I've talked to some of them regarding funding a site I've made, but all want to see..... the magic word..... TRACTION.
i.e. the idea's mine, the hard work is mine, the copy is mine, the marketing is mine, THEY come in and fund a RUNNING BUSINESS, and make money simply because they had some to spare.

I would feel so USED if I let them take equity.

Isn't there a VC who will take me on when I'm *struggling*, and stay with the idea from *chrysalis* to multimillion dollar company, or is that too much to ask?

Inviting talk from all over the world, not just the US and India.

Maybe you are looking for an "incubator"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_incubator

Bro', after much struggling, today I talked to the *second* VC that I know of, in my city. There's no "incubators" round HERE, methinks!

In the US, the kind of investor your talking about are called "angels". They are usually individuals who have had some significant business success in the past and operate at an earlier stage than VC do. At least in my experience, the VC aren't interested in an early startup, they want something that has a track record and is worth their time to take over. And take over they will. I have yet to see a VC not insist on both a serious percentage of the business and day-to-day control.

You really want avoid the VCs and see if you can't talk to more normal people who just happen to have money and like startups.

So? That's what the people with the money expect, because it is a deal (apparently) on offer all over the place. You expect them to go for an apparently worse deal? How do you think that they got this all-powerful money stuff?

So, you don't really want a VC. A VC will want to take a position that, based on your business plan, can give them ax x10 return on capital, and if you can't give them that, they won't bother. The arithmetic of the VC position is:

• 3 or 4 out of ten of their investment will go bust, and will lose most of their value
• 1 or 2 won't really achieve the numbers in the business plan, or get anywhere close to x10, but will return something like the original investment
• only the rest (between 4 and 6, on those numbers...better if it is 6) really achieve anything like the predicted numbers, and they have to pay out, big time, in order to finance the rest of the ten, and still give a healthy (or, extortionate, if you prefer that word) return. Hence x10.

To do that, they take an equity position in a number of enterprises and hope for the numbers to come good. Investing in an enterprise that 'only' promises an x2 return, even if it achieves the numbers in the plan, won't work, because it won't pay for the loss and achieve an increase in Net Present Value. Equally, it has to have the potential to grow into a significant business, otherwise it just doesn't repay their overheads.

Well, it isn't too much to ask, if you are giving them the equity position that they want and promise (and have the likelihood of delivering) the returns that they want. Otherwise, it is to much to ask.

You talk like a war-hardened veteran Salasi, and then..... you refer to it as "this... money STUFF?!!"
You're a cuddly fuzzy huggy bear Salasi, I like you!

If everything is done, what do you need money for?

Simply put, a VC has to get something in return for letting you use his cash. What's the point otherwise? Bear in mind that he can take his cash to the bank and get a guaranteed 6% return (at least here in Australia at the moment, he can).
If you need the cash purely for working capital, why don't you ask your bank for an overdraft facility?

No No, everything is not done, I was just talking about what a *VC* does!

....and - even if all the coding etc. was complete, money would be needed for marketing - i.e. ads in print, on TV etc.

I think that every IIT has a division for incubating good ideas and will give you a place in a their setup.

Real start up funding in India is for non IT businesses. Those that come to mind are "catamaran trust" of Mr Narayanamurthy, a few trusts run by NDTV, etc.

OK.

....I've not studied at an IIT - even me? ....and I dislike them quite intensely - didn't you see 3 Idiots?

Seriously, not having studied there doesn't bar you.

No I read the book by Chetan Bhagat a long time back. The film was a glorification of Aamir Khan the actor.

Seriously, what has it got to do with I said?

If you are serious, you should be able to find VCs - and in this age, they need not be Indian.

OK

Chetan Bhagat was in my city yesterday, and there's interviews with him in the 2 papers we take, and I just *didn't* go, and I was feeling really bad, but then.... I also read that he got mobbed for autographs, so I wouldn't have got any alone-time with him, which was what I wanted, so...


Any tips on how to GET the non-Indian VCs? When I built my last site, I do remember searching for "Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists", and sending a couple of emails, but nothing happened.... not surprising, they probably get a million nutcases emailing them every day....
So - any tips?

I don't know if I should bother to be honest here, but ... just from briefly reading the small handful of paragraphs that you have posted here, I know why you haven't (and won't) get either funding or the time-of-day from much of anybody.

The world is full of "good ideas," and your idea, no matter what it is, is not new, and probably is not so wonderful as you suppose that it is. Yet, you seem startled that people are not pounding at your door to give you their money, but on your terms.

Heh.

You know what they say about a fool and his money. Well, they've got money, so we must conclude that they're not fools . . . .

. . . .

. . . . "his" money.

. . . . "a" fool.

. . . .

. . . .

the end

I'm curious - what about what I posted brought you to this conclusion?


They're going to get a part of me. You can't put a price on that.

Utter rubbish. I can think of *millions* of wealthy people who are cows.
And, I can also think of highly intelligent folks who don't have a lot of money, such as Richard Stallman.

I think you haven't grasped the entire philosophy that Linux brings with it, you're used to the old world order. Get off this forum.