Your Story Matters More Than Your Traction: Jiga's Adar Hay On Fundraising

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

My name is Adar Hay, I am the co-founder of Jiga, and my background is in marketing, sales and product management. I am also hosting a weekly popular tech podcast and show in Israel, and have been doing this for the last five years.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Jiga (Y Combinator W21) is a B2B marketplace for custom parts manufacturing. We make it easy for companies to purchase parts for production, saving them time and costs and connect them with manufacturing suppliers.

What is the origin story?

My co-founder was running a 3D printing manufacturing service before starting Jiga, and we were shocked by how bad an experience it was to get quotes and order parts online, or from machine shops. He spent a significant amount of his time and money on inefficient communication, paperwork, sourcing, and quoting.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

What we really love about our team is how diverse and dedicated it is. We are embracing the remote work culture, and taking it to the next level. There’s great synergy between each member of the team, and we take intentional actions to do that. We bring vast domain expertise as well as complementary skills in product management, marketing, sales, and operations.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

We would probably be building another startup.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

We measure success by two core metrics - Annual recurring revenue (from license fees), and GMV.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

The most exciting thing about our traction is the GMV retention and expansion. We see companies starting with small orders, and end up inviting other members of the company and performing very large transactions. For us, it’s a strong indicator of value.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

We are most excited about leveraging AI to create more value for our users. Jiga is a networked product with a lot of potential to collect unique data about the custom manufacturing world.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

We liked the overall feel of HackerNoon and how it appeals to hacky people and founders.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Keep on exploring new opportunities, don’t get discouraged by momentary setbacks and be open-minded.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

I learned that fundraising is a pretty long process, and that the overall story matters most when you are raising early money. Nice traction is not enough, it’s important to realize how it relates to the overall story and convey it well.