Hot answers tagged fundraising
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If by raising seed money you mean selling an investment in your company-- the answer is no. If by raising seed money you mean having the cash you need to launch from supporters with no promise, expectation or opportunity for a "return" then you can.
Equity-- Why you can't
If by "seed capital" you mean bring in early investors who have an opportunity of ...
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You haven't done anything to reason about the current fair market value of your startup, and you haven't given us any info on it.
If your startup essentially is just a loose dream at this point, then 3% sounds high, but possibly not unreasonable depending on the specific amounts & work involved.
Start by guesstimating the fair market value of what you ...
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On a related note: why should apple make 30% on every app sale? Because they can - Apple sets the rules there. You have a choice - don't submit an app to the apple store, or pay the tax.
Do you want to participate in a government grant? Get free money without dilution? To participate, you need to be in an incubator. The Government grant sets the rules ...
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What I think, you should focus more on development side and while doing this, you need to find a partner who can take care of business. I believe you would be personally more happy to be some R&D manager rather than going to meetings with clients. You also mentioned that time is important, so better to look for a partner. Define your skills, and decide ...
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Try this week in startups or their new URL its a great weekly podcast that does a good version and interviews startups from all around the world.
These guys will give you a good feeling for what is good and bad in a pitch, what is real and what is TV drama.
Also from the same network, have a look at this week in venture capital which gives a good insight ...
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I've raised money in Silicon Valley because I didn't have 100K in my bank account to start with. Here's my recommendation, without knowing more about your situation other than what you've shared, and of course, biased with my own experience and perspective.
The MINUTE you raise money, you loose control of your company. It doesn't matter that you're only ...
2
I'm not familiar with Indiegogo, but I've answered a bunch of questions about Kickstarter, and I'll reiterate here these answers (I know its too much to expect from people to look whether the questions have been asked before).
Do I need company registered to be able to get money through pages
like those?
To the best of my knowledge - no. You can ...
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I'd actually disagree with everybody who has answered so far.
If you have a functional app for this market sell it now at full price.
If you can't do that then you probably have a problem that you need to fix.
Because "small businesses wholesale companies" are not known for making purchasing decisions based on great visual design. In fact they are a ...
2
Give them an ugly demo. Just kidding.
The majority of situations I've seen where we were selling a product that wasn't finished yet was by giving the potential customer screenshots and a summary of how the application is going to work.
I think you are headed in the right direction with having a designer wire-frame and put together a final draft looking ...
2
Looking at this question from a differnt angle, if you do not incorporate, then there is no legal separation from your venture's assets & liabilities and your own. If your unincorporated venture racks up liabilities in excess of your ability to cover, you may be facing loss of your house and bankruptcy. Investors will face the same concern if they ...
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I have actually been in a similar situation once - I was having a chat at a startup event and was talking to a guy who was a member of an angel network. He mentioned to me that he had started working with a similar startup before and would not tell me anything further. At this point I obviously also ended the conversation.
What is important is that you ...
1
Reading
customers (government agencies, big retail customer, ...), [...] Cool Vendor award (Gartner)
and
Is crowd-funding a good solution to finance the open-sourcing of a proprietary product? We will need between 500K€ to 1M€.
.. it seems highly unlikely. Your product seems like a B2B product for big companies (you mention government agencies). ...
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As an investor, those initial metrics are really just vanity metrics. Now, if you can translate those to revenue it really helps.
It all boils down to the Customer Acquisition Cost and Lifetime Value of the Customer and the actual revenue model. If it's advertising you're looking at CPM which is calculated by the specific type of site or target market and ...
1
You need to find a reference point. So (i) talk to a couple more incubators, and (ii) ask for details of companies that have recently accessed this specific grant and reach out to them.
You'll very likely discover that the word 'incubator' means very different things in different cases. And that will help you decide which incubator best suits your position ...
1
Investors tend to invest in a business. Users are great. Traction is great. A business is better.
