Who can I trust? I need a dedicated team

[dompie85]

I have a concept with a potential to be fast lane. Every aspect of the business is helping somebody no matter which way you look at it. Unfortunately, it's only me, the concept, and very little capital.
I've done a lot of "pre-development fine tuning" mainly to have a solid foundation on what this is and have been doing a ton of market research, I feel I am ready to make the move to raise capital (around $200,000) to kick off my innovation.
I'm sure I can figure out how to find investors and what not, but I need a staff. I can't handle a solid web/app development, effective marketing, analytics, and future predictions, all by myself. I need to focus on getting this work out to trusted professionals. I trust my friends in helping me but they're lazy and would only bring my momentum down. I want to keep pushing forward. I don't really know anybody else in my circle that could help.

• How would I go about picking a team of people? (Developers, Marketing Analysts, etc.)
• What do I offer them in return?
• How can I trust them?
• Do I present a non disclosure agreement?
• Do I offer equity?
• Where else should I be focusing on?
• Should I get investors or staff first?
• What other questions might I be missing?

I just don't want to get burned before I even take off. And I am certain there are ways of protecting my equity and concept.

All of my time is going to market research, proper functionality of my concept (pre-development), almost finished with my solid business plan, and presentation to investors.

 

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[Get Right]

@The-J might be able to help or at least advise

 

[GrayCode]

I have a concept with a potential to be fast lane. Every aspect of the business is helping somebody no matter which way you look at it. Unfortunately, it's only me, the concept, and very little capital.
I've done a lot of "pre-development fine tuning" mainly to have a solid foundation on what this is and have been doing a ton of market research, I feel I am ready to make the move to raise capital (around $200,000) to kick off my innovation.
I'm sure I can figure out how to find investors and what not, but I need a staff. I can't handle a solid web/app development, effective marketing, analytics, and future predictions, all by myself. I need to focus on getting this work out to trusted professionals. I trust my friends in helping me but they're lazy and would only bring my momentum down. I want to keep pushing forward. I don't really know anybody else in my circle that could help.

• How would I go about picking a team of people? (Developers, Marketing Analysts, etc.)
• What do I offer them in return?
• How can I trust them?
• Do I present a non disclosure agreement?
• Do I offer equity?
• Where else should I be focusing on?
• Should I get investors or staff first?
• What other questions might I be missing?

I just don't want to get burned before I even take off. And I am certain there are ways of protecting my equity and concept.

All of my time is going to market research, proper functionality of my concept (pre-development), almost finished with my solid business plan, and presentation to investors.

I am interested in hearing your idea for the app, I can potentially code it for you on iOS.

 

[Gale4rc]

Sounds like you literally bring nothing to the table from marketing, investment even code... you have an idea and expect everyone to do everything? Even if the idea was good I wouldn't invest in someone that can only put together a business plan.....

 

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[Duane]

Although @Gale4rc is right, you are at least half a step ahead of the rest of the crowd. You have an idea and are looking to take action on it. But they are a dime a dozen. I feel you should figure out where you can bring value to the business, google is amazing. Figure out what you're good at and what you can offer beyond the idea to your team and then fill in the gaps.

Best of luck to ya.

 

[Mr.B]

Why do you need $200,000 to kick off your innovation?

Start small. If it really is innovative, you'll have no trouble getting customers/raising capital.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Sounds like you literally bring nothing to the table from marketing, investment even code... you have an idea and expect everyone to do everything? Even if the idea was good I wouldn't invest in someone that can only put together a business plan.....

Harsh reality here. If you don't have skills to bring to the table you need money and vision. Sounds like you have a bit of vision but nobody is going to hop on board with you for free.

Why do you need $200,000 to kick off your innovation?

Start small. If it really is innovative, you'll have no trouble getting customers/raising capital.

100% agree. Take the lessons from Shark Tank. What in the world are you going to do with 200k? Do you have a precise plan for each dollar? Do you have a plan for producing a return on that money? ... or did you just pull that number out of your a$$?

