

Ask HN: I've users + growing who want more. I need capitol, what do I do? - voidfiles

I am running a free site, that could do ads at some point. But my users are asking for an iOS app. They say they would pay for it as well. The problem is the website is easy, well I mean all it took was sweat capitol.<p>The iOS app would require investment in some more serious hardware. I don't need alot, I just need cover server cost.<p>I haven't ever worked on something that needed capitol investment, and I don't know where the best place is to ask, or even start looking.
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petervandijck
Don't spend 10,000$ on a server for 2 years, spend 300$ on an AWS server (the
big one) for the first month, and from then on you're getting cash in (as you
mentioned), thus paying for future months. Solved.

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ScottWhigham
If you can't get a loan for $1000 (as mentioned in comments elsewhere), what
makes you think that an investor is willing to give you $10000+? Even as a
poor college student with little job history and no paying job I could easily
apply for and get credit cards with $500 available. If you can't get even
$1000 then I'm assuming there is negative information on your credit report
then. If that's the case, it will follow you to investment as well (most
likely).

And as for wanting an investor who will give you advice, let me just suggest
that you not do any of this. Your questions/comments sound very naive right
now. Getting involved with investors is serious business. There are lots of
people who will take a piece of your business in exchange for advice. That
doesn't mean that it is smart for you to do that.

My suggestion is that you research more about what is involved in taking on
and seeking investors. There are many dangers in these waters, not the least
of which is spending so much time learning/seeking investment that you let
your business slide.

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hapless
You don't need a capital infusion.

Commodity servers are very easy to lease/finance. I know Dell and HP make
credit very widely available. The server hardware lease will probably cost you
less than than the lease on the colo/rackspace it occupies!

That said, at your scale, no one is going to give you credit on a business
account. You will need to apply for credit in your own name.

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voidfiles
I have no credit history, not even student loans. I can't even get $1000
dollar car loan.

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lincolnq
Well, that's something you may want to work on fixing, but probably not for
this project. (Secured credit card is pretty much where you have to start for
that)

As for the website, how much capital are you talking about and why do you need
it for the iPhone app specifically?

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voidfiles
Roughly $10,000 would get the server I need for 2 years barring any major
surge in users or traffic. The reason why I need a server is because I'm going
to be transcoding video. If it is a commodity server then it still needs to be
a big one.

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rlpb
I make it about $6000 to run an extra large high CPU (8 virtual core) EC2
instance 24/7 for a year, and you won't need a large capital outlay. Would
this work for you?

Alternatively with a $2000 up-front payment Amazon will give you the same
thing for $4000 total.

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voidfiles
That's interesting, I haven't done the math for all the different VPS
providers / EC2, but yea that is what I am looking for just a beefy box to do
some transcoding.

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protomyth
Can you go into a little more detail on the "The iOS app would require
investment in some more serious hardware. I don't need alot, I just need cover
server cost." part. I am a little unsure about the server <-> iOS app
connection.

~~~
voidfiles
If you look at a previous comment, I'm transcoding video for iOS devices.

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il
Can't you use credit cards?

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voidfiles
Nope, can't get a credit card. I would also like to work with an investor who
has advice to give, not just money.

