Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
1–10 of 20 posts
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#2I wasn't expecting much (most articles with titles like that are terrible), but this vastly exceeded my expectations. If I'd had advice like this when I worked on my first couple of startups, rather than the advice in Hackers and Painters, I think things would have turned out differently.
The first-time founders I mentor now have somewhat more realistic expectations than we did during the Web 2.0 startup craze circa 2005, but there are still far too many of them looking to build what comes easy (e.g. social network) instead of looking to build what makes money.
For my part, I'm done taking money unless there's a compelling reason. Right now I'm spending weekends building my next startup while doing my time at my last startup, now post-acquisition. It doesn't just feel better than chasing money, it feels right. If enough revenue comes in such that I need to quit and put my full time in, it will be a victory that tastes all the sweeter because this time I did it on my own terms.
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#3I wasn't expecting much (most articles with titles like that are terrible), but this vastly exceeded my expectations. If I'd had advice like this when I worked on my first couple of startups, rather than the advice in Hackers and Painters , I think things would have turned out differently. The first-time founders I mentor now have somewhat more realistic expectations than we did during the Web 2.0 startup craze circa…
Can you give an example of advice I give about startups in Hackers & Painters that you consider to be mistaken?
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#4Is it how they fund raise in India?
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#5Is it how they fund raise in India?
Investing in India is very nascent. I think You need to have a fully working company with customers to raise seed money.
We have planned 5 products in our suite, 1 of which is in production use and 3 in advanced prototype and it was not enough to get into an accelerator program.
Also not sure if angel investors here understand what is seed money. Currently in the US, seed money that YC offers is about 11k to 18k USD. The angel firm we were speaking to mentioned an amount of about INR 10 million (which is way above even the US amount as seed).
INR 0.5 mil would be enough as seed money here, but I think nobody wants to take this early stage risk here.
We have eventually got into an accelerator program at iim-a, but that is because we won a contest.
*Edit (grammar)
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#6> As for people, there are plenty of folks willing to work for free.
Advising founders to recruit unpaid volunteers is horrible advice. Not only do you tend to get what you pay for, "free" labor can prove to be anything but free once the lawyers get involved.
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#7> As for people, there are plenty of folks willing to work for free. Advising founders to recruit unpaid volunteers is horrible advice. Not only do you tend to get what you pay for, "free" labor can prove to be anything but free once the lawyers get involved.
Not to speak for the author...but, well, here it goes...
I read that point to specify that you don't have to pay them in money, rather there are other currencies that are out there that can be far greater than money; like stock options, connections, real life code examples, etc.
All of the points you mention about the pitfalls of "unpaid" persons can be seen with paid employees as well. It just seemed like he was saying that there are alternative currencies out there other than just money.
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#8Is it how they fund raise in India?
Investing in India is very nascent. I think You need to have a fully working company with customers to raise seed money. We have planned 5 products in our suite, 1 of which is in production use and 3 in advanced prototype and it was not enough to get into an accelerator program. Also not sure if angel investors here understand what is seed money. Currently in the US, seed money that YC offers is about 11k to 18k USD.…
Correct. The Investor mindset is a bit different and they look for more safer bets.
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Investing in India is very nascent. I think You need to have a fully working company with customers to raise seed money. We have planned 5 products in our suite, 1 of which is in production use and 3 in advanced prototype and it was not enough to get into an accelerator program. Also not sure if angel investors here understand what is seed money. Currently in the US, seed money that YC offers is about 11k to 18k USD.…
Correct. The Investor mindset is a bit different and they look for more safer bets.
Thank you for your replies. It's very similar to this, here in Poland. The emerging markets have a lot of common characteristics. However, I didn't expect risk taking aversion to be one of them. Maybe just an "American thing" to be bold and take risks. Might be this that can't be replicated elsewhere :-(
Re: Fundraising tips for first-time startup founders
#10To the site owner - your site isn't readable on mobile. Hiding the floating element on mobile may be enough to make it readable.