HN Explorer

Ask HN: How difficult is fundraising as a solo founder?

3 points by fivedogit ↗ HN
My product* has a huge inherent cold-start hurdle and it's not going anywhere without a funded launch. Unfortunately, the "team" is just me. Accelerators won't take solo founders, I've been unable to find a viable co-founder in my existing network (trust me, I've tried) and I won't partner up with anyone I haven't known for years -- too risky and investors don't like it anyway.

Given my background: proven engineer, "finished" product, long history of entrepreneurship (with some moderate success), solid resume and decent sales ability...

1. How difficult is it to raise money (maybe $250k) as a solo founder without big past successes? "Happens all the time", "nearly impossible" or somewhere in-between? 2. Does it matter that I need the funding almost exclusively for a launch? The only hire would be a launch specialist, possibly on a temporary basis.

-----------

* http://www.words4chrome.com A friend of mine raised $500k+ by himself outside a major tech hub. However, he already knew these investors well and they're local-yokel D-listers I wouldn't take money from anyway.

8 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] thread
edoceo
I tried for years as a solo, unsuccessful. I had reasonable product and customers but one cannot grow enough to be interesting to investors.

I joined as the 3rd person on a pre-money team. Hardly knew one dude, still haven't met the other in person. 6mo into this we got a few bucks from an Angel and 6mo after that we got another Angel.

My experience was that its impossible for solo; but easy for a team. I also firmly believe in the three founder model (biz, sales, tech)

I would be careful calling any investors yokel or D-List. To me investors seem emotionally sensitive. But regardless, economic scarcity is working in their favour so you better come correct to the game.

morpheous
"I would be careful calling any investors yokel or D-List", ne'er a true word been spoken. Don't bite (or look down) upon the hand that nourishes you and your dreams.
Mz
I would be careful calling any investors yokel or D-List.

Yeah, especially since you are listing your product and all. This is a really good way to ensure that those "local yokels" will never give you a dime. And possibly no one else will either.

fivedogit
I'm surprised to see people focused on the "local yokel" part, but I make no apologies for it. I got involved with local investors once and they a) took forever to make a decision b) withdrew from the term sheet signed deal due to their own disorganization and c) in retrospect, had no experience or networks that would have helped get the business going and at worst would have pestered me constantly. It was exactly the kind of money an entrepreneur should not want or take.

And real investors know this. You can find all sorts of "made" folks writing about how an early local deal killed the ability of the startup to raise follow on rounds or of investors causing more trouble for founders than they're worth.

This is one reason accelerators have been so successful: transparency, consistency, and a matra of active help, not hindrance

morpheous
Very difficult (not impossible - see below*), from what you have written above. Why should anyone invest their money with you, when you have no track record. Also, what happens if you fall under the "proverbial" bus.

Any reasonable investor will say (not in so many words), use your own money to prove that your idea works, and then I may invest some of my money.

You may find some risk taker investors, who may take a bet on you, but if they are professional investors, they hedge their bet by making sure that they can wrestle control of the company from you if you don't deliver - and that's unlikely to be appealing to you either, so your best bet is to try to show the world that they were all wrong in not backing you - and they (investors) will all come crawling to you.

At the moment, the way I see it, you're not holding any of the cards (though I'm sure you see it differently), so investors will call all the shots in the current scenario you describe.

danieltillett
What does a “launch specialist” do? Does it really take $250,000 to hire someone in this role on a short term contract?

My advice for what it is worth is it really depends on what you want to achieve.

fivedogit
$250k because there's a lot of other expenses in addition to a launch specialist/consultant.
ajgrit
Here's my story as a solo founder...

Currently: Solo founder of digital media company in SF Bay Area.

Founder Experience: Founded/sold 1st company, founded/folded 2nd company, and worked for start-up for prominent founder.

Fundraising Experience: Raised a seed round in the mid 6-figures with a deck, rough prototype and hodgepodge team. I think there is a general bias towards multi-founder teams bc of bandwidth, skill set, and emotional support. However the principles of fundraising remain the same for 1 or 2 founders - belief in the founder/story, big space, and social proof. I had a co-founder for my previous company and we weren't able to raise money, because we didn't have the basics of fundraising down.

Take away: Fundraising is less about how many founders you have and more about knowing how to do it. I'm happy sharing more if anyone is interested.