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Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

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Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#51

Post by daenz »

ryanSrich wrote: post #38
Lord_Zero wrote: post #33

"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.

Reminds me of Mitt Romney's entrepreneurial advice: "Borrow money if you have to from your parents." Such a disconnect. Must be nice to have parents to be able to bankroll your businesses, Mitt.

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#52

Post by chrissnell »

oalders wrote: post #30
kamaal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#53

Post by aaron-lebo »

alaskamiller wrote: post #49

This is like making a McDonalds because everyone says they want it their way but deep down the truth is we just want an In-N-Out menu of 5 things. And the McDonald's way is bloated, slow, expensive, and dying.

One of my favorite Jobs stories is how he took Apple's late-90s lineup of numerous products and simplified it in a 2x2 matrix.

(Maybe not the best link, but it shows what I'm talking about.)

http://www.slopefillers.com/steve-jobs-product-matrix/

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#55

Post by daenz »

kamaal wrote: post #29
jeremybell wrote: post #17

There are some questions about the deal we secured to return our investors' money. Without going into the specifics, I can say it was essentially an acquihire. I'm going to another company, and part of that deal allows me to repay our investors in full.

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.

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#56

Post by Animats »

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 everything" remote.

* Light your house and garden. Send us pictures of your house and garden, answer some questions about how you use them, and we'll design an outdoor lighting system for it and have an installer put it in. You get to see renders of what it looks like at night before you buy. (There are Autodesk tools for that.)

* Custom control panels for the aftermarket auto sound industry. Make cool stuff for LA rappers and wannabees.

* There are lots of industrial products which need heavy customization. Offer on-line ordering tools for such products as a service to industrial sellers.

Trying to hammer a customized product model into the web-based "order on line, ship to customer, integration is someone else's problem, no customer service" model wasn't going to work.

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#57

Post by jeremybell »

daenz wrote: post #51
ryanSrich wrote: post #38

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.

Reminds me of Mitt Romney's entrepreneurial advice: "Borrow money if you have to from your parents." Such a disconnect. Must be nice to have parents to be able to bankroll your businesses, Mitt.

Why would you immediately think it was my parents? Sigh.

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#58

Post by ska »

kamaal wrote: post #29
jeremybell wrote: post #17

There are some questions about the deal we secured to return our investors' money. Without going into the specifics, I can say it was essentially an acquihire. I'm going to another company, and part of that deal allows me to repay our investors in full.

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.

VC's exist to service a market that banks wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#59

Post by ska »

daenz wrote: post #55
kamaal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you have the sort of friends and family who will put up $50k, this is much more achievable, no? (I have no idea what sort of situation the poster is in, but F&F rounds can certainly go higher than $250k).

Re: Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down

#60

Post by jeremybell »

solve wrote: post #41

> “Now That’s A Beautiful Pitch Deck” Reminds me of this quote: "As a designer, this is hard to admit: Extremely beautiful design is a negative warning signal for startup success. (70%+ accuracy.)" https://twitter.com/dcurtis/status/571082598920925187 So, so true. Also, I've long noticed that startups who call themselves beautiful on their front page seem 99% bound to fail. Noticeably higher failure rate.

I would tend to agree with this, but it's usually a sign that the startup has incorrectly focused their energies and money on design, instead of focusing on the underlaying business itself.

In this case, I simply designed the deck myself. I'm flattered that everyone thinks it looks nice, but my intention wasn't to make something with style over substance.

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