Why Flocations turned down a quarter of a million from Angel’s Gate judges

If you’ve caught tonight’s episode of Angel’s Gate, you would know that Flocations, a Singapore-based startup, turned down a quarter of a million dollars from the judges. Their main reason? The cash was insufficient given the terms offered.

“We’ve worked on our company for almost a year, spending hours agonizing over the numbers and producing the best code. Why would we only take 15 seconds to make a decision that signs away a third of our company?” said co-founder Tudor Coman.

Angel’s Gate is a reality show on Channel NewsAsia where entrepreneurs pitch to investors on TV with the hopes of getting an investment.

After going through a 30 second pitch in an elevator, followed by another presentation in the room where the four angels sat, the co-founders Tudor Coman and Florian Cornu asked for US$500,000 in return for 30 percent. Instead, they were offered half of that, for 33 percent of the company, plus mentorship.

Tudor then countered by offering 20 percent equity instead, but the judges decided against it and killed the deal.

Nonetheless, Tudor still thinks entrepreneurs should apply for the show.

“It was all great fun, and of course we’re pleased they saw value and made an offer, even though we declined. Angel’s Gate was still an amazing opportunity for us to spread the word about our product. I’m excited that our message will be nationally televised to let users know that there are better ways to travel,” said the entrepreneur.

Flocations is a startup that is developing an online search-by-price air travel directory, which is a very competitive segment of the travel industry.

They are also one of twelve startups at the ongoing 100-day JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp which sees companies develop from idea stage to a prototype (SGE‘s coverage of the bootcamp).

The duo will be pitching again at the bootcamp’s Demo Day on 4th May.

“We’re already in contact with investors, but since our business is growing at an extreme rate, it is difficult to agree on a valuation right now,” said Tudor, “we’re going to be extending an invitation to the Angels again on Demo Day, and perhaps, at that time, they will take our terms.”