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VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

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VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#1

Post by random_user »

For context:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6932327

I have a ton of business and tech experience. I've launched several garage businesses. One did really well but the economy, circumstances and a perennially under-funded state (hardware is capital intensive) killed it. All were interesting experiences.

I've never raised any money. I self-funded everything I've ever done. The last one to the tune of over half a million dollars of my own money. I am no stranger to being all-in and putting it all on the line for something I believe in.

Circumstances are different now. Either I take my time and bootstrap from small to large projects or look for investors.

Sadly, I will not move to SV and I will not live on noodles. Bummer.

I have identified two opportunities I think have merit.

The first is a pure software web/mobile service. As is often the case, it is a twist on existing product. I believe the twist is what makes it very interesting, gives it wide appeal and could make it huge. It can go global. I have a 70 page deck covering just about every aspect of this venture. No, it's not a new Facebook. It's a B-to-B, C-to-C (and permutations thereof) service.

The second is a novel use of quadcopters. No regulatory issues I am aware of. Sizable world-wide appeal. This is definitely a case of first-mover advantage. With proper funding and support, execution would be fast and painless. This wouldn't be a an R&D project. This is a D project. Define, develop and go to manufacturing. Heard of "live long and prosper"? This one is "move fast and conquer". Probably the Klingon version. I don't have a deck on this one. It's a recent discovery of mine and I've put zero time into developing a deck. With one video I can show anyone this is a good idea.

Looking for a low impedance bank account to help launch either or both of these.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#2

Post by smartwater »

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore.

I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is to validate ideas, to find something that sticks.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#3

Post by random_user »

smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters.

And you are right. And if I had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I was a kid either dropping out of school or just out of school your sermon would be well applied. I'm not.

After over thirty years of entrepreneurship I tend to use "idea" to really mean "opportunity". Most ideas are utterly worthless. They are great as thinking tools. Never stop generating ideas! A few ideas are worth millions, o billions. Instagram started as an idea. Of course, that idea happened thousands of times. One team executed it well and at the right time.

What this means is that ideas are not always obvious identifications of market opportunities. To over-use Instagram, I know I would have thought that was a stupid idea. I wouldn't have given the Instagram idea the time of day. I would have discounted it as useless and moved on. So, here's an idea, worth billions when matched with the right team, timing and execution, that most people would think was just plain stupid.

As I got older I've tried to be less critical of ideas. I listen to them and I log mine assiduously. I allow myself to generate and consider ideas that, on first inspection, seem utterly ridiculous. I try to review them from time to time. What happens is that sometimes two or three combine into one. That's the case of the quadcopter opportunity I have uncovered. It's the combination of a number of thoughts and an interest in a couple of market segments I've had for years, decades, possibly. Now it's just about execution.

Still, inspired by your comment I edited my post and replaced "idea" with "opportunity". That's what I am talking about, opportunities, not ideas. I have hundreds of ideas, the vast majority of which are not opportunities.

Thanks.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#4

Post by sharemywin »

Start a blog on both your ideas. with a way for people to sign up with email. check out twitter and follow people that might be potential customers. next look at a kickstart campaign for the quadcopter idea. For the mobile here's a way for you to build your app. check out http://www.coronalabs.com/: it's $16/mo. you can build a mvp to field test your assumptions.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#5

Post by sharemywin »

sharemywin wrote: post #4

Start a blog on both your ideas. with a way for people to sign up with email. check out twitter and follow people that might be potential customers. next look at a kickstart campaign for the quadcopter idea. For the mobile here's a way for you to build your app. check out http://www.coronalabs.com/ : it's $16/mo. you can build a mvp to field test your assumptions.

...and/or start finding angel investors at least 100 of them and pitch. if they don't bite find out the one thing that the 1first one is most hesitant about. fix it. my guess is though if you haven't commited any of your own money/time its' going to be harder. also try the same process for potential customers. or find someone that's willing to work with you to sell.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#6

Post by random_user »

sharemywin wrote: post #4

Start a blog on both your ideas. with a way for people to sign up with email. check out twitter and follow people that might be potential customers. next look at a kickstart campaign for the quadcopter idea. For the mobile here's a way for you to build your app. check out http://www.coronalabs.com/ : it's $16/mo. you can build a mvp to field test your assumptions.

Well, I know current SV culture is to put it all out there and let the world see. I have cuts and bruises to prove this is not always the best approach. Business can be war and there are a lot of people out there ready, willing and able to steal from you. I had just that happen to me many years ago. I won't go into the details. I'll just say another business got started with my ideas. Competing against your own business plan is painful.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#7

Post by mcintyre1994 »

random_user wrote: post #3
smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. And you are right. And if I had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I was a kid either dropping out of school or just out of school your sermon would be well applied. I'm not. After over thirty years of entrepreneurship I tend to use "idea" to really mean "opportunity". Most ideas are utterly worthless. They are great as thinking tools. Never stop genera…

I don't see why your opportunities are any better than ideas, aren't they just your really good ideas? The opportunity is surely for you to execute it now, because to everyone else it's just a really good idea?

