(L-R) 99VR Co-Founders David Aryadi, Stanley Adrian, and Stevie Go
This new series provides an opportunity for bootstrapped founders to share their venture-building stories with the audience. If you have a compelling story, please email it to writers@e27.co.
There are only a handful of truly bootstrapped startups or those that have taken no external investments in Southeast Asia. Inmagine Group is the most known among them. Then there are some companies that maintain a low profile or rather they get little media attention, unlike their VC-funded peers.
Indonesian startup 99 Virtual Race’s (99VR) bootstrapped story is one of passion, grit, hard work, and perseverance.
Founded in 2017, 99VR is an innovative platform that makes fitness accessible to everyone. It combines technology with sports to create virtual racing events that can be participated in from anywhere in the world.
Also Read: Validate the problem before building a solution: Surasit Sachdev of Hungry Hub
In this interview, 99VR Co-Founder and CEO Stevie Go takes us through the company’s bootstrapped journey.
What inspired you to start 99VR? What is 99VR and how does it work?
My own personal health inspired me to start 99VR. Since I started running regularly, my health has greatly improved. For example, I used to get the flu easily, and I always kept medication on hand. But since I started running, I hardly ever touch it anymore.
99VR is a platform that encourages everyone to make exercise a healthy lifestyle by participating in various events and challenges that can be done anytime, anywhere.
Who are your co-founders and how did you meet them?
They are David Aryadi and Stanley Adrian. We became closer by running together frequently and sharing the same belief about the importance of health, and finally, the same purpose to invite everyone to experience the benefits of health and they deserve it.
How did you approach the development of 99VR in the absence of external funding?
We started using a template application by maximising the existing features they have and of course, minimising operating expenses, so our profit margin was very large in a short time.
What were some of the biggest challenges/crises you faced while building 99VR, and how did you overcome them?
The first challenge was when the template application could no longer meet the necessary features, so we started building the application from scratch to suit market needs.
The second challenge was during the tech winter when we had to lay off some of the team to extend the company’s life and optimize the remaining team.
Did you ever face a cash crunch while building the product and think of quitting? How did you deal with such extreme situations?
The financial problem never happened in the first four years because our revenue and profit were very good. In addition, health and sports industries like ours have benefited from the COVID-19 crisis. The problem arose in the last year when the transition of community behaviour returned to normal activities.
The way to deal with it is to be efficient with the team and optimise the existing features to continue generating revenue.
Could you share some of the strategies you used to acquire early customers and build a user base for 99VR?
Initially, we joined running communities by roadshows in several cities to introduce 99VR. We believe the strength of the community is a very good foundation for a startup.
How did you manage to sustain your business operations and grow your team without external funding? Are you profitable? If not, when do you plan to achieve profitability?
Since the beginning, our company has been profitable until the fourth year.
How did you prioritise the features and functionalities of 99VR, and what criteria did you use to determine what to include or exclude?
Prioritised features were those that could solve the current situation. For example, we added machine learning features to the data verification system to make the verification results more accurate, which made participants feel that the event was fair and not being cheated in virtual events. To ensure that the feature was necessary, we validated it to the market.
Do you have any competitors in this space? What unique value did you bring to the industry?
Since 99VR was launched, more and more competitors have emerged. This makes us more confident that this industry has great potential with a large market.
Also Read: How to out-position the competition in a downturn
The unique value is the comfort of participants and the maintained sportsmanship, as well as the consistency of making themed events that make participants accustomed to exercising by participating in never-ending events.
Did you get any enquiries from investors/VCs/angels/seed funds? If yes, why did you decide to go against it?
We had angel investor interest in 2018, but we declined because our profits were sufficient for our development.
We’re currently looking for a strategic partner to help expand our product.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are looking to bootstrap their startups without external funding?
Create a simple product that can be immediately used by the general public and has a direct impact (doesn’t have to be a significant impact at the beginning) so that there is no need to burn through money, but instead can generate profits right away, allowing the startup to sustain for a long time.
What were your biggest learnings from building 99VR?
As the startup grows, prepare the foundation of a proper team so that when it’s ready to scale up, it will be a much easier process.
Given a chance, will you build another startup without taking external funding?
Absolutely, to me, external funding is only to accelerate or enlarge, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t start without external funding. As long as we have the right projection and the roadmap to be profitable sooner than later, it should be ok to take external funding
Currently, we are organising the first hybrid (offline and online) series event in Indonesia which aims to promote tourism and the creatives economy. The event is called Nusantara Marathon and has received support from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia.
We also provide an opportunity for brands to collaborate in this national event.
—
Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like connecting with investors, visibility through the platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.
The post Bootstrapped: How 99VR raced against the clock to build a profitable business appeared first on e27.