Startups Would like to raise money but have no idea where to start!? |
- Would like to raise money but have no idea where to start!?
- Looking for Instagram Influencers with 10k+ Followers for testing our app Charm.
- Partner doesn’t understand I don’t want to work together.
- Establishing a new starting line for one's startup journey
- Where better to start IT startup? In Russia or in Ukraine?
- How to handle a situation where you are putting in more time and effort than your cofounders?
- Starting a business advice
- Advice/Rules of Thumb with Patents - Forge on or pivot?
- How to raise money for first round ?
- Browser extension vs bookmarklet
- Think I have a good idea for a business. Problem is : I am a "big picture kind of guy" so I need to explain it to a potential technical co-founder. What's stopping them from taking off with my idea, couple it with their technical knowledge and leave me in ruins?
| Would like to raise money but have no idea where to start!? Posted: 30 Jun 2019 06:42 PM PDT Hey guys, Long story short - I had an idea, I built a product, I launched it and 3.5 weeks later our revenue is 2.5k with about 1k of that being profit. Obviously thing's are going ok for a launch, but in order to capitalize on the opportunity ahead of me I'd like to raise some money in order to grow as quickly as possible. I come from a legal background and don't really have a clue how to raise money, or even if the above metrics would be attractive to investors. Any guidance from my fellow redditors would be much appreciated :) [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for Instagram Influencers with 10k+ Followers for testing our app Charm. Posted: 01 Jul 2019 01:52 AM PDT At the start of August, we are launching our new app Charm to help connect influencers with brands on Instagram. We are looking for beta testers that have over 10k followers. We are also after groups where influencers hang out and discuss strategies online so we can get feedback. If you'd like to be apart of the test and have 10k followers on Insta you can sign up here: getcharm.app/beta [link] [comments]  |
| Partner doesn’t understand I don’t want to work together. Posted: 30 Jun 2019 07:13 AM PDT Hello, A while ago I posted about a graphic designer that wanted to become partners, but was not meeting deadlines when the actual working started and also kept extending them. Always excuses and so on. I told him that it seems like he doesn't have a lot of time for this, that there will be a bigger workload in the future and it would be best I paid him for his work (his work wasn't even finished, 2 weeks behind deadline and looks very rushed). I want to pay something for his time just to be on good terms. He now keeps telling me he'll have more time and that he's willing to fix his designs. People like this rarely change and I just found a more experienced and serious guy. I don't know what to tell him... Should I just be straight forward and say that I have another guy? I honestly don't want to work with him anymore, our project has stagnated because of him. Normally I'd just pay him some money and move on, but he is a nice guy and we sometimes play basketball together in a group, that's why I'm trying to be very nice here. Any advice will be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Establishing a new starting line for one's startup journey Posted: 30 Jun 2019 01:27 PM PDT TL;DR With all the noise I hear from startup founders very early on in their journey, we should discuss the potential of establishing a new starting line for startup founders. A comment on another r/Startup thread from u/GaryARefuge motivated me to start this dialogue amongst fellow founders to discuss the seriousness of an individual that is in a startup versus a side project vs being a wantrepreneur. EDIT: I wrote this post while procrastinating on a sunny, Sunday afternoon. My question to r/Startups, with the number of individuals wanting shortcuts from day 1 by a) hoping to hire free labour (or offer options, so free labour) b) not doing their research by developing a niche or solving a problem people are willing to pay for or c) believe an investor will finance an idea: would it be more productive to establish a bare minimum before one could consider themselves actively in a startup? In my hometown, there is an annual competition where startups can pitch their startup to win some prize money potentially. The contest costs $200 per application, and there are several knockout rounds spread over a four-month period, which involve preparing presentations and drafting a business model for the review board (investment of time is material for startups actively selling and developing). On average, they receive 200 applications; however, the majority are only at their idea phase (pre-MVP with a website and a slide deck). One of the startup Slack channels I frequent had two participants waiting to hear the results for Round 3. One of them had potential (yet would still fall short of making the top 8, compared to their competition). While the other is a repeat contender that informed our Slack group that the judges acknowledged they made little progress since their application in the previous year's competition (still pre-MVP with a sophisticated solution for an industry that has a prolonged adoption rate for new tech). Both participants were annoyed with the results. Unfortunately, I felt like the bad guy when I pointed out where they fell short to their competition. The competition had submissions from various industries, many that have received their initial seed round (some close to securing Series A), that are