In a very small cross section of opportunities, for a very select and well connected few, and/or those with a lot of luck of being in the right market at the right time there is a possibility of securing investors purly to aggregate user with the hope of ...
1
Since the site is now live (in beta) I need funds to really drive traffic and build the environment so we can take the next steps.
Actually you have it backwards - one of the key metrics that investors use before making a funding decision is traction - the number of users you currently have, the number of people who use the site daily and other metrics ...
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It is not clear from your question what sort of venture you plan to operate. Is it simply an information only website that shows the location of the drop sites? If so, and you never collect any money or goods than you should be fine.
If however you claim to be a charity and collect money and or goods then you will probably need to register as such.
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You need to raise enough funds to stay in business until breaking even plus10-20% more. If you raise only enough to launch, how will you keep the lights on and grow customer base post-launch?
As for local vs. off-shore development, investors like to see the core proficiency being developed in-house full-time regardless of the team's location. Thus, if the ...
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At the most basic level, the argument to investors is "we are building something that millions of people will use. Once they do, making money is the easy part."
Which frankly is a valid argument. If you build something that everyone wants, money will find you. On the other hand, if you build something that is not really interesting to most (it's called a ...
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An IPO is an Initial Public Offering, in which shares are registered with the SEC. Regulation D is a set of exemptions from registration that allow private offerings. The two are not the same thing.
It sounds like your company is trying to go through an investment bank to raise funds, and the investment bank is creating a private placement offering. If ...
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If you are not confident in running with your idea and selling it directly then consider a joint venture. Who else is selling a product like yours to your prospects? Is there a company out there if they had your product they could sell it for you and get paid a commission? Approach them with the idea, see if they are interested.
Remember Larry & Sergey ...
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With a proven product with traction it will be much easier to find investors, and you'll be able to get better terms. Finding an investor is a very time consuming and stressful process, so if you don't need the money to try the product on the market, you should go that way.
Moreover, if your potential competitors could give away a copycat product for free, ...
1
If you are in the United States I'd check out http://www.kickstarter.com/. It'll not only raise some funding for you (which is more of a donation to get you started rather than giving away shares), but it could also create awareness or allow you to sell you product before it's made. Some guys took about $1million of preorders for an iPhone holder they ...
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A working prototype a great start! It may however be a good time to take a step back and begin building a beta list, refine your messaging, and figure out the best market to go after. There is a step by step guide on validating your business concept you can find here: http://startupplays.com/plays/new_product_concept
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Whats next step? Am starting a Dropshipping company in India. I'll start with say 200 to 1000 shirts
It is very tough for an investor to be your partner by trusting you verbal speech so you must need a well-defined and detailed business plan that is realistic and work-able too. Other than a market research and feasibility report; you should also conduct a risk-analysis to prepare your investor in advance for the possible chances (percentage) of downfall ...
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Whats next step? Am starting a Dropshipping company in India. I'll start with say 200 to 1000 shirts
Yes you need a business plan - for your own sake as well as to show your investor. If you are serious about making this a great business, you will spend the time it takes to do some strategic planning, to research your market and to improve your idea.
It's not easy to find investors in the current climate, let alone for a business with no revenues (and no ...
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Raising capital to do an IPO is not really the way it's done. Usually the underwriting fees and other costs are simply rolled up in the transaction itself when the IPO is done. Perhaps you mean all the prep work leading up to the road show to meet with investors that will buy most of the placement?
In any case, before you set yourself on the IPO path, you ...
1
IPO is short for "Initial Public Offering", the introduction of a company onto a public stock exchange such as NASDAQ or NYSE.
Normally the underwriting bank handling the IPO will require a proven track record of profitability. The specifics depend on stock exchange & the market conditions, but perhaps 2-5 years of profitable operation with a stable ...
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Conventional wisdom is: raise as much as you can (unless your name is Color.com :-)
The main reason is that it takes as long to raise $300K as it takes to raise $2M, and it lasts longer. The trick of course is figuring out what amount is actually doable. If you ask for too much and get rejected all the time, you'll have spent 6 months fundraising with ...
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