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What are my chances? Can I get through this storm?

By Swapnil Chavan on 20 Comments / 6958 views

Hey fellow Rodinhooders,

Hope you all are doing great.

I am Swapnil, Co-Founder of {Geeks} Place – an online hiring platform for developers.

I am writing this mail as currently, I find myself in a soup and would really like some guidance and help from your end.

{Geeks} Place: Brief and History 

{Geeks} Place is an online hiring platform that empower programmers to communicate in their language of proficiency and land great jobs. It helps companies hire the best developers.

This is done by the means of arranging hiring contests and challenges on the platform as per the job openings with programming problem statements, asking a candidate to code. The software filters the best performers and the cream layered candidates get sourced for final validation to the HRs of the companies.

You can visit https://www.geeksplace.io/ for further details and even sign in via Facebook to have a look at the candidate view.

We have been into this startup for about 5 months and have got the basic prototype MVP along with market research ready. We also have the funding pitch for angel investment (6 month period) worked out. We have validated our platform with college students and also have 2 clients on board (no income).

My Role:

I have been involved full time in this project for past 5 months and my contributions are heavily based around research, marketing, sales and promotion. From development perspective, I contributed towards entire website development and helped fix a few glitches in core development.

The problem:

As we got the validation done and business plan proposal setup for 6 months, we were in process to develop and add two important modules in the platform before venturing for angel investment,

1. an online judge (compiler) 

2. game based psychometric tests for aptitude analysis

when my Co-founder (technical guy) decided to walk out (time management, job pressure and majorly family issues).

I have also almost burnt away all the cash needed to keep the project floating.

So here I am, with no technical co-founder and no cash, trying to battle alone.

Probable options (I may be wrong):

1.Try and sell off the current platform to some job board or any other recruitment related organization (difficult without the above mentioned modules, esp online judge).

2. M&A with organizations wanting to get into this recruitment space without investing the time for research and prototype development.

3. But the best would be to get an angel investor and a technical developer (CTO) and get things right back on track. (funding pitch is ready)   

What are my chances of getting through? What is your take on this entire scenario? 

I would be really thankful if I get the correct guidance and any sort of help from this Rodinhood community.

Awaiting responses, suggestions, advice.

Thanks.

Twitter Handle : @geeksplace_io

PS: I am based out of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

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20 Comments

  1. hey hang in there swapnil.

    i will share your post tomorrow. let’s see what advice everyone has to give you….

  2. Sure Asha. 

  3. hey Swapnil… 

    Asha sent me the link to your post to see if I could be of any help… Lets see if we can introduce you to a few investors and find you a CTO… Can we get on a call sometime tomorrow? 

  4. Hey Rudrajeet,

    Thanks for taking a note.

    Yes, we can definitely get on a call tomorrow. Just let me know what works best for your schedule and I will co-ordinate.

  5. Hi Swapnil: you mentioned you fixed some glitches and did some website dev.

    my q – can you code or pickup coding quickly? if yes (or even otherwise, because you already have an MVP), don’t give up at this stage. if i were you, i’d try to somehow keep the show going (may be you can work part-time?) find more users + customers, find CTO guy at the same time, and look for angel money. not easy, but doable IMO.

    p.s. my advice would be you should seek to raise money for longer runway and not just 6 months. 6 months is nothing. good luck!

  6. Hey Rishi,

    Yes, I can definitely code to keep the show going. Not giving up at all. 

    I can consider working part time and continue with the progress on this project.

    Also, I will surely consider your advice for raising money for a longer period.

    Thanks 🙂

  7. Man 🙁 This is really BAD

    WHY is your co-founder leaving? Can I talk to him and motivate him to stay? Sms me me 98200 82558

    Can we incentivise him in some way to complete the job?

    What are the tech details of the platform?

    Can he AT LEAST DOCUMENT & Share (With YOU)

    – Code base

    – Work remaining

    – Any learnings / do’s / don’ts?

    I WANNA WORK WITH YOU TO GET THIS DONE

  8. Swapnil, Can you share your contact details?

  9. Hey Swapnil,

    I am sorry to hear about your situation.

