Ask HN: How did you finance your start-up?

#1

Post by aswin8728 » Mon, Dec 02, 2013, 8:43 AM UTC

Did you use your own money? Did you find an angel investor? If so, where did you look?

Just wanted to get a feel for how people reached their fiscal goal before I dive into trying to fund my own projects.

Re: Ask HN: How did you finance your start-up?

#2

Post by edwardliu » Mon, Dec 02, 2013, 10:03 AM UTC

With the money I saved up on my first job. I'm usually quite Lean. I found a co-founder who owned a developer team. I gave him a small percentage and some "salary" to get it started.

Also, I'd never ask for money until my startup already has traction.

Re: Ask HN: How did you finance your start-up?

#3

Post by bjoerns » Mon, Dec 02, 2013, 10:15 AM UTC

I second edwardliu's comment. did the same thing, putting my own money where my mouth is. Whether you take on investor money obviously depends on many, many things but in my view, but bootstrapping it for as long as you can helps you focus on what matters most when you run a business: revenues. build a product that solves a real problem, get traction and make money.

Re: Ask HN: How did you finance your start-up?

#4

Post by muratmutlu » Mon, Dec 02, 2013, 10:37 AM UTC

I hooked up with 2 other co-founders friends that i use to work with.

We worked in our spare-time to get out a really early beta, once we had that and some users I started asking around and networking to find investors.

Took around 3-4 weeks and dozens of meetings to find the right one. Almost took the first offer we got which was a quarter of what we settled for.

Although I used Angel List and F6S, in the end it was a personal intro from a old freelance client that got us the money

Re: Ask HN: How did you finance your start-up?

#5

Post by davidsmith8900 » Mon, Dec 02, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

- I pretty saved up money from my first job.