19 years old, Just 1 more step until I'm a Billionaire.

[smoothplaya]

The Official: Hate on people with dreams thread.

Hey I'm new to this board. I'm 19 years old, from West Chester, Pennsylvania. And my name is Mike. I dropped out of school at the age of 18 to pursue my dreams. I decided to take that risk because its either I live my dream or I die. My family and friends think I'm crazy and stupid.

When I told my dad about my dreams he told me " Mike You know that kinda stuff never happens. And since your not in school anymore you need to start paying rent or get the f*** out of my house." I love the guy to death but his mind set is a go to school get a good education and work 9-5.

I contacted a few members from the board privately about my situation and they told me to post this on the board because the board is where all the help is.

Here's my scenario :

Finally found a Venture Capital firm in New York willing to invest $5.0 million into my start up business. But they won't invest until I have the prototype of my website up and running. And the prototype of my website is going to cost me $15.000 (that I can't afford). And I need $15,000 before Christmas because I don't want to loose this deal!

Heres the scenario if I were to get $15,000 before christmas.

* First I would get my $5.0 million dollar investment.

* Second I would be able to move my new company to Los Angeles, Ca.

* Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

* Forth. My start up company has a perceived value of $2.5 Billion dollars if I were to sell it by the age of 21.

And this is speaking if I were to get the $15,000.


Steps I've taken to raise $15,000

Asked my family and friends. They can't help because my family is poor and my friends just don't have any money because they are attending college.


Bought 100 Envelopes , Bought 100 stamps, And sent out a letter to 30 of the richest people in the world. And sent out 1 letter to president Barak Obama. Then sent out 69 letters to my favorite celebrities.

And now I'm posting on here asking for help.


Barriers:

* No credit. Because I don't ever wanna get in debt.
* No rich family members
* No rich friends.
* And no body to help me out.
* No car because thats a liability.
* All my money goes into my dads pocket to help with the bills.

I am 1 step away from finally living my dream. And this $15,000 barrier is holding me back!

Can you ladies & gentlemen imagine being so close to finally pursuing your dreams?

I would be grateful for any help if you know what I mean.

 

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[fanocks2003]

Hey I'm new to this board. I'm 19 years old, from West Chester, Pennsylvania. And my name is Mike. I dropped out of school at the age of 18 to pursue my dreams. I decided to take that risk because its either I live my dream or I die. My family and friends think I'm crazy and stupid.

When I told my dad about my dreams he told me " Mike You know that kinda stuff never happens. And since your not in school anymore you need to start paying rent or get the f*** out of my house." I love the guy to death but his mind set is a go to school get a good education and work 9-5.

I contacted a few members from the board privately about my situation and they told me to post this on the board because the board is where all the help is.

Here's my scenario :

Finally found a Venture Capital firm in New York willing to invest $5.0 million into my start up business. But they won't invest until I have the prototype of my website up and running. And the prototype of my website is going to cost me $15.000 (that I can't afford). And I need $15,000 before Christmas because I don't want to loose this deal!

Heres the scenario if I were to get $15,000 before christmas.

• First I would get my $5.0 million dollar investment.

• Second I would be able to move my new company to Los Angeles, Ca.

• Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

• Forth. My start up company has a perceived value of $2.5 Billion dollars if I were to sell it by the age of 21.

And this is speaking if I were to get the $15,000.


Steps I've taken to raise $15,000

Asked my family and friends. They can't help because my family is poor and my friends just don't have any money because they are attending college.


Bought 100 Envelopes , Bought 100 stamps, And sent out a letter to 30 of the richest people in the world. And sent out 1 letter to president Barak Obama. Then sent out 69 letters to my favorite celebrities.

And now I'm posting on here asking for help.


Barriers:

• No credit. Because I don't ever wanna get in debt.
• No rich family members
• No rich friends.
• And no body to help me out.
• No car because thats a liability.
• All my money goes into my dads pocket to help with the bills.

I am 1 step away from finally living my dream. And this $15,000 barrier is holding me back!

Can you ladies & gentlemen imagine being so close to finally pursuing your dreams?

I would be grateful for any help if you know what I mean.

1) Get used to this situation, because I would imagine all of the richest members on this forum has been there and always find themselfs in that situation. There will always be deals you will see as a big challenge. No matter if you have millions or not. You just need to learn creative ways of getting what you want. That is really what solves the problem: The creative thinking, not the money.

