2 years, 10 months ago
How to get Angel Funding when one is disabled/Homebound and cannot go out to make presentations?
I have a website that I believe is a good investment opportunity. Do you think a relatively small investment of $350,000 in the first year will easily yield $45.36 million per annum within the first five years? That figure is not pie-in-the-sky; it is the actual revenue generated by The Drudge Report with much less effort.
I publish the daily March Report (web site: www.marchreport.com) . In less that a year, The March Report has gone from zero to tens of thousands of page views per month, and from Google page rank zero to four. The site is accessed in over 70 countries around the world.
I am a disabled and homebound 57 year old man with 38 years of business management experience in the publishing industry (President of 2, VP of 1), and am writing in the hope of getting help from you on how to obtain venture capital?
While I have the talent and skills to produce the site in a manner that will produce the results cited above, I do not have the investment knowledge to attract the necessary dollars. Also, being disabled and homebound, I cannot personally attend meetings with potential investors. I work over 100 hours per week running two businesses, but, due to nerve damage caused by diabetes, which causes me to have no physical balance (i.e., I lack the internal gyroscope that you have, and I used to have), I cannot leave my premises.
Our intent is to build Drudge-sized numbers by means of aggressive promotion (e-mail, public relations, web 2.0 methods, cable tv and radio spots), as well as by producing a highly useful and readable site that will create brand loyalty, and then make proper use of those numbers to build an Amazon-like business.
What should I do to get funding?
I publish the daily March Report (web site: www.marchreport.com) . In less that a year, The March Report has gone from zero to tens of thousands of page views per month, and from Google page rank zero to four. The site is accessed in over 70 countries around the world.
I am a disabled and homebound 57 year old man with 38 years of business management experience in the publishing industry (President of 2, VP of 1), and am writing in the hope of getting help from you on how to obtain venture capital?
While I have the talent and skills to produce the site in a manner that will produce the results cited above, I do not have the investment knowledge to attract the necessary dollars. Also, being disabled and homebound, I cannot personally attend meetings with potential investors. I work over 100 hours per week running two businesses, but, due to nerve damage caused by diabetes, which causes me to have no physical balance (i.e., I lack the internal gyroscope that you have, and I used to have), I cannot leave my premises.
Our intent is to build Drudge-sized numbers by means of aggressive promotion (e-mail, public relations, web 2.0 methods, cable tv and radio spots), as well as by producing a highly useful and readable site that will create brand loyalty, and then make proper use of those numbers to build an Amazon-like business.
What should I do to get funding?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$9 Answers
Hello Rob! Great question, thanks for asking it.
1)
Connect with Venture Capitalists online.
Most of them contribute to a blog and take their online persona very seriously. Your goal is to "get on their radar". Connect with them online intelligently and without being creepy. Leave insightful comments on their blog(s) and generally become an active, smart contributor.
2)
Ask for their help.
Much in the same way that you're asking for help here in this question, ask for the help of the people that you have connected with. Most VC's are busy folks and if you ask for no more than 10 minutes of their time for help via skype or other online audio / video conference, this could work out great.
Busy people take face-to-face meetings very seriously and will not sit down with anyone (wheelchair or not) unless they KNOW they are going to make money by investing even 10 minutes of their time with you. However, if you have a compelling reason to ask for help (I think you do) and can connect with a VC online, that's just as good as in person.
3)
Don't undersell yourself.
It sounds like you're viewing being homebound as a true disability. While it's not convenient for you to go to every conference and pitch every company in person, it's possible for you to pick a couple of events and get out there. If getting outside really is impossible, don't let that hold you back for one second.
If you can, TechCrunch50 for example would be a great event to go to. There is going to be a room full of people with money and connections there. You could form a "hot list" of people that you want to talk to and arrange appointments before, during or after the show itself. The folks who will be there are there to do business and by sending requests around early, you will pre-qualify yourself (and the effort it will take you to get out of the house). I bet it takes a lot of effort to get out of the house, but if you can schedule things out at an event like TechCrunch50, you can leave yourself time for rest while condensing a months worth of meetings into 3 days.
If leaving your home is impossible, there is nothing that you can do about it. However, if you can leave your home meeting with even a few people at an event could make a real impact. Making a real effort to visit them would defiantly say "I'm committed and will do whatever it takes" even before you ask them for money.
