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Looking for a Venture Capitalist or Angel Advisor

23. October 2008 06:51 by Scott in   //  Tags:   //   Comments (5)

I have come to the point in my life where I want to start my own business.  I am in a job that is decent, but I don't see my self going anywhere with the position I am in.  I am in need of some advice from a venture capitalist or angel investor out there.  I would like to share my ideas with this person and see if they think money could actually be made from the ideas I have.  I am truly interested in moving up and outside my set "working for the man" career path.  I can't move to Silicon Valley because of my current personal situation, so it would have to be a long distance thing.

I have about fourteen ideas that I would love to propose to someone.  I am not looking for financing, just an insight on whether my ideas would work and be able to sustain my current low level, low income software engineer lifestyle.

If you know someone that could help or are someone that could help, let me know at spoiledtechie [at] gmail.com.

I just want to get out of the every day grind and work on my own projects.  I can take constructive criticism, let don't worry about hurting my feelings if all my ideas stink.

Scott


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Comments (5) -

Mike
Mike
10/23/2008 6:40:49 PM #

I've sent a proposal to a VC (a prior boss of mine). That is as far as I made it. While the document was enroute to him I realized that when I start a company, I don't want to owe a ton of money to a VC foundation. My advice, as little as it is worth, is find a friend and build your software in your spare time. Buy server space with your own money. Get users as soon as possible, even if the software is not complete, and get feedback. Analyze the market for competitors.

The most important thing is to find a project that can make money, not just a project that would be fun to work on. The only questions VCs are going to have for you is how will it make money, how much will it make, and how soon will it start making it.

Anyway, like I said, I'm no expert. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Good luck.

cheetahtech
cheetahtech
10/23/2008 9:07:12 PM #

thanks for the advice.  I appreciate it!!

FSK
FSK
10/24/2008 9:09:42 AM #

Ideas are cheap.  It's implementation that counts.

Web hosting is dirt cheap.  If you're a software engineer, then write your application, buy some hosting, and get some users.  If you have users and a working application, then it's easier to raise money.  If you have enough users, you can bootstrap and don't need VC at all.

For example, I have my blog hosted on Blogger for an investment of $0.  I'm considering buying some hosting and managing my own site.

Beware of accepting VC.  The terms of VC financing mean that the VC typically becomes the owner of the business, and the founder is now the VC's employee.

VCs are only interested in investing in a company that can be the next Google.  If your business will only lead to $100k-$200/year in income, it may be worth pursuing, but you're wasting your time pursuing VC.

Mike
Mike
10/27/2008 5:23:02 PM #

Hi Scott,

I'd be glad to hear you out.  Hit me up at the email on this comment.

I'm not a VC, but I do lots of startup/software stuff and think I could probably help you work through your ideas.  I also live in San Francisco.  While the economy has affected things a little here, I would highly recommend trying to find a way to relocate if you can.  It's a much different vibe here.

Lawrence Salberg
Lawrence Salberg
11/2/2008 9:35:39 AM #

Sigh... everyone always wants to tell you to do it their way. Move to California? What is this? The gold rush. Cali stinks. Florida rocks. Who is going to move for a digital idea? The guy who says "web hosting is dirt cheap" doesn't get it at all. Development time and testing isn't. I would think it kind of obvious that you don't want an angel investor to pay for GoDaddy hosting (or a Blogger blog... hilarious).

Anyway, I did sort of the same thing you did - put out the idea on my blog. Had a few interesting emails. There's that "Go Big Network" which looks promising (but requires a little bit of money to join). But after reading a bunch of stuff on T/C I sort of decided to hoof it out alone and get (at least) a working demo up and running. It will probably take me a year on my own time, but I have a test audience already (long story) who will actually use it day-to-day so I think that will make my web app a lot stronger. And maybe by that time, I'll be close enough to forgo any additional financing and just go to market direct. I dunno.... I'll have to see.

I kind of had to shut down the "idea factory" in my head (ha ha) and focus on just one or two projects to make forward progress on. I figure if I'm successful with just one, that will create cash for the 2nd and so on. Technically, I've been successful with one project already, but it's very small and not one I can brag about much. So, I try to remind myself that this is actually project #2. Sort of a confidence booster to my ego, I suppose... ha ha.

Soon, I'll be taking space walks with the Russians and creating my own private brand of clothing. Ah, not really. I just want to make the world a better place. Some cash wouldn't hurt either.