2) In Sweden you can get a very professional webdesign for half the $15,000 you mentioned. What are you building anyway? Are we talking about heavy databeses etc, is that costing you the $15,000? If so, have you got a cost appraisal from many suppliers and worked them against each other? If no, do it. That is how you push the price down.

3) Have you proved your concept by getting a couple of customers signed up on a pre-sell basis? If not, do it and use this proof of concept to raise money from angel investors so you can pay the $15,000. Then you have the $5 Million (as you mentioned yourself). Before raising angel capital you should form the company, find an accountant, find a legal advisor etc. Use the purchase agreements as assets in the company. That is your investment in the company by the way. So sign up a lot of folks.

Try it out. The most important thing many new startup entrepreneurs miss is the "proving the concept" part. Prove the commercial part and the money will follow, because the ideas then has traction. And you don't have to build any expensive prototype in order to attract customers for the first purchase agreements. A nice design would do wonders, together with a very good explanation of what people will be able to do once the thing is built and is fully functionable. If you can't deliver what you promise in the agreement then the purchase agreements will automaticly expire (have that in the agreement) so the customers will therefor be secured from any problems.

And no, pre-sell in this case does not mean getting any money from customers. It's rather getting a signature on a purchase agreement. An agreement you can create mostly by you're self with a slight help from a legal advisor. I am more than certain there are free, certified legal advisors on the internet. This service exists in Sweden. USA is way ahead of Sweden, so that would speak for itself. Just do a Google serach for "free certified legal advisors" and you would find something to use.

 

[AndrewG]

This is a really interesting story and circumstance you're facing. I'm going to way in on everything but this part of your thread needed to be discussed:

Heres the scenario if I were to get $15,000 before christmas.

• First I would get my $5.0 million dollar investment.

• Second I would be able to move my new company to Los Angeles, Ca.

• Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

• Forth. My start up company has a perceived value of $2.5 Billion dollars if I were to sell it by the age of 21.

And this is speaking if I were to get the $15,000.

I'm not trying to burst your bubble at all, I'm trying to motivate you, but money doesn't guarantee success at all. $15,000 or $5 million, it doesn't matter. It's the people and idea behind the company. I think you need to get creative, innovated, and even a little desperate.

Let's focus on the task at hand; forget about growing to 30 million users. First you need to get a prototype. I think you can do it for WAY less than $15,000. There are so many companies that started with little money. Digg.com was started with $1,000. With open source technology I think you can really bootstrap this. Perhaps go to the various Elance.com type of places and create a bid, or think about finding a great programmer and bring him/her on as a partner.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Don't let $15,000 be an obstacle.

-Andrew

 

[andviv]

Where did you get the $15,000 quote?

What does that include?

Like mentioned before by fanocks, you could get the same done for less if you outsource it right.

Also, I work in IT and I know that things take way longer than expected. The Christmas deadline probably is too optimistic (unless what you need is very basic, but you could likely find a cheaper developer that charges less than $15,000)

 

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[smoothplaya]

 

[Runum]

You got $3000 from a presale, right? Now you need $12,000. What's wrong with doing more presales to get to $15,000?

 

[fanocks2003]

Agree with Runum, work on those pre-sales and put them up as equity together with angel investor funding. Look for angel investors and add the other big investors on top of that later on.

And, yes. Deadlines often get over-run. Irritating when it happens, but calculate that in. Even professional people fail to meet deadlines sometimes.

 

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[TaxGuy]

Sounds like you got a plan here I would definitely listen to fanocks as he was once in your shoes, lol, he's younger than I and achieved his success in such a short time frame!!!

As far as getting the design down if it sounds like they just need to see a model you can either look for other options via elance if not to find a service for 1/3 the price, but to get the design company you're set on to budge on the price. This is the fun part for sure, you already know you have the idea, you're confident it will be a success and even have a plan to get it from the drawing board to the top which is farther than most ever make it!

Keep your head up and good things will follow, as mentioned, work on those pre-sales, build up the equity to get the site built and then stay on top of everything, remember you're not done until you make that sale, plenty of e-startups in '99 sat on that equity that disappeared when the bubble burst and literally when from millions to nothing for their effort.

 

[djs13]

We don't know your specific idea which is understandable because you don't want the idea getting stolen. But the one thing I've learned is that VC funding isn't always a good thing and a good entrepreneur could boot strap the hell out of their business to make it successful.

