
VC's: Experienced 50 year old with good ideas. Will you talk to me? - random_user
For context:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6932327<p>I have a ton of business and tech experience. I&#x27;ve launched several garage businesses. One did really well but the economy, circumstances and a perennially under-funded state (hardware is capital intensive) killed it.  All were interesting experiences.<p>I&#x27;ve never raised any money. I self-funded everything I&#x27;ve ever done. The last one to the tune of over half a million dollars of my own money. I am no stranger to being all-in and putting it all on the line for something I believe in.<p>Circumstances are different now. Either I take my time and bootstrap from small to large projects or look for investors.<p>Sadly, I will not move to SV and I will not live on noodles.  Bummer.<p>I have identified two opportunities I think have merit.<p>The first is a pure software web&#x2F;mobile service.  As is often the case, it is a twist on existing product.  I believe the twist is what makes it very interesting, gives it wide appeal and could make it huge.  It can go global.  I have a 70 page deck covering just about every aspect of this venture.  No, it&#x27;s not a new Facebook.  It&#x27;s a B-to-B, C-to-C (and permutations thereof) service.<p>The second is a novel use of quadcopters. No regulatory issues I am aware of. Sizable world-wide appeal. This is definitely a case of first-mover advantage.  With proper funding and support, execution would be fast and painless.  This wouldn&#x27;t be a an R&amp;D project. This is a D project. Define, develop and go to manufacturing. Heard of &quot;live long and prosper&quot;? This one is &quot;move fast and conquer&quot;. Probably the Klingon version. I don&#x27;t have a deck on this one. It&#x27;s a recent discovery of mine and I&#x27;ve put zero time into developing a deck. With one video I can show anyone this is a good idea.<p>Looking for a low impedance bank account to help launch either or both of these.
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smartwater
Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors
traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones,
rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but
wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore.

I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of
business validation. An entrepreneurs job is to validate ideas, to find
something that sticks.

~~~
graycat
>Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters.

Bad ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas that are good and early on have solid
evidence that they are good are rare.

Here are some ideas that, just as ideas, should be valuable to VCs:

(1) An algorithm that shows that P = NP and is fast. Why? Because it could
commonly save 5-15% of costs in transportation, logistics, Internet backbone
design, manufacturing, and allocation of resources more generally.

(2) A computer operating system that is nearly 100% compatible with Windows
and can run any software safely, even _malware_.

(3) An algorithm that can implement the _fundamental theorem of arithmetic_ ,
that is, factor integers of thousands of digits into a product of prime
numbers quickly.

> but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore.

Not exactly true in all cases, but there is a major point here. E.g., recently
I added the cost of high quality parts for a server in a mid-tower case -- 8
core processor at 4.0 GHz, 32 GB of ECC main memory, 10+ TB of hard disk --
~$1500. Can get a wire rack shelf unit from Sam's Club, 18" x 48" x 72", and
could put about 12 of those servers on a rack. That's a LOT of computing. If
have a Web site that can keep that computing busy and send with the Web pages
ads at, net, $2 per 1000 ads sent, can support a family in style:

Suppose can send a Web page for 400,000 bits, have 4 ads per page, half fill
upload bandwidth of 15 Mbps 24 x 7, and get paid $2 per 1000 ads displayed.
Then get monthly revenue of

2 * 4 * 15 * 10 __6 * 3600 * 24 * 30 / ( 2 * 400,000 * 1000 ) = 388,800

dollars. A year of that and have as cash as much as many series A equity
rounds.

~~~
Cardeck1
I agree. The reason people think ideas are "a dime a dozen" is because
everyone overrates their ideas and you can't really measure the value of an
idea unless it's executed. However, I must admit that after years of
experience I must say the statement is not really true. 80% of the ideas suck.
Plain and simple.

It doesn't matter if you are in the Valley or if you are super smart, some
people are not made to create/innovate, only execute based on someone's idea.
But those people who are able to create are an exception.

