. Some information like the “funds a VC has left” are estimations, based on the info of fund sizes and investments.
We refresh our data every couple of weeks, one source at a time….
“Whenever an investor is interested in a startup, we simply connect them. It's like we give founders an online door that investors can knock on.”
How big is the team at present? What’s your vision for the future?
We are 6 people, all remote. Free to create, when we feel creative and inspired.
Our goal is to redefine work, for ourselves and others.
We want to make it easier for people to pursue their passion while succeeding at it. We are all happier when we like what we do for a living and have a reason for doing it. The people around us, the people that use your product can feel the joy that went into its creation. Therefore, we believe that if we can help more people to pursue their passions, it makes everyone better off in the long-run. More people love what they do and more products and services we use and consume are made with love. Imagine the new airport, education, city hall, insurance, tax or car dealer experiences that will be created with love and joy.
What are your main focuses right now for the platform and its potential?
At the moment it’s certainly building a fundraising tool that the best founders in Berlin are happy to use, as well as developing a business model that aligns our interest and those of the founders. We want to make sure our interests are aligned with those of founders – i.e not make the mistake Facebook made and alienate our users by making them the product.
What can GlassDollar do for Factory Berlin members?
Visit GlassDollar, search and filter through our 15k+ database of investors for free. Fill out your profile and we will put forward investors that we can connect you with.