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Soonicorns Sessions 2 - Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, and Crystal Widjaja of Kumu

EPISODE INTRODUCTION

How did Kumu raise their Series C round? Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, and Crystal Widjaja joins us in this episode to share the dynamics of Kumu’s meteoric rise. They will share the metrics they had to hit and the adjustments they had to make in their product to enable Kumu to grow fast. They will also share how they got Crystal onboard to further accelerate their growth along with the lessons they learned on fundraising and executing a huge team.

GUEST LINKS

Follow Rexy Dorado on LinkedIn .

Follow Roland Ros on LinkedIn.

Follow Crystal Widjaja on LinkedIn.

Find more about Kumu on their official website. Download it on the App Store, Google Play, and Huawei App Gallery.

EPISODE TOPICS

[1:08] Introducing Kumu’s Founders

[1:57] The Story of Kumu from Pre-Series A to Series A

[4:50] How Kumu Overcame the Big Financial Obstacles

[5:37] Pivotal Product Decisions

[8:43] How Kumu Exeperienced Hypergrowth

[10:33] Kumu’s Product Growth Strategy

[15:21] Why Crystal Joined Kumu

[18:47] The Hardest Challenges the Kumu Team Had to Go Through

[27:17] The Journey from Being Founders to Real Executives

[35:35] Comparison of Unicorns in Indonesia and Kumu

[39:37] Process of Series A to Series B to Series C

[47:21] What the Founders Think About at Night

[51:14] Investing in Startups and the Startup Ecosystem in the Philippines

[57:03] Crystal’s Tips for Startup Founders

QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE

  • “People should take smaller guaranteed bets so that they can buy and win their way towards earning a big unquantifiable bet. If you can't get the simple stuff right, then it's very hard to get the inventive innovative stuff right.”

  • “Foundation building and training key product leaders is the first important step for every organization.”

  • “You can have a lot of talented people in your team but you need founder-like people and their leadership to actually run those teams.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED


JARGON USED

  • Series A - In Series A funding, investors are not just looking for great ideas. Rather, they are looking for companies with great ideas as well as a strong strategy for turning that idea into a successful, money-making business. For this reason, it's common for firms going through Series A funding rounds to be valued at up to $24 million (source: investopedia.com)

  • Series B Funding - Series B rounds are all about taking businesses past the development stage. Companies that have gone through seed and Series A funding rounds have already developed substantial user bases and have proven to investors that they are prepared for success on a larger scale. Series B funding is used to grow the company so that it can meet these levels of demand. Most Series B companies have valuations between around $30 million to $60 million. (source: investopedia.com)

  • Series C Funding - In Series C rounds, investors inject capital into the meat of successful businesses, in an effort to receive more than double that amount back. Series C funding is focused on scaling the company, growing as quickly and as successfully as possible. The median pre-money valuation for Series C companies is around $68 million, although some companies going through Series C funding may have valuations much higher. (source: investopedia.com)

  • Cohort - Set of people with a common characteristic

  • Flywheel Effect - The flywheel effect happens when small wins for your business build on each other over time and eventually gain so much momentum that growth almost seems to happen by itself. (source: atlassian.com)

  • IPO - Initial Public Offering. Happens when a private corporation offers their shares to the public.

  • LTV Ratio - The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a measure comparing the amount of your mortgage with the appraised value of the property. (source: consumerfinance.gov)

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