4)
Review your product.
I've had a very good look at www.marchreport.com.
You have 2.8 second to impress someone with your site. Your site takes a little while to load and looks like the design may be slightly outdated.
Also, be able to explain discrepancies. "Tens of thousands of page views" sounds REALLY exciting. However, when I look up your site on Quantcast, it is being listed with 2,100 views per month, a rank of 478,000 and a traffic graph that looks like you're making low to mid volume ad buys.
ALL of the things that Quatcast (and other statistical sites) could easily be wrong. So, to avoid any confusion, be able to clearly explain, illustrate and prove both your traffic and revenue metrics.
5)
Associate with a "player".
Give someone who has already been successful with at least 2 companies a large piece of your pie. Ideally, this partner will have raised capital and be active in the social tech scene in S.F. and in N.Y.
Homebound or not, having a "player" in your pocket has helped more successful Internet companies than you (or I) could imagine.
6)
Have a product.
Right now, VC's are investing in products, not perspectives.
What exactly are you selling?
Exactly how much money will you make this year?
How much of money are you loosing out on by NOT having funding?
What is the profit margin?
Advertising is great, but ads make less money now than they ever have in history. In addition to advertising, what product, service or other good are you selling?
7)
Develop a video.
It sounds like you're a very qualified (and likely talented) person. Your qualifications and talent could be conveyed in a video. Give the same pitch that you would give in person, but do it in a well composed, professionally edited video.
Talk for a little while, split to forecast reports, show your product, etc. Keep it in or around 10 minutes.
Create a 1 page mini-site (landing page) for your video. This landing page should have your video, power point slides, links, more information, etc. Direct everyone that you know there. Spread the video across the net with links back to your landing page so that they will see your product.
Not everyone who wants to invest is a "VC". Some of them are just folks with money who don't want to (or can't) do the VC social circuit but do want to invest in what you have. Give them a way to see that and work to get it in front of them.
8)
Beyond the basics...
You are raising $350k.
This isn't a small amount of money and you'll need to list some very clear specifics not only for anyone to invest in you, but for others to recommend places to send you.
My first question would be:
How much (as a percentage) of your company are you going to give me in exchange for my money?
I would then determine what you are valuing your company at based on this figure. Some quick math would determine pre-money valuation and post-money valuation numbers that I could use as a general gauge for the rest of the conversation. The bottom line, if you're not providing a good value, the investor won't hear much (if any) of the conversation past this important first question.
The questions that I would ask after this would include:
0)
To conclude, I think that you have some work to do before you should seek investment.
I do not think that a physical presence is required to raise capital. You can go it alone with strong remote presentation strategy, you can time and condense your meetings around a single event, or you can partner with a "player" which usually works out great.
If I was giving someone $350k for a product that I believed in, I would make the time to visit them if they could not visit me. For $350k, they could be anywhere in the world and I would fly to meet them. However, I would need to be clearly convinced that I was investing in a great product.
When you sell ANYTHING remotely, you have to have black-and-white, reputable facts. You need to be able to clearly illustrate exactly what you are doing now and what the benefit of the product is. Do these things, and the folks with money will be easily convinced!
Best of luck, Rob. I really hope that this works out for you.
Please feel free to comment with any questions at all. I will respond quickly and am happy to provide more details.
1)
Connect with Venture Capitalists online.
Most of them contribute to a blog and take their online persona very seriously. Your goal is to "get on their radar". Connect with them online intelligently and without being creepy. Leave insightful comments on their blog(s) and generally become an active, smart contributor.
2)
Ask for their help.
Much in the same way that you're asking for help here in this question, ask for the help of the people that you have connected with. Most VC's are busy folks and if you ask for no more than 10 minutes of their time for help via skype or other online audio / video conference, this could work out great.
Busy people take face-to-face meetings very seriously and will not sit down with anyone (wheelchair or not) unless they KNOW they are going to make money by investing even 10 minutes of their time with you. However, if you have a compelling reason to ask for help (I think you do) and can connect with a VC online, that's just as good as in person.
3)
Don't undersell yourself.
It sounds like you're viewing being homebound as a true disability. While it's not convenient for you to go to every conference and pitch every company in person, it's possible for you to pick a couple of events and get out there. If getting outside really is impossible, don't let that hold you back for one second.
