A Message from our CEO Tom: Post-YCombinator at HappiLabs
ycombinator
There has been a lot going on behind the scenes of HappiLabs the last few months. As we mentioned in our last blog post, this summer, we joined world-class accelerator YCombinator (YC), to help advance our virtual lab manager technology. A couple weeks ago, we participated in a pivotal part of the program, Demo Day, where I presented to a select group of investors, press and other YC companies.
Time has flown by and offered few spare moments, but while fresh on my mind, I wanted to share an update: Fundraising is almost over and soon I will get back to focusing on operations and technology. We will fall short of our fundraising goals but have enough money to move forward with 1–2 strategic hires, and I’ll get back to finishing fundraising in a couple months. There are two weaknesses investors are pointing out:
We do not have an in-house engineering team (we’ve been outsourcing)
They fear it is difficult to sell to scientists (I agree!), which limits the rate of growth
I’m not worried about sales, we know how to sell to scientists.On the other hand, our priority continues to be welcoming a Lead Engineer to our team. YC offered a wealth of resources to help us understand and plan for the technological developments necessary to build a game-changing product that will allow us to reach more labs. This knowledge has influenced what we’re looking for in this leading tech position (Interested in learning more? Click HERE).
In the meantime, we hired two freelancing software engineers to continue development of our second app that improves security and automates the organization of our purchasing data. Little by little, we’re evolving our service and following through on our commitment to bring more innovation to labs and scientists all over the world. We have received press from awesome business and tech outlets like TechCrunch and ChicagoInno, who have written about the work we’re doing.
Click here and here to have a read, and feel free to share with your networks.The last post-YC happening is four new customers. Again, sales is not an issue, we continue to grow based on an amazing customer experience and the word-of-mouth it inspires. When we do supplement that with real sales channels….look out! We will continue to keep you in the loop on company news and updates.Un til then, hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the last couple months. Thank you for your ongoing support!