48 Days Since the Valley: 4 Experiences that supercharged our Startup during the C100's 48 Hours-Cleantech Edition

A Recap by Sunit Mohindroo & Ahmed Badruddin, Co-Founders of WatrHub Inc.



Okay, so it's been a little bit longer than 48 days, but to appreciate the true magnitude of the impact C100 has had on our startup, we needed a few weeks to harvest our thoughts.  Today we are here to share the best experiences we had with you.

First off, we would like to say we were honoured to be selected as one of the 5 C100 companies in the inaugural CleanTech 48 Hours in the Valley.  For 2 Canadian Founders who had spent their entire careers working at Microsoft and Apple in the US, and with zero startup experience and limited connections in Canada and the VC world, the C100 program not only opened doors for us but also gave us an immediate support system.

In Early December, we were a fledging startup looking for advice on how to apply our technologies to the budding cleantech industry from those that had already lived in the proverbial ‘trenches’.  Since then we have raised WatrHub's profile and accelerated our product, a versatile news, data, and analytics platform for the global water industry because of our C100 Cleantech experiences, both in Toronto and the Valley. Here are the 4 best things that could have ever happened to us:

1. We Learned What We Didn't Know

We had the amazing opportunity to meet and learn from respected, knowledgeable and inspirational thought leaders.

On Day One in the Valley, Matt Trevithick, Partner at Venrock, kicked off the program with a very insightful, candid talk on the world of Venture Capital.  This wasn't just a glossy overview of what a venture firm does; it was the dissection of the Venture Capitalist mind. He explained how VCs look, think and cross-examine companies and teams, and how the 10 year VC fund cycle actually works and how important it is to know where a VC is at in that cycle.  (If they are in their first 3 years of the fund, you are right in their bull’s-eye, but after year 5, you are likely pitching to pre-occupied ears!)  

We now make it a habit of keeping in touch with every VC we met at C100 and beyond, because as Matt so eloquently put it, you have to "make friends before you need them."  It's hard to pull favors on the spot from anybody, so think about how much more challenging it will be when you are asking favors of people you want to take money from.

On Day Two, Russ McMeekin, CEO of SCIenergy, shared his entrepreneurial anecdotes about raising capital, as Pedram Mokrian, Principal at Mayfield, added a VC's perspective on the same topic. One of Russ's most valuable nuggets of advice was “you don’t get to know people through PowerPoints, but through beers.”  After the trip, we actually took this advice to heart and started scheduling drinks with prospective angel investors. These informal settings helped us build stronger relationships with investors, helped us raise some angel funding, and is how we got the most candid and constructive feedback on our product and target market. Who knew that a little bit of barley and hops could have such a profound impact on a Canadian Cleantech startup.

The other panel that day included Dylan Steeg from Intel Capital and David Lawson from Proctor & Gamble, who gave us a new appreciation for how to work with strategic partners. They talked in depth about what they look for and how they are different from Venture Capital firms. We not only learned that P&G sells over 11 million Pampers  in the US each year, but both of these Fortune 500 companies know that the biggest strides their companies will make in the next half-century will be in sustainable materials and packaging along with zero emissions plants.  They are just as eager to partner with startups or connect you to the right people as VCs are if you can help them reach these impressive and eco-responsible goals.

 2. We Were Mentored By The Best

WatrHub is in a unique position being a startup at the intersection of both IT and CleanTech. We are building a scalable, interactive web platform for the budding Water Intelligence Industry that sorely needs it. This stems from our passion to prove that there are capital efficient opportunities in CleanTech for young, tech entrepreneurs like us.

Atlee Clark, Program Director of C100, realized early that we were a special kind of animal and set us up with both CleanTech and IT mentors. During our CleanTech mentoring sessions , Marianne Wu, Partner at Mohr Davidow, and Gordon Smythe, Partner at Propel Partners, opened their rolodexes and since then have made some very valuable connections for us. Marianne continues to reach out to us regularly to provide support and encouragement, something we never thought a top tier VC would ever do for us prior to any investment.

Dan Martell schooled us with a lesson about web metrics and even took us outside the building to physically demonstrate how cohorts work. To the untrained eye, it might have looked like we were playing hopscotch in downtown SF, but it was actually a mentoring session showing us that different user sets need to be tracked over time to identify trends in their user behaviour (aka cohorts).  All of this is done so you can tweak your interface to better satisfy the needs of your users. That's a pretty insightful lesson derived from a simple children's game and Dan's youthful exuberance.

