My co-founder wants to invest his own money but is limiting us | Hacker News Reader

My co-founder wants to invest his own money but is limiting us

6 pointscfarias7 comments

hi there, so i just need some quick opinion.

my co-founder is a very good performance marketer and makes a good six figure monthly income, and we are working on this new project that can be very big and is an amazing idea in my opinion.

I'm currently getting a 'salary' to manage some devs and designers and i hate it that everything is coming out of his pocket, and i'd much rather find investors so that we can scale and make it happen quickly.

I am trying to get the most done in a cheaper way possible because i came in, he already spent 5 figures on something that was completely thrown away since it was useless.

What would you guys recommend me? i even mentioned that i got friends who would easily invest 500k+ in 8-12% however his reply are 'no way this is my baby' and things of such.

right now he is trying to get a domain purchased for less than 10k, and i was like, dude if we got an investment we could have this domain already for 15k and we good. so domain, me not hiring more people, all this stuff it feels like we are limiting ourselves, or perhaps i should say fuck it and care less of his money. Is just that i know he wants to save money as well, and he is also a friend.

anyways, thanks in advance for any replies. hope all you guys are kicking ass this year as well ;)

Do you have customers? $10k (or anything more than $50) for a domain pre-revenue is a waste of money.

Spending 5 figures on something useless tells me you're focused way too closely on developing something. Spend your remaining cash on validating the product and selling it, not on building something else that maybe no one wants.

sounds like you are a cofounder only in name - are you actually on the board of directors? do you have access to the company bank account? Product -> Traction -> Investors. Don't skip the traction step. i get runway concerns hearing this.

you're completely right actually, he came to me cause i've have a few successful saas biz and i accepted since i really enjoy the project and i truly believe can be something great. However you're right, is just a simple project and we are both successful marketers however he thinks more in the short term (need to see positive ROI day one) and im trying to think more of a long-term.

Still, yes, the idea is to follow and not skip the traction step, maybe im wrong on thinking ahead, is just that every time he says "no way we aint gonna get investors i will sell my house if need it to" makes me think we might face some issues scaling this later on.

Do you think the company will fail on the current course?

That's the biggest factor IMO, having a large slice of 0 is still 0...

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be lean in a vacuum. But if you're in a space that moves incredibly quickly and being lean means moving too slowly, that's the real issue.

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In other words I guess I'm saying, forget about the money for a second and focus on the effects it's having.

Are important deliverables slipping, is traction waning, etc.

yes thank you, is just that i was afraid perhaps we reaching in some walls that we won't see it. However still got a few months work to have the MVP so i def need to be focusing on getting things done. thanks

Leave him to it, if you can run without investors it frees up a LOT of time.

for each main expenditure, just note down pros, cons, risks, etc, print it off, and hand it over to him

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