Ask HN: How would a foreign startup raise funds in US? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How would a foreign startup raise funds in US?

#11

Post by tzury » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 12:25 PM UTC

Given the fact you are from Singapore makes it very easy for you.

See, many of those American investors you are hving in nind (VC's, Angles, etc.) are holding tones of money in Singapore for tax engineering reasons (or even better, white hacking the IRA).

Hence, there are plenty of Singaporean businessmen and women who manages this money for them and have great relationships with them.

Getting traction in Singapore shall be the only worry of yours, once you got that right, and local key people are aware of your success, offers will fly by.

Re: Ask HN: How would a foreign startup raise funds in US?

#12

Post by c1oder » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 8:10 PM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #8

taligent wrote: post #5

As an Australian I always find it bizarre this desire to goto the US when so much untapped opportunity exists in the region. Indonesia (240m), China (1344m), Japan (127m), Australia (22m) . All of which have have very little competition in so many areas. I know there is a lot more money in the US but without any connections the only way you're going to get anywhere is by having a proven product. So why not exploit ad…

As a fellow Australian, I think you've oversimplified. 1. America is a better fit for Australians. We ostensibly speak the same language; thanks to cultural exports we are highly familiar with American popular culture and domestic affairs. 2. There are 15 Americans for every Australian. 3. America has a gigantic middle class. Only mainland Europe is its rival. 4. It's easier to start and run a startup business in the…

If you want to launch mobile internet business, there is lots of opportunities in developing countries.

Quess what country leads mobile banking? It's Kenya. Something like 60% of Kenyans have made mobile money transfer. Money transfer via mobile phones has expanded to 16 percent of the total population in sub-Saharan Africa in just few years. Most of the third world people will never get landlines for the last mile, they just skip the whole step and turn wireless.

Mobile business in developing countries is just going crazy. Threre has been huge revolution in just few years and it's currently ongoing. I predict that cheap below $100 smartphones will turn the life of hunreads of millions people around in less than five years. They have less money, but they already use mobile phones more innovatively than we do.

The main difference in comparision to developing countries seems to be that mobile internet will provide much bigger productivity boost for developing countries than it will do for us. New iPhone app in U.S is nice but it will not turn your life prospects around. Lacking infrastructure (like roads that work in rain season) makes the ability to use mobile Internet more important.

Re: Ask HN: How would a foreign startup raise funds in US?

#13

Post by orangethirty » Wed, Aug 01, 2012, 1:45 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #3

1) Get traction. 2) Pitch your startup to investors which have previously invested in companies based in Singapore. 500Startups springs to mind. Talk to the local hometown heroes in Singapore who have achieved funding for recommendations on other investors. Traction excuses virtually everything else. Not technically impressive? Doesn't matter, had traction. Not based in Silicon Valley? Doesn't matter, had traction. N…

To add:

Get traction + Get attention.

Shout from the rooftops whatever it is you are doing. Reached a small goal (like the 100th member)? Write 25 blog posts about it, tweet it, post to HN, and just put it out there. In fact, make a video out of it.