First Drop Ventures is an early-stage venture studio that provides strategic guidance, operational support, technology infrastructure, and pre-seed capital. All of the partners of First Drop Ventures come from an entrepreneurial background. Collectively, they have started over 25 companies throughout their careers. After establishing many ventures, the partners realized that having just one of the components listed was not enough to make a venture successful.
Over the years, they have also developed a very knowledgeable and comprehensive technical team and a network of valuable professionals, with whom they enjoy and admire working together. To tie it all together, they wanted to share the resources with founders. Their business model and infrastructure allows them to grow with their startups FROM THE FIRST DROP ON.“Our view is that companies have a higher chance of being successful if we can take as many guided steps as possible from the beginning. Especially with COVID-19 and the evolving nature of technology businesses, we see our companies constantly adapting, advancing, and sometimes pivoting. Yet even in those cases, having our team of experienced advisors helps along the way,” said Esra Pelitozu, Co-Founder of First Drop Ventures.
First Drop Ventures has been recognized as one of the 50 Best Companies. “As one of the founders of First Drop, I was fortunate to have supportive partners. As we are all founders who are implementing a creative business model, we knew how much hard work we would have to put into First Drop Ventures. At each step of the way, we knew our strengths and relied on each other to carry the business forward. For example, I am very much an organization and operations person, whereas my partner enjoys and excels in building relationships, so we each get to do what we enjoy and what we are good at,” added Pelitozu.
“Our view is that companies have a higher chance of being successful if we can take as many guided steps as possible from the beginning. Especially with COVID-19 and the evolving nature of technology businesses, we see our companies constantly adapting, advancing, and sometimes pivoting. Yet even in those cases, having our team of experienced advisors helps along the way”.
One common passion the partners have that brought them together is their core values as individuals. They agree that they need to concentrate on more than profitability at this point in their careers and think about diversity and sustainability. “As a woman with over 20 years of work experience, I have first-hand experience of gender bias throughout my career. Having worked in numerous developing countries, we are familiar with various disadvantaged groups’ social and economic challenges. Our drive to put the planet and people before profits motivate us every morning when we go to work,” said Pelitozu.
Every businessperson wants to grow their business, but there are many challenges involved. “It depends on the profile of the founders, but we focus on getting the product/market fit as correct as possible. Sometimes founders have very idealistic goals, which can be great and drive innovation, but we remind them that companies also need to be realistic and consider market dynamics. We try to set up a model that not only relies on investment but also takes into account profitability and scalability,” added Pelitozu.
Another area where First Drop Ventures sees common challenges is in operations. For most founders, this is the first time they are setting up a business and are unaware of the fundamentals of a solid foundation, so First Drop Ventures works with them in areas such as finance, HR, sales, and establishment of their legal entities in the most appropriate way.
Operational excellence is at the core of the business. Since First Drop Ventures has numerous advisors working on multiple startups and projects throughout the US and Europe, it became increasingly difficult to coordinate and track the work. So the venture studio developed a proprietary technology to track the portfolio companies’ documentation and workflows. Consequently, the company complemented it with the in-house document and workflow management system, which was started of everyday needs, and the developers are now turning into a system.
One very innovative project of First Drop Ventures is JuiceBot. The project was started in 2017 with the founders’ ideal to eliminate plastic packaging and transform the distribution system for beverages. As a result, the first robotic self-service vending machine was developed that dispenses fresh cold-pressed juices. By combining unique food safety technology, leveraging big data, scalable hardware and software, JuiceBot helps the beverage industry achieve its carbon footprint elimination mission.
Another very innovative project is Smart Teller which is a self-service kiosk that supports the UAE’s Smart Government initiative. It offers a wide range of services like identity cards, drivers’ licenses, residence permit card issuing, verification, and renewal. It has attracted the attention of many other international countries.
In terms of technology, the company believes that focusing in their areas of expertise will lead to a better partnership and higher rate of success with our founders, and thus they focus increasingly on innovative fintech solutions. One of the portfolio companies the venture studio is very excited about is Finity, a comprehensive fintech platform as a service solution aimed at serving community banks and credit unions, giving them an equal opportunity to compete with the offerings of neo-banks and allowing them to “catch up technologically” without having to incur significant expenses.
The coronavirus pandemic has put the world into a standstill, but in the post-COVID-19 world; the partners believe that the rate and the depth of innovation will increase. Where once the startup ecosystem was exclusive to Silicon Valley, First Drop Ventures sees more technology and innovation sprouting from all over the world. While First Drop Ventures had initially anticipated focusing mainly in California, the network and focus on fintech led them to several projects in Europe as well. While the US market dynamics are very different from Europe, the company noticed very innovative startups burgeoning there. Thanks to its knowledge of the US markets, the venture studio has become a significant partner to European startups who want to expand to the US. First Drop Ventures have several startups in this profile, and it is working very well for all parties involved.