I remember a story about Cameron Johnson (I think that's who it was), where he desperately tried to get VC/Angel funding because he thought that was the only way to make a big business. But he found other ways and made it a success and by the time he graduated high school a VC firm wanted to throw $4 million at him and he turned down the offer.

Again, it really depends on what you're venture is. But even if you do get that $15k the company could still fail. And if you don't get the $15k, are you just going to give up?

“Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.”

-- Richard Branson

 

[fanocks2003]

We don't know your specific idea which is understandable because you don't want the idea getting stolen. But the one thing I've learned is that VC funding isn't always a good thing and a good entrepreneur could boot strap the hell out of their business to make it successful.

I remember a story about Cameron Johnson (I think that's who it was), where he desperately tried to get VC/Angel funding because he thought that was the only way to make a big business. But he found other ways and made it a success and by the time he graduated high school a VC firm wanted to throw $4 million at him and he turned down the offer.

Again, it really depends on what you're venture is. But even if you do get that $15k the company could still fail. And if you don't get the $15k, are you just going to give up?

“Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.â€

-- Richard Branson

I think boostrapping has it's place, but if you want to get something moving there will be some money needed to be spent. Better work on those pre-sales and get angel financing to get the project on to the next stage.

The reason angel financiers etc do not want to fund your deal mostly depends on you not proving the commercial value yet and the team running the company.

One way of not using angel financiers is to secure an over draft account against the purchase agreeements. Then hire a COO and have him/her get things done in a good manner, using the over draft account to fund most of the things.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Very nice story ... thank you for posting it and telling us what your goals are.

First, I love your vision. You have figured out that the old "9-5" isn't your path despite what your family wants to tell you.

Second, as someone who could write you a check here is where I have the challenge ... you have connected the dots on some very .... VERY expansive dots.

You mention ... "I will have 30,000,000 users over 1 year". You say this like it is automatic, like it is some sort of an event vs a process. Getting 30M users isn't as easy as walking into a store, dropping a gallon of milk in the cart, and paying for it. No, its a process which equates to 2.5M users per month or 80,000 users per day.

That doesn't happen overnight.

As an investor, that leaves me with this question:

If you can't raise $15,000, which in my mind isn't a lot of money OR you can't bootstrap the site on your own, how the hell are you going to attract 80,000 sign-ups every single day for 1 year? The former is a lot easier than the latter.

If you are capable of creating a marketing message and/or a service that attracts this kind of usage base in such a fast period of time, you should be able to raise/find $15,000 with ease OR be able to have the resources/contacts/knowledge to bootstrap the site on your own.

Also, having dealt with a lot of Private Equity companies in the last 10 years, I can tell you that they don't invest in ideas -- they invest in people behind the idea -- and the probability of those people to successfully execute on the idea.

As we've mentioned on this forum many times, ideas are a dime a dozen -- execution is where the money is.

 

[smoothplaya]

Great advice guys. I really have tried all the things you said. I initially started to do the pre sales to raise the money in the beginning to fund my project. But then I put all that money into the legal stuff of my business ( securing trademarks & patents etc) . Then I lost $1,500 to Nigerian scammers who pretended to be investors from the GoBigNetwork. ( I wouldn't recommend that site to anyone ). They charged me an up front fee which I was stupid enough to pay for. But anyway I'd rather not talk about that one.


I still have a few more options left.
1. Wait for the responses of the 100 letters I've sent out.
2. Hope for somebody to spot me on this forum.
3. Sell drugs.
4. Rob somebody.
5. Sell more pre-sales.

I'll get this accomplished guys even If I have to sell drugs. This is how desperate I am for this.

 

[BryanC]

Very nice story ... thank you for posting it and telling us what your goals are.

First, I love your vision. You have figured out that the old "9-5" isn't your path despite what your family wants to tell you.

Second, as someone who could write you a check here is where I have the challenge ... you have connected the dots on some very .... VERY expansive dots.

You mention ... "I will have 30,000,000 users over 1 year". You say this like it is automatic, like it is some sort of an event vs a process. Getting 30M users isn't as easy as walking into a store, dropping a gallon of milk in the cart, and paying for it. No, its a process which equates to 2.5M users per month or 80,000 users per day.

That doesn't happen overnight.

As an investor, that leaves me with this question:

If you can't raise $15,000, which in my mind isn't a lot of money OR you can't bootstrap the site on your own, how the hell are you going to attract 80,000 sign-ups every single day for 1 year? The former is a lot easier than the latter.

