Great idea, no money to execute.

[sebo816]

I have a great idea/business plan drawn out and worked out the details. I have no doubts in my mind that it will be successful. It’s a service business through a mobile application/website. While the concept is simple and I know the details to make it run successfully, my issue is having the money to execute it. An application of that magnitude could run anywhere from 50k to 100k from the quotes I got from developers, then there’s the price to market it. If executed correctly it could make more money than I could imagine making monthly. I’m no wizard when it comes to making the app myself so outsourcing really is my best option if it’s to be done right. I suppose my biggest question is, is there anyone here who would have any ideas on how to raise the money to execute my idea, any people here who have experience in obtaining that kind of capital to start? If you have any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

I have no doubts in my mind that it will be successful.
It’s a service business through a mobile application/website.

I promise you that I've felt the same way with MANY ideas that ended up being duds.

Before you go trying to raise money, test the market in a small way first through a Minimum Economically Viable Offering (MEVO). All businesses start with small tests like this, which are iterated over time in a scientific fashion.

Here's what that looks like...

If it's a service, figure out how to sell the service using the available low/no-code platforms available, and then try to make a sale. There are many, some include Service Provider Pro (SPP) or ManyRequests. After you've made some consistent sales, you can then build anything custom you like after bringing in cashflow. If it *really* blows up in a way that your cashflow can't cover, you can show clear demand to an investor who's funding will help you cross that bridge.

Cheers. Let us know how it goes, and welcome to the forum.

 

[sebo816]

I promise you that I've felt the same way with MANY ideas that ended up being duds.

Before you go trying to raise money, test the market in a small way first through a Minimum Economically Viable Offering (MEVO). All businesses start with small tests like this, which are iterated over time in a scientific fashion.

Here's what that looks like...

If it's a service, figure out how to sell the service using the available low/no-code platforms available, and then try to make a sale. There are many, some include Service Provider Pro (SPP) or ManyRequests. After you've made some consistent sales, you can then build anything custom you like after bringing in cashflow. If it *really* blows up in a way that your cashflow can't cover, you can show clear demand to an investor who's funding will help you cross that bridge.

Cheers. Let us know how it goes, and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for replying much appreciated and I'm glad to be here!

But yes in a smaller way I have tested this service here in my local county and so far its been great. I have a website, I do local marketing to the range I'm able to cover. I've been able to replace my 9-5 with what I do now, I make more than I did working my old job, my schedule for services keeps me plenty busy, but its not so much a business rather I would consider it as creating my own job as of now, which is fine, but being the sole employee of my business, I can only cover so much ground. The idea that I'm wanting to get funded is on a much bigger scale of what I do now and the cost would take years of saving on my end which I'm saving for regardless but to save some time it would be ideal to get funding for it. It satisfies a need to basically anyone over the age of 16 year round and on a reoccurring basis, its scalable, it doesn't require inventory, manufacturing, location or distribution costs, its pays for itself, automated, and practically no competition. The roadblock I'm at primarily is how do I find and get in front of potential investors, I tried the search engines but can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

 

[Oso]

Thanks for replying much appreciated and I'm glad to be here!

But yes in a smaller way I have tested this service here in my local county and so far its been great. I have a website, I do local marketing to the range I'm able to cover. I've been able to replace my 9-5 with what I do now, I make more than I did working my old job, my schedule for services keeps me plenty busy, but its not so much a business rather I would consider it as creating my own job as of now, which is fine, but being the sole employee of my business, I can only cover so much ground. The idea that I'm wanting to get funded is on a much bigger scale of what I do now and the cost would take years of saving on my end which I'm saving for regardless but to save some time it would be ideal to get funding for it. It satisfies a need to basically anyone over the age of 16 year round and on a reoccurring basis, its scalable, it doesn't require inventory, manufacturing, location or distribution costs, its pays for itself, automated, and practically no competition. The roadblock I'm at primarily is how do I find and get in front of potential investors, I tried the search engines but can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

If you don't have money and can't code, your best two options would be crowdfunding and/or offering equity to a developer. Keep in mind though that if you go the "equity" route, most developers are going to try to gape you on percentages as they're the ones doing the actual work.

Otherwise, your best bet is hiring a developer to put together a MVP, and hope your MVP is enough to sell the app. Finally, I recommend you triple the amount of time you spend on industry networking. It is extremely common for devs to help you for free if they like/support your project/you. So always network.

