When you apply at Tomahawk.VC, we ask you to answer a few questions – via video.
We’ve decided to offer founders a way to get in touch with us without having to get an intro through our network. For us, it gives a quick filter and exciting insights that we wouldn’t get from an email or form application. For more reasons and to see how the process is structured – check out the video.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Just a few days ago, we had the first milestone to celebrate at Tomahawk.VC. And it might not be something that you think of immediately, for we’ve celebrated our 100 video application through the website. Now, if you haven’t been to our website, you might not know what I’m referring to, but we have a video button on our website through which we accept pitch decks.
Why automated video pitches and how does it work?
Why and how does this work? I wanted to use the occasion to give you a bit of background on why we’ve decided to do that and have an automated video interview. If you’re a founder and you would like to get in touch with us, the best way to do that is always to go through a person that we have already invested in, or someone that we’re partnering with. Why is that so good? Well, it adds a certain culture fit a certain filter, and so those referrals usually end up at the top in our inbox when we answer emails. But not everyone has access to that kind of network. And to some degree, I also believe that it’s not worth investing in that network if you can do other things with your time right now, like building a world-class product or hiring a superstar team.
A way for founders to get in touch with us
So that’s why we wanted to create a way for founders to get in touch with us, even if they do not have access to our network already. In the past, what we had was an email form on our website, the problem of email is that it’s very easy for founders to get in touch with us. But it also means a very high volume of incoming messages. For us, that means a lot of overhead and a lot of time spent on just reading them. And second, and that’s the bigger problem is that an email doesn’t really allow us to connect with you and understand if we have a good culture fit. So that’s when we sat down, and we started brainstorming about how we could solve this. What can we do that’s kind of in-between having to go through the route of intro and just an email form. And what we realized is that if we can see you talk about your problem, that’s usually a very good indication of how passionate you are, and that, in turn, is a good indication for how excited we are to partner with you on solving a given problem.
Video Ask
So what we discovered is Video Ask. VideoAsk is a subunit or department or sub-product of Typeform, and VideoAsk allows us to do automated video interviews. So if you go on the site, and you scroll down, and you click in the bottom right on that video button where you see me talking, it says apply now. If you open that, I will show up, and I’ll ask you two questions, and you have a couple of minutes to answer each of those.
Why is this so good? Well, for one, as I already said, it gives us a way to connect with you. It gives us an idea to understand who you are. And on the other hand, for you, it’s not a huge time investment. It barely takes more than writing us an email, but it allows you to transfer so much more information. How excited you are, and why it is that you’re solving exactly this problem.
We reached 100 applications via VideoAsk
So as I mentioned, just a few days ago, we reached 100 applications via VideoAsk, and it’s been a pretty interesting process seeing so many of you pictures through that View application. Most of you have also given us good feedback on the process, and we definitely value that, and we encourage anyone to give us feedback so that we can constantly make it better. And on the other hand, it’s been great for us to read this into our CRM into our deal flow tool to get a quick first impression of who you are and why you’re solving, what you’re working on.
So that’s the why and how we decided to go with the video application route. It allows you within just a few minutes to apply to us without having to go through an introduction. And for us, it gives us a very quick filter and very interesting insights that we wouldn’t be able to get from an email.
If you have any ideas for us on how to make this process even better, more efficient, and more fun, please let me know in the comments. And with that, have a beautiful day, stay curious, and I’ll talk to you soon.