If you are capable of creating a marketing message and/or a service that attracts this kind of usage base in such a fast period of time, you should be able to raise/find $15,000 with ease OR be able to have the resources/contacts/knowledge to bootstrap the site on your own.

Also, having dealt with a lot of Private Equity companies in the last 10 years, I can tell you that they don't invest in ideas -- they invest in people behind the idea -- and the probability of those people to successfully execute on the idea.

As we've mentioned on this forum many times, ideas are a dime a dozen -- execution is where the money is.

Exactly what I was thinking reading the proposal.


My thoughts.

You wrote:
First I would get my $5.0 million dollar investment.

If you have a $5,000,000 investment on the line, what is hindering you from setting up a Corporation, getting Corporate Credit and financing it out Debt? Set your site up with Corporate Credit and then when you have an Equity investment, pay the Debt down slowly or extinguish it immediately.

You wrote:
Second I would be able to move my new company to Los Angeles, Ca.

Why not just minimize expenses, increase revenues and use the $5,000,000 for website expansion purposes. You don't need a lot to do a good deal of expansion when it comes to a website. For each dollar you spend, ten dollars to twenty dollars can come back with web based business.

You wrote:
Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

That's a hell of a dream. You would need unimaginable traffic flows of interested residual consumers.

You wrote:
Forth. My start up company has a perceived value of $2.5 Billion dollars if I were to sell it by the age of 21.

$2,500,000,000???????????

You wrote:
And this is speaking if I were to get the $15,000.

If the outlook is that good, and you are that confident, why not finance it with corporate debt? It is possible and readily accessible.

 

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[smoothplaya]

You mention ... "I will have 30,000,000 users over 1 year". You say this like it is automatic, like it is some sort of an event vs a process. Getting 30M users isn't as easy as walking into a store, dropping a gallon of milk in the cart, and paying for it. No, its a process which equates to 2.5M users per month or 80,000 users per day.

I plan on dropping $1,000,000 in advertising. That will get me atleast 10,000,000 visitors. Then the site will just get popular on it's own. I have told friends about it and they actually started to tell there friends like It was real or something.

I have every thing in a plan. I know how everything will work. I've spent along time thinking of every possible scenario. And I mean every possible scenario.

So all I need is the $15,000 and I'll be set.

But I gotta go now. Me and my dad are gonna go help serve the homeless at the salvation army in town. Then I got to eat thanks giving with my family.

Enjoy your thanks giving everybody.

 

[Runum]

Great advice guys. I really have tried all the things you said. I initially started to do the pre sales to raise the money in the beginning to fund my project. But then I put all that money into the legal stuff of my business ( securing trademarks & patents etc) . Then I lost $1,500 to Nigerian scammers who pretended to be investors from the GoBigNetwork. ( I wouldn't recommend that site to anyone ). They charged me an up front fee which I was stupid enough to pay for. But anyway I'd rather not talk about that one.


I still have a few more options left.
1. Wait for the responses of the 100 letters I've sent out.
2. Hope for somebody to spot me on this forum.
3. Sell drugs.
4. Rob somebody.
5. Sell more pre-sales.

I'll get this accomplished guys even If I have to sell drugs. This is how desperate I am for this.

Wow, I feel your passion and pain for this to happen. Man, don't do anything illegal to get this accomplished. If you're caught all of your hard work belongs to the feds. Also, doing it illegally is the easy way out.

Just an FYI, if you post things like this you do show your passion but you also show your age and experience. You really have to use your head in public. I hope your use of #3 and 4 is just rhetorical.:cheers:

 

[BryanC]

3. Sell drugs.
4. Rob somebody.

That's a poor attitude.

There is plenty of money to be made. You should get a sales job if you can't finance this "big" project out of pre-sales and it's going to be worth close to 3 bill after only 2 years... Plus, drugs and other forms of illegal substances are not always the most marketable and salable product or service.

If you don't got resources immediately available to you, you are going to have to learn how to tap them with a Corporation. Issuance of stock, debentures, pre-orders, etc. etc. If there is such a good outlook for the company and enough demand, you should be able to finance the project out of those three exchangeable products themselves.

If you don't want to put the time into learning those forms of leverage, you always got access to other immediate money... you always have labor. (Mow grass, get a job, broker other people's services and products, etc. etc.)

Hell even MLM will get you to $15,000 through sweat. Prepaid legal is not to bad. You always have Click Bank products you can sell.

