
Profitable with $0 seed funding? - alfiejohn
http://www.share-house.com.au/ramblings/by-the-numbers.html
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joe
This is particularly interesting because I find myself in somewhat the same
situation. I've been working on a startup idea (<http://www.scriggle-it.com/>)
with a team that's never taken (or sought) VC funding. The only investment
we've put in has been time, and expenses paid for out-of-pocket, for things
like the domain name, hosting, SSL certificate, payment processing gateway,
and the like.

I'm our sysadmin and backend programmer, and then another guy does graphics
and site design, and we have an ideas/customer relations/PR-type guy. We've
also got a guy working when he can on a Java-based client-side application
that syncs with our site. We launched the site last October and have netted a
few thousand dollars in profit, thus far. We're still totally committed to our
idea, and it's occurred to us that seeking/taking VC funding might be a smart
next step. It would keep me from having to work a second, "real" job, and
allow us to hire a friend of mine, who's a top-notch coder but is married and
can't quit his current (barista) job unless it's profitable for him to do so.
Furthermore, we're trying to expand into in the cell/SMS arena, and VC funding
would allow us to pay for a short code, an SMS gateway, etc.

Having no VC experience, however, we're wondering whether venture capitalists
would even consider us, what their terms would be, what VC "stage" we would
apply for, etc. Any comments, suggestions, or feedback would be greatly
appreciated.

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thomasswift
I really dig your site.

~~~
joe
Why thank you. =)

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ivankirigin
This is interesting but completely discounts the social aspect of investment.

I don't know much about it, but my guess is that a good angel or VC will make
serious efforts to get your business to the next level. They'll undoubtedly
know people you won't. They also are free to say no, meaning they can give
criticism without rose colored glasses.

