Dashfire in The Journal

When BucketFeet co-founders Raaja Nemai and Aaron Firestein came to Rick with the idea to sell limited-edition, artist designed global footwear, but lacked technical expertise, Dashfire was eager to collaborate. But.. why?

Dashfire meets with over 20 aspiring entrepreneurs a month, all of whom are looking to build the next greatest start-up. When evaluating each entrepreneur and their idea, Dashfire focuses primarily on the following questions:

• Does the founding entrepreneur(s) have the ability to execute? They aren’t writing code, so what are they doing to advance the company?
• Have they identified their customer pain points (i.e., does the problem really exist)?
• Have they gauged demand for their solution?
• Do they have an innovative customer acquisition strategy?

99.99% of ideas have been thought of before. Dashfire’s most successful companies are run by entrepreneurs who have a “do whatever it takes” attitude.  Importantly, we look for entrepreneurs who don’t just seek risk, they seek to mitigate it.

Dashfire loved Raaja and Aaron and had faith in BucketFeet. As partners, Dashfire provided the then early-stage startup not only through the design and development of www.bucketfeet.com, but also helped to guide the strategic direction of the company. Meanwhile, Raaja and Aaron didn’t just launch an e-commerce store, cross their fingers, and hope people liked their shoes.  They sold 200 pairs offline before www.bucketfeet.com was launched. They secured fans who evangelized their product.  They built a hell of a team and an advisory board.  And most importantly, they are constantly dialoguing with their customers to improve their company.

So.. wanna start something?