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Let me play devil's advocate for a second. The short answer to your question is no, it's not possible in any reasonable sense to get funding today with zero con

Let me play devil's advocate for a second. The short answer to your question is no, it's not possible in any reasonable sense to get funding today with zero connections. You've admitted that you have no close friends who can be cofounders (ie. you're a loner), that you have no staff, and no paying customers. Investors see all of those as red flags. They like multiple founders for many reasons, including social proof and free labor. The only thing you have going is presumably a working app, which does give you some initial credibility. They also expect a large-enough market, over $10 billion. If you are in the social media space you will also need whatever the minimum subscriber base is today, around 5-10 million users to get funding. Instead of chasing VCs with a bad story, you're better off finishing the next point release and devoting your time and energy to sales and marketing. And make some friends, ffs. If you want to read sole-founder lore, then Marcus Friend (POF), Pierre Omidyar (eBay) and patio11 (hmm) are worth reading.

avmich 7y ago
I'd play the other side for a moment. You describe as red flags essentially that there is currently no business side for a project, hypothetical or real. But there are presumably some specifications, some prototypes, development work, tests, bug fixes, demos etc. - the whole system. Surely all those different aspects of the coherent achievement demonstrate the viability of the idea. > And make some friends, ffs. Following Norvig, one ought to spend significant efforts to become good at something. Making friends - especially those who'd be able to share the unusual road of startup founding - isn't something which would be recommended to come lightly or carelessly. If OP formulates the question for the solo founders, it surely would be interesting to hear which variants there are. Should engineers - here, on YC - regret they were focusing on technical sides instead of jack-of-all-trading and constantly searching for potential mates?

avmich 7y ago

I'd play the other side for a moment. You describe as red flags essentially that there is currently no business side for a project, hypothetical or real. But there are presumably some specifications, some prototypes, development work, tests, bug fixes, demos etc. - the whole system. Surely all those different aspects of the coherent achievement demonstrate the viability of the idea. > And make some friends, ffs. Following Norvig, one ought to spend significant efforts to become good at something. Making friends - especially those who'd be able to share the unusual road of startup founding - isn't something which would be recommended to come lightly or carelessly. If OP formulates the question for the solo founders, it surely would be interesting to hear which variants there are. Should engineers - here, on YC - regret they were focusing on technical sides instead of jack-of-all-trading and constantly searching for potential mates?