We're all here to help, why don't you lay out the plan and what you intend to do and we can help brainstorm ideas for you. If it's really the big undertaking you're making it out to be then none of the lazy kids on this forum will "try to steal your idea" anyways -- too much work.

 

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[dompie85]

@Gale4rc I don't expect everybody to do everything for me. I have knowledge and experience in certain areas, and in others I need professionals. I'm not going to go waste my time learning every little detail on how to code, although I do know the basics and am capable of constructing a website. But not as elaborate as professionals would. Same goes to marketing and social media marketing, Yes I can do it, but not going to focus on learning every little detail on perfecting it. I'd prefer to be a master at one thing rather than good or average at everything. That one thing is to be moving forward with my project.

Your opinions are appreciated as usual. I feel like were trying to focus more on what my concept is rather than the questions asked. The description of my concept above is very vague because I didn't want the discussion to focus on my idea, instead, I wanted advice on the questions asked. Yes, google is great, but first hand advice is better. For those who must know what the concept is, I intend to build a platform that connects people with jobs. I am very passionate about this project because it helps everybody that keep looking for work, like my brother who is in college.

@Mr.B I was doing some research on some companies, like Uber for example. They are just App based platform yet, they started out with an initial $200,000 seed funding.

Today, I am attempting to build a future financial projections worksheet, along with initial expenses worksheet which include development, marketing, testing, and result analysis.

I am doing everything by myself right now, but I know I will need a team soon.

 

[GrayCode]

@Gale4rc I don't expect everybody to do everything for me. I have knowledge and experience in certain areas, and in others I need professionals. I'm not going to go waste my time learning every little detail on how to code, although I do know the basics and am capable of constructing a website. But not as elaborate as professionals would. Same goes to marketing and social media marketing, Yes I can do it, but not going to focus on learning every little detail on perfecting it. I'd prefer to be a master at one thing rather than good or average at everything. That one thing is to be moving forward with my project.

Your opinions are appreciated as usual. I feel like were trying to focus more on what my concept is rather than the questions asked. The description of my concept above is very vague because I didn't want the discussion to focus on my idea, instead, I wanted advice on the questions asked. Yes, google is great, but first hand advice is better. For those who must know what the concept is, I intend to build a platform that connects people with jobs. I am very passionate about this project because it helps everybody that keep looking for work, like my brother who is in college.

@Mr.B I was doing some research on some companies, like Uber for example. They are just App based platform yet, they started out with an initial $200,000 seed funding.

Today, I am attempting to build a future financial projections worksheet, along with initial expenses worksheet which include development, marketing, testing, and result analysis.

I got caught up in this mistake once before, as i am sure others have as well.

You are focusing on the wrong things, Financial projections do not really matter, They will change the second you actually have the product. So i wouldn't waste hours writing that up.

You said you would prefer to be a master at one thing.. so then why not master one and get to work. I am interested in hearing how your app will work and whether or not you are serious about it. Again, I may be willing to help build it at a decent starting price point. You literally just walked into an offer. Ball is in your court.

By the way, I Highly doubt you will find any investor to give you 200k for "an idea". Not only that, an idea that already exists, LinkedIn, Monster.com etc...

Can your idea work? Yes, but you have to show proof of concept by building something tangibly different and improved than linkedIn and if your idea can be different and improved and then built.. Then i believe you can get an investment. But, i seriously doubt someone will give you an investment until you have a product with traction. LinkedIn is one of the biggest companies in the world, Publicly Traded and Highly Invested Into. Again, doable, but have to prove it first.

**Sorry if i place capital letters in weird places, it is from coding... Just a habit**

 

[Perry Rico]

200K suicidal. I build most of my startup for 7 days around 700 USD that's why I called my group 700 dollar startups. Check lean startup machine approach

 

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[dompie85]

I feel like I am just spinning my wheels here. I was looking for some help in the right direction with these questions. I'm just trying to maximize my focus on the things i need to be focusing on. And minimize what I can. This was an attempt to do just that. I'll go about it the trial and error way and I'll just come back and tell you what I found.

