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Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

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11–20 of 38 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#11
I can't actually help you directly with your request, but stop telling yourself that you're building something "very technical", at least to the extend that it's an impediment to articulating the business value of your product.

You're solving a real problem for a real market. You will help thousands of app-developers reach a wider audience with a better product. You're selling shovels to golddiggers, you're not digging gold - that's a good business proposition. Do some back of the envelope math to figure out what the market is worth, and come back with the question "How do we find an investor for a great business?"

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#12
post #4

You could try http://www.kima15.com although ceding 15% might be too steep for the amount they invest given you have a working, sellable prototype (I have heard Kima say they are sometimes willing to negotiate on this figure though). You could also try posting to angel list (not easy to get noticed there though unless you already have a bit of a network).

good idea :)

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#13

I can't actually help you directly with your request, but stop telling yourself that you're building something "very technical", at least to the extend that it's an impediment to articulating the business value of your product. You're solving a real problem for a real market. You will help thousands of app-developers reach a wider audience with a better product. You're selling shovels to golddiggers, you're not diggi…

That is excellent advise and we are really doing that (to the best of our abilities :); on HN I just want to be honest that then people talk for a while they push through that onto the tech and then they get slightly lost. So the part between 'this is for the millions of app developers' (tech without saying it) and 'compiling against a library' (tech and saying it) is where it gets a bit hairy.

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#14
I don't understand why you couldn't just start selling it, considering:

* It could save developers many thousands of dollars.

* There's presumably a big market for it.

* The product is apparently already built and would be difficult for someone to clone.

It will be a lot more attractive to investors if you already have revenue and a plan to scale it. Especially in EU/UK.

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#15
This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but a general piece of advice: you might have more luck if you take your "very technical" product and explain it in a way that others can relate to more easily. Something like "We've built a service that allows programmers to create Android apps from their iOS applications automatically." And then follow that up by explaining that typically building an Android app takes a full-time engineer 6 months at £XXXX/month, while your product makes that unnecessary, so you think you can charge developers £XXX to use it.

When you give a bit of context to what you've accomplished, it shouldn't take someone with a BSc in CS to understand what you're talking about.

All that said, sometimes the best way to find good investors is to just go where they are, as others have mentioned.

EDIT: sibling comment by mseebach beat me to this point by about 5 minutes

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#17

I don't understand why you couldn't just start selling it, considering: * It could save developers many thousands of dollars. * There's presumably a big market for it. * The product is apparently already built and would be difficult for someone to clone. It will be a lot more attractive to investors if you already have revenue and a plan to scale it. Especially in EU/UK.

We have revenue and we are doing exactly that, but now I compare it to something like a 'half product' where we sell it and spend 1-2 weeks 'tweaking' it. We have a great roadmap which would not only allow us to sell this online but, coming from this, introduce a number of products, partner programs and services. This is all not possible without taking a big step for the product technically, branding wise and marketing wise.

Edit: but yes, if we cannot get a partner / funding partner, we definitely will take a small part of the roadmap and turn that into a niche product.

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#18
post #8

And once you solve this, how will you meet the people who will eventually make the biggest investment? (The acquirers.) Being in the right part of the US, you can meet all three - future employees, investors, the decision makers in charge of acquisitions, valuable introducer middlemen, while you're at the park or chatting with people at meetups or anywhere. Amazingly, you can meet them just like any other normal peop…

You are assuming acquirers are based exclusively in the US, which very much isn't the case. B2B software product that makes it easier to develop apps? I can think of a lot of large EU corporations that would be just as interested as US based companies to acquire (SAP, anyone?).

Furthermore, you don't need to be US based to be bought by a US company. A product like this probably will need a US presence at some point, since it sounds quite sales/evang heavy. But again, that doesn't mean you need to start in the US.

I think you might be viewing the world through fairly rose tinted glasses. I suppose I could meet a "valuable introducer middleman" while I'm in the park, but given SF it's probably more likely the stranger I just met in the park wants to tell me about the forthcoming alien invasion.

To use an analogy: if you want to be the film business, Hollywood is by far the most popular place to be. But that doesn't mean that being in Hollywood makes it any easier: there are more connections and more opportunities, but there's also far more people trying to use them. To that end, many successful people and companies in film are based outside of Hollywood. The Bay is the same: it's the place to be for tech. It's not the only place, and while there are advantages to being based there, there are also disadvantages.

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#19
post #18
post #8

And once you solve this, how will you meet the people who will eventually make the biggest investment? (The acquirers.) Being in the right part of the US, you can meet all three - future employees, investors, the decision makers in charge of acquisitions, valuable introducer middlemen, while you're at the park or chatting with people at meetups or anywhere. Amazingly, you can meet them just like any other normal peop…

You are assuming acquirers are based exclusively in the US, which very much isn't the case. B2B software product that makes it easier to develop apps? I can think of a lot of large EU corporations that would be just as interested as US based companies to acquire (SAP, anyone?). Furthermore, you don't need to be US based to be bought by a US company. A product like this probably will need a US presence at some point,…

Numbers talk, bullsh*t walks. Please tell me where your suggested EU city / region ranks among this bar chart:

https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/tech-acquisition-rankings-ci...

Numbers, please? It's not rose tinted, for the time being it's still a massacre.

Re: Ask HN: How do we find an investor in the EU/UK for something very technical?

#20
post #7

Check out Cambridge, UK and network with the companies/investors there. ARM, Bromium, Geometrics and quite a few others are all companies that are based there and are very technical.

While you're there, get in touch with the Cambridge Angels. They won't be scared by very technical ideas (as long as you can prove the market etc. etc.), but are extremely rigorous.
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