Ask HN: Will this hold me back when looking for investors?

3 points by askhnthrow ↗ HN
Long story short, I have written a series of fitness books for a traditional publisher. They are a fun amusement for me at night. I'm pretty serious about fitness as a hobby and writing is a good outlet for that as well.

I also had a deal with my wife that when the kids got to a certain age, I could pursue my startup. They are approaching that age. I have been working on the prototype and should be ready to get in front of people in maybe a few months. I'm going to bootstrap as much as possible, though the nature of the venture requires I have a bit more capital than I can outlay myself.

Note: my venture has nothing to do with fitness so the overlap is zero.

My question is 1. would the books be seen as a negative by investors? I currently work in tech and get some pretty weird looks from people who know what I do on the side. I'm wondering if the same thing will happen when I sit down with potential investors. I'm sure it will come up in their due diligence. I'm wondering if I should address it directly or wait for it to come up. Obviously don't want to be written off as "a dumb jock".

Thanks in advance!

3 comments

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This would be a plus for me. The fact that you've published books about something you have a passion for shows that a) You can get shit done, and b) You are organised and you can get shit done.
Its Getting Much To Complicated and Expensive to Do Business or Start Up In the US....So People Will Start Up Offshore...Its That Simple!!
No. I doubt they'd even notice.