Days after the launch of Luluvise, a private social network for women, founder Alexandra Chong recalls how it took two years to fulfil her dotcom dream
■ It all started the day after Valentine’s Day in 2009. I needed to give my girlfriends “the scoop” on a date but they were scattered all over the world. The details were juicy, so I didn’t feel comfortable posting them on Facebook. Three telephone calls, many BlackBerry messages and texts, and two Skype calls later, I said to Alison Schwartz, who became my co-founder: “Why can’t I tell this story to all my best friends at once?” Luluvise was born: a social network dedicated to young women and the central role that best friends play in their lives, health and happiness. Think Sex and the City marries Facebook.
■ I was working at Upstream, a mobile marketing company, so nights and weekends were Luluvise time. I found a digital agency, Glow Labs, and sent them half my monthly pay cheque to build a prototype. One year and three versions later, we had a model that worked and it was time to find some finance.
■ My first angel investor was Alexios Vratskides, chief executive of Upstream, and with his investment, I went full-time on my start-up. Passion Capital and Profounders, whose backers include Brent Hoberman of Lastminute.com and Bebo’s Michael Birch, then came on board. I raised $1m (£643,000) by July. The investors are also my mentors; they provide much more than cash.
■ Once I had the funds, the next challenge was hiring the team. I’m a first-time tech entrepreneur without an engineering background, so finding talent — and fast — was difficult. I called and emailed everyone I knew for referrals and posted ads on job boards. After hundreds of CVs and interviews, my first key hire was Ole Mahrt, who worked at Skype. Now we are 12. If I’ve learnt one thing, it’s that the team is everything.
■ Eileen Burbidge, one of Passion Capital’s partners, encouraged me to set up our office at White Bear Yard, in Clerkenwell, London. There are 10-plus other start-up chief executives there to bounce ideas off and share best practices.
■ At a Downing Street reception, Rohan Silva, David Cameron’s senior policy adviser, reminded me that when he first visited our offices in August, Team Lulu consisted of an intern and a couple of freelances. By the time Cameron came on his Tech City tour last month, we had grown to 12 employees.
■ Last week we hit our first big milestone. After working days and nights for two years, Luluvise is now live. It’s an amazing feeling. In the next weeks, we will focus on getting members and improving our product. The response in our first week has been incredible, but we still have a long road ahead.
Luluvise blog 