Startups Fundraising Thursdays - A Forum to Ask About Fundraising, Investors, Accelerators, and Other Sources of Capital |
- Fundraising Thursdays - A Forum to Ask About Fundraising, Investors, Accelerators, and Other Sources of Capital
- Is it legal to "rent" out iPads to businesses with my software (app) downloaded on it?
- How do startups pay minimum wage to a founder if the startup is not generating any revenue yet (not enough money in company bank account)?
- Anyone interested in gov/defense/intel startups?
- Need Partners for Blog.
- Too many cooks? I have a potentially large startup founding team
- When to drop an idea
- Asking for advice: do you talk about your startup on social media?
- Low-budget Marketing ideas
- Equity allotted for a late co-founder
- What taxes, if any, should I charge when billing for a SaaS product in the US?
- Benefits of starting an LLC in the USA as an Australian LLC
- If a startup is really promising or heavily promoted (say Musk says he is looking for investors for NeuraLink) would normal people be able to override the Accredited investor thing by pooling money together and declaring that it's just one compliant person investing?
- Launch plans for SaaS B2B
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 05:06 AM PST Welcome to this week's Fundraising Thursdays Thread. Ask about anything related to fundraising, investors, accelerators, grants, and other sources of capital. That includes how to find these sources, how to work with them, and how to negotiate with them. Don't be shy. The purpose of this is to learn and share ideas and methodologies with one another. Any question is a good question! If you are answering questions, remember to be kind and supportive. Many are just starting out and have no idea what they are doing. That's okay! We all knew nothing before we knew something.You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it legal to "rent" out iPads to businesses with my software (app) downloaded on it? Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:18 PM PST **Apologies in advance if this is a dumb question OR if this infringes on Rule 4** Let's say I have a companion-app for partners...instead of creating my own tablet or having my partners use their own equipment, can I technically and/or legally buy iPads myself, THEN install my app onto it, THEN rent them out to my partners for X amount per month? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 08:12 PM PST I am a solo founder of my startup, and I recently incorporated a C corp in WA in order to obtain EIN, set up business accounts, etc, etc. I am looking forward to get funding in Q3 this year. As a solo founder (app developer) and no other employee at this moment, I thought I wouldn't need to worry about payroll until my startup generates some amount of revenue or until I hire another employee. Also, I thought I could be exempt from minimum wage law since I consider myself to be executive employee. So I have not worried so much about paying myself. However, 'Exemption for Executive Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)' states that even executive employees who are exempt from minimum wage law will need to be paid at least $684/week, which translates to about $35,000+ per year. Should I then not treat myself as an employee yet.... (But I am an officer in my corp & this doesn't sound right to me)? Or should I put my personal money ($685+/week) into business account and pay myself back as a salary (This sounds worse/I have to pay unnecessary taxes)? I will be meeting with lawyer in few weeks, but I thought to give it a shot by asking here as there may be many founders who must have had gone through this issue. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone interested in gov/defense/intel startups? Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:42 PM PST I don't see a lot of talk about the defense industry in this subreddit. I am just reaching out to see if anyone else is interested in this sector and has any resources & knowledge to spread (since most of the stuff in this subreddit is focused on B2C or B2B which hardly applies). And I know the startup world is generally more hesitant about the defense industry, but it's becoming more startup friendly every day. Most VCs that will invest are specifically for defense and usually the VC arm of a large defense co. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2020 01:03 AM PST Hi, I want to start a Blog of multiple niches. I need Partners for that, 2 writers/niche. Blog will consist of the following niches: - Programming - Technology - All about Windows, Android - Productivity - Startups, Entrepreneurship Anyone intrested please DM me. [link] [comments]  |
| Too many cooks? I have a potentially large startup founding team Posted: 09 Jan 2020 08:41 PM PST I am a cofounder (along with 1 other person at the moment) and at this point we have an idea, a business plan, and roadmap for the MVP. We have started dev work, though at this time both of us are working on this part time. Between the 2 of us we manage all the current IP and assets (hosting, code, static assets, domain, etc). Basically, we are on our way, there hasn't been that much risk taken on by either of us yet and our development expenses are low. I am more or less able to manage all development work and resources for the MVP, the only capitol needed would be outside some design and wireframing contractor. We have not incorporated yet. The issue right now, is that we potentially have a team greater that just the 2 of us with skills that neither of us have that would be advantageous in getting to market and for beyond the MVP. These are people we have pitched on the idea/business that have expressed interest in being part of the team. These are several trusted people we have known for years and have worked with before in some capacity (some were part of pervious failed business). There is already in my mind a delineation of roles everyone would have though not all I would say would be C-level. Having a larger number of people on the team would be flipping great, however, we haven't even deployed an MVP. It's a few months out at the earliest. I am not sure how to manage expectations at the moment, and am concerned about when equity and compensation are brought up, but I may be jumping the gun. I just want to focus on building the core business and the MVP before taking on more risk. We still need to gauge commitment levels of interested parties outside of the existing team (myself and my partner), but in order to do that, we have to start delegating work, responsibility, I think most people would be contributing time vs money and that would contribute to how to fairly divide equity but I don't know how much time that would be just yet. I think there is a willingness for everyone to work for equity only initially, but how that would work I am not sure. I am certainly willing to split equity fairly for essential team members based on risk,skills, contributions, etc. But I also worry that having too large a team at the beginning will make it much harder to make decisions quickly. Its much harder to reach consensus on larger teams. tl;dr: how many founders is too much? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 11:49 AM PST After doing market research I've come to realize that my idea is more of a tool than an app, that by itself it has not that much value and that in order to compete it would need A LOT more work than what I have planned for the MVP with not a lot more extra value than the competition. So I find myself in this position in which I don't know if the idea should be dropped (or defer) or it just need A LOT more work. Thanks for your input! [link] [comments]  |
