Rock the Post, Interview with Tanya Prive

At the end of January, Rock the Post, a NYC-based start up that has created a business social network, raised $700k in seed funding (read here).

Tanya Prive, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, has joined us to answer some questions about the service, the company the fundraising, etc..

Read the interview below.

FinSMEs: Hello Tanya, thank you for joining us. First, tell us something about Rock The Post. How did you come up with the idea of creating it?
Tanya: My partner and I always wanted to erase the concept of intermediation from the way business transactions were done around the world. As a result, and after many brainstorming sessions, Rock The Post was born.

FinSMEs: What is it? How does it work?
Tanya: Rock The Post is a business social network website committed to serve as a bridge and communication platform for business partnerships to form, and to become a place where projects, dreams, and passions become reality. With this in mind, the website is focused on helping those who want to transform an idea or project into a successful business or cause. Rock The Post is the platform used by entrepreneurs, project creators, professionals and talented individuals around the world in order to get connected with likeminded individuals in pursuit of creating or furthering a business, project, idea or cause.
The way it works is very simple. First users register, after the user will create a post under the desired category specifying the type of partnership they are seeking, by investment or pledge of money, time, and/or materials. Once the post is uploaded thousands of other users will have access to it, deciding whether they would like to participate or not. It is in this instance that complementary partnerships form and projects, ideas, businesses or causes develop.

FinSMEs: What’s your business model?
Tanya: Our business model is based on subscriptions and advertisement.

FinSMEs: I’m noticing different crowdfunding platforms have been launching in the USA and in Europe. Could you tell us the features that differentiate Rock The Post from the others?
Tanya: We are the first one to meld social networking and crowdfunding. At the same time, on Rock The Post we take it one step further by introducing the possibility to invest and pledge not only money, but also time and resources.

FinSMEs: Could you introduce us the other members of the team?
Tanya: We have a team of 14 people. We are growing fast. With this in mind, I rather keep the suspense and let your readers find out. Maybe they want to join us also! You never know… We have currently many positions open in our Rock The Post’s careers section.

FinSMEs: Why did you start thinking about raising capital?
Tanya: My partner and I started developing this platform with only 60,000 dollars. We were very wise with our expenses throughout the time of developing the platform,which took 1 year and 2 months. However, it got to a point where money to back our quick growth was necessary.

FinSMEs: Today, many tech companies try to raise venture funding and I know that this is no easy. What did you do to reach this target? Was it easy to close the deal?
Tanya: It took us only 3 months to close this round. The average to close a deal like this one is normally 21 weeks. With this in mind, we feel very fortunate that we had people believing on our project. At an early stage is very hard to secure funds, because VC’s want traction and positive numbers. However, our philosophy has always been to “think the unthinkable” and that is what we will continue doing.

FinSMEs: Who are the investors?
Tanya: We have a total of 8 angel investors from Canada, USA, and Spain. We wanted to keep the number low as we wanted to keep an attractive structure towards potential investors on future rounds.

FinSMEs: How are you using the capital?
Tanya: The capital is used mainly for payroll and product. We have many new projects and features that we are currently working on.

FinSMEs: Do you already plan to raise additional venture capital funding?
Tanya: We do not have such plan for now as we want to avoid distractions. Right now we want to keep our focus on developing the platform which is the most important thing. When the time is right we will open the doors to other potential investors.

FinSMEs

02/02/2012

Join the discussion