 

[GIlman]

Dompie, I speak from experience in this area, I've been developing a large app for the medical community for over a year now.

You can build a hell of an MVP of anything for 2-5K using outsourced development and designers.

This is where I would start. It's much easier to take someone serious that has a product than an idea. It's more tangible and shows your vision better. Plus it shows you are a mover that is getting things done. The more skin you have in the game the easier it is to get others onboard.

I've never tried, but people I know that have tried for VC have had bad luck outside of close family, which has its own issues if you lose the money.

First you need to pick your platforms. How will it be delivered. Native apps, web app, both? This will drive lots of decisions.

Then go to upwork and find a developer. You can find good ones for $10-15 or so, it takes some effort but they do exist.

I'd be happy to chat with you sometime and tell you anything I know and have learned that might help. Message me if you want.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[throttleforward]

All of my time is going to market research, proper functionality of my concept (pre-development), almost finished with my solid business plan, and presentation to investors.

Do you have a prototype? A sale? A patent? A list of companies or people interested in buying what you're selling? A background as a startup wunderkid?

I understand where you're coming from - but you'll quickly realize that investors don't just hand out money to people with ideas. There has to be something else behind it - the only exception being if you've successfully started and exited a company before.

Also, from my experience, institutional investors generally hate solo entrepeneuers. If you can't convince another human to work on this for free, and you haven't actually built or sold anything, you're not going to get someone to throw a quarter million dollars at you.

 

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[DrkSide]

I'm not going to go waste my time learning every little detail on how to code, although I do know the basics and am capable of constructing a website. But not as elaborate as professionals would. Same goes to marketing and social media marketing, Yes I can do it, but not going to focus on learning every little detail on perfecting it. I'd prefer to be a master at one thing rather than good or average at everything. That one thing is to be moving forward with my project.

"Don't let Perfect be the Enemy of Good"

You need to understand that to get started you don't have to be perfect at everything. Do things as good as you can, get sales/customers, and scale from there.

 

[Andrew Ward]

You won't get investors on board without something tangible to demonstrate to them. As that isn't your track record it will have to be a solid product or service that you have at least already prototyped.

Another route is to go for a patent. Start the patent pending process (this will cost about $750-1000) and then you can talk to people with money. Then hope you can seek investment before the filing deadline so you can fund the last stage in the process. This option is only available for some ideas as not everything can be patented.

Invest in an NDA immediately then use it to start talking to product designers or developers (again depending on your idea). At least this way you will be able to get an idea of how much it will realistically take to build. You need to know this before you move forwards on anything else, especially seeking investment.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Jon L]

I recently heard of someone that has spent 6 years building a software product that they intend to start selling...at some point. This is the same thing as your situation, but instead of 6 years, you want to spend 200K that you don't have. At this point, you don't really know if you have a product idea that people will pay for. Everything might sound all rosy, but you never know until people start giving you money. You need to get to that spot quickly. You will be in a much better position with investors if you can go to them and say, 'I've spent $5000 of my own money, plus a bunch of my time, and I've generated $50K in revenue off of it. I need 200K to get this to the next level.' But honestly, if you were able to make $50K off a $5K investment, you'd have the cash to keep building the product yourself.

Trim your idea down to what would be a minimum viable product. That means cut everything that you don't absolutely have to have. Do you need an automated billing system? (Can you use Freshbooks' auto-bill system instead?) Do you need to have a password reset function? (no...people can email you to reset your password). etc etc etc. Cut it down to the absolute bare bones and see if people are willing to buy...maybe at a discount. Once you start making money, you can add all these seemingly important features in at a later date. Also - don't build the app to be able to scale. Build something that's likely to blow up after a certain threshold is passed. This way, if your product doesn't take off, you won't have optimized for something that never happened. You can always rewrite things later once you have the cash.

 

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[Solrac]

@Mr.B I was doing some research on some companies, like Uber for example. They are just App based platform yet, they started out with an initial $200,000 seed funding.