also beyond pre-revenue with a steady client base. Pair that with judges that have historically shown their industry bias and in many cases failed to push promising innovative platforms that went on to greater things. For the repeated participant, they walked away from this competition, pointing fingers, and they are still waiting for a one-time transaction to jump-start their venture. They are visible in the local tech scene, is a lovely individual, unfortunately, no one has the heart to tell them to pivot their solution (rare circumstance where moving from B2B to B2C may have a greater chance of creating an MVP to generate traction), or potentially to walk away or start a new venture. Why am I telling you this story? As I continue to bootstrap my new software platform, I have grown tired of hearing comments and inquiries from individuals that are clearly over their head. I live in one of the cheapest markets in North America for tech talent, yet many startup wantrepreneurs complain that they can't find developers willing to work for stock options. Or worse, they fail to understand how large of a scope they are asking from a potential technical co-founder (i.e. New Facebook, New Amazon, New Uber, etc.). I pay industry rates for my staff, and I also committed to teaching myself full stack dev to create better code with my technical co-founder. Every time I start this conversation, it comes off as a rant; perhaps it is my delivery. While reading through r/Startups, I noticed a comment from u/GaryARefuge where he was providing advice to one of the many posts starting from 0, outlining how to make your idea tangible: Here are your options TO MAKE YOUR IDEA TANGIBLE: Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
For me, I would love to see individuals be actively engaging in Step 2, but for the sake of commitment completing Step 3 before making noise about being a startup founder. I have met many startup hopefuls that have been working on their startup for over two years, and they haven't produced a monetization strategy. I made many mistakes with my previous platform (developed a freemium B2C personal finance platform), and I am now applying my lessons learned through my pivot to debuting my new enterprise platform. I am not saying we shouldn't discourage people at step 1 to ask questions; I believe better conversations could exist if the majority come from a similar foundation. What do you think? Where would you say the starting line of a startup should be? [link] [comments]  |
| Where better to start IT startup? In Russia or in Ukraine? Posted: 01 Jul 2019 03:07 AM PDT Hello. I want to raise such a topic. Where better to do IT Startup? In Russia or in Ukraine? I live in Ukraine. But there is an opportunity to obtain Russian citizenship. In which direction is the startup? In the beginning, standards with high competition. Web applications, mobile applications. But in the future, I'd like to work in embedded systems, robotics, artificial intelligence. In general, I'm aimed at abroad. International IT business. But it's hardly worth going there right away, or experienced entrepreneurs will eat me. Better at the beginning to get experience here. Russia attracts with its spaces, because the soul is better there, and Ukraine is an international market. I don't know, but it seems that from Russia, thanks to politics, it will be more difficult to conduct international business. What do you think? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How to handle a situation where you are putting in more time and effort than your cofounders? Posted: 01 Jul 2019 02:04 AM PDT I am working with two other cofounders on a new venture. It's a selling a service to consumers, similar to something like mortgage or financial advisors. I have experience of marketing new businesses whereas they are both experts in this area. Currently we are in the early start up stage with a handful of customers and have had good results through paid search, so there is appetite for what we do. The issue is that so far, I have had handled most of the workload as they're the ones who eventually deliver the service to customers. Due to issues on their end such as redundancy or family issues neither of them have been able to put in as much money to the business. I've put in approx 50% of the funds whereas the other 50% is split between them (totally about $4000). I was not exactly happy about this but it was for branding and website so needed to be done so we could start speaking to clients. Credibility is very important in this industry so we needed a good brand and website to give us that. We've been chugging along ok so far, but an injection of cash would be really useful to help our SEO. I'm doing what I can but I have some good contacts in the industry who I know could help us faster. I have the opportunity to put some more money but that would mean I would have put in about 70% of the cash but will also be doing 70% of the work. Which is very uneven. I went into this knowing that in the early days my workload would be top heavy until we start bringing in a steady stream of customers. At which point they would spending the majority of their time on the road, selling and supporting customers afterwards and the split would be more even. Although having worked in start ups before I have been disappointed they have been less active in finding more avenues to sell, such as through business development or even doing something as basic as dropping leaflets through letterboxes. My question is how to avoid this being a conflict further down the road. As I am putting in more should I own more of the