Have you ever met someone without a degree or any experience, looking at your
product and telling you 100 ways to improve it?I met a guy/wonderkid or
whatever that was able to do just that, and he is working for a hedge fund now
as far as I know. It took him 20 min to give us an entire improvement plan on
how to increase revenue without any papers or anything prepared.We had even
backup plans and future competitor moves. He basically humiliated my A+
employee stars who were struggling for months.I was shocked.

~~~
graycat
> you can't really measure the value of an idea unless it's executed

Well, thankfully for US national security, the US DoD has been doing just this
with batting average much higher than for VCs for 70+ years. Examples include
the proximity fuse, sonar, radar, the atomic bomb, the U-2, the SR-71, GPS,
and more -- all of these were funded just from proposals just on paper,
without any 'execution', and came out fine.

For projects by entrepreneurs, my guess to do something similar is (1) pick a
big problem, one where clearly a new and good or much better solution will be
warmly embraced by the market, (2) do some research, original, powerful,
valuable, to get the desired solution and a high barrier to entry. (3) Do (1)
and (2) so that the solution can be delivered by software in a Web server
costing $2000-. Then go live, get the revenue, grow the server capacity, etc.
It's what I'm trying to do. Current obstacle: Windows and trying to use XCACLS
and CACLS to delete a file system directory that doesn't want to be deleted.
Previous obstacle: Poor Microsoft documentation for the differences between
GUIDs and SqlGuids and how to convert between them. Previous obstacle: A virus
from the security problems with Flash and the fact that Windows doesn't know
how to run malware safely. Previous obstacle: The fact that Microsoft's
ASP.NET is much easier to work with when inserting Namespaces, DLLs, and
source code than Visual Basic .NET. Previous obstacles: A long list more from
Microsoft. The work uniquely mine has all been fast, fun, easy, without
delays. But I'm getting past the Microsoft nonsense.

Problem sponsors at DoD, DARPA, and NSF are used to being able to evaluate
projects just on paper with high batting average. Apparently VCs don't want to
do any such things.

> 80%

All the percentages on what arrives in a VC's in-box don't mean much because
what a VC has to find are exceptional projects; that is, what the average
project is, or what most of the projects are, is not very relevant -- again
because what's required are exceptional projects. How exceptional? There has
been a claim by A16H that there are only about 15 projects a year worth a
Series A. If VCs would learn to read as well as, say, NSF problem sponsors,
then there might be a few more, not a lot yet, but a few.

A problem of information technology entrepreneur project 'ideas' is that they
are usually just a short description of what the product/service does, a
description like might be given to a prospective customer/user. So, with such
an 'idea' and description, usually there is no good way to evaluate it. E.g.,
how the heck, early on, to evaluate Twitter? Twitter fails my (1) about
solving a big problem. Since it was not clear that Twitter would solve a big
problem, it was difficult to evaluate.

What is wanted for (1), for an extreme example, is, say, a safe, effective,
cheap one pill cure for any cancer -- there we don't have to wait for
'traction'.

As in my (1), a 'good' information technology project should have significant
value as easy to see. And as for such a pill, want to stand on some research
for an especially powerful, valuable solution with barrier to entry. The VCs
just are not thinking this way.

It is quite possible for a person to be bright without education. If the field
they are working in, e.g., computing, doesn't really require a lot of formal
education, then a person can be bright and good in that field without formal
education. But, doing really well in a Ph.D. program in a top research
university tends to confirm that someone is 'bright'!

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mathattack
I am not a VC, so take this with a grain of salt...

I know some VCs who are happy to fund 50 year olds with track records and
traction. That said, there is a lot of negativity here.

1 - By stating you age you are already implying defeat by age discrimination.

2 - You mention a lot of things that aren't your fault with the one that did
"Really well." All of these things are probably true, but they do sound like
excuses.

3 - Saying "I will not move to SV and I will not live on noodles" again oozes
negativity. A VC will say, "Why will I suck it up if they won't?" There may be
a much more positive way to say what you're trying to say.

4 - "Looking for a low impedance bank account" sounds a lot like "Looking for
a sucker."

I may be completely be off base. You probably have great ideas, and are very
committed. It's just not coming off that way. Again, this is coming from an
observer, and not a VC. I sincerely hope you find a way to pull this off.

------
sharemywin
Start a blog on both your ideas. with a way for people to sign up with email.
check out twitter and follow people that might be potential customers. next
look at a kickstart campaign for the quadcopter idea. For the mobile here's a
way for you to build your app. check out
[http://www.coronalabs.com/](http://www.coronalabs.com/): it's $16/mo. you can
build a mvp to field test your assumptions.

~~~
sharemywin
...and/or start finding angel investors at least 100 of them and pitch. if
they don't bite find out the one thing that the 1first one is most hesitant
about. fix it. my guess is though if you haven't commited any of your own
money/time its' going to be harder. also try the same process for potential
customers. or find someone that's willing to work with you to sell.

~~~
random_user
Here's the problem with that approach: It takes a long time and you are
invariably going to talk to a lot of people who have money and nothing else to
contribute. The only type of money you want as an entrepreneur is smart money.
Just because someone is a VC it doesn't automatically mean they have value
beyond what they might be able to contribute financially. Not a put-down. It's
just a fact.

If I assume that, on average, each of the 100 VC pitches you are suggesting
require, say, five hours of work that means 500 hours would be devoted to this
effort. The truth is likely a much larger number. If I have to take that
approach I would much rather bootstrap by using some of the smaller
opportunities I've identified (Kicstarter being an interesting domain for such
projects) and work my way up to the larger projects.

I am serious about business. I'd rather talk to five well-qualified people
than engage in endless dances with those who will only waste your time. I am
not saying this out of an enlarged ego. I am saying this out of experience.

How do you know which category they fall into? Well, experience in business is
a big part of that.

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robodale
Ditto. Send me money.

~~~
random_user
Money comes with side effects and it also comes in various grades. At the
extremes you'll find smart money and dumb money. The latter is the most
dangerous.

Not all money is created equal.

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random_user2
what's the best way to contact you?

~~~
random_user
Email address now in my profile. Here it is:

hn.rocks@yahoo.com

I'd appreciate contact with identifying information such a LinkedIn profile.
I'll reply in kind, of course.

