
Ask HN: How do you raise your first round if you can't afford to demo your idea? - newyearnewyou
I have an idea, which is expensive to concept $150K (it&#x27;s a medical hardware product).<p>My background is pretty average, nothing extraordinary, and I don&#x27;t have a team, but if I can demo the product, I know it will work.
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busymichael
Are you in the industry for your product? Is there anyone in the same industry
who knows you and you could convince there is a market for your product?
Someone to be your co-founder and help you create your demo?

What about just proving the market exists? Can you get surveys, interviews,
testimonials from buyers in the industry that they need this product and would
by $X for it? That would go a long way to convincing someone to get you
funding to demo.

Can you MVP a simpler version? Something that only costs $50k instead of $150k
but proves out 80% of the functionality?

As a founder, you will face this type of problem constantly. You will always
be short of time, money or talent (or some combination of all 3) while trying
to make your goals. When someone invests in your idea, they are as much
investing in you and your ability to navigate these challenges.

Bringing a real MVP to market and making those first few sales is a huge proof
of concept for YOU as a Founder. Investors need to see that.

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davismwfl
I work at a medical startup that produces hardware and software. I can tell
you nothing in medical is easy or inexpensive.

If you are really motivated you can start with simple off the shelf components
and show people the vision, get them on board. It doesn't have to look
perfect, just be communicative and demonstrable in some form. While I agree in
theory with some other comments about getting some high net worth Dr's etc to
maybe fund the initial work, this is a lot easier said than done. Hospitals in
the U.S. are even harder and generally won't talk to you unless you already
have product in hand and can prove you meet their security requirements etc.
The U.S. medical market is tough for a multitude of reasons, it is also ripe
for innovation, so it is worth it, just not easy.

I will say this too, without something to show/demo in some form (even partial
functionality), you will likely not succeed in raising money. It sounds like
from your very brief description of yourself you are an "unknown" entity so
you will struggle to raise the funds unless you have an amazing network. I am
not criticizing you, it is just the way the system works. You can still do it,
just expect many "no"'s from people and don't get discouraged, eventually you
will find a yes.

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tinktank
Usually, the way to do this is to get a bunch of friends and families and
raise a "seed" round that will convert at Series A. It's common to offer seed
investors a discount to make it worth their while. I'm interested in
investing, let me know what you're doing via private comment

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muzani
There are lots of niche medical investors, as well as government grants. You
can try to pitch to those. They'll also understand and be able to criticize
the idea better.

You can sell it to a hospital before you build it. Pitch the product, get
feedback, then build. If the problem is big enough, they'll pay you in
advance.

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iKSv2
Also, in rare cases, depending on your pitch and network, if the customer
(hospital in this case) is impressed and gives you the order, you can ask for
a token amount which can help you get off the ground and work towards the
product in discussion.

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chatmasta
I wouldn’t call this a rare case. It’s a pretty common strategy in enterprise
b2b startups. You develop a PoC that solves a real problem for customers with
real money, and they’ll pay you to be one of the first customers if you can
implement their feature requests.

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parsnips
I would find a few doctors who want to play investor and pitch the idea to
them. If they grok, money may follow to poc.