There is ALWAYS something available to you to make money off of because there is infinite want and limited amount of providers. If you can't see that, I don't know how you expect the company to skyrocket in value to $2,500,000,000 like that.

Keep going though, don't let the drive die.

 

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[fanocks2003]

Great advice guys. I really have tried all the things you said. I initially started to do the pre sales to raise the money in the beginning to fund my project. But then I put all that money into the legal stuff of my business ( securing trademarks & patents etc) . Then I lost $1,500 to Nigerian scammers who pretended to be investors from the GoBigNetwork. ( I wouldn't recommend that site to anyone ). They charged me an up front fee which I was stupid enough to pay for. But anyway I'd rather not talk about that one.


I still have a few more options left.
1. Wait for the responses of the 100 letters I've sent out.
2. Hope for somebody to spot me on this forum.
3. Sell drugs.
4. Rob somebody.
5. Sell more pre-sales.

I'll get this accomplished guys even If I have to sell drugs. This is how desperate I am for this.

Come on, get a grip will ya.

1) Try my way of doing it. Signed purchase agreements, not cash upfront. You use the agreements as equity (as a security) so that you can then convince angel investors that you have something people will pay cash for if you can just have it made and delivered (so you need their money, the angel investors, to fullfill that). The equity part ensures you will actually get a piece of the pie when the company is formed (i e ownership. Read about "pre-money and post-money value").

2) Why are you hunting angel financing on such shady sites for? In Sweden we have a network facilitating free chances of presenting your idea to a big network of angel investors (in this case investors pay for being part of the network by the way, not the one seeking the funding). Go to them instead. Search for "angel investor networks" on google. Surely someone on here would know such a network in the US. JScott or PhxMJ perhaps?

3) Lose the mentality that you are desperate. Desperate people always lose against people who are calm and focused. It's a habit you need to foster even if you are actually in a desperate situation. I know it is hard, because I have those moments myself from time to time. But I know I lose, if I lose my head first. It is a game and the best player always win (the best players are always the ones who are the most calm and focused. Look at Donald Trump, prime example of a winner in action).

 

[smoothplaya]

Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

It's really possible because my competitors currently have a total of 100,000,000 million users with all their companies together.

I can only imagine that 30,000,000 will switch over to mine in the first year.

 

[BryanC]

I am guessing this is a social networking type of site?

 

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[fanocks2003]

It's really possible because my competitors currently have a total of 100,000,000 million users with all their companies together.

I can only imagine that 30,000,000 will switch over to mine in the first year.

Personally, I would not argue against that happening. I have seen stuff happen that should not happen (not being sarcastic). If that happens, great. But start with the basics and this may happen.

Starting a company is like doing everything else in life. It follows a rythm. A flow. A step-by-step process. You start with proving the idea, go on to see if people want to buy it at the price you set (proving the commercial value), you then go on to finding a smart COO to run the day-to-day activities for you, you then go on to entice the angel investors, you then go on to forming the company (putting in the purchase agreements as your equity), you then let the COO make magic happen with his/her experience.

Sometimes the company make you very rich (due to the company enticing customers with more and more products/services) and sometimes they crash and burn and you need to start over from scratch with something new. Hopefully you have taken some cash out (legally) of the burning ship before it hits bottom.

That is how it is. Even the best of companies crash and burn from time to time. But they all followed a rythm, a flow, a step-by-step approach.

How you do this is up to you. But slow down and think and take the time it needs to take. Set a deadline for 12 months or even 3 months to prove the pre-sale stage. If you can't get 100 retail customers on paper, then either toss the idea all together or try it out anyway.

 

[BryanC]

You know what, I wish you the best of luck with your site. It sounds like you have big aspirations and I can admire that. I am starting up something myself here based around my internet experience soon so I will probably be in your same position seeking capital. The only difference is, I have been getting lectured by investor friends for the past few months so when I am ready I will probably have $100,000 available to me immediately.

 

[fanocks2003]

You know what, I wish you the best of luck with your site. It sounds like you have big aspirations and I can admire that. I am starting up something myself here based around my internet experience soon so I will probably be in your same position seeking capital. The only difference is, I have been getting lectured by investor friends for the past few months so when I am ready I will probably have $100,000 available to me immediately.

