Despite, or thanks to, COVID-19, William Bao Bean, Managing director at SOSV’s Chinaccelerator and MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator) said their portfolio saw a 61 per cent increase in revenue from January to April.

Notable companies include the edutech rocketship Snapask, which recently closed a US$35 million Series B and is seeing tremendous growth during the past few months; and TravelFlan (which has raised US$7 million in Series A), which adapted their core AI products to lifestyle products to achieve US$1.2 million in revenue in July.

An advocate of lean teams and conserving cash, Bao Bean believe in “Cockroach profitability”. In our latest webinar, he shared his know-how on cash conservation and strive for profitability even amidst a pandemic.

Getting to know SOSV

• Although they are a global VC, they have focussed verticals such as biotech, food, agritech, cross-border internet, and SaaS.
• There are many  many VCs who are always looking for startups.
• SOSV is a VC-cum-accelerator with investments in over 1,000 startups. They annually invest in about 150 companies.
• They are all about traction first, fundraising second.
• Its important for any startup to have a “superpower” i.e. something they do better than everyone else. SOSV has MOX (Mobile only accelerator) which is an extension of their mobile app with 60 million active users monthly. MOX helps them offer easy and free consumer acquisition to their startups

Managing your cashflows

• As a startup the only cash you have control over is the one in your bank. Revenue and investor money are variable and you really can never guarantee when and how much will come in.
• Bao Bean advocates lean operations and stated that founders, co-founders should actually be in for the adrenaline and the equity and not the lure of monthly monetary compensations.
• Experiments or trying our new ideas is good but keep them light and fast-moving (watch the full video to learn about Bao Bean’s failures in the cartoon world).
• Try multiple things without spending too much time, money and resources. Once you identify what works, then build on it with greater resources.
• The only time one should raise funds, says Bao Bean, is when you can take a dollar and turn it into more than a dollar. Until then just stick to money from friends and family or cough it up yourself.
• If you are into something such as deep tech that needs higher development time, work to gain some traction first.
• Your aim should be to get to a point with your product that proves it can solve a real-world problem
• Startups should always be wary of getting into debt, especially in a world that is running high on burning-cash-for-growth trend.

Also Read: It is all about survival of the most adaptable, says PatSnap’s Jeffrey Tiong

• Carve time to regularly take stock of where you are, where you need to be, and what you are doing right/wrong. Bao Bean recommends twice a month.
• Focus is key at all times. Do not get lured by everything that is happening around you (such as others raising a lot of money). Stay centred!
• Unlike the big players, you have just one bullet and you have to shoot right as a startup. Make sure you are putting your best foot forward backed by data, customer success metrics, and the viability of the product
• Pandemic is, in fact, easy on startups. Most early stage companies didn’t have to deal with layoffs and it was also easier to pivot for those that could. Watch the full video to hear how SOSV’s portfolio company pivot from travel to make-up and actually becoming more profitable.

Resources

• Bao Bean highly recommends reading Measures of Success by Mark Graban
• Watch the full video recording to know how to avoid the mistake Jack Ma made

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