Looking for an investor in the Nor-Cal

I've got $10. Where do I sign this NDA?

 

If it's a website then you should be able to develop it with little amount of money and then scale up. Go to elance.com and put your project up for bid. You will get many bidders from India, Romania, China that will do it for cheap.

Vik

 

No serious investor would ever sign an NDA. You would look silly to even ask. Additionally, you are asking someone to sign an NDA to talk about a website that is up and running?

Friends and family are the way to go if you aren't looking for much money.

 

Sorry to be blunt, but you've got two strikes already.

- Asking for an NDA marks you as an amateur, serious investors don't sign NDA's, so asking for it means you don't understand the rules.

- What you've described sounds like $10-20K, which is too small a scale to interest a serious investor. If a running website can't generate enough income to pay for that in the first few months or you don't have friends, family, job or savings that will cover that level of expense, then those are going to be dings against both the idea and the entrepreneur.

 

HAHAHAH! PWNED!

Man, you gotta love F-Chat. No sugar-coating here. hahaha.

 

I don't think anyone was trying to "pwn" Ryan. An entrepreneur looking for angel, or tougher yet venture capital, investors better have a thick skin and lots of patience. Starting off by asking for money, but without having done the homework on expectations and norms, just gets things off on the wrong foot and the entrepreneur wouldn't even know why they were being blown off.

 

You are in the "friends and family" stage and that means exactly what it says, so put something together for them to go over and as a road map for you as well. If your idea is good you might be suprised by your response. If your numbers tell you $20k investment you need to make it $40k, and if your projected revenues are x, divide by 2 and you should have a good starting point. Best of Luck

 

I say this as an entrepreneur in the Bay Area:

1. ask for advice, not for money.
2. You've gotta be open and share you idea. Without an NDA. Not your secret sauce, but your idea and product and plan need to be visible to people. No investor will sign an NDA.
3. What are you willing to risk to get your company off the ground? How much of your own time have you put in so far? How much of your own money have you invested? How about friends and family?
4. Who are your competitors?
5. What is the size of your market?
6. If your website is so brilliant and can make money on its own, why do you need investment money?

I can go on and on - but you need a compelling story first. Not just "I have an idea for a web site that's brilliant." Who says its brilliant? You? anyone else?

I suggest you start by reading Guy Kawasaki's book "The art of the Start."

And if you really want to do this, you gotta quit your job, pour your life savings and all your time into it - and be confident and sure of yourself and most importantly, resilient. The rewards for crossing all the hurdles are there, but there's a long road ahead Ryan...

 

I recommend the 3 "F" - friends, family and fools. good luck !

 

you have a IM

 

i was going to make a joke about pets.com and a website, but decided not to

 

Oh behave!