Ask HN: How to start a startup where team members required salaries to survive? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to start a startup where team members required salaries to survive?

7 pointsmaheshs5 comments

We are having solution (with partial implementation with some big new concepts in our mind) for small (10-50 employees) knowledge organizations (law companies, media agencies, Ad agencies etc) for "office intranet (HR process, Document Management, celebrative tools etc)". I want to sale this to the customers as SAAS as well as boxed backed with customization (for bigger organization and chargeable).

To make this happened we need money ;) (We can't survive without monthly salaries).

What should be my approach to pursue from here?

=>Should I make partial product (with include most potential features) during my weekends and then approach the VCs (Pros: Easy to approach VCs and customers. Cons: it will take longer time to start and also motivational factor)

OR

=>Should I create ppts with problem, solution and plan HTML for demos and approach to VCs once I get fund then start building it (Pros: I will be able to devote my full time into the product. Cons: Hard to approach VCs)

OR

=>Any suggestion is welcome (including about concept/solution)

OR

=>We can't do it because we require salaries (If any body did that please comment about you experience)

--Our Team--

Me: Pure Technical Guy My Friend: Pure technology business development guy

We both are working with some decent organization earning decent salaries.

First thing - congrats for even getting this far; most people don't.

Second - we can't tell you what to do; we can offer opinions though. Just keep in mind that our opinions, while well-intentioned, come from our own experiences and as such will be what we would do in that situation. We aren't you and so take what we say with a grain of salt.

Third - The demo approach is best in this situation IMO.

Fourth - Why are you asking us? Your partner/friend should really be handling this side of it IMO. If you trust him/her to be your partner then you should trust that person's experience and suggestions. I guess my question should be re-phrased as, "Why are you the one asking us and not your partner?" This is a biz dev question for sure.

>"Why are you the one asking us and not your partner?"

This question is from both of us as we both are in same shoe.

Good - that makes sense then.

Other thoughts:

#1 - things almost always take longer than you expect despite what others tell you. It takes 3-6 months to close a round of small financing. It will probably take 1-3 months to find the right people to pitch to. It probably takes a month to find good attorneys+auditors+etc.

#2 - Leave time between pitches so that you can tweak. You will learn something from each pitch and you want time to add features/slides to your pitch deck/presentation.

I'm not trying to dampen the experience; I'm just making sure you understand that building a business takes time. Good luck to you both!

Are VCs your only funding option?

I bootstrapped my company (with some help from the local bank, and a government small-business program)-- we hacked together some prototypes that were enough to show to potential customers, and with sufficient customer interest, there was money available (including enough for salaries). We broke even our first year, brought in outside investors after 6 years, and cashed out after 8.

if you're both earning decent salaries start saving.

You should absolutely be gusting a gut in evenings/weekends building your project.

Build a deck [venturehacks.com] and go to a local open coffee and target seed investors and blow them away.

It'll take you 6 months to raise money, so by then you'll have a product developed and hopefully a small buffer of cash.

The other alternate approach which works well for SAAS is to sell it before you make it. Find a company that'll buy and use your product [who do you work for? will they appreciate your product? sell it to them] and bootstrap off that.

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