Yes but the investors were the founders, they put up the money.

Because they knew they were not going to receive money for just the idea. You have to be able to start it off yourself, and grow and add people as needed. But to first do that, you have to actually start. Make a mock up, and find some people to shoot holes in the idea. Then once you get plenty of holes shot in it, and you are confident you have a good MVP, outsource it if you can't find a programmer to give equity too. Once you get a sale, then you can start looking into funding.

 

[Mr.B]

@dompie85 have you printed business cards yet?

/s

I'm sure you are getting the message by now. You aren't uber, you're just a person with an idea.

Ideas are worthless. So are business projections (at this stage of the game).

Make something small. See if it provides value. See if people will pay you to use it.

Rinse. Repeat.

All the best.

 

[Gale4rc]

I was looking for some help in the right direction with these questions.

Everyone is basically telling you the same thing because we all see major holes, none of us even asked about your idea because it doesn't matter (and many of us successful already like myself). But you're looking for some confirmation bias or something.

 

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[Tony I]

Today, I am attempting to build a future financial projections worksheet, along with initial expenses worksheet which include development, marketing, testing, and result analysis.

you have no minimum viable product, no sales, no customers, and you're doing future financial projections? this doesn't make sense.

you're already thinking 100 steps ahead and you have no market validation. start with the basics.

As people have previously suggested- create something cheap, see if people will use it. then go forward with the idea. you don't need 200K.

 

[fastattack03]

Looks like you're trying to do it all at once. relax, think, and take one small step at a time.

Is the app really that complex to invest 200k in it? Or maybe you can build an MVP, validate it, and then look for investors?

Are you planning to build and sell later on? If you do, it would be better to find investors. Otherwise, maybe you should just bootstrap it. There are some benefits for not having investors. A big one is that you won't get pressured to make money as soon as possible.

If you want to read more about bootstrapping a SaaS business, I recommend Getting Real by 37signals (creator of Basecamp):
https://gettingreal.37signals.com/

Best part is, it's free!

 

[Bit]

I was at the same stage as yourself.

I had the same questions as yourself. Here are my thoughts...

• How would I go about picking a team of people? (Developers, Marketing Analysts, etc.

This is CRUCIAL and probably the single greatest choice that will decide if you make it or fail. Picking your team is important and not to be taken lightly. Your team cant be 'friends who've known you forever' and 'are awsome team mates on Halo'. They need to be really focused people with the same ambition as you with a proven record of such. I started off by myself, and designed my business around operating with one person at the helm. I outsourced my web development and began learning marketing and sales / seo. Eventually, after talking about my business, a friend who I never met in person but through a game, was excited about the idea and willing to invest $5,000 of his own money into my idea. He wanted a piece of the action. He wanted to build something great, not just a quick sale, but something amazing. My CTO, I found (and laugh at me) through Craigslist by luck! She was the only one who responded. I said I wanted a developer who knew about shark tank, entrepreneurship, and willing to work for free. When I interviewed her, I asked her what her goal was... She said, "I want to build something that will be used by millions". I knew from that line, she was my CTO for sure. She didnt ask about salary, equity, etc. I knew we were going to need a CTO eventually, because outsourcing web dev while bootstrapping is costly. I'd need one in the future anyways when I go looking for funding. My COO was a personal friend who pushed me to move the idea forward, and had experience as a COO in another startup that failed due to the founder's inability to follow through... But he was on the same high level thinking as me, and my mentor at the time (who turned me onto TMF ).

My point can't be stressed enough, move slowly, carefully, and don't just grab anyone who talks the talk. There will be times it'll be stressful and thats when you need to know that your team has your back.

• What do I offer them in return?

I offered equity. I have 3 people, I didnt give everyone a fair 25% share in the company. No, I gave them very little and said that prove your worth and it can increase. Equity is the single greatest tool you can use to grab talent, but be warned how much you give away. An investor asked me what value my CMO brings to the table, and why does he have his equity when he has 0 experience... it was hard to answer that. But personally, I know my CMO is motivated and dedicated. He's proven that to me.

