Questions related to receiving capital from external sources.

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2answers
108 views

C Corp Investment Documents [closed]

What the appropriate documents needed for one to buy into a (Delaware) C Corp (private)? What are the documents that the Company needs to issue in order to confirm the investment?
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7answers
463 views

What is more important - having funding or keeping control?

I am starting-off a venture with limited capital that will be sufficient to keep my business afloat for at least 12-18 months. I believe that my product will get some traction during this period, ...
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5answers
112 views

Can referencing our competition help us receive funding?

We have been building our startup for two years. Over that time our idea has evolved and been refined. We are currently talking with investors for funding our project and I want to know if, to help ...
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2answers
1k views

How can a past employee protect themselves against share dilution?

What is share dilution? How can I, as a past employee of a company where I exercised my share options, know if my shares are subject to dilution? How can I protect myself in future from share ...
0
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3answers
156 views

quit your day job while building your awesome concept before funding?

I was thinking it all right to work on my great concept during my free hours and weekend left from my day job. however, lately, I feel I cannot use this free time effectively due to job stress and I ...
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15answers
2k views

Do single-founder companies ever get funded?

Most companies I see funded usually have two or more founders. Do investors, angels or VCs, look down on one-man-companies? Are there many that get funded? Or is it just that it's rare to have one ...
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4answers
161 views

Talking about fundraising with employees

I'm in the middle of raising money for my startup. We have had some initial success (and lots of failed attempts!), and are getting close to finalizing our round. We are a very small company right ...
2
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4answers
108 views

Where to find Funding to keep selling or go bust

Our business model is based on IAAS. We have to keep investing in equipment that we rent out and always lack funding to purchase new equipment. We have come this far with private loans and fundings ...
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1answer
221 views

Start up valuation - how much equity

Approached by 2 founders that are very early days of executing an idea. They have some good .com properties that will be central to brand/idea and had recent offers around $100K, with one outlier ...
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5answers
162 views

Is it possible to get funding before any sale?

I am curious, is it possible to get funding from investor before doing any sale? Any experience?
4
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3answers
355 views

Living on no income

I'm sure this has been asked before, but my searchfu failed me, so I'll ask... How do people bootstrap (which I assume is the most common early-funding model) and manage to pay the rent and feed ...
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2answers
184 views

Monetization of a big open-source software frameworks

Let's consider jQuery is an example project for my question. jQuery is the most renown java script open source software framework nowadays. It was created when working with JavaScript was a real ...
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2answers
381 views

Why does a web startup need millions on VC capital?

One of the great benefits of the web application business is that startup costs are generally fairly low compared to brick and mortar businesses. Web hosting is getting cheaper and programming costs ...
1
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3answers
125 views

Is it common to create several companies when starting a business?

I'm trying to raise a startup with three other people. The idea is to have a first prototype of the product and then seek funding. So far we have collaborated informally, but now we will go into the ...
2
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2answers
212 views

How did Twitter/Quora persuade investors as they didnt/dont have a business model?

I wonder, how did Quora persuaded their investors as they don't make revenue and even they don't have any revenue model as far as I know. The question is same again for twitter ( I know they sell ...
0
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1answer
79 views

Do most Business Incubator programs provide money for entrants to live on?

If you have a good enough idea and business model and get accepted into a business incubator program but happen to have zero dollars in your bank account, do most of those types of programs provide a ...
0
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2answers
154 views

How investment works when the entrepreneur is a foreigner?

I'm a foreign entrepreneur, If a US investor shows interest in investing in my company. At what stage do i have to meet them? do you think it's worth it to spend $2000 in travel expenses and yet ...
1
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1answer
77 views

News source of companies who have received funding

As a CEO of a startup, I would like to stay informed about potential competitors. One source of such information would be to read news about startups that have received funding from investors. I am, ...
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1answer
147 views

Should we use “trigger event” investment milestones for additional rounds of capital?

One of our advisors recently suggested we consider using "trigger events" for our second round of capital. Along the lines of "I'll commit $50K now and if you get to 25K registered users by 6/30, I ...
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3answers
755 views

What happens to the angel's / A round investor's stake on subsequent rounds, in the Valley?

As far as I understand, when the next round happens, the startup emits new shares that are sold to new investors under newly negotiated valuation. Does this lead to the previous investor's shares ...
4
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1answer
151 views

Evaluating a startup

My question is, what is the best way to evaluate a software startup as a perspective employee from the point of view of viability i.e. economic viability. I am more interested in hints related to ...
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1answer
92 views

Who are the most reputed Angels/VCs and what type of Businesses each of them Concentrate on

I am looking for funding, thus looking for angels in technology and trading. Is is possible to post sources of funding by area and stage. Also relative merits of each source. Perhaps links and ...
1
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1answer
125 views

Should you try not to give a concrete number to a potential investor?

When raising funds for a start-up with a working prototype/alpha product, should you refrain from asking for a specific amount? Or should you provide a preferred amount, and a backup plan for a ...
2
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6answers
115 views

How do I go about finding a 'closer' to help pitch investors?

I don't understand the funding/investment landscape. If I want to bring someone in to help me pitch angel investors and/or VC's: Where would I go about finding them? What questions do I ask to ...
2
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3answers
155 views

How do you put a price tag on fame and mentorship from an early investor?

We're sitting with a situation where we have been given two different offers for seed investment. The first is more than double the amount of the other, but from someone not in the tech industry, and ...
3
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5answers
268 views

What is the best way to adjust options?