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#8

Post by crindy »

random_user wrote: post #3
smartwater wrote: post #2

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore. I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is…

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. And you are right. And if I had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I was a kid either dropping out of school or just out of school your sermon would be well applied. I'm not. After over thirty years of entrepreneurship I tend to use "idea" to really mean "opportunity". Most ideas are utterly worthless. They are great as thinking tools. Never stop genera…

The problem isn't the word "idea". It's the fact that you haven't gotten past the part that's in your head. You can't be sure that an idea is an opportunities until you've put them out there and seen if you can get them any traction.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#9

Post by random_user »

sharemywin wrote: post #5
sharemywin wrote: post #4

Start a blog on both your ideas. with a way for people to sign up with email. check out twitter and follow people that might be potential customers. next look at a kickstart campaign for the quadcopter idea. For the mobile here's a way for you to build your app. check out http://www.coronalabs.com/ : it's $16/mo. you can build a mvp to field test your assumptions.

...and/or start finding angel investors at least 100 of them and pitch. if they don't bite find out the one thing that the 1first one is most hesitant about. fix it. my guess is though if you haven't commited any of your own money/time its' going to be harder. also try the same process for potential customers. or find someone that's willing to work with you to sell.

Here's the problem with that approach: It takes a long time and you are invariably going to talk to a lot of people who have money and nothing else to contribute. The only type of money you want as an entrepreneur is smart money. Just because someone is a VC it doesn't automatically mean they have value beyond what they might be able to contribute financially. Not a put-down. It's just a fact.

If I assume that, on average, each of the 100 VC pitches you are suggesting require, say, five hours of work that means 500 hours would be devoted to this effort. The truth is likely a much larger number. If I have to take that approach I would much rather bootstrap by using some of the smaller opportunities I've identified (Kicstarter being an interesting domain for such projects) and work my way up to the larger projects.

I am serious about business. I'd rather talk to five well-qualified people than engage in endless dances with those who will only waste your time. I am not saying this out of an enlarged ego. I am saying this out of experience.

How do you know which category they fall into? Well, experience in business is a big part of that.

Re: VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me?

#10

Post by random_user »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #7
random_user wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. And you are right. And if I had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I was a kid either dropping out of school or just out of school your sermon would be well applied. I'm not. After over thirty years of entrepreneurship I tend to use "idea" to really mean "opportunity". Most ideas are utterly worthless. They are great as thinking tools. Never stop genera…

I don't see why your opportunities are any better than ideas, aren't they just your really good ideas? The opportunity is surely for you to execute it now, because to everyone else it's just a really good idea?

No. An opportunity is an idea connected to a market need.

There's more than one way to connect an idea to a market need.

One case is where the market already exists either entirely or to some degree and you have a solid idea of how to make it better: iPhone.

Another is where you are the target market yourself and know the market very well. You see the need. You see the pain points and you are equipped to address them. I could argue that might have been the start of Hewlett and Packard.

FedEx is a case of an idea that was discounted and then proven to have been right on the mark. Some ideas can't be tested with $15,000 over a summer.

There are other cases where the idea and the market opportunity reveal themselves during some kind of an instant or event that provides the necessary clarity, if you will, that connects the two. A friend of mine and I had the idea for what eventually became LoJack a year or two before that company came out with their product. We were young, making very good money at our respective jobs and simply didn't have enough of that "clarity" (for lack of a better word) to take the idea seriously. To this day we laugh about it.

Ideas that are just ideas with no connection to a market happen at least two ways.

One is the case of a well established or entrenched set of players against which it'd be almost impossible to compete. It'd be hard to go up against Google or Facebook. The insight an idea would have to have in order to connect with a market opportunity in search or social would have to be so incredible that people would literally want to throw money at you. Even with that, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to even begin to have a shot at that. For all intents and purposes you can say that ideas in social or search really don't have a market because you really can't get that market.

The other category are ideas that really don't have markets, at least in the context of what makes for a good scalable company. Local restaurants. Great idea if you want to work 20 hours a day seven days a week, have huge risk of failure, no real scalability and no prospects of any kind of an exit that makes sense. For some people that would be a market. If it weren't there would be no mom-and-pop local restaurants. For most ventures that are looking for or need scale in order to be considered successful a mom-and-pop restaurant idea is an idea without a market.

I could go on. There are, of course, ideas that really lead to nothing useful. Most of those are obvious to most except for the guy married to the idea.

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