- Glide, a startup that automatically turns spreadsheets into functional mobile apps, announced $3.6 million in seed funding on Tuesday.
- First Round Capital led the round, which was secured before the Glide team pitched at Y Combinator's Winter 2019 Demo Day.
- Glide cofounder David Siegel told Business Insider that his team used the same deck they pitched on-stage at Demo Day, the accelerator's famous competition where startup founders pitch a room full of hundreds of investors.
- Although Siegel, who had sold his previous startup to Microsoft, had his pick of interested investors, the team ultimately went with First Round for Glide's seed fund because they "appealed to my team, and not just my ego!"
- See the deck they presented on stage at Y Combinator's Demo Day that secured funding from First Round.
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The mobile revolution created a new class of tech industry winners with the right combination of skills, foresight, and lucky timing to thrive in the smartphone age.
But the revolution left others behind.
David Siegel recognized the plight of these mobile-challenged holdovers — businesses that didn't have the tech savvy necessary to revamp their storefronts into mobile apps.
He started Glide and applied to Silicon Valley's biggest and most well-known accelerator: Y Combinator. Siegel and his team came up with the idea for Glide after their last startup, Xamarin, was acquired by Microsoft for $500 million, according to TechCrunch.
Glide uses a spreadsheet template to create mobile apps, no engineering required. What Wordpress and Blogspot did for personal website, Glide was going to do for mobile apps in 2019, Siegel pitched on-stage at Y Combinator's Demo Day in February.
On Tuesday, Glide officially announced $3.6 million in seed funding led by First Round Capital, the VC firm that backed Uber and Warby Parker. SV Angel, Y Combinator, and several angel investors also participated in the round, according to Siegel.
"More than any other investor, First Round explained how they would support me, my three co-founders, and even our first employees. Meanwhile, some investors failed to learn the names of my cofounders," Siegel told Business Insider. "First Round appealed to my team, and not just my ego!"
Y Combinator's Demo Day is an event that runs twice a year and attracts hundreds of investors hoping to back the next big startup in its earliest days.
The hubbub and two-day-long pitch event can make it difficult for young companies to stand out. Siegel said he and his cofounders Jason Smith, Mark Probst, and Antonio Garcia Aprea spent the week before meeting with investors to make sure they had time to walk through closed-door demos to drive the point home and lock down seed funding before they even took the stage. (The funding deal was agreed to back in February, but has only now officially closed, Siegel says).
"I think the clarity of our pitch and the experience of our team made us stand out," Siegel said. "In closed meetings, demoing a strong product with early traction, and articulating our vision of how codeless programming could work, with the technical and product chops to back it up, drove the pitch home."
Check out the pitch deck Siegel used to close First Round Capital and other investors before even stepping on-stage at Y Combinator's annual Demo Day in February.
