How to find a Sponsor/Investor

matthias s 0

Hey guys/girls! Say somebody has a great idea which almost certainly will be successful on the software market - how does he get to find a person/company that is willing to take the risk and finance the development? Thanks for any advise, Matthias

You'll never master any language, except maybe VB, because there's nothing to it. (Lounge/Christian Graus)

www.mattbart.org
Sonork ID: 100.32002

Stuart van Weele

In the US, you would first put together a business plan, and perhaps form a company. You then start submitting proposals for grants from various state and federal programs that are set up to promote start-ups. You also start going to the meetings, roundtables, and fairs where start-ups try to find a sugar daddy. It's a difficult and frustrating process. Teaming up with soneone that has already brought a start-up to market is your best bet of success. Here's a link for a business development center I've worked with: http://www.njit-edc.org/[^]

Andreas Saurwein

Matthias Steinbart wrote: how does he get to find a person/company that is willing to take the risk and finance the development By sheer luck. You cant avoid to do at least a working demo (may it be a powerpoint presentation) and a good business plan. With that you go begging to investors (yellowpages - invest...). They will offer you a pile of money in exchange for your company, everything it will bring in for the next 250 years and your first born. (In autumn they usually dont ask for the first born.) If you are convinced of the product, get a credit and do it yourself.

Shaken, stirred, or strained through a diaper, nothing can make a martini palatable. Roger Wright, Soapbox

Daniel Turini

I live in Brazil, so things may different for you. Matthias Steinbart wrote: Say somebody has a great idea which almost certainly will be successful on the software market Can you prove it? If you can, this is called a "business plan". Forget about proving it like "100 milion computers running Windows, if only 1% of them buy my US$ 100 software, I'll make US$ 100,000,000." Matthias Steinbart wrote: how does he get to find a person/company that is willing to take the risk and finance the development It'll be hard. Frustrating. You'll spend money. You'll spend lots of time. You'll work hard to find this money. And forget about ideas, no one will buy it. If they buy it, it will be very cheap. The .COM era is gone. A venture capitalist will be more inclined to investing in your company if you can prove you already have a profitable business which can generate lots more profit with their money. And which can't generate lots of money wihtout their money (after all, why would you need money if you have a so profitable business?) Essentially, what they look for is a scam, not a serious business. That's what I've learned through 6 months of chasing venture capitalists. If you have a (not so) rich dad/mom, you can ask them for funding, what is called "seed money". Build a prototype, or a simpler version of your software and start selling it.

It's not the fall that kills you: it's the sudden stop - Down by Law, Jim Jamursch (1986)

Lost User

There is a compromise depending on how much work your idea needs to become a product - work part time to keep your head above water and spend the remainder of the time on the product. This has the advantage that you are not udner someone elses control ! Elaine The tigress is here :-D

Reno Tiko

The first thing to do is to succinctly think out your idea. You have to know your market backwards and forwards, and also even more importantly who would be your competitors (and equally important who might possibly be a competitor later on). Write a one or two page marketing competitive advantage summary which touch upon the details above and your product/service's sustainable competitive advantage. Then go to your friends and family members first and ask them if they know of any entreprenuers that may be interested in what you're doing. You never know but some of them however unlikely may know of somebody. If they don't know of anybody then go to local business events. I don't know if First Tuesday (http://www.firsttuesday.com/[^]) meets anywhere where you're at, but that would be one good place to go to to try and find a partner. Forget about trying to get venture capital. Those guys will only work with people that have been referred to them that they know or if you already have a big reputation. You may, however, want to try angel investors by calling up rich families in the areas where you live but don't expect a whole lot of money from them. Also, you might just want to consider forgoing raising capital initially especially in this down economy and build a prototype first. After you have something that may work, then it may be easier to approach potential investors to help finance your idea. It may be hard to just ask for money with just an idea especially if they don't know you, so having a prototype to show would make it easier to sell your idea to potential backers. Good luck!

ColinDavies

Like other's have said. 1. Turn the idea into a prototype first. You would be surprised how hard ideas are too explain, but good prototypes explain themselves. If it was an app with menus needed add all the possible menus to the GUI (but they don't have to work) 2. Consider the vertical market first. Find prospective customers for your software who are known to have diverse investments. Possibly they will see the worth of your software and consider becoming involved. (I have seen this happen a couple of times) Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Rohit Sinha

Colin Davies wrote: Find prospective customers for your software who are known to have diverse investments. Possibly they will see the worth of your software and consider becoming involved. This is a very good idea indeed. Probably much better than looking for investors blindly. I am surprised how less it has come into practice. Probably people don't want to go all the way to develop their stuff before they find investment.
Regards,

Rohit Sinha

Character is like a tree, and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Abraham Lincoln

The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going.
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matthias s 0

I really appreceate them! Matthias

You'll never master any language, except maybe VB, because there's nothing to it. (Lounge/Christian Graus)

www.mattbart.org
Sonork ID: 100.32002