If you can, TechCrunch50 for example would be a great event to go to. There is going to be a room full of people with money and connections there. You could form a "hot list" of people that you want to talk to and arrange appointments before, during or after the show itself. The folks who will be there are there to do business and by sending requests around early, you will pre-qualify yourself (and the effort it will take you to get out of the house). I bet it takes a lot of effort to get out of the house, but if you can schedule things out at an event like TechCrunch50, you can leave yourself time for rest while condensing a months worth of meetings into 3 days.
If leaving your home is impossible, there is nothing that you can do about it. However, if you can leave your home meeting with even a few people at an event could make a real impact. Making a real effort to visit them would defiantly say "I'm committed and will do whatever it takes" even before you ask them for money.
4)
Review your product.
I've had a very good look at www.marchreport.com.
You have 2.8 second to impress someone with your site. Your site takes a little while to load and looks like the design may be slightly outdated.
Also, be able to explain discrepancies. "Tens of thousands of page views" sounds REALLY exciting. However, when I look up your site on Quantcast, it is being listed with 2,100 views per month, a rank of 478,000 and a traffic graph that looks like you're making low to mid volume ad buys.
ALL of the things that Quatcast (and other statistical sites) could easily be wrong. So, to avoid any confusion, be able to clearly explain, illustrate and prove both your traffic and revenue metrics.
5)
Associate with a "player".
Give someone who has already been successful with at least 2 companies a large piece of your pie. Ideally, this partner will have raised capital and be active in the social tech scene in S.F. and in N.Y.
Homebound or not, having a "player" in your pocket has helped more successful Internet companies than you (or I) could imagine.
6)
Have a product.
Right now, VC's are investing in products, not perspectives.
What exactly are you selling?
Exactly how much money will you make this year?
How much of money are you loosing out on by NOT having funding?
What is the profit margin?
Advertising is great, but ads make less money now than they ever have in history. In addition to advertising, what product, service or other good are you selling?
7)
Develop a video.
It sounds like you're a very qualified (and likely talented) person. Your qualifications and talent could be conveyed in a video. Give the same pitch that you would give in person, but do it in a well composed, professionally edited video.
Talk for a little while, split to forecast reports, show your product, etc. Keep it in or around 10 minutes.
Create a 1 page mini-site (landing page) for your video. This landing page should have your video, power point slides, links, more information, etc. Direct everyone that you know there. Spread the video across the net with links back to your landing page so that they will see your product.
Not everyone who wants to invest is a "VC". Some of them are just folks with money who don't want to (or can't) do the VC social circuit but do want to invest in what you have. Give them a way to see that and work to get it in front of them.
8)
Beyond the basics...
You are raising $350k.
This isn't a small amount of money and you'll need to list some very clear specifics not only for anyone to invest in you, but for others to recommend places to send you.
My first question would be:
How much (as a percentage) of your company are you going to give me in exchange for my money?
I would then determine what you are valuing your company at based on this figure. Some quick math would determine pre-money valuation and post-money valuation numbers that I could use as a general gauge for the rest of the conversation. The bottom line, if you're not providing a good value, the investor won't hear much (if any) of the conversation past this important first question.
The questions that I would ask after this would include:
- Do you have any patents or propitiatory technologies that belong to this company?
- What exactly does your product consist of? You mention that your site is "much more" than a aggregator site. You need to very clearly list exactly what makes your site different both to possible investors and to users.
- I would also expect that anyone who you talk with will want 3rd party audited traffic analytics. If you don't have this setup, it might be a good idea to invest in it today
- People will want to know exactly how much money your site is currently making from all sources of revenue. They'll also want to know what the costs are and how much labor is involved in the maintenance of the site. All of this should be plotted against projections that are based on tangible variables (users, time, money whatever)
- Exactly who is competing with you in the same or similar spaces and what is their reach? What will stop a larger company from significantly and directly competing with you? (aka: drinking your milkshake)
- What exactly will you do with the money? Why do you need it and what's your plan?
- What is your marketing strategy? Exactly how are you going to increase your user base and what are you going to sell them?
- Who is your CTO? What infrastructure has s/he already built and how will they help you accomplish your goals?
0)
To conclude, I think that you have some work to do before you should seek investment.
I do not think that a physical presence is required to raise capital. You can go it alone with strong remote presentation strategy, you can time and condense your meetings around a single event, or you can partner with a "player" which usually works out great.
