tl;dr
Progress in the last 2 months:
- Started raising $1.5m pre-seed round in December
- Meetings with 32 VC firms & 2 angel syndicates
- Deeper discussions with 8 VCs, 0 term sheets
- Closed $500k pre-seed from a FF investor
- Started using Sellestial internally at Meetings.bio
- Pivoted to larger sales teams with existing CRMs
Y Combinator
We applied to Y Combinator's W24 batch with just a basic MVP and a two-month-old waitlist. We didn't make it but were among the top 10% of applicants. They told us to try again, we’ll see.
Fundraising
On the day we heard from YC, we started to raise $1.5m. It was a stretch goal because our MVP was just a concept and we had no users yet, even though we had an MVP, relevant experience, and some good early signs of interest (22 pre-payments).
I spoke with 32 VCs and 2 angel syndicates. Eight of them took a close look at Sellestial, but none invested. Their feedback?
- No users. No proof the product actually delivers value.
- Weak GTM. No proven or differentiated GTM plan in a crowded market.
- Implausible up-market expansion. Going up-market would require a significantly different product from what we’d be building for small teams.
Still, we closed a $500k investment from my family’s business. Huge thanks to my brother Jure and my parents Dijana and Renato Škoberne, who decided to support us and believe in our vision!
Pivot
The feedback from VCs led us to rethink our strategy. We've decided to shift Sellestial from being a standalone CRM replacement to an AI sales assistant that works with existing CRMs. This pivot changes a lot for us - our product, market approach, and business model. We chose this because:
- Products for small teams won't work the same for larger companies. We might miss learning from big companies and solving their different, more valuable problems.
- Growing revenue with Product-Led-Growth GTM in a crowded market is expensive and time-consuming.
- Focusing on AI features gives us a unique strength compared to ALSO having to duplicate many existing CRM features.
- With our $500k, targeting larger companies with bigger budgets seems more achievable and faster for reaching profitability.
Next Steps
We're redesigning our product and starting new conversations with sales leaders and teams in medium-sized companies already using CRMs. Our goal is to understand their needs better. In February, we plan to start integrating Sellestial with their CRMs for testing.
