Tutum, a company that’s working in a new, rapidly growing area of cloud computing called containers, raised $2.65 million from lead investor RTP Ventures, with participation from Azure Capital Partners, and a group of “awesome angels,” said Borja Burgos-Galindo, Tutum CEO and co-founder.
Much as physical containers drastically reduce the time and cost to ship things, the software containers are a fundamentally cheaper and faster way to deploy applications in the cloud. In other words, thanks to this hot new technology, you can run your apps in the cloud, using just one command, scale your app in seconds, and crash-recovery is built in, so no down time.
The Madrid-born Burgos-Galindo, who founded his company in Buenos Aires, doesn’t plan shipping his company off to some other world capital or tech hub any time soon.
“Tutum is making our mark on the NY Tech scene by deciding to stay in NY as opposed to heading out West. We believe there is an increase of tech talent in New York and we our honored to join the likes of Digital Ocean, MongoDB and DataDog, as one ofNY developer/infrastructure tech companies,” he said. Here’s what he said about his company’s funding process:
What was the funding process like?
Long, tedious, stressful and complicated. Most people’s description of fundraising is fairly accurate. It being Summer did not help by any means, but it was pleasant to be able to close without having to wait to the Fall. Process was accelerated and simplified after meeting the investors we ended up going with. Support from earlier commitments (angels) was appreciated throughout the process.
How did being part of the Techstars program help Tutum?
Mentorship, networking and exposure. Thanks to Techstars we were able to meet a very large number of VCs, angels, entrepreneurs, and technology experts. These introductions turned into valuable mentorship, networking opportunities and overall exposure that helped the company both grow and raise our seed round.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
By the nature of it, fundraising is a slow and tedious process. Nobody is going to give you any money without some level of due diligence. Lots of introductions, meetings, pitches, presentations. The bulk of our fundraising was done in NYC, with a short one-week trip to California. Our business, being very technical and using the latest technological advancements in virtualization technology, was challenging to explain in layman’s terms to non-technical investors.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The tech space we’ve positioned ourselves in is becoming red hot, and we’re one of the first movers. We’ve formed a really strong team and have been executing our butts off.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Eat cheap and stay focused on the goal at hand! Try to maximize your runway as much as you can before funding. Expect the process to take longer than you think. Keep a close dialogue with your users every step of the process. Make time to celebrate the victories and find something to do that is not work related, to keep you sane.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We’re looking to expand our team. We want to add more people to our team over the next year. We’ll be putting most of our energy now on developing Tutum into the best possible service.
What’s your favorite New York City activity on a cloudy day?
I love movies and just happen to live across from a cinema. Depending on the hour, you may also catch me playing some ping-pong with the rest of the team. I also don’t mind staying in on a rainy day.
