In one of the issues of Invest Dala Podcast, the first podcast about the venture capital market of Kazakhstan in Kazakh, the guest was Shyngyz Dauletbayev– founder and CEO of TrustMe, a digital platform for signing contracts via SMS.

TrustMe recently raised $1 million in investments from the Tim Draper Foundation, a venture capitalist who invested in Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, Baidu and Coinbase in the early stages. In the podcast, Shyngyz shared his experience, told how he came to launch a startup after working in business and civil service, and gave advice to those who are just starting their journey.

Here are 5 key insights from the conversation:

Many people think that launching a startup is always about freedom and fast money. But for those who have already achieved a stable income in business or built a career in public service, joining a startup is a huge step back. Shyngyz Dauletbayev walked this path and shared why it was not easy.

"After business and civil service, it is not easy to open a startup – it is, one might say, a step back. In a startup, you don't earn income right away, and you need to be prepared for this. In our case, we made our first profit only two years after the launch."

In the early years, TrustMe was operating at a disadvantage – there was no profit, but there were high costs for the team and product development. However, as Shyngyz admits, it would have been impossible to build a truly worthwhile company without this stage.

When a startup is faced with the first difficulties – lack of money, product problems, criticism – it is his internal motivation that determines whether he can withstand it. If the main goal is just to make money, then there is a high probability that at the first difficulties he will simply give up.

"Our goal is to improve people's lives through technology and innovation. If a person has a mission, a sincere intention to do something useful, he will not give up his business even in the most difficult moments."

TrustMe was originally conceived as a social project, and it was this idea that allowed Shyngyz and his team to move on, even when the company had not been profitable for several years.

Venture capital investments are often perceived as a key indicator of startup success. However, raising money is just a step, not an end goal. Many startups, having received investments, begin to spend them inefficiently, losing focus on product and development.

"In three years, we have attracted $600,000 in investments, not counting $1 million from the Tim Draper Foundation. But even this amount is a small amount of money, if you look at the scale of the tasks. Our goal is to make TrustContract a global product so that people all over the world can sign contracts online, with one click."

TrustMe has come a long way before it was able to attract a $1 million investment from the Tim Draper Foundation. However, for Shyngyz, it is not the fact of attracting money itself that is more important, but its proper use to enter the international market.

Launching a startup is just the beginning. To grow and reach the global level, you need to build a proper development strategy. One of the key steps is to participate in incubation and acceleration programs.

"Every startup must undergo incubation and acceleration, because at the start it seems that everything is simple. But actually launching a startup is 10 times more difficult than running a regular business. That is why it is important to first gain basic knowledge and test hypotheses."

TrustMe underwent the acceleration of Sber500 and Draper Hero Training, which helped the company to test hypotheses faster, build a business model and attract investments.

The Kazakh market has not yet given the world "unicorns" – companies worth more than $1 billion. However, Shyngyz and his team are confident that they will be able to become the first. They have set themselves an ambitious goal and clearly understand what steps need to be taken to achieve it.

"Our goal is to become the first unicorn from Kazakhstan, a company worth $1 billion, by 2027. We have studied the market and we see that so far no one in the country will be able to reach this mark before 2027."

In his opinion, the main thing is not just to dream, but to build a clear plan based on real data and successful cases of global companies.

You can listen to the full version of the release with Shyngyz Dauletbayev at the link – Youtube, audio platforms.

Invest Dala Podcast is the first podcast about the venture capital market of Kazakhstan in the Kazakh language. Here we are honestly talking about venture investments and startups in our native language.