    I run a development studio with a team of 5 (https://pleximus.com) and I would be willing to help you out to get the platform in shape and ready for reaching out to Angel Investors. I am aware of your current cash crunch but we can work something out. Before I commit though, I’d like to know your USP and how is the platform different from other bigger players like https://www.hackerrank.com/ or https://coderpad.io/ or https://codility.com/

  10. call me when free before 7 today… 9730669669

  11. Wow. This is some serious fuel for anyone.

  12. Hey Rudrajeet,

    It was wonderful speaking to you. Thanks for all your insights.

    Also, as suggested I will definitely get in touch with Alok to discuss in detail.

    Thanks again.

  13. Hi Alok,

    Apologize for the delayed reply.

    Tech Details:
    1. Server Stack – Java, JavaScript, MYSQL, Hibernate, HTML, CSS.
    2. Hosting Server – Google Cloud Computing

    I can surely ask him for the documentation and details of the mentioned sections. Shouldn’t be an issue.

    Alok, I have also SMSed you and will drop a mail for the same. Let’s see how it works.

    Also, Rudrajeet asked me to have a word with you to get your valuable insights. Coordinating via email.

    Thanks for being there. 🙂

     

  14. Hey Madhur,

    Thanks for reaching out.

    Really appreciate your understanding of our platform and concern with the USP of the product.

    As you would have noticed, HackerRank, Codility, Coderpad and a few more focus intensely on hiring software developers and programmers via hiring challenges having programming problems.

    But there is one simple assumption, all these platforms make – “A good  programmer is a good employee and a perfect fit.” 

    Well, we don’t assume that. We assume nothing. No doubt a good programmer has great technical knowledge but that just forms the basis of a good technical hire. Usually companies need programmers in various roles, ‘Leader’, ‘Team Player’, ‘Risk Taker and Quick Learner’, ‘Adaptable’, ‘Decision Maker’ and so on. These personality traits are absolutely ignored by the existing hiring platforms.

    Now, what if I tell you, we not only filter out the most technically sound candidates but also people with strong personality traits, making them culturally fit for the job designation. This way we solve both a short term as well as a long term software developer hiring problem. The candidates get placed, Company hires great developers and we all go home happy.

    How we do this? 
    With the help of Psychometric tests, not just your usual 50-250 questionnaire where a candidate gets intimidated and always has a chance to fake, but via GAME based Psychometric Analysis.

    Programming hiring challenges + Game based Psychometric tests = Great Developer and an amazing employee.

    Also, there’s more fun to Program, PLAY and get Placed!!

    Madhur, I really appreciate your efforts to help me. Will keep you updated on the progress and we can surely work things out.

    Thanks again. 

  15. Sure it is. All geared up !!

  16. Hey Shwaytaj,

    Thanks for reaching out.

    Contact details:
    1. Phone Number – +91 750 610 6906
    2. Email Id – swapnil@geeksplace.io

    Let’s talk, if you’ve got any suggestions or help 🙂

  17. Swapnil,

    Were you planning to raise money without having any clients (paying ones ) ?

    Have you considered trying to monetize the version 1.0 of your product, especially to non tech founders who are probably at a loss on how to go about evaluating tech resources.

    I remember my first tech hire – I got one of my friends to do the ‘technical interview’ while I figured out the cultural fit on my own… So maybe if your pitch is “Tech hiring made easy” it might work.

    Once you have paying clients, then you might want to add additional features.

    Also, were you planning an investor pitch with a part time co founder – that would have been a red flag for most investors.

    It might be better to get into a equity + cash (delayed till revenues kick in) partnership model with a tech firm which can support and improve the product while you focus on Sales / Biz Dev.

    All the best.

  18. Hey Swapnil,

    We at Myrefers, a job referral marketplace did a event called “The Startup Mashup” on the lines of your concept. You can read about it here : http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/jobs/startup-mashup-the-solution-provider/60787/

    We can help you in the tech part. Let’s get in touch.

    Akshat.goel@myrefers.com
    9818779066

  19. Hi Abhik,

    We were definitely not planning to raise money without clients (until we ran out of cash).

    We thought about monetizing by focusing on tech startups but not explicitly for non tech founders. That can be given a shot.

    The partnership model you suggested can surely be worked out and implemented. Will add this to the list of several things I am trying, to get the project back on track.

    Thanks for your massive inputs and advice. I will take each point into consideration.

  20. Hey Akshat,

    Read the article on “The Startup Mashup”, congratulations on getting it done.

    Surely would like to get in touch and speak.

    Contact Details:
    swapnil@geeksplace.io
    7506106906

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