From Developer to 2-Time Successful AI Entrepreneur with Exits: Behamics CEO Valon Xhafa (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: There were two things that you talked about in this case study. One is there are so many developers out there who want to be entrepreneurs. Very often, they don’t know which problem to solve or they don’t have the domain knowledge.

In your case, you went to this media accelerator and met journalists who had a problem they wanted to solve. This enmeshing of non-technical domain knowledge and a technical person creates very interesting company opportunities. That’s one way developers can become entrepreneurs.

Valon Xhafa: That’s an important topic. As developers, we get isolated from the outer world. We don’t know what’s going on out there. Even when we’re building something, it’s going to be heavily tech-driven.

Sramana Mitra: Domain knowledge is invaluable. Very often, people who have domain knowledge rest in the hands of people who don’t have technical knowledge.

Valon Xhafa: Exactly. The business guys usually work with use cases but lack the technical part. The most important thing is the MVP part. It really matters a lot. It matters because if you build the MVP within three months, it’s a huge difference versus taking a year to build the MVP. The most important thing is, you need to have feedback from the market ASAP. You can’t have feedback without an MVP.

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to build the MVP?

Valon Xhafa: 3.5 months.

Sramana Mitra: That is an incredible journey. How much was the pre-seed and what was the size of the exit?

Valon Xhafa: We raised in high six figures. The exit was mid-seven figures.

Sramana Mitra: That’s a great three months of your life.

Valon Xhafa: My journalist friends were pushing back on this. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Sramana Mitra: Yes, you should take it if you get the opportunity. We call it bootstrapping to exit – either completely bootstrapping or bootstrapping with a small amount of money.

Valon Xhafa: It depends on a lot of factors to do that. In our case, the key component was the IP and not the business model. When you have products where the business model is more important, then you have to spend a lot of money on ads and marketing. It’s also difficult to bootstrap it.

Sramana Mitra: This was more of technology acquisition. For developers, aiming for technology acquisition is a good way to build companies. What happened after that? Did you have to go and work for that company?

Valon Xhafa: No, that’s the thing that I didn’t want to have. I’ve read a lot of stories about founders who had to work for these companies. They don’t really have the best experience of their life. In that case, I decided to work as an advisor and help them migrate this to their tech teams. This gave me the possibility to join Google when they offered me a position. I accepted the offer from Google. With every entrepreneur who has had a first exit, they want to do it again.

Sramana Mitra: Where were you working for Google?

Valon Xhafa: Munich.

Sramana Mitra: How long did you stay at Google?

Valon Xhafa: Less than four months.

This segment is part 2 in the series : From Developer to 2-Time Successful AI Entrepreneur with Exits: Behamics CEO Valon Xhafa
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