How one startup raised money on a beach and how you can, too

As far as business conferences go, Geeks on a Beach has to have one of the cooler premises: If the Philippines has 7,107 islands, why not invite members of the local and international tech scene to a different one of its beaches every year?

The ZipMatch team – John Dang (light purple) and Chow Paredes (brown and black top)

ZipMatch co-founder Chow Paredes is a veteran of the inaugural 2013 Geeks on a Beach in Boracay and returns to this year’s Geeks on a Beach in Cebu, which takes place on August 21 and 22, with much more resolve, if not optimism.

Chow Parades met a key investor – Khailee Ng of 500 startups – through the first Geeks on a Beach. Together with Zipmatch co-founder and CEO John Dang, they’re still looking for more at this year’s conference, eager as they are to build on ZipMatch’s most recent success.

ZipMatch recently closed a second seed round for a total of US$550,000. According to Dang, this figure includes reinvestments from 500 Startups, which was led by Khailee Ng, and IMJ Investment Partners, which was led by Koichi Saito and Deron Quon. The new investors in Zipmatch include NetPrice CEO Teruhide Sato and Alps Venture co-founder Dirk Van Quaquebeke. To date, they’ve raised a total US$1 million.

See: Geeks on a Beach 2013: Startups, get ready for a whale of a time in Boracay

Fundraising in the Philippine sunshine

In anticipation of Geeks on a Beach, Tech in Asia spoke to Dang about how entrepreneurs can better approach the fundraising process. Here is his advice:

Don’t just seek an investment, seek investors

In a startup system as young as the one in Metro Manila, the amount of money a startup raises is often held up like a badge of pride, Dang says. While he does not discount the importance of raising money, Dang argues that entrepreneurs should give as much attention to the investor as to the investment.

Investors offer different strengths and intangibles, some of which are more useful to your particular startup and some of which are less so. As an example, Dang gave a brief overview of some of his investors, each of whom provides ZipMatch with different kinds of help.

“Khailee Ng from 500 Startups is a great problem solver,” Dang says. “Koichi from IMJ Investment Group is great at helping us with introductions to new potential investors. Earl Valencia from IdeaSpace is awesome at helping us gain PR. Nix Nolledo and Manny Ayala knows every player in the Philippines and helps us open doors – each investor offers something different.”

Don’t get caught up in vanity metrics – focus on the big problem you’re solving

Investors, of course, want a startup team that will stop at nothing to be the number one company in their given space. According to Dang, this principle can mean different things to different firms in the world of real estate.

For some other company, being number one might mean getting the most website traffic. For another company, being number one might mean having the most real estate listings posted on their site. To Dang, however, these are nothing more than vanity metrics – they give no real indication of how well these companies are helping Filipinos.