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Why We're Not Raising Funds

blog.omnicalculator.com

41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Why We're Not Raising Funds

#41
post #7

Genuinely non-snarky question. It looks like a standard calculator and conversion app, and it looks like most of the implementation I could imagine being in a calculator app is already done. Why would you even think of raising funds? You thought it was a good idea to write the blog post, so it obviously crossed your mind.

Because he went through an accelerator. He'll be told for months that the demo day and the pitch will be super-duper important, because investors. I attended a different accelerator than him (but also corporate and in Berlin), and the idea that bootstrapping may be viable, or even that waiting for another 6 to 12 months when one has real feedback from the market, was never brought up. This is especially sad, because…

I agree with most things and that's been the general sentiment in our accelerator, too. However, I don't consider it a waste of time. Pitching is great in a way that it forces you to have a clear vision of what you want to do. And boy, I needed it. Every time I pitched, I got questions I knew I didn't have good answers to. These were the biggest holes in my business plan and pitching alone made me think harder about them.

As for the demo day, we were told early on that it's a big thing, but it's unlikely that we'll be discovered then. I got in touch with a pretty great investor who's kinda interested, but I think they're way out of our league now (series A/B level), so we'll wait. Also, on that day we initiated a B2B deal which just might turn out to be what we need at this stage (we're building a prototype now).

I love the Berlin-SV comparison and your conclusion!

Re: Why We're Not Raising Funds

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@ohquu: people calculate craploads of things on a daily basis. More often than not they're using calculators that look pretty much the same as those in the 70's. I want to make it easier, faster and more pleasant. I want people to be able to calculate things that right now they can't and aren't willing to learn how to. "Much bigger" doesn't need to mean we're gonna send people to Mars. Solving even small problems for…

I'm glad you have a successful application, but are people really unable to multiply their bill by 1.15 to get the new total with a tip? I'm curious, what is the most requested new feature you're getting from your users.

Yeah, simple percentage, tip & discount calculators are the most used.

Feature request come from markup/profit margin and "trader's" calculator users. And they have more serious needs (and they never want the same thing...).

Re: Why We're Not Raising Funds

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@ohquu: people calculate craploads of things on a daily basis. More often than not they're using calculators that look pretty much the same as those in the 70's. I want to make it easier, faster and more pleasant. I want people to be able to calculate things that right now they can't and aren't willing to learn how to. "Much bigger" doesn't need to mean we're gonna send people to Mars. Solving even small problems for…

I'm glad you have a successful application, but are people really unable to multiply their bill by 1.15 to get the new total with a tip? I'm curious, what is the most requested new feature you're getting from your users.

This is actually the most stressful part of dinner. Along with splitting a bill fairly.

Of course I can do it, but when I'm talking with people I'd rather do it much faster with less likelihood of a mistake.

Re: Why We're Not Raising Funds

#44
post #5

My opinion is that you probably shouldn't raise money unless you need money to execute your business plan. Some business plans aren't capital intensive, so why give a big chunk of your company away if you don't need additional capital to execute your vision. I don't think mere "growth acceleration" is enough to warrant it. You need to be doing something with the money that you couldn't accomplish otherwise.

That's exactly what I'm thinking now. And what smart people have been advising me all along... it took me a while to hear them, though.

Re: Why We're Not Raising Funds

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad you have a successful application, but are people really unable to multiply their bill by 1.15 to get the new total with a tip? I'm curious, what is the most requested new feature you're getting from your users.

This is actually the most stressful part of dinner. Along with splitting a bill fairly. Of course I can do it, but when I'm talking with people I'd rather do it much faster with less likelihood of a mistake.

Move the decimal point to the left. Boom, %10.

Move the decimal point to the left, then double. Boom, %20.

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