I Need Cash to Start My Company
I’m about to found a business that gives users full control over their personal data. We just need some 200k to start.
We don’t have the funds to bridge the 4 months to the launch. If we don’t get the funding by the end of the year, we will have to work in our day jobs again. And watch as someone else puts something similar on
the market. Are we doing something wrong? How can we get funding?
Why can’t you do your day jobs and build the software at the same time? Just do it at night.
Penelope
Thanks for your answer, Penelope. I am working on this with a partner, and we are both dads and want to see our kids and family. In my case, a day job would mean a four-hour commute per day, working long hours in a job that mostly drains me. My ADD adds to that in hostile ways, so I foresee a miserable time with little to no results. Been there, done that.
I’m now trying to convince him that getting the product live should have priority over the fundraising. At least, there are higher odds that we can make money in the long run. An once people start paying for the app, it’s also easier to convince investors.
Or should I apply a different logic here?
You can’t really do a startup and see your family. I’m just being honest here. There is a lot written on this topic. When you take in funding, you are on a clock. For various reasons, but that’s how funding works. So everything must happen very fast. Most startup founders either do not have kids or they have their own money to live off of at the beginning. (You can read about this on TechCrunch.com -it’s a popular topic over there.) This is why only 3% of the companies that get funding in the US are run by women: women refuse to give up seeing their families. Men are more likely to agree to give up on their families for their company. That said, it seems like you are not, so you probably should think of something besides raising funding.
Penelope
EXACTLY! David Tisch gives a great quote on this in the last season of TechStars. One of the startups he’s mentoring doesn’t know what to do about a qualified applicant who has a, gasp, family. Tisch says “tell him that the culture we want to set up is around busting our ass. We’re going to beat everyone else because we’re going to work harder than everyone else.” They all know that no matter how passionate the guy appears to be, he simply won’t have the time to be the employee they need him to be.
(BTW – you might like TechStars P. And you can watch online. Only 6 episodes a season. Though it also may fan the ‘gotta start a biz now” bug you’re fighting.) You could also probably get booked as one of the mentors…now that I”m typing this I’m realizing that you probably already have….doh.
A 4 hour commute daily sounds like the perfect time to be working on your side business. Just ditch your car & take the bus/train
S.