This is my deck from a mentor session at the Funder Institute's Hong Kong chapter from July 28, 2014.
Since my slides are not very descriptive let me elaborate my talking points in this SlideShare's description.
Overview
Slide 2-18: About Phonejoy
Slide 2-8:
Covers the early concept stage (2011), market discovery, the problem, to creation of MVP with friend, colleague and later co-founder Alexander Moroz (Phonejoy Analog, Slide 8, in 2011/2012) to Full Product of the Phonejoy controller in 2013/2014.
Slide 9-12: Product overview
Expandable, patented Bluetooth game controller for smartphones
with its own app on iOS and Android.
Slide 13
Raised successfully some money on Kickstarter and through Angels.
Slide 14
A lot of press coverage.
Slide 15-16
Full production by late 2013, early 2014 with retail presence in stores like HMV (Hong Kong/Singapore) as well as Amazon (US), Newegg (US), eBay, and many more.
Slide 17
Honored by Hong Kong Internet Society as Startup Of The Year 2014. Got to present product to C.Y. Leung.
Slide 18
Lot of internal and external problems. Led to me resigning from company day-to-day business as unable to manage the company in its state.
Slide 19
Wordcloud of some of the challenges we were facing, and why today's topic of hiring and finding co-founders, key employees and advisers matters to every tech startup.
Slide 20
Ideal Founding Team
more in comments
Slide 21
Hiring and Retaining Your Employees
more in comments
Slide 22
Finding Advisors
more in comments
Slide 23
Categorising Advisors and Advice
more in comments
14. phonejoy.com martin@phonejoy.com @kesslerhk
I am pretty impressed with this device.
I have a lot of high hopes for this.
— Adam Najberg. WSJ Editor
“
”
Phonejoy offers a slick UI“
”
On my Sony PlayStation Vita, but there just aren’t enough
games I’m interested in. And I’d love to do more gaming on my
iPhone or Android handsets, but I still long for physical controls
despite years of having gotten used to touch. PhoneJoy’s new
Play controller is a blend of both those worlds.
“
”
— Darrel Etherington, Editor TechCrunch
Phonejoy is working on a unique game controller that turns
mobile phones into portable game consoles.
“
”
14
19. phonejoy.com martin@phonejoy.com @kesslerhk
19
Challenges
Finding Advice
Budgeting /
Cashflow
Product-Market
Fit
Investor Relations
Fundraising
Managing a Consumer
Product Supply Chain
B2B Sales as a Startup
Ideal Founder Team
Hiring the
Right People
Product Development
Delays
Marketing A Premium
Product On A Low Budget