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How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

aihuiong.com

21–30 of 54 posts

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#21
post #17

A) What did you give up for $650K? B) $650K seems such a low amount of money, it's barely enough to hire 2-3 senior level developers for a year, and rent an office space. I have no idea how you guys launch startups with such small amounts of money.

Exactly. The unanswered and huge question here is how much equity she gave up.

Without that info, this "story" is not worth much.

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#22
This is the kind of thing independent filmmakers would do to raise funds. There was no Internet or VC funds in those days to help. They'd pitch professionals who needed to invest: doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, and the like. Do people still go after them to raise funds for tech startups too?

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#23
post #17

A) What did you give up for $650K? B) $650K seems such a low amount of money, it's barely enough to hire 2-3 senior level developers for a year, and rent an office space. I have no idea how you guys launch startups with such small amounts of money.

Why would a startup so young would blow their money on hiring 2-3 senior level developers?

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#24
post #12

1) Wear your Company T-shirt heh. I've actually thought about this a lot. I always wear a company shirt, yeah, but I also tend to wear the same clothing all the time, too, on the theory that it makes me more recognizable, and that being recognized is good. My theory (which may, of course, be wrong) is that in branding? being consistent and recognizable is far more important than looking good. But then, I'm trying to…

Maybe it's just me, but I always thought wearing your company t-shirt makes you look obnoxious, specially if no one has heard of the company.

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#25
post #18
post #17

A) What did you give up for $650K? B) $650K seems such a low amount of money, it's barely enough to hire 2-3 senior level developers for a year, and rent an office space. I have no idea how you guys launch startups with such small amounts of money.

Are you serious?

If you plan on hiring people and rent an office space, it definitively won't give the company a long life span.

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#26
post #17

A) What did you give up for $650K? B) $650K seems such a low amount of money, it's barely enough to hire 2-3 senior level developers for a year, and rent an office space. I have no idea how you guys launch startups with such small amounts of money.

Why would a startup so young would blow their money on hiring 2-3 senior level developers?

Why would they raise money otherwise? Not much point in raising +$500k if you plan to stay solo and coding at home.

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#27
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a startup so young would blow their money on hiring 2-3 senior level developers?

Why would they raise money otherwise? Not much point in raising +$500k if you plan to stay solo and coding at home.

You could hire lower-level dev staff, and you'll probably need some marketing and admin people, most of whom would be less expensive, and free more time up for a second round of fundraising (assuming that's a goal).

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#28

This is the kind of thing independent filmmakers would do to raise funds. There was no Internet or VC funds in those days to help. They'd pitch professionals who needed to invest: doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, and the like. Do people still go after them to raise funds for tech startups too?

Spending so much time on sites like HN and TechCrunch, it's easy to forget that there are over half a million businesses started in the U.S. per year, with only a tiny smattering of those being VC funded tech startups.

Determined entrepreneurs get money however they can, but mostly pay out of their own pocket or borrow from local banks or credit unions. VC funded businesses are few and far between (except in SF), but seem to get a lion's share of the attention.

Source: http://web.sba.gov/faqs/faqindex.cfm

Re: How I Met 75 Investors and Raised $650,000

#30
post #24
post #12

1) Wear your Company T-shirt heh. I've actually thought about this a lot. I always wear a company shirt, yeah, but I also tend to wear the same clothing all the time, too, on the theory that it makes me more recognizable, and that being recognized is good. My theory (which may, of course, be wrong) is that in branding? being consistent and recognizable is far more important than looking good. But then, I'm trying to…

Maybe it's just me, but I always thought wearing your company t-shirt makes you look obnoxious, specially if no one has heard of the company.

it is just you (kidding). How would they hear of you? Why not wear a t-shirt! T-shirts are a pretty low-cost investment in promotion. I can buy a black shirt with a single color imprint for $3.50 in small runs. A good pen with the company name on it would cost the same. (source: I have been buying giveaway crud for 20+ years)

Giving away a metric ton of shirts can have some other interesting effects. In the early days of my manufacturing company we gave away many shirts to people within the industry. We started getting calls about 'our people' attending events that we did not attend. It turns out that some of our customers really saw other customers at trade events, but there were so many people with our company shirt on that they impression was that we were attending in force - we werent at the trade event.

After giving away 20,000 shirts in a four year period, our customers started complaining about having too many shirts. So the technique does not last forever. It did always amaze me the delight a grown adult would show when they were given a $3 shirt. Almost always a better investment than a pen.

Best ideas: Have a decent looking shirt that people want to wear; change base shirt colors so people can have an option. Some people like blue, some like red. Give them what they want, it doesn't change the cost of the shirt.

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