Do you plan to raise money from investors for your project?
Vlad Zivkovic
42 replies
Hey Product Hunters, some want to bootstrap their company and some plan to raise outside capital.
What is your plan?
Replies
Frank Sondors@franksondors
Mailforge
I would love to, but investors have been wasting too much of our time.
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ClassPoint
@profy17 @vladimir_zivkovic Wow that is so time-consuming. It's almost 1 year's salary deducted to the fundraising value.
Warmup Inbox
You can also use LTD as an alternative to fundraising. If you run LTD during product hunt launch you can get great results: https://www.lunadio.com/blog/we-...
@fabian_maume Very interesting, I am reading right now.
No I don’t think so - my projects don’t lend themselves well to it
@maxwellcdavis You never know, maybe you scale some day and gain the interest of investors.
Hey @vladimir_zivkovic! Hoping to bootstrap — working on an up-front add-on to the model to make 🤞🏼 it possible
@blake_whittington Good job! Bootstrapping is the best way to go!
no need for my project. just need to find unit-economy and start scaling.
Great question! In our case, we have chosen a slightly different approach. Instead of seeking traditional investors, we are running a limited lifetime deal on AppSumo. This allows us to not only secure some investment but also gain lifetime customers who become real investors in our company.
It's an exciting opportunity for us to grow together with our community. Our focus is on delivering value and keeping our promises, and any funds raised will be reinvested into further development. We believe this approach aligns perfectly with our goals and ensures a win-win situation for all parties involved.
@realsubinbabu That's awesome, I will get in touch to check how AppSumo deals work since I noticed few founders doing the same thing.
Flex-Worthy Templates
Never
@shushant_lakhyani That's the way! I've been in that game before but now I share your opinion!
I've spent quite a lot of time communicating with investors for various clients and my own projects. Somewhere we managed to raise funds, but usually not. I must say that often it's just a waste of time until you start earning. And when you do start earning, investors usually aren't needed anymore—they come to you, and it's you who turns them down.
Other Fundraising Ideas that go Perfectly with a Creative Project Crowdfunding Campaign
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Host an Art Show. ...
Sell Custom T-Shirts. ...
Create One-of-a-Kind Pieces. ...
Host a Talent Show. ...
Create a Community Quilt. ...
Sell Recipe Books. ...
Create a Local Battle of the Bands. https://ifun-tv.com/
Webstudio.so
An approach that has worked for us while building the MVP is gaining hackathon grants and pre-seed funding from accelerator programs.
As someone who has been involved in various roles in the startup world, I've seen the pros and cons of raising money from investors. The decision really depends on the specific project I'm working on at any given time.
For some of my past projects, I've chosen to bootstrap and self-fund the early stages. This approach has allowed me to maintain full control over the direction of the project and to focus on proving the concept and building an MVP without external pressures. It has also been useful in ensuring that I can create a customer-centric product that truly meets market needs.
That being said, for other projects where the scope and scale have been significantly larger, raising capital was necessary to hire the right talent, invest in advanced technology, and scale operations quickly. In those cases, external investment was crucial to achieving our ambitious goals.
In my current endeavors around democratizing blockchain, I'm leaning towards a mixed approach. It's a space where there's room for innovative solutions, but it also requires careful development and significant resources, especially for extensive user research and ongoing product development. We've self-funded the initial stages, and are looking for investors once the MVP will have solid evidence of market demand.
Anyways, it's always a context-dependent decision that involves balancing many factors.
Yup! But for growth. We don't plan on raising before seeing a path to actual results, so that it both protects the investors with a more solid business, and protects us with a better valuation.
@nuno_ms_reis Goo decision.
@vladimir_zivkovic Thanks, we have a very lean or growth approach :)
Clustr
Yes, if the Product Hunt community will support us! 🥺🥺
@realvladgolub I am there to support!
Launching soon!
We're currently bootstrapped and pre-launch but its something we will debate before we go live or after revenue is past 20k MRR.
It seems like you lose some equity/value in those in between stages.
It is always going to be the age old; relinquish autonomy VS hit scale quicker quandary.
Right now, bootstrapping and keeping control is the way for me. But future funding, who knows? Client's success with investors might be worth looking into.
@roycarterunder2 Yes, potentially!
Yes, but the problem is to find them) Any recommendations?
@serhii_uspenskyi I can send you the list of some 3000 VCs and angel investors, I just need to dig them out since I am out of that game now.
Propertizer
@serhii_uspenskyi @vladimir_zivkovic I would love that list too! Could you share it with me on LinkedIn? You can find my link on my profile
@serhii_uspenskyi @vladimir_zivkovic Hello? Could you share your list? I will be grateful. My mail is arfen7778@gmail.com
@vladimir_zivkovic thanks a lot!
@david_sipos let me see.
As someone who makes pitch decks for founders, this thread is very useful to understand a big part of the story!
I intend to start my company without investors. I see it more as building products to create an income for my family rather than building a company.
Although someone else mentioned crowdfunding in this thread, and I hadn't considered that before. It might actually work well for the product I'm building now. Hm.