• How can I trust them?

You can't. There is no way. They can steal your idea and run off with it. For me, I built a atmosphere of transparency. I won't hide anything from them. They are on my team. We are a team company and we have to trust eachother if we are going to make it. If people don't trust you, and you don't trust them, your startup is already dead.

• Do I present a non disclosure agreement?

I chose not to. If your idea is original, it'll be hard to replicate it based on words. Not only that, your idea is your vision. No one can really steal that if they don't know what to do, how to do it, or how to execute it correctly. Uber is not the first ride sharing company... Magic Taxi or Taxi Magic was the first ridesharing, but they had POOR execution and failed.

• Do I offer equity?

I did. And there are hot topics on whether you should or shouldn't. I did because I wanted my team to have a stake in the company's success. It gives them a reason to do work.

• Where else should I be focusing on?

Relax! Take a chill pill. Now, after you've done that, I say pitch the idea to friends and family. Let them ask questions, get feedback. I found my biggest flaw from a friend who said "How will you handle this xyz". or "Why are you different than xyz?" Ensure you are solid on your idea, how it works, for who it serves and what needs it fills. You cannot secure funding UNTIL you have an MVP. So what should be your next steps? Get an MVP going.

Not sure how to get your MVP? Well, do you know coding? Nope? Draw out wire frames, and process flows, make sure you know how your product works before you build it (it'll save you months... and dollars). Look for an outsource to build your MVP or a CTO. Maybe get feedback on feasibility?

Focus on the important items. Writing a business plan is a start, but not the end all. It shouldn't be used as a "This is it", it should be used as a stepping stone for you to revise constantly and provide you a roadmap. Look at SBA.Gov for business plan templates. Fill out what you can, and revisit, revise, revamp until you are satisfied.

• Should I get investors or staff first?

You should ask "WHY". Do you need staff? Can you outsource web development right now? Are you ready for staff? Is your MVP done? So many questions to ask. Don't even think about investors yet without even having something to showcase to them (Your MVP)

Investors look at: Team, Market, Vision + MVP (Financials if you've made any money)

• What other questions might I be missing

It's not questions you should be asking, but tasks you should be completing. Your primary goal, is to get your MVP. How you accomplish that is up to you, and there are 100 ways to do it.

But before you go off paying $1000's to a web developer, consider DRAWING your idea out on paper. With buttons and everything. Draw.io is my best friend. I found it after I paid for my web development.... I wish I drew out every page and button and etc the way I wanted so I wouldnt have been set back 4 months and $1000's of dollars.

I really hope this is helpful, sorry for the long post, but I was in your shoes 1 year ago.

Also, I recommend you look at GrooveHQ, and read their blog. The CEO/Founder is non-technical, and he writes an excellent piece on what a Non-techy founder can do to bring value to the team.

 

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[The-J]

I was at the same stage as yourself.

I had the same questions as yourself. Here are my thoughts...

• How would I go about picking a team of people? (Developers, Marketing Analysts, etc.

This is CRUCIAL and probably the single greatest choice that will decide if you make it or fail. Picking your team is important and not to be taken lightly. Your team cant be 'friends who've known you forever' and 'are awsome team mates on Halo'. They need to be really focused people with the same ambition as you with a proven record of such. I started off by myself, and designed my business around operating with one person at the helm. I outsourced my web development and began learning marketing and sales / seo. Eventually, after talking about my business, a friend who I never met in person but through a game, was excited about the idea and willing to invest $5,000 of his own money into my idea. He wanted a piece of the action. He wanted to build something great, not just a quick sale, but something amazing. My CTO, I found (and laugh at me) through Craigslist by luck! She was the only one who responded. I said I wanted a developer who knew about shark tank, entrepreneurship, and willing to work for free. When I interviewed her, I asked her what her goal was... She said, "I want to build something that will be used by millions". I knew from that line, she was my CTO for sure. She didnt ask about salary, equity, etc. I knew we were going to need a CTO eventually, because outsourcing web dev while bootstrapping is costly. I'd need one in the future anyways when I go looking for funding. My COO was a personal friend who pushed me to move the idea forward, and had experience as a COO in another startup that failed due to the founder's inability to follow through... But he was on the same high level thinking as me, and my mentor at the time (who turned me onto TMF ).