Me and my partner are about to start a new startup. I'm much more financially prepared than he is so we've agreed on the following structure. I would fund the company with half a million for the ...
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2answers
176 views

How to convert a pet project into a startup company / product?

I have been in software industry since Aug-2005. In beginning of 2009 I got a nasty memory leak related defect to solve from my employer. To help myself with such kind of errors in future, I started ...
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3answers
136 views

Strategy to raise money for smaller market size

We have a niche business for a particular industry but with very good domain expertise and traction. We have a few hundred enterprise customers and over 10 paying enterprise customers after just a few ...
2
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3answers
134 views

Why people seek investments if that means surrendering the control?

I've been reading people talking about giving away 51% of the company in exchange for money and considering it normal. I perhaps miss something but what is the point of creating a startup company if ...
4
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3answers
2k views

Where can I find samples of good one page executive summary for a business plan?

We are applying for angel investment for our startup and looking for some samples of one page executive summary. Please share if you are aware of any. Thanks,
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10answers
894 views

Funding : where do I start?

I am starting up an internet company based on an original concept. My strategy is to, first build the architectural base and implement the main use cases of my website and thereafter, look for funding ...
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4answers
188 views

Determining the value of my online company for seeking funding

How do you calculate the worth of your company when you are looking for funding? If i sell my company outright today the value is about $200K but this does not mean that i will take on $100K ...
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5answers
419 views

Funding Options for my Startup

We have an online shopping portal which is mainly India focused. We are now 14 months old and deal in multiple product categories like books, electronics, apparels, gifts, movies etc We are looking ...
3
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2answers
223 views

Profit Sharing - How to deduct on the Profit Loss Sheets

We have a Profit sharing program with the branch managers of our firm and I have a question about where to include those payments with regards to our P&L. We currently provide payments quarterly ...
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2answers
94 views

What advantages do tech startups with tax exempt 501(c)(3) status enjoy beyond tax exemption, if any?

This past March I co-founded a (for-profit) NV corporation, which created a Facebook App in the C2C social gifting space. This software, however, can be used in multiple industries, and I wanted to ...
2
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1answer
102 views

Will my company be worth more if…?

I have got an idea which is new in concept and is based on the cellular market. I am a programmer, an animator and I can do graphics and presentations. I am definitely NOT a business man, and for some ...
7
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4answers
440 views

Starting a company with a very similar competitor already in place

I have a tech startup I'm looking to do in the mobile applications space. I thought my idea was very unique and my business partner and I spent about a week coming up with planning, name, concept, ...
2
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2answers
109 views

Co-Founder's Credit

So I have a start up I am working on and given that I am a technical person I have been out looking for a business co-founder. I approached a former co-worker of mine with business experience and ...
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2answers
177 views

How to get products on the market quickly and cheap?

I have designed several products that involve electronics. I do all the design, electronics, and building myself except for a few things. There is a market for these products although competition is ...
2
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3answers
166 views

Where to start?

So this is my situation: I've got an idea and I don't have much programming skills - I'm 16 and about to start uni for the first time in a couple of months and I'm in for Software Engineering. ...
1
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4answers
312 views

Pair of engineers with code, should we walk away from founder? How much should we ask for ($$)?

TL;DR: Worked a year+ on code we still own, founder refuses to raise capital (wants to bootstrap) and is now low-balling us, we're willing to walk away--what would you do? Long version (detailed and ...
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4answers
454 views

Old question again: how does one valuate the startup for VC purposes?

I've been running a bootstrapped startup since last year and am running into definite limitations as to what I can do without further funding. Startup enables elasticity for Microsoft's cloud ...
2
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1answer
164 views

Assessing the value of startup company for investment

We are a start up company set up 14 months ago. We were building few products which we could not finish yet. we plan to finish it in another 6 months. Since our initial budget were very low. We had to ...
1
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2answers
314 views

lifecycle of a startup funding and complete buyout?

I'm staring well a start-up :) Currently we are using internal funds, and by estimates it will last for a good while, but if our growth(users servers etc.) exceed our sales, sooner or later we will ...
1
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3answers
220 views

When asking for funds from an investor, how do I decide my own salary?

I will be speaking with a potential investor soon. And I will be quitting my job to run this startup. I will also be the only one running the startup for at least the first 6 months. How do I decide ...
3
votes
7answers
1k views

What do I need to convince people to invest in this company and how do I determine the initial investment?

I am planning for a company. The company will build a university. The company has a plan of 10 years to build the university and make it functional. What I need now is investment. The question is how ...
1
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3answers
131 views

What to use the invested money for?

Ok so i am located in India and am looking for some investment for my startup. Since i am a one man company, i think i can move to valley if the investor/incubator (?) wants me to. But my question is ...
5
votes
2answers
277 views

Real-life scenarios of encounters with VC/Angel funding?

I've started lately to think about what's common sense when it comes to seeking funding from VC's or Angels. So What I would like to do is spend a few hours on reading some stories by actual ...
2
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2answers
181 views

Will an angel investor be turned off by the founders not wanting to quit their day jobs just yet?

....my co-founder and I are working on a SaaS product and there is a chance we may seek an angel investment. Do you think us wanting to keep our day jobs for 3-6 more months will be a turn-off to ...
1
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4answers
305 views

What does it mean to get angel funded? Is it giving away a %?

When I read about a company getting angel funded, what does it mean? Is it a company selling a % of their company in exchange for seed money? Is there any interest involved?

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