

Ask HN: What to do when you have a demo of your start-up? - shahedkhan30

Hey,<p>I've been a bit curious for the past few days, as we're wrapping up our web demo of what key features our start-up will have, what will happen next?<p>I've been thinking about contacting some Angels near SF, but thought a bit mentorship would help out a lot, someone who's been through my stage.<p>I'm currently one of the two founders (both being business people), we have one designer/programmer on board as well, he's working temporarily until we receive funding.<p>So HN, What should I do next?
======
imjonathanlee
I think that a real-life demo is much more effective to knowing whether or not
the product works. If you're concerned with privacy- you can even have a quick
test run to see if close family members or friends like it.

It would be bad if there were bugs or small annoyances like bad UI when the
Angels or VCs are testing it.

If it's a prototype to simply show the idea and not anything close to a full
blown site- then go ahead and give it a try. Advice is always going to be
advice- it may or may not help, so believe in your product and decide what you
might want to do.

~~~
shahedkhan30
Awesome, would you like to give me some advice on my current product?

~~~
imjonathanlee
I would love to.

You can reach me at jonlee@socialhowl.com

------
draz
Review the following interview with PG: <http://tcrn.ch/js0Zzc> :-) good luck!

------
yesbabyyes
Get users!

~~~
shahedkhan30
You have to realize that we're not launching our demo, we have the demo as a
mini-preview to show to Angel Investors, in return for a early seed stage
funding cycle.

~~~
suneliot
is your demo a functioning demo? or is it a dummy demo purely for
demonstration?

the best way to get funding is to put your product in the hands of your users.
unless your idea is a out-of-this-world idea, you're likely going to need to
show the investors that your product is in high demand on the market and that
you've gained some sort of traction already.

~~~
shahedkhan30
It is a functioning demo, We don't quite want the idea to be released yet, so
we thought we would raise Seed Funding, and go into the beta stage, and launch
through that route.

------
petervandijck
Customer Development.