My point can't be stressed enough, move slowly, carefully, and don't just grab anyone who talks the talk. There will be times it'll be stressful and thats when you need to know that your team has your back.

• What do I offer them in return?

I offered equity. I have 3 people, I didnt give everyone a fair 25% share in the company. No, I gave them very little and said that prove your worth and it can increase. Equity is the single greatest tool you can use to grab talent, but be warned how much you give away. An investor asked me what value my CMO brings to the table, and why does he have his equity when he has 0 experience... it was hard to answer that. But personally, I know my CMO is motivated and dedicated. He's proven that to me.

• How can I trust them?

You can't. There is no way. They can steal your idea and run off with it. For me, I built a atmosphere of transparency. I won't hide anything from them. They are on my team. We are a team company and we have to trust eachother if we are going to make it. If people don't trust you, and you don't trust them, your startup is already dead.

• Do I present a non disclosure agreement?

I chose not to. If your idea is original, it'll be hard to replicate it based on words. Not only that, your idea is your vision. No one can really steal that if they don't know what to do, how to do it, or how to execute it correctly. Uber is not the first ride sharing company... Magic Taxi or Taxi Magic was the first ridesharing, but they had POOR execution and failed.

• Do I offer equity?

I did. And there are hot topics on whether you should or shouldn't. I did because I wanted my team to have a stake in the company's success. It gives them a reason to do work.

• Where else should I be focusing on?

Relax! Take a chill pill. Now, after you've done that, I say pitch the idea to friends and family. Let them ask questions, get feedback. I found my biggest flaw from a friend who said "How will you handle this xyz". or "Why are you different than xyz?" Ensure you are solid on your idea, how it works, for who it serves and what needs it fills. You cannot secure funding UNTIL you have an MVP. So what should be your next steps? Get an MVP going.

Not sure how to get your MVP? Well, do you know coding? Nope? Draw out wire frames, and process flows, make sure you know how your product works before you build it (it'll save you months... and dollars). Look for an outsource to build your MVP or a CTO. Maybe get feedback on feasibility?

Focus on the important items. Writing a business plan is a start, but not the end all. It shouldn't be used as a "This is it", it should be used as a stepping stone for you to revise constantly and provide you a roadmap. Look at SBA.Gov for business plan templates. Fill out what you can, and revisit, revise, revamp until you are satisfied.

• Should I get investors or staff first?

You should ask "WHY". Do you need staff? Can you outsource web development right now? Are you ready for staff? Is your MVP done? So many questions to ask. Don't even think about investors yet without even having something to showcase to them (Your MVP)

Investors look at: Team, Market, Vision + MVP (Financials if you've made any money)

• What other questions might I be missing

It's not questions you should be asking, but tasks you should be completing. Your primary goal, is to get your MVP. How you accomplish that is up to you, and there are 100 ways to do it.

But before you go off paying $1000's to a web developer, consider DRAWING your idea out on paper. With buttons and everything. Draw.io is my best friend. I found it after I paid for my web development.... I wish I drew out every page and button and etc the way I wanted so I wouldnt have been set back 4 months and $1000's of dollars.

I really hope this is helpful, sorry for the long post, but I was in your shoes 1 year ago.

Also, I recommend you look at GrooveHQ, and read their blog. The CEO/Founder is non-technical, and he writes an excellent piece on what a Non-techy founder can do to bring value to the team.

@Get Right @dompie85 mainly this.

I can't advise on how to pitch to investors. I've only started doing this.

However, I can advise on how to hire someone who doesn't suck.