company? Or take a greater share of profit from an individual sale until we're even in the amount contributed? For example, If a sale is $600, after our basic costs we're left with $300, so I would take $210 and they $90. I can see both being unpopular, on the one hand owning more of the company would be unbalanced, but on the other taking a greater share of profits would mean they weren't getting rewarded for the time and effort they put in (which could be multiple home visits and hours putting together documents). Or is this even a problem in the first place? So I am interested in any suggestions or hearing how other people navigated the same problem [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jun 2019 08:12 PM PDT Hello all, this is probably going to be slightly lengthy so apologies in advance and thanks for taking your time to read. I have been wanting to start my own business for a long time but there are a few things that always discourage me from pursuing my dream. A little of my background: I have a degree in sports business management, I am a massive sports fan and have had a life long dream of working in sports, and I have some experience that is relevant to the business I want to start. So now here is my idea. Something that always annoys me is going to the YMCA and seeing the basketball court being used for something other than basketball for most of the operating hours. So I got the idea of opening a basketball gym with a low monthly membership rate and provide other services such as training sessions, camps, and tournaments for additional fees. I believe this will be a successful business if I could get it started but I like I mentioned I get discouraged by a few things. First, I have a lot of debt for a couple reasons. One reason is student loans. The second reason is my father became ill a little after I graduated college so he couldn't work anymore and my mom doesn't make much so I help with all the bills and pay his hospital bills. This is especially hard because I grew up poor and my parents have never had money. Another reason I am easily discouraged is because since father is now sick it is very convenient for me to keep my current job. I only work weekends but make enough to keep my head above water all while being able to take care of my dad. The third reason is since I grew up in a poor environment I can't find anyone I can get advice from. In all my research I see "have low debt, a lot of money, and have a mentor". As I currently stand, I don't met the criteria so I've decided to come here for help and advice. Thanks again for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice/Rules of Thumb with Patents - Forge on or pivot? Posted: 30 Jun 2019 04:15 PM PDT Hi /r/startups. Co-founders and I created a prototype device and process for the food and bev industry. There are several competitors in the space, which we take as a positive sign. Our concern is that the device and process are too similar to one of the competitors, who has utility and design patents. Admittedly, they are VERY close in design and process. We're only about $15k spend in on the prototype so there isn't a huge loss at the moment. If there's an issue, the backup plan is to build and sell in China/other countries where a US-based patent is less likely/unlikely to be enforced. While I know no one can offer me direct legal advice, does anyone have a rule of thumb, references they use, or can give a general direction when determining if their products or processes are too close to a competitor's, especially when patents are involved? Thank you for your help! [link] [comments]  |
| How to raise money for first round ? Posted: 30 Jun 2019 04:18 PM PDT We are looking to raise up to $1M for our first project. After this project, we will be able to raise $2M or more and give our investors equity in the project at hand. However, for our first one, they would NOT be getting any equity…. all they would get is a reserved spot on our 2nd investing round - at which point they will own equity. For the first one though, its only to raise money and buy their seat in the second round. How would we do that? [link] [comments]  |
| Browser extension vs bookmarklet Posted: 30 Jun 2019 01:23 PM PDT Which is better for a new app? Does anyone have any data on relative popularity, engagement, or retention? I can't seem to find much information. Intuitively I would think a bookmarklet is much easier to build (but I need to set up backend anyway for my bookmarklet to work), but going forwards you want to move to an extension for more control and functionality. And these are probably the driving factors. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jun 2019 08:59 AM PDT In the end it's the imbalance of knowledge which bugs me: I'd need 7+ years to get in the ballpark of the person which I need as co-founder (computer science, machine learning, AI....) if I could even get there at all . Whereas everything that person needs to get going would be a day with me and to look a couple of dozens of charts which shows all the trends which could potentially be exploited by the start up . At that point if they find those trends compelling nothing stops them from going their own way and couple their technical abilities + the newly discovered compelling idea (my idea ugh.) and incorporate a company themselves...seeking funding..the whole 9 yards and leave me in ruins basically. What are some possible solutions? Non compete agreements are a joke, the economic motor of the country (California) doesn't even recognize them.... [link] [comments]  |
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