| Asking for advice: do you talk about your startup on social media? Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:15 PM PST I've historically been the kind of guy that keeps his entrepreneurship privately. I'm an M.E. I develop physical consumer products. Have done it working for companies and for myself (with most for myself being failures). The last one made me a little bit of money. Right now I'm working on an IoT product and it has consumed me in a good way. I'm extremely passionate about it. I can't stop working on it. I recently finished my first functional alpha version. I'm dieing to share it on social media and tell everybody about its progress. I know of the importance of building early email lists and it is one of the best things I did for the last product I launched. About 70% of my social media 'friends' are potential customers. However, I have this engrained (inherited) idea of not sharing what I'm working on until after it's successful. I see a lot of people here who are very comfortable sharing what they are working on. What is your take on sharing on social media early in product development? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 11:51 AM PST What are some creative ways to spread the word about your company that don't involve Google / Facebook / YouTube / TV ads ? My company is 100% bootstrapped and I can't afford to run expensive web based ad campaigns, so I need to generate some organic growth. Here are some ideas I've come up with so far: 1) Physical Ads at or near public transit (train stations / subway / bus stops / airports) I can't really think of a cheaper way to get real eyeballs looking at your company or website name. I've also seen startups enlist people to hand out business cards with promo/signup codes near public transit & airports. 2) Pay social media influencers to promote your product. There are many people on Instagram / Snapchat / TikTok with 100k-1M followers who can promote your products for low commissions, but it's highly questionable how effective this is and really depends on your target audience. 3) IRL methods to get attention / go viral Dress up in a funny costume and hold a sign at a crowded intersection of a major city, or something similar. You run the risk of some negative PR depending on what space your company is involved in, but I don't see any serious problems that could result from this other than perhaps some wasted effort. Thoughts / suggestions? [link] [comments]  |
| Equity allotted for a late co-founder Posted: 09 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST I started the company in May of 2019 by myself. I had the technical experience to get maybe 50% of the way to a finished product, but I still had other paths towards early revenue to pay someone to get me the rest of the way. In September I added a cofounder who can take what I have to about 90% of the way to our finished product. We split the company 55/45. The last 10% we anticipated coming from either paying to outsource some of it, and hiring someone when we got to the point where we needed them. I was put into contact for someone who has the expertise to get us the last 10%. He was interested in the idea, asked us to be a part, would work part time (like we both do currently) and doesn't want a salary until we get the money to fund that. He only wants equity. We don't necessarily need him at this point in time, but soon we will need someone with his skillset, and both me and my partner agree that he's a slam dunk if we can get him at a fair split. What do you think is a fair percentage? I had a 47/38/15 split in mind, but I don't know if I'm even in the right ballpark. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| What taxes, if any, should I charge when billing for a SaaS product in the US? Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:15 PM PST Hey everyone, I'm selling a SaaS product and have my first customer. They asked me to send an invoice which I am preparing through Stripe. I'm confused about whether I should charge any taxes (sales tax, VAT etc)? My product costs $1000 per month. Should I just bill them $1000/month or add a Sales Tax (8.875% in NY where both me and my client are based)? Any other Taxes to add apart from Sales Tax? Would be very grateful! [link] [comments]  |
| Benefits of starting an LLC in the USA as an Australian LLC Posted: 09 Jan 2020 11:18 AM PST Howdy. My mother formed an LLC in Australia after inventing a product that is in the patenting process, which we plan to sell in the US market (about 80% of sales) and the Australian market (about 20% of sales). I am a permanent resident of the US, living in Colorado, and have been here for 5 years. We are trying to determine whether it is best to try to form an LLC in the US too? I plan on meeting with a business accountant in the US, however, it would be great to understand this our situation a little bit more before meeting with them. We just received the first prototype sample and are probably a couple of months from launch. Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:31 AM PST It seems to me that this scenario would advantage everybody: 1) the founders which would be able to retain higher control and stake in the company by splitting the equity pie chart over numerous heads opposed to giving it to a limited number of VCs 2) Normal people who'd be finally able to invest even small sums into a project which is potentially worth hundreds of billions 3) The guy acting as the regulators facing "accredited investor". He'd be able to charge a small fee for his service and invest in the company as well 4) The government and regulators as they'd be able to keep their archaic "think about the children" attitude towards the masses , while at the same time taking credit for the economic developement and jobs provided by the startups funded in this manner [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST Hey everyone, I'm getting close to launching a SaaS that is primarily a B2B product. In my previous startups I've just done a post on reddit and shared in my LinkedIn then ran a decent amount of ads for a week to kick start it, would normally spend $2500 CAD on the ads. I'm looking at different ways of getting my company out there to people, some options I came up with were more reddit posts, posts on other forums that would have interested people as well as over a period of two weeks release and have people view blog posts I have written up (something to do on my phone while waiting in the car for people or other things where I could not code). What would you do to 'launch' your company in terms of methods to get the company in front of as many potential customers as possible? [link] [comments]  |
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