

Funding streams for smaller niche start-ups? - mikehuffman

Hi HN. I find myself in a curious and frustrating situation. I figured that asking HN might produce some answers that would be helpful to me and others in my position.<p>Specifically, I like to know if anyone know of funding sources for what I feel is a guaranteed (I have made money for about a decade for doing something similar) start-up, but the revenues, although decent, will be comparativly mild. The details of the startup are less relevant than the problem that it presents, which is:<p>1) The product is very niche. You basically have to be in the industry to understand why it is needed.<p>2) There is practically no competition. This is due to the industry being historically "non-technical" and that, although it is has been around a while, it has only recently (last 4-5 years) experienced major growth. This has the effect of making advertising a little tricky.<p>3) There are perhaps 50,000 or less people in this industry. Of those, about 1/4 or less would be potential customers of my product. So if I had an amazing 50% penetration rate of my target audience, I would cap out at about 5,000 or less customers. More likely 500 to 1000 customers.<p>4) The typical customer will have money to spend, but due to the entire industry having a built-in cap of its own, I would expect only about $200,000 - $500,000 revenues a year with 0% chance of someone wanting to buy it out for $10 million, for example.<p>So, in short an extremely niche startup with little to no competition, but a built in revenue ceiling.<p>The reasons for funding is:<p>1) Although I have a MVP, it needs conversion to an multiuser web app vs. a standalone single user web application. I estimate this would take 3 - 6 months (too long for me to live on my meager savings)<p>2) Needs graphic design work throughout. This will be essential, as this is a b2b app and needs to make customers feel comfortable trying it out.<p>3) Again, because it is a b2b, I would not like to offer this to customers without knowing for sure that even in a worst case senerio, I would be able to make sure they all safely have their data back.<p>So HN, this doesn't seem to be a good candidate for kickstarter, venture funding outfits usually look for something a little more top end potential, and loan from friends, family, or bank is out of the question.<p>Any ideas?
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sagacity
May be, try here: <http://thejun.to/>

All the best.

