Paul Singh Turning Backburner Project Into Bloomberg/Motley Fool Of The Private Markets

Paul Singh,Dashboard.io,500 startups,dc startup,startupPaul Singh, the Washington DC based entrepreneur, who became a household name in many startup circles while he was a partner at 500 startups, has began sharing much more about his startup Dashboard.io.  We had started hearing rumors that Singh was stepping down at 500 startups during SXSW and it was confirmed in March.

Singh returned to his DC roots to continue growing dashboard.io a project he says he started on the back burner. Dashboard.io quickly grew into a huge tool that 500 startups founders and other accelerator startups could use to reach investors, share information and talk with each other.

We recently took a trip to Silicon Valley and had the chance to talk with several 500 startups founders who found the dashboard extremely useful.

Singh explains on the dashboard.io blog how the idea came about:

It began with the innocuous “initial commit” and a pitch of “Let me peek at your traffic data. I promise to keep it private, and I’ll anonymously show you how you stand up to everyone else on the platform.”

Once he started the initial project and it made it’s way on to Hacker News over 300 startups started flooding the system and adding their data. Soon after that Singh “turned off the spigot” and went back to focusing on 500 Startups.  500 was still young at the time and they resorted to using Google Groups to communicate with founders and mentors.

“The turning point came when a well known founder and mentor had enough and, frustrated and angry, handed in their resignation. They couldn’t see through the clutter to mentor our community, and just like that, one of our best was gone. That same night I revived Dashboard.io with a renewed mission — to build a better platform for the 500 family.” Singh writes.

As 500 startups grew, so did the internal dashboard system.  The dashboard system has allowed 500 Startups founders, and 400 accelerator companies to communicate internally with VC’s, Angels and Mentors. Sarah Ware, CEO and Founder at 500 Startups alum Markerly, told us “The dashboard system gives us access to people that may not necessarily correspond with us outside of the system.” Being a 500 Startups company certainly gives a startup credibility but Ware added “potential investors and mentors get back to us quicker when the message comes through the system.”

Fast forward to today and Singh seems motivated by the ability to really help young companies grow through the use of dashboard.io. The tool, coupled with AngelList provides an unparalleled resource for startups. The best part is it’s free.

Singh recently explained in a Facebook post how dashboard.io will make money.

“we give the software away completely free — and in a Yammer-like way.  We use the aggregate anonymous data to create content and sell portions of it. Think of us as the Bloomberg / Motley Fool of the private markets. We give away a ton of content (soon) via our blog and then monetize on the extremes”

One of Singh’s biggest priorities is confidentiality and privacy making two big promises to the Dashboard community.

  1. I will keep your information safe. I will never sell or share your data with anyone, including your investors.
  2. I will use that data anonymously to benefit our entire industry and move it forward.

Check out Dashboard.io here.

More stories on the ninjas and pirates of 500 Startups here.

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OFFICIAL: Paul Singh Unveils Dashboard.io Steps Down From 500 Startups

Paul Singh,Dashboard.io,startup,startup newsA few weeks ago during SXSW we had heard some rumblings that DC area native Paul Singh was tapping his network back east and preparing to launch a startup of his own, sort of.

This announcement from TechCocktail says it’s official. Armed with a $250,000 investment from DC based NextGenAngels, Singh is embarking on a mission to take a system he developed that has been used internally at 500 Startups and bring it out to the world.

While we were in Silicon Valley last week we stopped by for a three hour tour and a cool session with 500 Startups Fire Chief George Kellerman. Kellerman reiterated the positive things that many of the 500 Startups founders we’ve talked to have said about their internal dashboard system, which is the Dashboard.io product Singh is now working on full time.

The dashboard system has allowed 500 Startups founders, and 400 accelerator companies to communicate internally with VC’s, Angels and Mentors. Sarah Ware, CEO and Founder at 500 Startups alum Markerly, told us “The dashboard system gives us access to people that may not necessarily correspond with us outside of the system.” Being a 500 Startups company certainly gives a startup credibility but Ware added “potential investors and mentors get back to us quicker when the message comes through the system.”

“This thing is so deceivingly simple, but it’s amazing that no VCs have really innovated in this space,” Singh said to TechCocktail.

New startups sign up for the system using Angel List. Dashboard.io gives them access to their investor’s networks where they can start having discussions, send private messages and make comments. If a startup shares their analytics, the system gives investors access to comparative data on how the startup stacks up against other startups and their competition.

As of this writing there have been 18,509 interactions, 2,224 mentor sessions across 1,044 funded startups.

For more info check out dashboard.io

500 Startups Founder Dave McLure says Buying a house is far more risky than investing in startups.