Cheers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[sebo816]

If you don't have money and can't code, your best two options would be crowdfunding and/or offering equity to a developer. Keep in mind though that if you go the "equity" route, most developers are going to try to gape you on percentages as they're the ones doing the actual work.

Otherwise, your best bet is hiring a developer to put together a MVP, and hope your MVP is enough to sell the app. Finally, I recommend you triple the amount of time you spend on industry networking. It is extremely common for devs to help you for free if they like/support your project/you. So always network.

Cheers.

Okay I hear you, so maybe crowdfunding would be the best first approach, I'm not exactly familiar with crowdfunding, any resources you would recommend on that? I got you I'll focus on networking, I will admit that I haven't done much industry networking if at all to my knowledge, could you elaborate more on that for me?

 

[Johnny boy]

ideas are and business plans are toilet paper.

I bet I could get a version of your idea to market for under a thousand bucks and get paying customers from the get-go.

And the idea of that scares you because it's comforting to say "I just need 50k as a gift from someone" to use as feel-good excuse to why you can't take action.

You can make apps using adalo.com and some api connections. It takes basically no coding and some google searches to add in details. It sounds like you have more time than you do money so get to reading.

I know how to get capital. Here's three great ways.

1. Get it from your customers. They have your money. Go earn it.
2. Make enough money and get enough traction to pitch to investors that will take you seriously.
3. Refinance the equity out of your house if you have it.

I'm guessing you're only in a position to do number 1. Then you can go do step 2 afterwards.

 

[Subsonic]

Thanks for replying much appreciated and I'm glad to be here!

But yes in a smaller way I have tested this service here in my local county and so far its been great. I have a website, I do local marketing to the range I'm able to cover. I've been able to replace my 9-5 with what I do now, I make more than I did working my old job, my schedule for services keeps me plenty busy, but its not so much a business rather I would consider it as creating my own job as of now, which is fine, but being the sole employee of my business, I can only cover so much ground. The idea that I'm wanting to get funded is on a much bigger scale of what I do now and the cost would take years of saving on my end which I'm saving for regardless but to save some time it would be ideal to get funding for it. It satisfies a need to basically anyone over the age of 16 year round and on a reoccurring basis, its scalable, it doesn't require inventory, manufacturing, location or distribution costs, its pays for itself, automated, and practically no competition. The roadblock I'm at primarily is how do I find and get in front of potential investors, I tried the search engines but can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

Look up Y-Combinator and apply there.

If your idea is that great and you have some hard proof that it works they will probably give you ~500k for 10-20% equity.


For the mvp,

Imagine your customer as a guy with his hair on fire. The ideal solution would be a bucket of water.
You don't have that sadly. That Bucket of water represents the perfect product, the version 1.0.
What you have, is a brick. It's not optimal to extinguish the fire but it's better that hitting your head against the wall or using your hands.
So your customer buys the brick and uses it to snuff out the flames on his head.

Your mvp needs to help a specific group of people with burning hair and has the right to be scuffed and semi functional.

When Airbnb got started, they had no payment system, no map view and you could only rent airbeds, not even a room or house. Moreover it was only for conferences, meaning it was only available in one city for a few days at a time, after which it would shut down again.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

but being the sole employee of my business, I can only cover so much ground

So it sounds like you need to hire employees or contractors then, not raise money.

If you're selling a digitally-fulfilled service, then you can hire much cheaper labor outside the USA which will leave you much more profit to scale.

If you can't cover salaries with what you charge: Raise prices, take a loan to cover maybe a month's salary and then work your face off to sell enough clients to cover your new hire.

If you can't hire someone else to do this, then it's not scalable sorry.
You need to prove you're replaceable first.

You don't raise funds in order to *make* something scalable, you raise funds to accelerate the growth of something *already* scalable.

Something where it's really easy for an investor to see 1-dollar-in = 1-dollar-out.
(If you decide to take that route in the future).

 

[sebo816]

ideas are and business plans are toilet paper.

I bet I could get a version of your idea to market for under a thousand bucks and get paying customers from the get-go.

And the idea of that scares you because it's comforting to say "I just need 50k as a gift from someone" to use as feel-good excuse to why you can't take action.

You can make apps using adalo.com and some api connections. It takes basically no coding and some google searches to add in details. It sounds like you have more time than you do money so get to reading.