During the C100 CleanTech launch in Toronto last November, we had similarly beneficial sessions with Jon Quick, Director at Vantage Point; Dion Madsen, Managing Director of Physic Ventures, and Peter Polydor from SAIL Capital Partners,  who helped us expand our target market and validated that there is a growing demand for the web platform we are building.  We know there is no way we could have gotten constructive feedback from this calibre of investor all at once without the C100 connection.

3. We Were Inspired by Successful, World-Changing Companies

Ahmed Badruddin at Tesla Headquarters checking out some of the latest models on the lot

Silicon Valley has a rich history of building world-changing companies, and on our third morning (still within our 48 Hours), the C100 CleanTech group got to visit Tesla, the electric car company that is revolutionizing the auto industry. For all the gearheads and envirogeeks out there, we don't have to explain what an awesome opportunity this was.  But almost unexpectedly, amid the excitement of checking out the showrooms of cars and future prototypes, we experienced firsthand a company that thinks differently about manufacturing, supply chain and the buying experience of the customer.  The numbers started to add up when we heard that Tesla hired the same execs responsible for Apple's customer experience to design the Tesla car buying process, everything from choosing the color of the floors in the showrooms to the script the sales associates use when they hand over keys for a test drive.

Since the C100 48 hours event gave us an opportunity to be in Silicon Valley, we decided to stay a couple of days afterwards and  visit a good friend of ours working at Facebook's headquarters.  When we arrived, we were immediately inspired by all the small details we observed that we didn’t realize could make a difference to a startup:  The layout or "dis-layout" of the desks; the quirky, yet clever messages on poster hanging on almost every wall; the openness to talking or spitball ideas with anyone at any time.  We were even lucky enough to walk past "Zuck" himself heading to a meeting.  We did manage to smuggle back a poster or two to the WatrHub headquarters and during our latest office move, we took a page out of their (Face)book and created the most collaborative layout we could.  I'm happy to report that it truly does enhance team communication, even if it just makes it easier to pick a lunch restaurant.

Sunit Mohindroo in front of the large Facebook Wall at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto.

4. We Bonded With Fellow Canadian CleanTech Entrepreneurs

Over drinks at some of C100's networking receptions and even during the bus drives between events, we spent a lot of quality time with fellow Cleantech entrepreneurs that were working hard at changing the world. We had an instant rapport with these Cleantech pioneers who are fighting to break the same, long-held stereotypes about the Cleantech industry that we are.  

Over drinks at some of C100's networking receptions and even during the bus drives between events, we spent a lot of quality time with fellow Cleantech entrepreneurs that were working hard at changing the world. We had an instant rapport with these Cleantech pioneers who are fighting to break the same, long-held stereotypes about the Cleantech industry that we are. 

We become fast friends with the enthusiastic Mischa Steiner-Jovic from Awesense Wireless, the seasoned veterans Jay and Richard from REV Technologies, the knowledgeable Keith Thomas from Vive Nano, and the witty Philipp Furhman from Captherm Systems. We know their entrepreneurial journeys are going to lead to some great accomplishments and we are excited to see how their startups progress. And since we have entered into fundraising mode again, it's always great to be able to reconnect with our fellow C100 alumni for support and introductions. 

Over 48 hours, we joined a small band of passionate advocates for making the world a more sustainable place and that just might be the best part of the C100 experience. 

There were so many intangibles beyond these 4 experiences that are too numerous to mention, but they all congealed along with all of the C100 entrepreneurs we met into a fast-paced 48 hours that WatrHub will certainly never forget.  We are proud and thankful we can call ourselves a "48 hours in the Valley" alumni company. Many thanks to Scott MacDonald and Whitney Rockley who first introduced us to the C100 program and a special shoutout to Atlee & Camille from C100, and Tina from the Canadian Consulate for helping put this wonderful experience together; I don't think anyone can ever fully appreciate all the work they do behind the scenes.

There you have it, we have shared our top experiences and highlights and we would love to hear some stories from the other proud C100 alumni out there.

Don’t forget to change the world, eh!