I thought I would never be here asking for help, but here I am.
Backstory: Came up with a genius business idea, internet based(no physical product), market competition is there, decent barrier to entry, current supplies under serving the customer demand etc. I did all the leg work hired consultants to develop the MVP plan. Spoke with 3 investors... two relatives and one friend. All three while not completely understanding the complex technology can see this is a winner. In person all three agree to provide their seed money $2k each for 15%. I get back home after Christmas holidays and sent account info over for transfers and nothing.
My question: How often do you follow up with investors? Do I need to call each specifically , would another reminder text work out?
Also there's this piece. Through pitching the company I've realized the true value. Due to this I am tempted to wait on my tax refund and bet the house on myself.
Two things:
1) You have a "genius idea" and know how to execute on it and you're giving away nearly half of your company for $6,000? Are you sure about this? Seems like maybe this delay will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.
2) It doesn't sound like you had a contract, which may account for your investors treating this loosely. Getting investments in your company on the basis of a verbal interchange (or even email or whatever) and a bank transfer is risky business. You need to spell out your terms clearly, on paper--and one of those terms would have been the timeline for them depositing funds. If you're going to move forward with this, formalize--ESPECIALLY with friends and relatives. They need to very clearly understand what they are and are not getting from this investment, that there's no guarantee of a return, under what circumstances they may get payouts, whether their interests are transferable (and so on, and so on) or there will be conflict later.