Startups Just had a ridiculously easy time raising money - I would tell you my secret but I have no clue why and I am starting to think it is mostly luck |
- Just had a ridiculously easy time raising money - I would tell you my secret but I have no clue why and I am starting to think it is mostly luck
- Aged-Out on Joining an Accelerator?
- Is .io domain for a indie game studio too corny?
- Equity in exchange for marketing services?
- Hiring a graduate to code
- Another sponsor post...Please help if you can.
- Best resources for finding executives for the scale up stage? How to prepare for the search?
- Quitting startups! Advice about walking away?
- How does equity work? With new employee's / directors, etc.
| Posted: 27 Feb 2019 05:49 AM PST My co-founder and I have been trying to get a startup going for a while, and have killed a few for lack of product-market fit. We have tried to raise money in the past and have essentially zero success. We recently completed an accelerator and raised a seed round so easily that I am still reeling from the experience. I wish I could tell you what we did to make this happen, but my suspicion is that it was 90% timing and 10% us not screwing it up. I can't go into details, but basically we are a solid team with great credentials and a prototype of our product. We have no traction, just a working demo. We aren't working in a super-hot area (scooters, AI, blockchain, etc.) but we kind of lucked into a market that crosses many verticals. Here are a few highlights from our raise:
I hope this doesn't come across as bragging - it was at least 90% luck/timing. It was actually frustrating to have more attention than we could handle and see the other startups in our cohort struggle. This is nothing like I was led to expect. No blog articles talk about it, but the more I talk to people I find our experience isn't unusual. I'm starting to wonder if maybe it is more common than we think. Anecdotally, here is what I have seen:
Moving forward, I will look at funding more like how we determine product market fit. If I talk to 3-5 investors in my space and none of them are interested then I am almost certainly never going to get funded. Anything other than enthusiastic interest is a "no." Overall, the experience has been incredibly stressful. I'm sure some of you are saying you would like to have our problems, but I would absolutely have preferred less attention and less funding right now. That wasn't an option. However, I will admit that turning away VCs has been a guilty pleasure. :-) Interested in hearing other people's experience with raising money. I can't really talk about this to other startup founders I personally know. Edit 1: We raised $1.8M on $8M pre. [link] [comments]  |
| Aged-Out on Joining an Accelerator? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 10:05 AM PST I've been thinking about an accelerator for my startup, but many of them require that we locate there for 3 months. We are all over 40, work full time, have families, etc. Are these accelerators just geared for young twenty-somethings? I have questions about what are we supposed to do for money? Healthcare? I have a mortgage and other normal household expenses that I just can't ignore. No one is in a position to just put that all on hold and go live in another city away from our families for 3+ months. [link] [comments]  |
| Is .io domain for a indie game studio too corny? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 08:50 AM PST I'm currently working on an indie game as a side project along with my three other friends. Our game is 60% done and currently we are exploring options for a good name for our studio. After scratching our head a lot, we've all set our minds on one particular domain which is very short (four letters only) and memorable (also It doesn't break any TM or copyright or anything of this sort). Sounds perfect for a brand and the .com domain is taken and inactive (only the .com is taken, every other extension is available). .io domain surprisingly complements our brand name even in a cooler way compared to .com/.net (kinda' like portfol.io). Should we pursue .io that complements our brand name or change it to something so that we can get .com? The problem is that we know .io is trending in tech startups that provides services like SaaS or something similar. We are an indie game development company with zero profit and have nothing to do with SaaS or other tech service. We just want to use our website to showcase our game and links to stores like Steam, PSN, XBOX etc. Any help would be much appreciated. My apologies for the long post. Edit: Sorry for the massive typo in the title. Cannot edit it and my OCD will haunt me forever now. [link] [comments]  |
| Equity in exchange for marketing services? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 05:03 PM PST I have had some success selling a niche product on Amazon for the past year (hit the six figure mark in annual revenue), and now I'm looking to start selling on my website. The thing is, I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to running ads or external marketing. A few months ago, I was introduced to a Facebook marketing specialist through a friend who seemed to know what she was talking about. After chatting, we agreed to a trial period where she would start running ads for a few weeks to see if we got any traction on the website. So far sales have been coming in consistently and at a decent profit, even while the ads are being optimized, and I believe if this keeps up we can more than double annual revenue. The issue here is that she wants 50% of the business on the website, and possibly a small chunk of the Amazon business as well. I have invested tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in researching the niche, getting the product off the ground on Amazon, proving demand for the product, custom molds, and inventory. I spent time setting up the website, getting pictures taken, filing for trademark... pretty much everything that comes with running a small business. What she would be doing is generating sales by driving traffic to the website via Facebook and Instagram ads. It should be noted that she hasn't offered to put up money to fund the ads or anything else (I have been paying for the test ads). I don't really know what to do now since the website is gaining a good amount of traction but giving away 50% seems doesn't seem fair to me, but then again I don't want to lose her. I am thinking about proposing a commission based sales structure instead, or maybe even a smaller amount of vesting equity. Any thoughts? What would you do in this situation? Are marketing services worth giving up equity for? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2019 03:46 PM PST Starting out a tech business in which I am CEO, CFO, COO and everything human, my co-founder is CTO. We want to hire our first employee, who will be a coder, but are strapped for cash. I read somewhere that you should look to hire Tier II school coders right out of uni, as those at top schools will be more inclined to start their own or go to a big established company. Hence, I was wondering how much a student should expect to be paid (salary and equity). We have allocated about 10% equity, but that will be split amongst a couple more hires we are planning for further down the road, but in terms of salary availability -we are limited. Any advice on hiring a grad as first employee as well as way to go around compensation would be great thanks. (Me and CTO take salary at just what is needed to cover our necessities) [link] [comments]  |
| Another sponsor post...Please help if you can. Posted: 27 Feb 2019 03:28 PM PST What perks could I offer potential sponsors of a start-up app? I've tried looking through online articles, posts, and the like for ideas -- but they all seem to be more product or event-based suggestions. Just a brief overview of the app, it is a travel app designed for solo travelers at Caribbean Carnivals. Carnivals are vibrant, fun, and attract tons of people (feel free to Google it -- just don't confuse it with a Fair/Carnival). While groups do travel to these events, you'll find a good deal of solo masqueraders as well. My app is meant to connect them. I'm having a mental block of what I could offer potential sponsors. I have a couple interested parties, and I want to make sure I'm offering something that would be beneficial for both sides. While free app advertisement is a good perk, I'd rather that not be the only thing I offer. Any help? [link] [comments]  |
| Best resources for finding executives for the scale up stage? How to prepare for the search? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 05:37 AM PST The short of it is, we are a company that is mostly out of the early-stage, sitting in the $1-2mil revenue range and gearing up for an aggressive push across the board to crack into the $10-20 mil range. We are looking at bringing on an experienced CFO, a new CTO and potentially a new CEO. We are currently privately funded but do have connections with a couple VCs that I was planning on reaching out to. I've also started packing my evenings with networking events since we are lucky enough to be NYC based. Where else should we be looking? What struggles could we face in the search? Any other advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Quitting startups! Advice about walking away? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 05:18 AM PST Boo! I'm done! I'm going back to corporate lemming work! What am I walking away from? Two opportunities. In one opportunity, I'm working with a twenty something who name drops quite a bit, according to others has his back against the wall, has intro's to enterprises but hasn't ever closed a $100k+ deal. In that opportunity, it's the Venture Capital game. Money is supposedly coming and without anything in writing I supposedly get a sizey stake. In another opportunity, I am under the wing of an entrepreneur with multiple successful exits and figure a net worth >5MM (enough to do what he wants in his next biz). I may help him open up office #2 because moving where I am (for him, away from office/life #1) is part of his personal plan. What have I learned? I'm 32, and I'd like to comfortably grow 10MM by the time I'm 40. I don't need more money than this to do what I want at 40. I think I can achieve this dollar value doing what I have been doing in a moonlighting capacity for the last ten years. I'm sure as many here know, in tech you can do this as you accrue tech assets over time. I'm glad I've worked up these two entrepreneurial opportunities in addition to some other minor accomplishments. I've been at "the startup" for seven months now, but it's my second round doing a startup and I've had major financial hesitations doing it. When a major contract got dropped for me two months ago, I entered "end of days". I'm seeking advice from others with a tech skillset, know the control/ownership game I'm referencing, and what growth looks like with a tech skillset. Thanks! Everyone else, good luck in whatever startup stuff you're doing. [link] [comments]  |
| How does equity work? With new employee's / directors, etc. Posted: 27 Feb 2019 10:29 AM PST I have a new person joining the company, we're only a small team of 4 at the moment and he's taking on quite a lot of stuff. I'm wondering how it worked with giving him equity. Say I was to offer him 20% would I just give this to him? Or would I let him invest money into the company to reduce my amount (I own 100% atm). If you get a new employee and offer them say 2% - do you just give it to them? Or do they buy it from you? Are there any links or books to understanding how these kinds of things work? Thankyou :) [link] [comments]  |
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