If I was giving someone $350k for a product that I believed in, I would make the time to visit them if they could not visit me. For $350k, they could be anywhere in the world and I would fly to meet them. However, I would need to be clearly convinced that I was investing in a great product.
When you sell ANYTHING remotely, you have to have black-and-white, reputable facts. You need to be able to clearly illustrate exactly what you are doing now and what the benefit of the product is. Do these things, and the folks with money will be easily convinced!
Best of luck, Rob. I really hope that this works out for you.
Please feel free to comment with any questions at all. I will respond quickly and am happy to provide more details.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I personally believe you are way ahead of yourself, no disrespect, I congratulate you on creating a popular page in such a short time. However, if you want to pitch to potential investors you are going to need one thing which I think no one has mentioned so far, a Business Plan.
If you were to come to me to say you are looking for $350k for your internet "start-up" I would want to know my Return on Investment (ROI). You cannot simply say the Drudge Report made $45 million a year and you think thats a good guideline, otherwise I will start making MP3 players and benchmark my projected earnings to Apple.
Besides clarifying your ROI you need to clearly outline what you are going to do with $350k? Is this how much money you will need to advertise your website on radio and TV? Web 2.0 options are rather cheap so I'm guessing thats where the bulk of the money would go. However I thought this investment was about making money from advertisement not spending on it? Next you will need to be sure that investing the said amount will actually yield the desired results, i.e. more hits resulting in potentially much higher advertisement revenue.
After setting up your business plan and calculating the ROI you should ask yourself, does my website have the potential for making millions? Business is about honesty, so I am going to be blunt and say: no. I think your website needs a major make over. Aside from the already mentioned slow loading of the site by robbrown I think the layout and design is begging for a change! I looks like one of those early 90's pages, clustered with text involving tedious scrolling.
Complete this step, if you agree with me, and then you will have a presentable investment to pitch to possible investors, VC's or maybe maybe even some small adventerous Private Equity company. To be honest though I believe the best chance would be to use your personal network. Being homebound does limit your capabilities to socialize and network outside the realm of www, however use the contacts to have to pitch your idea. Get the word out, tell someone about your idea, people always run into people and maybe they can name drop you or do something helpful. A person recommended by a friend is much more effective than walking into a big VC office or an unknown investor because there is more trust.
My humble suggestion:
- Write up a neat business plan. Calculate ROI and everything that is of interest for an investor.
- Clearly outline what you need the $350k for
- Give your website a makeover
- Connect with potential investors
A good investment opportunity will draw investors naturally, everybody wants to make money. If indeed you can promise millions in return for $350k then nothing will stand in your way. But, can you?
If you were to come to me to say you are looking for $350k for your internet "start-up" I would want to know my Return on Investment (ROI). You cannot simply say the Drudge Report made $45 million a year and you think thats a good guideline, otherwise I will start making MP3 players and benchmark my projected earnings to Apple.
Besides clarifying your ROI you need to clearly outline what you are going to do with $350k? Is this how much money you will need to advertise your website on radio and TV? Web 2.0 options are rather cheap so I'm guessing thats where the bulk of the money would go. However I thought this investment was about making money from advertisement not spending on it? Next you will need to be sure that investing the said amount will actually yield the desired results, i.e. more hits resulting in potentially much higher advertisement revenue.
After setting up your business plan and calculating the ROI you should ask yourself, does my website have the potential for making millions? Business is about honesty, so I am going to be blunt and say: no. I think your website needs a major make over. Aside from the already mentioned slow loading of the site by robbrown I think the layout and design is begging for a change! I looks like one of those early 90's pages, clustered with text involving tedious scrolling.
Complete this step, if you agree with me, and then you will have a presentable investment to pitch to possible investors, VC's or maybe maybe even some small adventerous Private Equity company. To be honest though I believe the best chance would be to use your personal network. Being homebound does limit your capabilities to socialize and network outside the realm of www, however use the contacts to have to pitch your idea. Get the word out, tell someone about your idea, people always run into people and maybe they can name drop you or do something helpful. A person recommended by a friend is much more effective than walking into a big VC office or an unknown investor because there is more trust.
My humble suggestion:
- Write up a neat business plan. Calculate ROI and everything that is of interest for an investor.