I'm sure you will. Anyone can get that kind of money with a commercially proven idea and a smart COO steering the wheel. Starting companies is really not an art as I see it, rather a "paint-by-the-numbers" activity. You do one thing and the next follows it and soon you have a new business run by very smart people and funded with people with deep pockets. An asset to either hold or sell of.

It's a fun activity spending your time on. Lucrative too.

 

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[yveskleinsky]

...Where to start?

I suppose first off I also applaud your big thinking and can-do attitude.

However, my concerns would be this:

- Your numbers don't seem to based on research or fact, but on blanket assumptions; that's problematic.

- Your growth numbers are completely unrealistic, and would (should) turn most investors off. Get real about your growth and your numbers and the $15k might fall into your lap much quicker.

- If the sole difference between you and your competition is the solution, what's to prevent them from copying your solution? As MJ said, execution is more critical than just the idea.

- Your deadline for completion of your site isn't realistic--for several reasons. For starters, if you are working with "the best" then I would imagine that they are very busy, and since they haven't scheduled you in I would imagine there is a wait list. Second, as Andres said, there is a trial and error period when expressing ideas to a developer, and getting exactly what you want takes time and much tweeking.

As far as ideas for funding:

- If you have VCs willing to back you and your idea to the tune of $5m, why don't you hit them up for $5m as well as the $15k.

- Get a loan through the SBA.

- Take out a personal loan.

- Check out prosper.com.

- Sell stuff on ebay.

- Sell off equity in your company to get your initial seed money.

Keep us posted and best of luck to you getting this project off the ground.

 

[BryanC]

I'm sure you will. Anyone can get that kind of money with a commercially proven idea and a smart COO steering the wheel. Starting companies is really not an art as I see it, rather a "paint-by-the-numbers" activity. You do one thing and the next follows it and soon you have a new business run by very smart people and funded with people with deep pockets. An asset to either hold or sell of.

It's a fun activity spending your time on. Lucrative too.

Of all the people on here, I always love reading your posts. Speed+++

Happy Thanksgiving.:smx9:

 

[hatterasguy]

We havn't seen your business plan since you can't post it, by not seeing it those numbers seem way high. As an investor that doesn't sit right, throw in your age and lack of experiance in your field and alarm bells would be going off. Also I don't think your team is better than Google's. Google didn't get where they are by being sloppy, and frankly I don't think $15k or even $5m could get the kind if talent they have. Statements like that, and those growth numbers turn investors off.

I'm new to this board. I was wondering if you would make a $15,000 dollar donation to my start up?

You don't ask for money like that.

As someone who has asked people for hundreds of thousands of dollars to get his business of the ground in the last few months, thats not how its done.

First you need, which I assume you have, is a detailed business plan. For a $2.5B company it should be pretty well thought out, I also assume you had someone polish it a bit. Since this VC company said they were going to give you $5m you must have a pretty damn good one. I know some VC's in NY City and they are sharks to deal with, so your business is probably viable if they will give you some money. From what I have read I am surprised these guys are willing to lend you anything. But again we are only getting a part of the story.

The part that bothers me is I don't understand why this $15k is such a big deal. Start the website yourself, like Google, or get it from somewhere. If you have a good enough plan to get $5m from a VC than $15k should be cake from your local bank, or some little investor. Everyone wants to buy the next Google, I know someone who is kicking himself because he could have lended Google $20k to help them get started and didn't.

Happy Thanksgiving and good luck with it.

 

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[djs13]

- Check out prosper.com.

I completely forgot about that! Great suggestion.

 

[yveskleinsky]

Here's my scenario :

Finally found a Venture Capital firm in New York willing to invest $5.0 million into my start up business. But they won't invest until I have the prototype of my website up and running. And the prototype of my website is going to cost me $15.000 (that I can't afford). And I need $15,000 before Christmas because I don't want to loose this deal!

Heres the scenario if I were to get $15,000 before christmas.

• First I would get my $5.0 million dollar investment.

• Second I would be able to move my new company to Los Angeles, Ca.

• Third I would be able to grow it to a user base of 30,000,000 members over a year. Putting all competitors out of business.

• Forth. My start up company has a perceived value of $2.5 Billion dollars if I were to sell it by the age of 21.

And this is speaking if I were to get the $15,000.


Steps I've taken to raise $15,000

Asked my family and friends. They can't help because my family is poor and my friends just don't have any money because they are attending college.


Bought 100 Envelopes , Bought 100 stamps, And sent out a letter to 30 of the richest people in the world. And sent out 1 letter to president Barak Obama. Then sent out 69 letters to my favorite celebrities.

