Questions

I'm the founder of a new startup and currently bootstrapping the operation. By the way of luck, we have potential interest from an angel investor, but should things not work out, I'm wondering when is a good time to look for funding? Most of the incubators that I've seen are looking for startups with full teams already. I'm set to attend a few startup events hosted in our city, but not really sure of etiquette and what to ask for, but see great value in just meeting established people in the industry nonetheless. We're outsourcing our MVP and I've just hired a few associates working piecemeal for me when required. The prototype will be done by me. At this stage in time, I have a full time job and this is a part time operation. Thank you so much for your time. I would value consulting with some of you over phone.

The key 2 parts to when you should raise money comes down to:

1. Do you need to raise money now? If your business is revenue generating from the early days then you might not have to raise money right at the beginning?

2. Are you ready to raise? Most investors want to see a launched product with traction and some growth numbers. For early rounds you want to prove that people are using it and its working out well. If you have the numbers to show that you are growing well and that users enjoy using your product then you are much more likely to raise.

With regard to your second point, its very hard to raise without having a full time team as investors will see that you are afraid to take the risk of dedicating yourself full time to a company so they will usually pass on the idea.

You want to show that you are dedicated to the business and that your team is. With all the requirements of running a startup its more than a Full time job so its going to be difficult to convince investors that you can compete in the market when you are not fully committed.


Answered 9 years ago

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