Best website to look for investor

DeadlyByDesign

Hi Guys

I am now about 6 months into working on an idea for an app. Have gotten a working flow of it, have been to a development company and have gotten the final figures as to how much it would cost.

Can anyone advise where the best place to go looking for an investor would be? Is it enterprise ireland or anywhere else as good?

ironclaw

Have you invested any money yourself? Investors want to see some skin in the game, I certainly wouldn't back an idea that isn't generating any revenue or even at a PoC stage. Where exactly are you? Wireframes or working code?

In the earlier instance, you'd be looking for a very rare form of investor, someone who is willing to back an idea that would want to have some serious momentum behind it. A game changer with the right people that has a very clear run to market and is likely to be run away success.

If it was me, I'd get the idea built by a group of Comp. Sci. college students on your own cash and get it off the ground. Validate it and then go looking for investment. Its far easier to attract interest when you have some figures and milestones to show. Otherwise its just another idea that may or may not work, and the stark reality is most aren't going to. Execution is key, not necessarily the idea itself.

Dades

What your looking for a seed capital, that is cash for a business that hasn't even started trading.

The most likely sources of seed capital are yourself, friends, family - or if you're lucky - an angel investor. An angel investor is basically someone with money willing to take a punt, usually for an equity stake (think Dragon's Den type individuals).

There are a few angel investor networks to be found on the web to contact. Their gatekeepers will assess any business plan you have and decide if your idea has legs enough to show to their members. It'll be very hard unless you've skin in the game, as mentioned, and a trading history.

The reality is finding an investor has more to do with contacts, word of mouth, favours and luck, as knowing what site to visit.

If you find one, let me know.

DeadlyByDesign

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys, its much appreciated

Buttercake

An angel investor wont entertain you unless

1) You are an Enterprise Ireland client (they use this as vetting)
2) you have 100,000-1,000,000 users for your product OR you can show that you will achieve this very quickly.

You should try the NDRC which is one of the best in the world for accelerator programmes, they have plenty of programmes for seed/pre-seed

Dublin BIC offer a programme to develop a investor ready business plan

Enterprise Ireland for their CSF or if you are a women, they will jump up and down to get you investment there are many female only progarmmes with EI.

Dont use the irishinvestmentnetwork theres no vetting for the "investors" on it, most of which are dev ops companies in asia or business students here looking for biz plans.

PARlance

Buttercake wrote: »

An angel investor wont entertain you unless

1) You are an Enterprise Ireland client (they use this as vetting)
2) you have 100,000-1,000,000 users for your product OR you can show that you will achieve this very quickly.

An angel investor generally comes in with seed investment (people have started to use the term Seed Investors now even though it used to just relate to the capital itself). Angel / Seed don't need either of the above. In order to get to those stages, most companies will have had the help of an Angel.

Dades

Agree with going through the whole Enterprise Ireland thing. It's laborious and you won't get any money from them (apart from maybe a small loan) but investors do like that you've been vetted by them.

Have a look here.

DeadlyByDesign

Thanks again guys this is all good stuff. Just eager to get a foothold somewhere. dev costs for it are going to be 70k+ but I believe the idea has legs

pedroeibar1

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

....... but I believe the idea has legs

So do most investors. Really, you need to be further down the road before you are ready to approach anyone and advice to the contrary is not helpful to you. You must have money invested in it, otherwise you are just one of hundreds of those with great ideas that will work only with other people's cash.

ironclaw

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Thanks again guys this is all good stuff. Just eager to get a foothold somewhere. dev costs for it are going to be 70k+ but I believe the idea has legs

Whatever you are trying to build, you can get it built for 10% of that to get it to the point of a PoC. You don't go out and build an F1 car in one go, you develop each component piece by piece until you have a complete rig.

You didn't mention the tech you are using but if its a true mobile App, you could cut you dev costs by working with one software platform to start with e.g. iOS or, develop the App as a WebApp e.g. Apache Cordova so you can port it quickly. In terms of manhours, I'm not joking when I say you could easily put out a word in the nearest Comp Sci department and get some students on board.

Finally, you didn't mention your technical background but if you don't have one, I'd find someone who does very quickly. There is nothing more dangerous than asking someone to build something you don't ultimately understand. You don't have to understand line by line but you would need to have an understanding at the high level and the effort required. Likewise you would want very strict user stories and sprints with achievable milestones. I've seen projects be quoted for 10s of 1000s when its just reusing basic code and stock projects, and furthermore running wayyyy over time and budget as the development team either bit off more than they could chew or the initial scope was terrible.

gargargar

You could talk to these guys. AFAIK they will built and partner with you if they think the idea is good enough. At a minimum you would get another take on how good the idea is.

Dades

Just noted that you haven't mentioned a business plan. Maybe you have a really good one already, but if you don't, forget everything else until you do.

EI have template business plans for you to follow (and given you'll be dealing with them you should probably use one). Business plans are structured, require hard work and require financial projections that really need to be looked at by someone with experience with accounting before being shown about.

Without a watertight business plan to accompany whatever site/wireframes etc you have, you're not ready to approach an investor. But EI can help you down this road too.

Buttercake

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Thanks again guys this is all good stuff. Just eager to get a foothold somewhere. dev costs for it are going to be 70k+ but I believe the idea has legs

Is that 70k in Ireland? or can you get it done offshore? even to MVP?

DeadlyByDesign

70k in ireland yeh.

I have first draft of business plan done, but it needs to be revised after recent developments regarding costings etc, and some functionality ill may have to leave out.

Dades

You can still mention future functionality or features in the business plan as part of your roadmap.

DeadlyByDesign

Great idea Dades. I had thought to keep it on the back burner

Axwell

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

70k in ireland yeh.

I have first draft of business plan done, but it needs to be revised after recent developments regarding costings etc, and some functionality ill may have to leave out.

Have you got 3 quotes? I wouldnt be just getting one quote and going with those figures - have 3 quotes lined up so you can show you have been doing the ground work. The business plan is vital whether its funding through an accelerator programme or an investor and ideally if you have some sort of techinical specification document from the developers that should be part of the business plan as Dades suggested but the more ground work you can show the better position it puts you in.

Buttercake

Here is a good funding diagram from a German VC company, its for saas but it might be applicable to OP

odeamarcas

I've worked on initial business plans for those approaching EI with technology projects. Everything the guys mentioned above in relation to the plan is relevant. It's essential that your plan (including subscriptions & financial projections) is well prepared and presented, with LOGIC behind the sums! Otherwise, you won't even get by the gatekeepers. The competition for feasibility, competitive start up & HPSU funding has never been as aggressive as during the past twelve months. PM me if you'd like me to have a look at your plan for you.

Axwell

If you are going for any of the funding mentioned my odeamarcas then your team and the strenth of that is key, if its just you and developers then you have gaps in your team and they will ask you how you are going to fill those. The doc Buttercake posts has parts of it mentioned in terms of the different section but the makeup of your team will be looked at, have you a numbers person, a tech person, a marketing person etc. I have been involved with startups going for both CSF and Launchpad in the NDRC and if you go that route you will get grilled and marked down if there are big gaps in the team.

Cianos

OP, check out www.marvelapp.com - it's a brilliant prototype tool. If you don't yet have a prototype of the app I'd strongly recommend getting something even very basic up on marvelapp. It'll make it way easier to deal with developers, but most importantly will give you an accurate feel for how the app will work, will allow you to show it to friends/family to gauge whether they 'get' the concept, etc.