- Clearly outline what you need the $350k for
- Give your website a makeover
- Connect with potential investors
A good investment opportunity will draw investors naturally, everybody wants to make money. If indeed you can promise millions in return for $350k then nothing will stand in your way. But, can you?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I am so sorry for what you are going though i really feel for you
I hope it will all get better for you . If you need any thing just ask
me I will help if i can. here is a link to a site i am sure will help
http://www.go4funding.com/Investment-needed-to-complete-and-launch-unique-online-music-social-Network/P14113.html
It is called go4funding lots of people there posting there needs for
there business that thy have. I feel there will be a turn over soon and
people will be helping more. I just broke my foot and i could not work
for a month it was so sad it felt like a long time for me . but i am doing
better hope you get the funds you need. I will pry for you and your business
you have May God be with you. I hope you reply back to my and if you want
to talk about anything i am here for you . once again i am so sorry. let me
know if it all works out for you my name is don.
I hope it will all get better for you . If you need any thing just ask
me I will help if i can. here is a link to a site i am sure will help
http://www.go4funding.com/Investment-needed-to-complete-and-launch-unique-online-music-social-Network/P14113.html
It is called go4funding lots of people there posting there needs for
there business that thy have. I feel there will be a turn over soon and
people will be helping more. I just broke my foot and i could not work
for a month it was so sad it felt like a long time for me . but i am doing
better hope you get the funds you need. I will pry for you and your business
you have May God be with you. I hope you reply back to my and if you want
to talk about anything i am here for you . once again i am so sorry. let me
know if it all works out for you my name is don.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
In the wake of the internet, there are several different methods you can use to get your message heard. Send out memos inviting those you wish to target to join you for a telecommunication session. Considering investing in something similar to Skype. In addition, take advantage of any networking contacts that you may have. In the event that a personal appearance would be necessary, do you have someone trusted who helps in the decision making process? Also, consider hiring someone that has the investment knowledge to help get this idea off the ground. Opt for more than one investor, this serves for backup, should you need it and doesn't leave one particular company, person, etc. holding shares. You seem like you are very talented and know what you are talking about. I'm sure that you will find the way, just keep searching. I wish you the best of luck and I hope this helps.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Here are a few points that I think are critical for you to consider...
1) As far I can tell the Drudge Report got to be a player because it broke the Monica Lewinsky story. If you've got a story like that up your sleeve, you have a chance. But even if you do... it's not 1998 any more... the blog / news aggregator market has been staked out. If you don't have something big and important that no other sites have, the chances of reaching Drudge-like numbers are pretty low. That "big and important" edge could be a killer story, or it could be having the inside track with sources no one else has, or some other USP. It had better be something that won't be cloned overmight by the competition as well. Which is why breaking a big story might not cut it any more these days.
2) $350k is too small for a regular VC, but possibly in the normal ball park of Angel investments. Either way, do not call it "a relatively small investment". It won't be to the people who'll put up the money. Also don't talk about how it will "easily" generate mega-bucks. You want to make it clear that you think the upside is huge, but you better have a very cogent argument for why you think that. No other person besides you is going to think any kind of Drudge-like site is a sure thing to make it big. And if it does have that potental, they sure won't believe it'll get there "easily".
3) You want people to put up $350k for what is essentially a one-person business. And that person is not in the best of health. It'll need a heck of a story for why a site of that kind needs that much money, and why that money is not at great risk if anything ever happens to you.
4) As Rob said get a partner, or better still a team. If your partner has connections that open doors to investors all the better. Regardless of that, investors will have a lot more confidence in a well-balanced team than a lone would-be entrepreneur. Also, the minute you get a team, your "housebound" issue becomes a lot less of a problem.
5) Regardless of that, if you are the main man, no one is going to put up $350k without ever meeting you face-to-face at least once. So you need to find a way to be able to make at least the occasional important meeting. There might be a few scenarios in which people would come to you, but counting on hitting those is not a great idea.
6) If you are political, and your aim is a site that has some political clout, you might be better off looking for people who share your politics and would bankroll you to propogate them, rather than a true investor looking for returns.
All things considered, I think you need to think very seriously about this business and how it would work before risking any significant amount of money in it. That goes whether its an investor's or your own.
I salute your entreprenrial spirit, but from what I've heard so far, this might not be a good outlet for it.