And now I'm posting on here asking for help.


Barriers:

• No credit. Because I don't ever wanna get in debt.
• No rich family members
• No rich friends.
• And no body to help me out.
• No car because thats a liability.
• All my money goes into my dads pocket to help with the bills.

I am 1 step away from finally living my dream. And this $15,000 barrier is holding me back!

Can you ladies & gentlemen imagine being so close to finally pursuing your dreams?

I would be grateful for any help if you know what I mean.

Here's some more questions/points to consider:

- What if the VC company doesn't like your prototype of your site? ...What exactly did you present them with?

- Why does this deal turn into a pumpkin on Dec 26th?

- What would you do with $5m?

- Is putting your competitors out of business the only way for you to hit your numbers?

- How will your company have value of $2.5B?

- What is the plan for you to get from here to there?

- You need credit. Credit and debt do not have to go hand-in-hand.

In addition, you mention that you are one step away from $5m or a billion, and that $15k is the last step. ... Developing the site is only one step of many.

I really do hope that you post some more details...if the details and the numbers are there you may find investors here.

 

[wildambitions]

Call me skeptical but this whole story sounds like, well quite frankly a "story".

How you have presented it sounds as much as a scam as the Nigerian scammers you say you fell victim to.

If your idea is as great as you claim, you will find a way to make what ever it takes to make it happen, happen and a deadline won't matter.

And your point that you HAVE to go now to help feed the homeless was the icing on the "shady" cake for me - what a great guy you must be.

Sorry if I come across as cynical. I truly hope that my red flags with your story are wrong and you are able to achieve ALL of your hopes and dreams. And though I understand your desire to quit school and pursue your business, please keep in mind that although you have quit school, your REAL education is just beginning. If you continue to learn, your $15,000.00 will present itself when you are mentally capable of handling what you need to know before you achieve the success that you are after.

 

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[Redshft]

Call me skeptical but this whole story sounds like, well quite frankly a "story".

I'd have to agree. Not to offend you, but your plan and proposal sounds a bit TOO optimistic. It's a good thing to be ambitious as you show to be, but your numbers and expectations are to vague. They are nothing but numbers that, as far as we can see, have just been blurted out. As mentioned before, there are too many red flags in your current proposal. Just like wildambitions said, if you could score an agreement for $5MM, $15K should be a CAKE walk. It's not that hard, but the likely outcome will probably result in you taking on some debt.

You need to realize that things WILL go wrong, the devil is in the details. Don't worry about 30 million users or 1 year ahead, focus on building the business one day at a time. Focus on getting your first 10 members, then 100 members...you can't get 30 mil without getting 1 first.

Remember, an idea isn't worth anything.

 

[australianinvestor]

Ok, I couldn't read more than half of the replies before I had to say a few things.

Preface to my comments: I'm sick at the moment, so don't take my brief comments as being offensive, because they are meant to be positive. I just don't have enough energy to make them sound nicer (got flu at the moment).

- You have some kind of business idea and you have an offer of $5m depending upon you're ability to raise $15k. The most immediate thing that comes to mind is that the VC would fund this if you can't, because if they are putting in $5m, the deal would have to be good, and if $15k more made it a bad deal, it is too marginal and they wouldn't invest with you in the first place. Don't waste time and money hunting for $15k. Get the VC to pay for it. Each day you waste is sales down the drain.

- Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the team and their ability to execute the idea that counts. From the sound of your post, it's just you. So a VC firm wants to give a 19 year old $5m to start a company that doesn't have a prototype (if it needs a prototype, am I correct in assuming it's an unproven concept?) or a team, or the $15k to develop the prototype for a company that's going to be worth $2.5 billion in 2 years. If this is the case, I'd strongly suggest talking to the VCs again, maybe you misunderstood what they've told you. Otherwise, if they are providing the team, get them to find the $15k. If the idea is worth that much, I can't imagine the VCs would delay it so you have hurt money (the investment you stand to lose if the business fails) in the game.

I hate writing like this because I don't want to discourage you at all. It's just that I see some big holes that need to be fixed, and although I want you to succeed, it won't happen if I spend my time telling you how great you are. I'd rather tell you if I see part of your plan which increase the risk of failure, even if it's hard to take. I'd trade 100 yes-men for 1 who can tell it like it is.

Keep us up-to-date as well