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Ask HN: When to look for VC

8 points by astrowilliam 13y ago

I Founded a niche news site roughly a year ago. My traffic is growing at a very healthy rate, half a million uniques in the first year. My revenue is growing as well. I have an absolute passion for this and plan on continuing until I physically can't anymore. My day job pays for all the costs of the site so money isn't an issue. At this point should I be looking for VC to help pay my bills and take it to the next level or should I continue to plug away and see what happens? I'd like to make this my full time job, but don't know if it's to that point yet. Thank you for listening.

simantel 13y ago
Do you have a clear user acquisition strategy that more money would accelerate? If not, what do you need more money for?
- astrowilliam 13y ago
  My basic need for the money would be to allow me more time and resources toward the project. I could invest in new technologies that I can't personally afford and more promotion. I don't have an acquisition strategy at this point. I'm working on that though.
crucialfelix 13y ago
Angels long before VCs. But what makes the site a good investment ? Where is the revenue ? And if you can get revenue then you won't need investment. Work on business models for a while, get revenue growth like you have user growth. Then they will want to invest.
- astrowilliam 13y ago
  Thank you. That's very sound advice. I'm working on revenue models and will be increasing cash flow in the near future.
Sealy 13y ago
Realizing where you are in terms of funding stages is important. If your site has a steady revenue stream then you are way past the angel stage as your proof of concept and revenue model has been shown to take at least some traction. I'd say you are at the seed or accelerator stage. I found this infographic very valuable: http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-equity/ http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-eq... Do you think you could push the growth faster if you worked on it full time? I recently took this step and haven't looked back since. Investors will see your leap of faith and be more inclined to back you from my personal experience.
- astrowilliam 13y ago
  First and foremost, thank you for your reply. It's greatly appreciated. I am a solo founder and I am more than willing to bring on a co-founder but I haven't really reached out to anyone in that regard. Maybe it's time I look for someone? I do believe I could push the growth faster if I had the time to put into it. I have been looking at some stats about my last year and noticed that the days that I have spent more than 4 hours on the site have helped bring more people through the door. At this point I have the content, I have the industry contacts. What I need now is promotion and marketing, I need people to be repeat users. Most of my users are bouncers, they come in the door, read the article and then take off. I have just revamped the site with that in mind and am hoping that it helps turn that around. I mainly use FB and Twitter for promo but would need some additional funding to reach new targets. My audience is very tech savvy so internet marketing is top priority. I believe my content is on par with the larger sites in my niche, but more geared toward the general public. At this point I can't jump in full time as I need my day job to pay the bills. If I had investors that would gladly help me achieve this, I'd do it as soon as possible.

8 points by astrowilliam 13y ago

simantel 13y ago

Do you have a clear user acquisition strategy that more money would accelerate? If not, what do you need more money for?

astrowilliam 13y ago
My basic need for the money would be to allow me more time and resources toward the project. I could invest in new technologies that I can't personally afford and more promotion. I don't have an acquisition strategy at this point. I'm working on that though.

crucialfelix 13y ago

Angels long before VCs. But what makes the site a good investment ? Where is the revenue ? And if you can get revenue then you won't need investment. Work on business models for a while, get revenue growth like you have user growth. Then they will want to invest.

astrowilliam 13y ago
Thank you. That's very sound advice. I'm working on revenue models and will be increasing cash flow in the near future.

Sealy 13y ago

Realizing where you are in terms of funding stages is important. If your site has a steady revenue stream then you are way past the angel stage as your proof of concept and revenue model has been shown to take at least some traction. I'd say you are at the seed or accelerator stage. I found this infographic very valuable: http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-equity/ http://fundersandfounders.com/how-funding-works-splitting-eq... Do you think you could push the growth faster if you worked on it full time? I recently took this step and haven't looked back since. Investors will see your leap of faith and be more inclined to back you from my personal experience.

astrowilliam 13y ago
First and foremost, thank you for your reply. It's greatly appreciated. I am a solo founder and I am more than willing to bring on a co-founder but I haven't really reached out to anyone in that regard. Maybe it's time I look for someone? I do believe I could push the growth faster if I had the time to put into it. I have been looking at some stats about my last year and noticed that the days that I have spent more than 4 hours on the site have helped bring more people through the door. At this point I have the content, I have the industry contacts. What I need now is promotion and marketing, I need people to be repeat users. Most of my users are bouncers, they come in the door, read the article and then take off. I have just revamped the site with that in mind and am hoping that it helps turn that around. I mainly use FB and Twitter for promo but would need some additional funding to reach new targets. My audience is very tech savvy so internet marketing is top priority. I believe my content is on par with the larger sites in my niche, but more geared toward the general public. At this point I can't jump in full time as I need my day job to pay the bills. If I had investors that would gladly help me achieve this, I'd do it as soon as possible.