If this is something you're committed to because you're passionate about it, look at other ways of building it up that take a lot less money. Even so, it may end up as a semi-pro passion that pays its way rather than a significant business.
1) As far I can tell the Drudge Report got to be a player because it broke the Monica Lewinsky story. If you've got a story like that up your sleeve, you have a chance. But even if you do... it's not 1998 any more... the blog / news aggregator market has been staked out. If you don't have something big and important that no other sites have, the chances of reaching Drudge-like numbers are pretty low. That "big and important" edge could be a killer story, or it could be having the inside track with sources no one else has, or some other USP. It had better be something that won't be cloned overmight by the competition as well. Which is why breaking a big story might not cut it any more these days.
2) $350k is too small for a regular VC, but possibly in the normal ball park of Angel investments. Either way, do not call it "a relatively small investment". It won't be to the people who'll put up the money. Also don't talk about how it will "easily" generate mega-bucks. You want to make it clear that you think the upside is huge, but you better have a very cogent argument for why you think that. No other person besides you is going to think any kind of Drudge-like site is a sure thing to make it big. And if it does have that potental, they sure won't believe it'll get there "easily".
3) You want people to put up $350k for what is essentially a one-person business. And that person is not in the best of health. It'll need a heck of a story for why a site of that kind needs that much money, and why that money is not at great risk if anything ever happens to you.
4) As Rob said get a partner, or better still a team. If your partner has connections that open doors to investors all the better. Regardless of that, investors will have a lot more confidence in a well-balanced team than a lone would-be entrepreneur. Also, the minute you get a team, your "housebound" issue becomes a lot less of a problem.
5) Regardless of that, if you are the main man, no one is going to put up $350k without ever meeting you face-to-face at least once. So you need to find a way to be able to make at least the occasional important meeting. There might be a few scenarios in which people would come to you, but counting on hitting those is not a great idea.
6) If you are political, and your aim is a site that has some political clout, you might be better off looking for people who share your politics and would bankroll you to propogate them, rather than a true investor looking for returns.
All things considered, I think you need to think very seriously about this business and how it would work before risking any significant amount of money in it. That goes whether its an investor's or your own.
I salute your entreprenrial spirit, but from what I've heard so far, this might not be a good outlet for it.
If this is something you're committed to because you're passionate about it, look at other ways of building it up that take a lot less money. Even so, it may end up as a semi-pro passion that pays its way rather than a significant business.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I strongly suggest you try churches and non profit organizations.They will donate money for this great cause . Also , many celebrities are humanitarian at heart and they will support you..Oprah Winfrey's Angel network does great work in this area. I do believe you can accomplish whatever goal you want to achieve. You can do it and remember President Roosevelt was in a wheel chair and yet he was elected four times and none of the Presidents who were able bodied were ever elected four times. Keep hope alive.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Your best bet is to or advertise online like you do now, or else hire someone you trust.
I see you have business experience, couldn't one of your old work contacts do this for you??
Advertising online is a great idea, try to put it on get paid to sites, or on sites like these.
It will be hard for you to find investors as the sum of 350.000 is pretty large.
I hope this all works out,
Cheers!
I see you have business experience, couldn't one of your old work contacts do this for you??
Advertising online is a great idea, try to put it on get paid to sites, or on sites like these.
It will be hard for you to find investors as the sum of 350.000 is pretty large.
I hope this all works out,
Cheers!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
When answering questions be sure to take the tip into consideration. Since this question has a tip of M$100 you should assume they want a very detailed answer with research, links, phone numbers, addresses... really anything and everything you can think of to add!
Keeping that in mind will help you as you strive for best answers :)
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It sounds like you are a very intelligent man and I am sure your businesses are very well established. It sounds like they are doing well. As far as venture capital, I would like to suggest 3 very helpful sites: Angel Investor Directory at www.inc.com/articles; Angel Investor Group/Networks at www.gaebler.com/angel-investor-networks; and www.gobignetwork.com. I hope these sites will provide you with the financing you need. I will be praying for your health and prosperity. I hope all goes well with you. Good luck!
source(s):
www.inc.com/articles
www.gaebler.com/angel-investor-networks
www.gobignetwork.com
www.inc.com/articles
www.gaebler.com/angel-investor-networks
www.gobignetwork.com
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Looks interesting. I appreciate your will power and strength to run and administer such good works. The website www.marchreport.com looks to be a portal with news and general activities. We are looking forward to see more from the website.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Yup, I don't think any of us can compete!
