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Ask HN: #1 problem you have/had raising seed money from Angel or VC?

Anything from having trouble finding the right investors, getting warm intros, geography, etc.

muzani 9y ago
Mostly unrealistic expectations. There are very few software investors in Malaysia. Most come from something like civil engineering or telco, with very different expectations. They see it as just another place to put money, vs property or the stock market. Corruption here is high too. So there is very little trust, as people almost expect a VC's friend to scam money from a fund and "fail". Nobody will give you a $100k check and let you do whatever. Either it's pay and claim or they demand a meeting every week to ask how you've spent the money. The region also has very little respect for a good product. They care more about your marketing (or growth hacking) plans rather than product-market fit.
- booneshakalaka 9y ago
  This is fascinating (and unfortunate). So on a broader scale, it seems that your problems can be related to geography - which sounds like a much different issue than geography being a problem in the US (not in SV, NY, or Boston). How have you dealt with this so far? Are you still pursuing your idea?
  - muzani 9y ago
    We sold off the company. It's just not possible to build a company that doesn't bootstrap. But where there's a problem, there's also an opportunity. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It means that competitors are either poorly funded or on a political leash by VCs. It's possible to do "low hanging fruit" companies, knowing that someone can't just come in and compete. They'd have to work about half a year just to secure angel funding. And the lack of good early stage VCs means that we could become early stage VCs in a few years.
malux85 9y ago
Getting an introduction to the right one. Being bootstrapped and profitable has meant we're not burning a runway -- but I could be growing faster. My ideal investor would also be a mentor to me, preferably in the B2B or AI space, I would value help with strategic direction more than the $ right now
- booneshakalaka 9y ago
  Would you consider your company still in the seed stage? Also, are you having trouble getting introduced to investors in general, or just with specific domain knowledge in your industry? What have you tried so far?

Anything from having trouble finding the right investors, getting warm intros, geography, etc.

Mostly unrealistic expectations. There are very few software investors in Malaysia. Most come from something like civil engineering or telco, with very different expectations. They see it as just another place to put money, vs property or the stock market. Corruption here is high too. So there is very little trust, as people almost expect a VC's friend to scam money from a fund and "fail". Nobody will give you a $100k check and let you do whatever. Either it's pay and claim or they demand a meeting every week to ask how you've spent the money. The region also has very little respect for a good product. They care more about your marketing (or growth hacking) plans rather than product-market fit.

booneshakalaka 9y ago
This is fascinating (and unfortunate). So on a broader scale, it seems that your problems can be related to geography - which sounds like a much different issue than geography being a problem in the US (not in SV, NY, or Boston). How have you dealt with this so far? Are you still pursuing your idea?
- muzani 9y ago
  We sold off the company. It's just not possible to build a company that doesn't bootstrap. But where there's a problem, there's also an opportunity. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It means that competitors are either poorly funded or on a political leash by VCs. It's possible to do "low hanging fruit" companies, knowing that someone can't just come in and compete. They'd have to work about half a year just to secure angel funding. And the lack of good early stage VCs means that we could become early stage VCs in a few years.

malux85 9y ago

Getting an introduction to the right one. Being bootstrapped and profitable has meant we're not burning a runway -- but I could be growing faster. My ideal investor would also be a mentor to me, preferably in the B2B or AI space, I would value help with strategic direction more than the $ right now

booneshakalaka 9y ago
Would you consider your company still in the seed stage? Also, are you having trouble getting introduced to investors in general, or just with specific domain knowledge in your industry? What have you tried so far?