Unless the technical side of what you're offering needs a dedicated team of people, all technical, who will be constantly feeding updates, you don't need to offer equity to your developer. In fact, developers who are willing to take equity are either (1) hopefuls who are green and/or (2) REALLY REALLY believe in your idea and will beg for an even bigger piece of your pie... however, note that devs tend to be very risk-averse and will typically only take equity if you have funding and proof of concept.

I say that as someone who has been offered equity and rejected it every time.

So, if you want to vet your developer, you need to do these things:

1) Draw a flow chart of exactly you want done. Please do this. A techy like me HATES fluffy words. Show us in pictures. We're visual learners.

2) Get someone referred. PM me if you're looking for an app developer that's proven.

Really... that's the main takeaways. Keep in constant communication with em and make sure they show you work. If they're not willing to talk daily, they're not serious.

This is the case with website, mobile app, computer software... anything. Follow these simple rules and you'll have a much higher chance of a good experience.

If you need more specific help PM me. I've hired, and been hired. I've been hired a LOT. I hate certain clients. Let me teach you how to become a client I love and send Christmas cards to.

 

[LouieLouie]

1) Draw a flow chart of exactly you want done. Please do this. A techy like me HATES fluffy words. Show us in pictures. We're visual learners.

I would love to see an example!

However, I can advise on how to hire someone who doesn't suck.

I am always in search of better ways to hire, and communicate with developers.

Every time I try to get my developers to open up and give me feedback on how I could better communicate.(By being vulnerable myself)
The; email /Slack /Text /Phone goes dead.
Boom.... No Response .... closed subject
I came to the conclusion this is to confrontational.... but how to build trust and open communications when anytime I venture past the technical side to the human side the line goes dead.......?

Sorry this is off topic....

 

[dompie85]

@Bit @The-J I really appreciate you guys actually addressing my questions. Before I read this, I had already started drawing out my MVP. I have 5 "screenshots" on what I'd like my platform to look like and how i want it to function. Have much more to go. Basic financial blueprint (how I make money, not projections), I have 4 pages of pure technical content which includes, functionality, pricing, potential errors (with their fixes), potential loopholes (and how to prevent them), Different user notifications, and much more! I put the thought of investors on the backburner. I am very very passionate about this project and have been dedicating all of my energy to this project. After I finish my "screenshots", I will be focusing on building a following. Marketing through social media, emails, college cities, job fairs, and more. If I can't get traffic, the platform would be useless .
As for my MVP, it's in the works.
As for my team? Well, me.
As for 200k? I thought I would need that to properly market and develop everything along with paying professionals. I was intending on hitting the market hard.

I still have a lot of work to do. I'll be starting a progress thread here shortly.
Thanks

 

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[Bit]

@Bit @The-J I really appreciate you guys actually addressing my questions. Before I read this, I had already started drawing out my MVP. I have 5 "screenshots" on what I'd like my platform to look like and how i want it to function. Have much more to go. Basic financial blueprint (how I make money, not projections), I have 4 pages of pure technical content which includes, functionality, pricing, potential errors (with their fixes), potential loopholes (and how to prevent them), Different user notifications, and much more! I put the thought of investors on the backburner. I am very very passionate about this project and have been dedicating all of my energy to this project. After I finish my "screenshots", I will be focusing on building a following. Marketing through social media, emails, college cities, job fairs, and more. If I can't get traffic, the platform would be useless .
As for my MVP, it's in the works.
As for my team? Well, me.
As for 200k? I thought I would need that to properly market and develop everything along with paying professionals. I was intending on hitting the market hard.

I still have a lot of work to do. I'll be starting a progress thread here shortly.
Thanks

I think it'll be very difficult to secure seed funding, or even pre-seed funding, without a tangible MVP, unless you can find an angel. (angel.co), but even getting an angel isn't the end all, they will want equity in return - so keep that in mind. It's difficult to be a solo-preneur, but do-able. All about the attitude and persistence of not giving up. Even if it takes 2 years, you have to push forward.