Excellent answer robbrown !
If i might just add one thing, depending on weather or not your project will be using open technologies. There are VC firms out their that also give special consideration for this.
EG:
NLnet Foundation http://www.NLNet.NL
I feel your pain Rob. I am sincerely sorry you did not get the money for this answer. You're a great guy (smart too) and I feel your pain. Just recently, I spent half an hour each on three questions. The person chose an incomplete sentence as BA. It happens to the best of us, but I cannot believe all the time you put into this answer was put to waste.
I wish you the best of luck around the website.
A good point to make is that the user might be homebound to the point where he can't leave his house, if that is the case he could perhaps find someone to represent him in meetings outside of the house.
@philipy, when I answer a detailed question like this I try to highlight as many positives as I do negatives.
"10's of thousands" of pageviews per month is both erroneous. @robmarch made an estimation of traffic. I mentioned that in a real pitch, he would need to present a lineage of stats that were verified.
So, when I mentioned that these numbers are REALLY exciting, I was using his illustration of "going from no visitors to tens of thousands" as a positive.
Well said as always!
Great Answer Rob ... as usual.
awesome answer!
@robbrown... I understand bringing out positives, but calling the numbers "REALLY exciting" (with caps even!) is overdoing it a bit. :)
The guy is talking about staking his house on this project, and it's kinder to actually let him know what a low chance of success he has, and what he's going to have to overcome than overdo the positives.
Rob, I spent some time scouring the net for some links that will help you. I think that these ones will really help you:
A collection of really great resources
http://www.garage.com/resources/index.shtml
Tools for folks looking for capital
http://angelsoft.net/
An article on how to get introduced to VC's
http://www.altgate.com/blog/2007/06/how_to_get_intr.html
A really great blog
http://www.ventureblog.com/
A timely slideshow on starting up in the downturn from some small unknown company called Sequoia
http://www.slideshare.net/eldon/sequoia-capital-on-startups-and-the-economic-downturn-presentation
5 Quick tips on pitching Anglel Investors
http://www.instigatorblog.com/5-quick-tips-on-pitching/2008/05/14/
A great article that explains valuation
http://www.ventureden.com/Blogs/2009/07/27/how-does-a-vc-determine-my-business-valuation/
@robbrown... Nice set of resources on VC.
There is one thing about your answer that I radically disagree with. (Though very willing to hear why I'm wrong!)
-- Quote
"Tens of thousands of page views" sounds REALLY exciting.
-- /Quote
It'd be really exciting for a personal blog. But for someone looking for $350k? I even wondered if you missed the "per month" somehow and thought it was per day! :)
If I were a budding investor, my back of the envelope calcs and thoughts would go like this...
-- Think bubble
Let's say "tens of thousands" means 30k. (Which is in the ballpark for what someone who was being straight might mean by that expression.)
Let's say best case he can multiply it by 10 in a year, so getting to 300k pm.
This is a news and opinion site. I don't see where the revenue is going to come from other than ads. If he's got some killer revenue model he'd have told me. As he's not the WSJ, I doubt people will pay subscriptions to read, and he doesn't seem to have any product to sell. So let's assume ads.
With 300k views on a news site, I'm thinking it would be a pretty rosy scenario to make $1000 pm revenue, or $12k pa. Let's be super-generous and say the very best case possible for all this is to hit $30k pa revenue after a year.
How much money does it make sense to invest in such a proposition at this stage?
If I'm a dear friend and I can afford to lose the money to help out my buddy, maybe $10k tops.
-- /Think bubble
On top of that I have a hard time imagining what you'd spend the $350k on anyway in such a project.
Plus the huge discrepancy between my back of the envelope calcs and what the entrepreneur seems to think would raise lots of questions about whether he really knows what he's doing.
Now I know that you are well inforned about these things. So I'd love to hear why you think different about this - I might learn something really useful there!
Rob, PLEASE cut and paste and save your data. If you haven't done a blog or Mahalo page about this, please do.
This is very, very valuable information. I didn't reply to this one, because I don't "me too" data. @girlieq3000 said it all for me, when I first read this!
How rude, I think this was a great answer, I guess they just did not want to give money away.