The Friendslist Story [Chapter 3]
“Sa-ke Bomb! Sa-ke Bomb!” shouted the coeds at Miyake, a popular Stanford hangout. I poked at my sushi and tried to not think about the news that would arrive any second. Finally my pocket vibrated. “I’m sorry to say we decided not to fund you guys.” read the email. “Ultimately what put us off was that it seemed to us that the functionality of this app wouldn’t be different enough from Facebook to overcome the advantage Facebook has in having all the users, already on the site.”
The rejection was painful but expected. To be honest, ‘painful’ isn’t even the right word. Frustrating. YC claims to pick teams over ideas. But this decision certainly didn’t feel like it aligned with that mantra. It felt like ten minutes simply wasn’t enough time to explain the concept fully and they rejected us based on the concept. That was frustrating.
I feel asleep that night in a bad mood and woke up a few hours later and pecked out a lengthy rebuttal to Paul Graham. I knew the decision was final, but I couldn’t resist. I flew back home a few days later and celebrated Thanksgiving with the family.
Meanwhile all hope was not lost, as conversations with David Tisch seemed to be going well. David was the managing director of TechStars NYC. We first met in September at The Grey Dog, his usual coffee shop in Union Square. I told him I was considering applying to TechStars and had an idea I was excited about — and then he got excited. I described the idea for FriendsList as best I could — I think I described it as somewhere between an Aardvark and a Craigslist and walked him through an early deck [below]
“Great Team, Solid idea, Big market. I like you guys.” he said as we parted ways. And I liked him.
We sat down again with Tisch in December at Joe the Art of Coffee. Walking into that meeting, I wasn’t sure TechStars would add much value for us. I personally didn’t feel like I needed the validation from an accelerator program. And besides, I already knew a lot of the advisors in the program, so would the ‘network’ really benefit me all that much?
The most compelling part, for me personally, was the structure — the 13 weeks of intense focused work and progress. I also liked the idea of a class of peers all working out of a shared office to get their startups off the ground. And I recognized that the program’s structure would provide the stamp of approval and encouragement that Benny needed to quit his job at Gilt Groupe — and that was really important.
Tisch sold us hard on the value of TechStars — and he did a fantastic job. We came out of that meeting more pumped than ever before — both about TechStars and about FriendsList.
To understand what happened next, you’ll need to know that at the time, I was working with the GroupMe team helping design their version 2.0 iPhone app. Two things are special about GroupMe. First, GroupMe’s founder Steve Martocci, was formerly at Gilt Groupe with Benny. Second, David Tisch is an investor in the company. That meant Steve had a unique vantage point on both me and Benny. And equally important Tisch greatly trusted his opinion.
When I arrived back at the GroupMe office following our coffee meeting, I found Steve on the phone with…you guessed it, David Tisch. Steve happily gave his opinion on Benny and me. I believe his words were “You can’t pick a better team”
Over the next few weeks, I found myself continually bumping into TechStars mentors like Eric Litman and Steve Cheney. I was impressed by the reach of the program and the loyalty and excitement of the mentors. But to be honest, what really tipped me over the edge was a brief interaction with an alum.
At the time there were only two TechStars companies in New York. So when I noticed someone with a TechStars sticker at Nightowls, I introduced myself. Sam Herbert is the CTO of ADstruc which had been part of the Boulder TechStars program. Sam and I talked for a while and he had truly great things to say about the program. But I’ll never forget the last thing he said as we parted ways that evening: “TechStars is just really, really fun” — and a mile-wide grin spread across his face.
I was sold.
