71–80 of 163 posts
I signed up a few weeks back and was interested in seeing what the product would look like.
I signed up a few weeks back and was interested in seeing what the product would look like.
It's not about the pitch deck. It's about the product. How many people really want a custom radio front panel? There are other customized products in that space which might be more useful. * Customized entertainment remotes. Tell us what gear you have, what you like to do with it, and we make a remote or remotes that makes it easier to use. You might have a simple "watch TV only" remote, and a tablet type "does every…
Yup. This definitely should have started out as a B2B play. Industry will pay an arm and a leg for customization for lots of random parts. Use the cash to build the foundation of the biz then go after the finicky consumer market later.
"Having previously raised $250,000 from friends & family" I cant imagine any of my friends or family being able to give me a quarter million.
Right? I see this a lot and it's often an investors first response when asking for small seed rounds: "Well have you considered raising money internally? Ask around your friends and family". If I had friends and family that could just toss me a $250k I don't think I'd be in this position.
Focusing on 1 (or 2) promising products was definitely the way to go. A customizable wifi radio that plays a podcast, Pandora or Spotify sounds kinda cool.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The post says they raised "$250,000 from friends & family". That seems like a strong incentive to make sure your investors (read: loved ones) can recover their investments.
Would the typical VC deal allow founders to return money to their seed round investors before the VCs?
Further rounds of investment normally means the company is successful and growing. It also means that professional investors think the investment is a good deal, so as an early stage investor your best bet is generally to stay on the bandwagon.
In the case of Wattage, the company is going bankrupt, so as an investor you are going to be getting between 0 - 100% of your money back. So it seems like the founders tried to get that closer to 100% so there wouldn't be any negative feelings. But if you are an investor in a successful and growing company, getting your money back is not a good return.
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Just wanted to ask how common is it to return money to VC's? Or how is this any different than a bank loan, If the VC doesn't shoulder the risks that come with these kind of projects I wonder what is the value they add. People might as well borrow the money on loan.
I'm astonished at the amount raised from "friends and family." If my network of people I can ask is 250 people (a lot!), and my success rate for securing some amount of money is 10%, the average amount contributed per person is $10,000. Maybe it's my modest means speaking here, but that's an insane amount.
An accredited investor is "someone whose net worth exceeds $1M not including their primary residence." The vast majority of people are not accredited investors because they cannot use their house as part of their net worth.
This is not your extended family giving you a $500 or $1000 to pursue your dream. These are wealthy people who know what they are doing, and are putting in several thousand if not tens of thousands of dollars each.
It's not about the pitch deck. It's about the product. How many people really want a custom radio front panel? There are other customized products in that space which might be more useful. * Customized entertainment remotes. Tell us what gear you have, what you like to do with it, and we make a remote or remotes that makes it easier to use. You might have a simple "watch TV only" remote, and a tablet type "does every…
> How many people really want a custom radio front panel? It looks like they finally decided to focus on this one product which I think is smart because my guess is "way more than you think". Customization may be difficult to make but it is very easy to sell.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right? I see this a lot and it's often an investors first response when asking for small seed rounds: "Well have you considered raising money internally? Ask around your friends and family". If I had friends and family that could just toss me a $250k I don't think I'd be in this position.
Raising $250k from your close network should be very easy for anyone hoping to be a founder. If you can't get 10 people to write a $25k check, you should reconsider founding a company.