
Ask HN: Problem validated – how to raise angel investment? - tixocloud
Hi all,<p>I&#x27;m working on building a platform for data scientists. Having validated the problem with several people, I&#x27;d like to raise some funds to work on customer and product development full-time.<p>Does anyone have any experience raising funds at this early stage?<p>Thanks in advance.
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binbag
Hi, yes I have done this in the UK but for
electronics/photonics/instrumentation company, not software/data company. A
good first step is to find someone who has done this before and convince them
(using the value of your early idea) to mentor you through writing a solid
business plan and pitch.

The process you need to go through is to construct a plan that:

maps out your strategic objectives for the next 3-5 years;

identifies what assets and resources you need, and when you need them, to
achieve these goals;

lays out a financial budget for that (this being a model that gets
increasingly less certain and accurate as time goes on);

considers how this budget will be funded;

identifies the likely points and sources of first commercial income;

discusses how the business scales to become a full commercial concern, and
what its value may ultimately be;

provides supporting evidence for the assumptions you make in the plan.

Good luck. Where are you based?

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tixocloud
Thanks. I do have somewhat of a pitch deck and a plan but being relatively new
to the UK, I'm not too sure who to connect with.

I've mostly been trying to cold call my way in - effective but also not sure
if I'm connecting with the right people who are in it for the right reasons.
One person said they can help fundraise but require a £950 retainer fee and
4.5% of funds raise after.

I'm based in Edinburgh. How about yourself?

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binbag
I don't advise you start paying someone to help. I had the advantage of
spinning technology out from a university, so I had IP and some connections
into 'angel investor' groups. Some angels will offer mentoring to people
pursuing promising ideas a) for fun and b) for a chance to be offered some
shares later. There are quite a lot of angel syndicates in the UK which you
could pitch to. I'm based in Glasgow, but in Edinburgh there are quite a few -
Equity Gap and Par Equity are pretty active. You could try approaching them. A
smaller one in Glasgow is Gabriel Investment Syndicate. Do you have an idea of
how much you need?

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tixocloud
Thanks. Yes, I felt quite skeptical about the whole setup of requesting a
retainer before fundraising.

How do I pitch to these angel syndicates?

Neat. My work is based in Glasgow - I'm seeking roughly £70k to give me a
runway for about a year. I'm trying to connect with the various incubators to
see if they're able to help as well.

Thanks for your advice.

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binbag
Send me an email to fankle@pm.me and we can discuss how to do it. I can
introduce you to various people and also tell you about government funding
that may have less strings attached.

