E565: Ahryun Moon, founder of EtchApp & the return of “Ask Jason”!

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about this episode

A special two-parter for you today. First up is Ahryun Moon, founder of EtchApp, a company that crushed this year’s LAUNCH Hackathon and went onto product success, with their recent launch — and feature — in the Apple store. EtchApp is a multi-tasking replacement keyboard for devices so you can send messages & access services without switching — and just might be, as Jason predicts, THE killer Watch app. We see the product in action, hear what inspired its creation (hint: learning Chinese), learn about what it’s like innovate in this vertical, comparisons to U.S. and Korean markets, and how the LAUNCH Hackathon started it all…… THEN! It’s the return of #AskJason! Jason takes questions from fans. Brace yourself!

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@etchforme
@jason
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Paul Towers

Great to see “Ask Jason” back and love the format of people recording the questions so you can get through more of them quicker.

I really appreciated your insight on funding from non-accredited investors via these platforms that are springing following the change in legislation (similar change is afoot here in Australia ~ prob 12 – 18 months off). I have read a number of articles on the space and to date you are the first person who i have heard who raises a very valid point about the signaling risk that can come from raising from the general public.

Not only that but the value of having a well connected angel or VC can in some cases be just as much, if not more, important as the money they bring to the table and this is something that certainly lacks when raising from the general public.

I think for Entrepreneurs looking to raise funds that they would be best served by raising from Angels and VC’s and if after 40 or 50 meetings they are still getting a “No” then maybe it’s time to look at the product/service and see what they may be missing, rather than go down a peg and raise funds via the public for what maybe a flawed product.

For the “mum and dad” investors I also think there needs to be further education, because I foresee a situation where “Company A” raises funds to execute on “Idea A”, Idea A fails to get traction so the company iterates and goes on to attempt “Idea B”. To an Angel or VC this is know to happen and is acceptable (albeit not preferred) , to an uneducated member of the public (who is used to publicly listed companies mentioned on the news), they may feel lied to as the company has fundamentally changed what they said they were originally going to do. As a result you have a set of investors who are disgruntled at the company, its founders and CEO, when in reality they are doing may well be the best thing for the company and it’s chance of long term success by iterating.