I know how to get capital. Here's three great ways.

1. Get it from your customers. They have your money. Go earn it.
2. Make enough money and get enough traction to pitch to investors that will take you seriously.
3. Refinance the equity out of your house if you have it.

I'm guessing you're only in a position to do number 1. Then you can go do step 2 afterwards.

I'll take you up on that bet 100 percent!
Regardless I've taken action with my idea, I've created a job for myself using this same idea, I have customers, I don't work my old job anymore, my booking schedule keeps me busy and I make more than I did working any job I've had in the past, I'm not looking for an excuse, I'm looking to cut years out of the equation and scale what I'm already doing. I'm saving my money that I earn from my idea now to put towards it, so yeah I'm taking your advice with step 1, and you're right, I am in the position to only do number 1. What I do makes money, it could make a lot more money. It's number 2 of your three great ways I'm trying to put myself in position for.

 

[sebo816]

Look up Y-Combinator and apply there.

If your idea is that great and you have some hard proof that it works they will probably give you ~500k for 10-20% equity.


For the mvp,

Imagine your customer as a guy with his hair on fire. The ideal solution would be a bucket of water.
You don't have that sadly. That Bucket of water represents the perfect product, the version 1.0.
What you have, is a brick. It's not optimal to extinguish the fire but it's better that hitting your head against the wall or using your hands.
So your customer buys the brick and uses it to snuff out the flames on his head.

Your mvp needs to help a specific group of people with burning hair and has the right to be scuffed and semi functional.

When Airbnb got started, they had no payment system, no map view and you could only rent airbeds, not even a room or house. Moreover it was only for conferences, meaning it was only available in one city for a few days at a time, after which it would shut down again.

Thanks boss never of heard of them before you and I did apply for Y-Combinator today actually. I missed the deadline for the summer program but they were still taking late applications, regardless if I'm accepted or not I'll make sure to apply on time for the next program. Much appreciated for your response and I'll keep all your advise in mind!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[sebo816]

So it sounds like you need to hire employees or contractors then, not raise money.

If you're selling a digitally-fulfilled service, then you can hire much cheaper labor outside the USA which will leave you much more profit to scale.

If you can't cover salaries with what you charge: Raise prices, take a loan to cover maybe a month's salary and then work your face off to sell enough clients to cover your new hire.

If you can't hire someone else to do this, then it's not scalable sorry.
You need to prove you're replaceable first.

You don't raise funds in order to *make* something scalable, you raise funds to accelerate the growth of something *already* scalable.

Something where it's really easy for an investor to see 1-dollar-in = 1-dollar-out.
(If you decide to take that route in the future).

That exactly what I'm talking about! Like I said in previous replies, my job is what I do now and is my idea, its just not a business yet because I'm at the lowest level of my own business which is fine for now. The goal is to make my job an opportunity for other people to have this job. I'm extremely replaceable, and the beauty is that I don't even need to pay employees, the service would pay them for me. I could do this now locally yeah no doubt and I have the intention to I interviewed a few individuals already, but I want the funding to create a platform that can reach the whole country, bigger than the one that I have currently. What I do is a NEED it's REQUIRED by a majority of Americans and possibly wider. I like to compare it to Doordash, just not with food. The platform would be digital, the service is physical. customers and contractors would use this same platform to purchase, and to perform, one spends the other earns. I'm looking at funding as not something I couldn't provide myself, but to slice time, to cut years of saving out of the equation. I have no experience in funding something other than putting my own money and time in, I would like to explore that other side of funding and possibly bring in some partners who have more experience than I do.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

@sebo816 are we talking local/regional freight, some kind of delivery etc., like Amazon Delivery Partners or a delivery route?

That's my best guess at what you're up to. Even if that's not it, hear me out...

Think about what part of the value chain you really want to be part of and that you're best equipped to serve. Sure you can start a platform where everyone goes through (you get a little bit of everyone's pie) or you can just own your own fleet and horizontally integrate (keep buying up competitors/routes) until you're cranking.

Either way you can end up with a big business, but each path has its pros and cons. One path has challenges you aren't equipped to handle, while the other will have less hurdles to where you want to be. Think about it and place your bet on what you think has a higher probability of success.

 

[ZCP]

how many have you sold?

what is the bare minimum MVP?

you are creating excuses. create value.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.