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I have a problem that I've seen mentioned on HN before, but I've never seen anyone with a good, "Here's what I did..." solution. I'm pretty certain that I'm no

by jnovek 18y ago

I have a problem that I've seen mentioned on HN before, but I've never seen anyone with a good, "Here's what I did..." solution. I'm pretty certain that I'm not the only HN reader with this particular issue. Imagine (I'm not saying that I actually HAVE any of these things, but imagine!) that I have a product, a beta with a community of active users, and a good team of co-founders who are developing the product on nights and weekends. Say I've even got some guesses about a marketing strategy and a revenue stream. Overall, a good collection of stuff to present to a potential investor of "seed" capital. The only problem is, I have a day job. And (for now) I need a day job to eat. If dealing with investors is really a full-time job as this article suggests, and should only be done in a startup city, as other PG articles suggest, how do I POSSIBLY afford to hunt down and meet with potential investors without starving to death? I suspect that "Can we meet after I get off work?" isn't a great confidence boost for a potential investor.

zhyder 18y ago
There's a similar problem with making sales calls, or with any other activity that requires synchronous communication/interaction (i.e. not email). I have the same problem.
jon_dahl 18y ago
Here's what i did. I was a consultant before I started raising money, so I could carve out a chunk of my time for fundraising before any money came in. When the money came in, I jumped over full-time. If you're not independent yet, maybe you could shift towards contract work for the next 2+ months? Also consider raising from friends and family first. This money can has the potential to come quickly if it's going to come at all. BUT don't do this unless your relationships won't be affected by the worst-case scenario (100% loss due to your obvious incompetence). And I know your second paragraph is hypothetical, but if you have a product, active users, and co-founders, then you probably have time to talk to investors. Answer emails at night, and schedule meetings around lunch or personal days. Saying that fundraising is a full-time job is a bit exaggerated, at least for angel investment; I've been raising for 6 months now with some success, and it's maybe been a 20% of my time.
staunch 18y ago
That's easy. You do what most people do. Let yourself become unmotivated and distracted by working on your side project and your day job simultaneously. Then slowly begin neglecting your promising side project and let it fade into obsolescence and then finally into death. If there was a reasonably pain-free solution to this problem there'd be far too many successful startups. Large corporations would have even more trouble hiring good hackers and the whole world would fall apart.

by jnovek 18y ago

zhyder 18y ago

There's a similar problem with making sales calls, or with any other activity that requires synchronous communication/interaction (i.e. not email). I have the same problem.

jon_dahl 18y ago

Here's what i did. I was a consultant before I started raising money, so I could carve out a chunk of my time for fundraising before any money came in. When the money came in, I jumped over full-time. If you're not independent yet, maybe you could shift towards contract work for the next 2+ months? Also consider raising from friends and family first. This money can has the potential to come quickly if it's going to come at all. BUT don't do this unless your relationships won't be affected by the worst-case scenario (100% loss due to your obvious incompetence). And I know your second paragraph is hypothetical, but if you have a product, active users, and co-founders, then you probably have time to talk to investors. Answer emails at night, and schedule meetings around lunch or personal days. Saying that fundraising is a full-time job is a bit exaggerated, at least for angel investment; I've been raising for 6 months now with some success, and it's maybe been a 20% of my time.

staunch 18y ago

That's easy. You do what most people do. Let yourself become unmotivated and distracted by working on your side project and your day job simultaneously. Then slowly begin neglecting your promising side project and let it fade into obsolescence and then finally into death. If there was a reasonably pain-free solution to this problem there'd be far too many successful startups. Large corporations would have even more trouble hiring good hackers and the whole world would fall apart.