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We are college students currently developing an iPad application and seek a small investment to complete the development before submitting to the app store. We have tried several avenues for asking for funding but in all circumstances have come up short. Does anyone have any ideas of raising 5-10k? We have tried looking into contests, emailing alumni from our college, trying to ask family and friends for smaller investments, tried the iFund, tried several angel investors, and capital investors. The only thing we really havent looked into from what we know is possible for raising an investment is getting a grant. Our application is for education and we are not sure how to go about applying for a grant if that is what we are left to. We have also considered crowd funding but the problem is we have seen that not too many kickstarter apps are successful if they are barely in development and there is not alot to show in the video besides just our idea. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you

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1 Answer

It might help if you specified your location. You say you're in college so what do you need the money for?? If it's for marketing, development, accounting, branding, incorporation and so forth then you're going to need more than 5-10K. So my recommendation is to put together an executive summary and a good pitch (take a look at How do I make an angel investor move faster on a deal? and this What are the elements of a one line pitch?).

I think you're not asking enough and people aren't interested in giving you 5-10K; I think you need to ask for a bigger amount (I recommend a minimum of 100K) and be able to explain what you plan to do and how people will be buying into an opportunity to earn a return.

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Thank you for your reply. I will definitely look into more angel investors and coming up with an executive summary. We originally asked for more to include marketing, our implementation strategy and higher quality development but have been unsuccessful. Therefore we are currently trying a smaller figure to pitch just to get the basic concept developed in hopes of having an easier time getting investments and using the revenue from that to complete the rest of the application later. – Grant Wilkinson Dec 5 '12 at 3:42
Good luck; it's not an equal opportunity game, just go for quantity and bang on every investor's door. The more investors you meet, the better you get at presenting your business. Don't try to please every investor; just go for quantity. – frenchie Dec 5 '12 at 13:12

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