
YC W17 Launch: Credy, Upcall, and Kangpe - craigcannon
https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-w17-launch-credy-upcall-and-kangpe/
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mcintyre1994
> This can be for debt refinancing, marriage, education or emergency needs.
> Our customers are those who want fast, hassle-free loans on a recurring
> basis.

Why do your customers need to borrow on a recurring basis for marriage/debt
refinancing? The model sounds like payday loans, lend for something small with
an extortionate markup so they're forced to borrow repeatedly to be able to
pay you back. Are you different to that?

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tarr11
Upcall seems like a good idea.

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redtrackker
To be honest, this idea is really going betting against the current sales
model (which is dangerous). Upcall team -- pay attention to this: almost every
sales leader I know (in SaaS) wants their SDRs/BDRs to be phoning/emailing.
It's absolutely crucial to becoming a great seller. Outsourcing this stuff is
a horrendous idea bcs it robs sales reps of cold selling (which is immensely
important to their growth).

I could go on and on about this, you've chose a rough path.

Disclosure: I've dealt with almost 250+ SaaS sales leaders in the past 24
months.

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samouch1180
Upcall is actually supplementing existing sales team by qualifying leads and
setting up appointment (sales enablement). Hiring and training a SDR/BDR takes
a lot of time and money and that's why Upcall makes it easier for smaller
companies to scale. With the API, companies can easily qualify interest before
using internal team to close deals.

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redtrackker
Let me ask you a question: Do you view Upcall as a stop-gap solution?

Bcs your answer above reads that way.

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samouch1180
Upcall qualifies leads and generate interest. An internal sales team spends
weeks to call 1000 leads and qualify them, and that's our sweat spot.

We are a stop-gap solution for large team, but work with over 350 customers
(including many SaaS companies) who simply don't have time to qualify their
leads that they purchase.

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nikoan
What's different about Kangpe?

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Cyph0n
My first thought is the huge untapped market. Nigeria alone has over half the
population of the US.

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jumpCastle
Yet Nigeria's GDP is smaller than Florida's according to google.

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Cyph0n
And when the GDP improves, their startup will be on the ground to take
advantage of that. There's a reason why investment in African startups is on
the rise.

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jumpCastle
That's true, although significant corruption might make GDP growth too slow
such that the start ups will run out of money before they can benefit from it.

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newsat13
I am curious why you decided to launch on Sat late night. Is there some data
backing what is a good time to launch.

