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Well yes, that's called a regular company. Not sure if I'm missing something here?
This seems like pulling a fast one on VCs if you then pivot to bootstrapping a nice family business. That ain't why they threw $1m at your PowerPoint.
In "dragons den" style traditional business they'd offer you $50k for 50% at that stage. Maybe.
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
Do you have a link for any more information on this? This sounds interesting.
This might be different from state to state. There are also EU grants you can apply for, which might contribute to employee salaries. Those are somewhat difficult to navigate and apply for, but sometimes worth it to bridge the salary gap between a "normal" German company and FANG.
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
Do you have a link for any more information on this? This sounds interesting.
Then there are also more scholarships based on other criteria, e.g. your state or if you are at an university, many universities also have some sort of entrepreneurial scholarship which will then also help you get the larger scholarships afterwards.
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
Are you talking about the "Gründerstipendium"?
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
And yet Germany still doesn't seem to have much more startup / entrepreneurial success than any other European country. What gives?
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
And yet Germany still doesn't seem to have much more startup / entrepreneurial success than any other European country. What gives?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you talking about the "Gründerstipendium"?
Yes, ego.-START: https://www.ib-sachsen-anhalt.de/gruender/neue-existenz-grue... (just of the programs)
- https://www.xn--grndungsstipendium-n6b.nrw/
- https://www.foerderdatenbank.de/FDB/Content/DE/Foerderprogra...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Be a normal person/company and do normal person/company things,' isn't talked about very often, and it can be useful to be reminded that it is a pathway that can lead to success.
It depends very much on your definition of success. Many who grew up upper middle class would define survival as failure.
However, the middle path from the article presumes the existence of VCs willing to join you on that path. The article waves this away with:
> angel investors are generally more open to a 2-3x ROI
For a $1M round you'd need to find 10-20 such angels (assuming $50k-$100k average check size) willing to accept small upside, for which you'll have convince them there's commensurately smaller risk. This will probably mean you have some revenue and some sense of where PMF might lay or some kind of brand/pedigree.
Do not underestimate the value of YC brand and being able to present on Demo Day gives you. A random Jane from Ohio building her tech company would have a lot harder time finding those 10-20 angels, to put it mildly. I'd be more careful when extrapolating path-dependent success into a general strategy.
That said, my gut feeling is there's room for the next Paul Graham to fill that space - somehow.
Here's a model that exists in Germany, which I like: You can present a business plan to the state's investment bank and apply for several financial aides, including: * 1.5 years of universal basic income for you plus up to 2 other people. It's a tiny amount of money, but the point is to free you up to invest your actual time an money into the business. You do not have to pay this back. * up to 20k EUR in "consulting…
The catch is that they're usually very bureaucratic as it's public funds, and the more corruption, the more rules there are. Someone might say, come in from New Zealand to get a grant, then the condition becomes "must be 51% locally owned". A conglomerate creates a sister company to get the grant and then it becomes, "parent company must be less than 3 years old and have under $500k revenue". The rules just keep stacking on until agile is basically banned lol
Companies funded this way were actually one of my income sources when I was freelancing, but sadly most don't continue on unless there's a Series B later on.