सगुन को महत्व

हिजो चौतारी को बेसमेंट मा बड़ो मजाको दृश्य देख्न पाइयो। न्यु यार्कले Sagoon.com तर्फ पाइला चाल्यो। खगेन्द्रजी र विमलजी ले शुरुवात गर्नु भो। दुबै जना न्यु यॉर्क को नेपाली समुदाय को visible मान्छे मध्ये पर्नु हुन्छ। यो देखेर केही अरु पनि आउने आशा गरिएको छ। नार्थ कैरोलिना र टेक्सास का केही नेपालीले पनि चासो लिएका छन। ट्रेन छुट्न छुट्न लाग्यो।

मेरो judgment call ------ सगुनमा अहिले हालिएको 25K भनेको लगभग ५ वर्षमा मिलियन हो। रूस सेकंड वर्ल्ड देश। त्यहाँ मास्को मा ५०० नेपाली भएको ठाउँ मा त ३० जना मिलियनेयर छन ह रे। न्यु यॉर्क मा त हुनुपर्यो कमसेकम ५० जना। सगुन एउटा मौका हो। It is an opportunity.

मैले सगुन लाई राउंड २ को fundraising मा सघाउँदै छु। त्यही भएर आतंरिक कुराहरु थाहा पाउने मौका पाएको छु। I have been impressed.

एउटा टेक स्टार्टअप ले देखाउन सक्नुपर्ने मापदण्ड के हुन्छ भने ------ do you have a rapidly growing user base? Visitor हुन्छ, a subset of visitors are registered users, a subset of registered users are active users. The industry standard definition is, an Active User is someone who uses your product at least once a month. त्यो active user बेस ५०,००० हजार कटयो भने you become interesting to most investors.

हिजो चौतारी मैं माथि अंजन सँग भेंट भो। I was glad to learn he has not only launched his tech startup but that it is also making active progress. Good to know.

यो गोविन्द गिरी र कविन्द्र सिटौला को सगुन सम्बन्धी चौथो भ्रमण थियो न्यु यॉर्क को। दोस्रो र तेस्रो भ्रमण मा अलि हताश नै भएको अवस्था थियो। Those emotional ups and downs are unavoidable with any startup. That is why it helps to have a Cofounder!

गोविन्दं गिरी को Founder CEO पर्सनालिटी छ। सगुन को user base र गोविन्दजीको Founder CEO पर्सनालिटी देखेर मैले हो सगुन लाई पत्याएको।

नवंबर मा चौतारी को बेसमेंट मा जब सगुनले आफ्नो पहिलो न्यु यॉर्क presentation गर्यो त्यो दिन अगाडि मैले कहिले न सगुन को नाम सुन्या छ न गोविन्द गिरीको। कविनजी सँग चाहिं एक चोटि DC मा २००१ ताका भेंट भएको, socially.

मेरो गाउँ मा एउटा छ शिव शरण भगत भन्ने --- अहिले काठमाण्डु मा होला। उमेरले मभन्दा ३-४ वर्ष मात्र जेठो भए पनि नाता मा बाजे पर्ने। कविनजी त्यस्तै विभिन्न मान्छे ले काका भन्नु पर्ने मान्छे हुनु हुँदो रैछ। यहाँ देखि DC सम्म।

मेरो भान्जा सुनील साह NRN को चुनाव लड्दैछ। उसको कार्यक्रम थियो थकालीमा। त्यस पछि त्यहीं बाहिर प्रमोद सिटौला सँग भेंट भयो। मैले पछि प्रमोदजी ले फेसबुक मा ईमेल गरें।

Pramodji. It was good to bump into you earlier in front of Thakali Kitchen.  

एक समय हामी लोकतंत्रकालागि एक जुट थियौं। अहिले संघीयताको सवालमा हाम्रो फरक मत हुन सक्छ। तर त्यसपछि फेरि आर्थिक क्रांतिको मुद्दामा लोकतान्त्रिक आंदोलन भन्दा पनि कड़ा किसिमले एक जुट भएर अगाडि बढ्नु छ। कबिन सिटौलाजी तपाइँको काका हुनुहुँदो रैछ। Sagoon.com मा मैले सघाउँदैछु।  मेरो भान्जा सुनील साह चुनाव लड्दैछ। तपाइँको सहयोगको अपेक्षा छ। धन्यवाद।

सगुन को महत्व नेपालको आर्थिक क्रांति सँग छ। 

Sagoon: Nepali Tech StartUp: Presentation At Chautari

DC Comics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Friday evening I was at the presentation at the Chautari Restaurant by Sagoon that seemed to have some founders from the Nepali community in DC and a team in Delhi. Accumulating 100,000 users is very promising. I would like to know how many of them are active users. How many log in monthly? Weekly? Daily?

VCs will tell you, at 50,000 users you become interesting to them. And user base is everything. As long as you have a fast growing user base, you are in a good shape.

Twitter was launched in mid 2006. But I only discovered it in early 2009. I was not using it. But its user base kept growing. And then it really grew in 2009 and 2010.

So I hope Sagoon's user base grows rapidly, and I am proven wrong. But I also felt like there were no fundamentally new features. And it was not necessarily trying to cater to the local market in Nepal. Darshan Rauniyar caused a lot of excitement in the Nepali community across America. But he got very few votes in his primary election and was out. In the process he still paved the way for future Nepali aspirants for political office. But internal excitement is apparently not enough.

I don't want Sagoon to be the Darshan Rauniyar of Nepali tech entrepreneurship.

But I am impressed with their registered base of 100,000. I am impressed they decided to take the plunge. Risk taking is a big deal. I am impressed they have taken the risk. Sticking your neck out is not easy to do.

I hope they grow their use base to 500,000 and beyond. I hope they go on to raise money from professional investors, because it is about time.

I was impressed with how many people in the room were willing to possibly invest, if not a lot then at least a few thousand dollars each.

They have a working prototype and 100,000 users. That's a lot to have. They said they have already raised 350K, and they were in town to raise 150K.

Anjan Shrestha asked if there was an anti-dilution clause to protect this first round of investors. The roundabout answer was, no there wasn't. The question was echoed by half a dozen other people.

You can give 25% of the company to round 1 investors and have no anti-dilution clause. Or you can give 5% and have an anti-dilution clause. I will take that 5% any day. I have known of many successful tech startups where the round 1 investors saw little to no growth of their money.

I have a pre lanch tech startup, an Augmented Reality Mobile Game. I know Anjan Shrestha harbors tech startup ambitions. There are several routes to moving forward. Some quick routes bring in professional angel investors pretty fast.

For Nepali tech startups, it is a very good idea to have the Indian community in mind. Indians are some top names in tech and investing as well.

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