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I'm young... Maybe a little too young

10 points by Aleco ↗ HN
Hello everyone, new to HN.

This is probably a really simple question, but I haven't found answers ANYWHERE. Yes, I have searched plenty of times.

How old do you have to be; what is the minimum age to get funded by a VC/investing company. I'm currently the founder of a start-up (whos name we don't know yet) and I have another friend who is the co-founder. I've known him for more then 12 years, we're both 16 years old.

We have potential and a lot of confidence, however I believe the age will be very misleading.

What do you folks think? Do investing companies really look at the age, or just the start-up at hand.

Thanks!

8 comments

[ 30.0 ms ] story [ 2617 ms ] thread
brk
You may run into issues simply because you are too young to enter a legally binding contract, among other things.

You've probably also read that the investment is as much in the people as the product/concept, so age plays a role, even if just subconsciously.

Do you have an idea of what you are looking for in terms of size of an investment? You might be better off with a local angel sort of investor vs. A traditional VC route.

wslh
If your live with your parents try to bootstrap your company without investments.

I think you must be emancipated to own your own business at your age. Think in young actors.

scottkrager
If your idea or business is good enough...the VC's will figure it out for you. Go ahead and pitch them, the age issue can be overcome!
andrewstuart
You don't need funding. You are young and smart and have all the time in the world.

I could see you might need money for hosting and a domain name but everything else you should be able to do on your own time.

What exactly do you need money for?

cdsanchez
I'll echo some of the sentiments already put forth: do you actually need funding at this stage? How much do you think you will need? Have you and your co-founder thought about asking your respective parents for seed money?

I think the answer to the question at hand is really quite obvious. Yes, since you are relatively young, they will take your age into consideration. They will also take into consideration your experience, your maturity, and similarly, your ability to handle responsibilities. I'll play the skeptic and conjecture that you probably don't excel enough in all three of these traits to make up for the risk presented by your age.

If that's the case, then at this point in your start up and with all things considered, I would say the best route would be to attain seed money from family, friends, etc. and once your start up starts getting buzz or generating nice revenue, you would be in a better position to start looking for funding from larger institutions or venture capitalists.

lachyg
Email me if you want. I'm also 16, am doing very well for myself and working on a 'proper' startup. Set up a side project this month that made mid-high $xxxx in profit this month.

I might be able to help some.

Aleco
It is crucial to receive proper funding rather then just a few grand my parents can pitch it. The problem is without the funding, there is no-way we can pitch our service to the entertainment industry.