🇦🇲🦊 Do you have what it takes to be a startup founder?
Curated resources for Armenian founders and tech enthusiasts.
Welcome to all the new members of the Hye Ventures Crew. Our mission is simple. Accelerating the success of Armenian founders and funders to build a more prosperous, equitable future. Subscribe today to join early-stage founders, funders, and operators, as well as enthusiasts of the Armenian tech community, and get coverage on recent news directly in your inbox.👇
Becoming a Startup Founder
Becoming a startup founder isn’t as easy it seems. Technically, everyone could do it. Following resources from successful founders would make your journey an easier one. If you are thinking of quitting your job to go all-in on your startup, read Justin Kan’s thread before doing so!
On top of that, startup founders need different attributes to be successful. Here we break down 5 traits that could help founders along their startup journey:
Curious: To be able to find the solution to a new problem, founders need to be curious by nature. Master Googlers if you may. You need to be able to research something, learn from it, and apply it to find the perfect solution to your problem.
Ambitious: Building a successful company is not an easy task. You have to dream big and focus on what you are building. There will always be competitors in the market. If you focus on what you are building and not on what your competitors are doing, you already have a leg up over them. Go out there and change the world, one challenge at a time.
Resilient: Startups have many ups and downs. Not every day is a good day, but you have to learn how to take each day as a learning opportunity and believe that you are going to make it. Focus on the big picture. Find and connect with other founders. Being a founder could be lonely at times, but available resources and other founders are always happy to help as they’ve been there once as well.
Detail Oriented/Analytical: Numbers are always trying to tell us a story. You have to be able to sort through lots of data points to find valuable metrics and use them to improve your product. Knowing how to use historical data points to predict the future is a must-have skill.
Compassionate: Building a good product is one thing, but being able to build a great company requires founders to have a great human side. Understand your customer's pain points and solve them but also make sure that your team is onboard your mission to solving that challenge and working towards the same goal. Surround yourself with great teammates and the rest will fall into place.
Most of these traits are found in Armenian founders who have raised multiple rounds and millions of dollars of financing. If that’s you, strongly consider starting your company and creating a world-changing company. Let me know your thoughts!
Armenian Tech News 📣
💰 Activeloop snags $5M seed to build a streaming database for AI applications.
💸 Armenian financial technology startup cognaize has attracted $2 million in investment for its seed round to create actionable intelligence from unstructured documents using Deep Learning.
🏬 Opening an online store becomes easier thanks to the newly created Armenian Shopian startup. Watch their informative video explaining it all here.
😎 Samsung Innovation Campus to be launched in Armenia’s Dilijan. Enabling Armenian youth to develop their IT skills and learn the concepts related to Mobile Programming.
🚀 This year, DISQO was included in the list of the fastest-growing companies in the INC500 category, and most recently was recognized as the company providing the most innovative analytical tools, registering a growth of 414%.
💼 A new system of work permits for foreigners will be introduced in Armenia in 2022.
💡 Back in September, Intelinair raised $20 million in Series B funding to continue to scale the company and its flagship crop intelligence platform.
🚨 At the beginning of last month, we launched the Hye Ventures - The Investment Syndicate. Read all about it in our previous edition of the newsletter.
What we’re following 🚀
Entrepreneurship:
Unit Economics and The Pursuit of Scale Invariance by Tribe Capital
Your Board of Directors is Probably Going to Fire You by Jerry Neumann
Crypto (Crypto rebranded as Web 3.0):
Gaming / Creator Economy:
How fans are becoming millionaires by Blake Robbins
The Overlooked Levels of the Creator Economy by Dan Runcie
Jobs 💼
Tumo is looking to hire is looking for a UI / UX designer. Many other roles are available as well!
Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) is hiring for a Deputy Chief of Party for the "Armenia Workforce Development Activity", funded by USAID. Apply today! They are also providing unique internship opportunities for postgraduate students majoring in science. Learn more through this link.
Armat engineering laboratories will be opened in schools of 13 rural communities of the Syunik region. They are looking for new team members to help with the project. Find out more here!
International Armenian Job Board.
Post your Jobs here
Startup spotlight 👨💻👩💻
Scylla
Scylla, founded in 2018 by Albert Stepanyan, offers a real-time physical threat detection solution. They use AI and computer vision to detect objects, actions, and behavior anomalies. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, their mission is to empower the private security industry with next-gen AI solutions. And with every new product in mind, they strive to make safety more accessible to those who could not afford it otherwise. Scylla has raised $4.9M in funding by Hustle Fund, Mucker Capital, amongst others. Check out their video here as well as their case studies of their product.
We are looking for startups to cover in our next newsletter! Fill in this form!
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