Angels are looking for a 10x return because startups are incredibly high risk, even aiming for a 10x return the average angel only gets back 2.5x, so it's reall

Angels are looking for a 10x return because startups are incredibly high risk, even aiming for a 10x return the average angel only gets back 2.5x, so it's really not worth their while to invest in low return startups. (A talk about this here: http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2010/10/low-valuations-on-dragons-den.html http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2010/10/low-valuations-on-drag...) If you're willing to give up significant percentage of equity (40-50%) you could probably raise $50k for a company that'll make 350k/year. The other main alternative is by obtaining a bank loan, but this would have to be personally secured and you'd still be liable for the debt if the company failed. If your company is going to be serving a few big customers as opposed to lots of small customers, another possibility would be to approach your customers for investment, as their interest will primarily in the product rather than the ROI.