#25: Side Project to venture-funded startup
Story of building Peerlist and raising a seed funding of $1.1 Million
The most sustainable way to become an entrepreneur is through side hustles. Today we are bringing the story of Yogini, a hustler who started her entrepreneurial journey through a side hustle
🔥Building a professional network
🤯Raised seed funding of $1.1 Million
🤩Built personal brand on Twitter with a following of 30K+
Yogini's journey from side hustling to raising funding of $1.1 Million
Yogini Bende hails from a small town in Maharashtra, India. With a Master's in Computer Science, she started her career as a freelance web developer. She moved to Pune to expand her skills and get more exposure. Freelancing from the comforts of her hometown allowed her to tinker with ideas, and the seed of her startup, Peerlist, was sowed.
Stumbling upon a pertinent problem
From 2018 to 2021, Yogini worked across two companies as a developer and was growing well in her career. With four years of experience, she decided it was time to move to a job. She started to find and apply for jobs. And, like most people, she was hardly getting any calls for interviews. Instead, she was getting many spam messages on Linkedin. She felt the process was complex, and the existing platforms had half-baked solutions.
She had done my projects in the past and had open-source contributions on GitHub. But there was no way for her to showcase her proof of work to get visibility among the recruiters. She wondered if others had the same problem and if there could be a way to solve it.
Along with Akash, a friend she met during her freelance days, she decided to dig deeper into the problem. They did a small survey with friends and colleagues around them. They got 200-300 responses, and the majority of them said it was a problem. Many needed help to showcase their work and the value they bring to the company they are applying to.
Yogini decided to build a side project to solve this problem. It was not her first side project. Unlike other side projects, which she had abandoned because of a lack of motivation or interest, this seemed different. While continuing with her current professional engagements, she focused on the side project. Fortunately for Yogini, her company and manager encouraged her to build side projects. She also got excellent feedback from her manager for this side project.
From side project to product market fit
While building on the side project, Yogini and Akash discovered the insight, that a professional profile has to be more than job titles, past companies, and education; it has to be proof of work. And the existing professional networks like Linkedin needed to match the needs of the current generation of professionals.
They wanted Peerlist to be a community-driven professional platform.
The first line of code was written in 2021. And soon, they started getting requests for private beta access. Without any active marketing, the waitlist had around 650 interests. This was another big validation for Peerlist.
After four months of working on the product on the side, the Peerlist private beta was opened in August 2021. Back then, it was just a simple work profile. But Peerlist users loved it and started using it as their primary portfolio and sharing it with recruiters and hiring managers while applying for open roles. They worked on it for over two months and got 50-100 sign-ups weekly without any promotions. They also started getting interest from investors for potential funding.
That is when they realised that their side project could be much more. On the side, they were not able to do many things. And Yogini had started to enjoy the side project more than her job. In November 2021, Yogini went full-time into Peerlist, and Akash joined at the start of 2022. They ended 2021 with an angel investment from Vishwesh and Akshay of SifarVC.
Building Peerlist to be the Most Credible Professional Network
Since 2022, they have been building Peerlist and have grown the team to five. In January 2023, they raised $1.1M in seed from a group of investors led by Dharmesh Shah (Co-founder and CTO of HubSpot), Manoj Gupta (Founder and CEO of Plotch.ai), Kumar Puspesh (Co-founder and CTO, Moonfrog), Suumit Shah (Co-founder and CEO of Dukaan), and Mohan Rao (entrepreneur and angel investor).
We're here to change the notion of the professional network from content to career, from influencers, to professionals, and from popularity to credibility. We are heading towards building the world's most inclusive, authentic, and enriching network of professionals and organisations. We aim to firmly establish Peerlist as the premier destination for verified professionals, replacing every LinkedIn profile with a Peerlist profile.
For Yogini, the journey from a job to an entrepreneur has been like a roller coaster. Building a company has good and bad days. But with good mentors and a great community, she has been able to overcome any doubts. And she is doing this by building in public and growing her community and audience by sharing her journey.
We think so hard about what I should start as a side project that we miss some obvious and straightforward problems. Daily, if you observe, you can see many small things you want to do or can improve. My second advice is never to start another project until you're done with the old one. The third is to keep sharing it with people. Because people are kinder than you think, they will help you out, give you motivation, and help you improve yourself, your product, and your ideas. I recommend these three things for everybody starting a side hustle.
Yogini’s advice to anyone starting a side hustle
Hustlers Insights of the Week
Seize the opportunities: You may not be actively looking to build a side hustle, but seize the chance if you stumble upon a problem that excites you. Yogini started building a side project with great potential while looking for a job. Give it a try and explore what you can do about it.
Validate the problem: While solving your problem is a great way to start a side hustle, validating the problem with others is also imperative. If you keep building without validating, you may not see much success if people do not want the solution. Yogini validated the need for the solution with a waitlist and then a private beta.
Know when to go All-in: Not all side hustles will go on the path of becoming full-time work. But you should know when to take the plunge. Yogini had started to enjoy the side project more than her full-time job. That coupled with VC interest, she decided to take the plunge.
Resources of the Week
Deepculture: Deepculture is a thoughtful weekly digest that sends ten interesting things to your inbox. If you have a curious mind, it's the perfect newsletter for you. Join thousands of readers who enjoy it.
Trend VC Essentials reports: Trend VC reports are an excellent resource for understanding any topic in depth. Their reports cover topics such as building newsletters and micro Saas, which can be great starting points for your side hustle journey.
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