

Cumulonimbus is looking for funding, unsuccessfully. How can we move faster? - cryptoz

Hello,<p>We build pressureNET, the Android barometer network that collects atmosphere data from onboard sensors. We're growing our active user base 40% monthly and are currently receiving about 250,000 measurements per day. Our plan is to grow rapidly and use our data in new methods of weather forecasting, specifically severe weather in the USA. You can view our data visualization and learn more about the project at http://pressurenet.cumulonimbus.ca<p>We've been looking for funding for 1.5 years and have been unsuccessful so far. Our efforts were minimal at first but we've recently accelerated our funding application process and are now waiting on 3 VCs / incubators to get back to us. None have, and one of them has taken two months almost since they initially contacted us. No progress has yet been made in our conversations.<p>How long does this process normally take? Why are investors who emailed us now ignoring us? How many VCs / funding agencies should we be applying to?<p>I just left my day job to work on this and so finding funding is very important. We plan to apply to three funding sources per week, every week. Will that be enough?<p>Edit: To be clear, I have extremely high confidence that we will find funding. It's obvious to me that we need it and that others will be excited by us and want to invest. But since we want to gather springtime and summertime thunderstorm data in the USA, we're running out of time fast.<p>Thanks.<p>Jacob
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staunch
Give up on this idea. This project is cool, really cool, but it is not a
venture backed startup project. Not unless you can prove it makes serious
money, or pivot it into something that does. Do not spend another 1.5 years
working on this. Give yourself a deadline, of N months, and if you can't make
it ramen profitable or raise funding just move on to something else.

If you do give up on this, use the skills you gained on it for your next
project. Maybe you learned how to make a successful Android app? How did you
do that? Do it again with something that makes money, even if it's only enough
to support yourself.

P.S. I mean this in a positive, helpful, and sincere way.

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ISL
From a scientific perspective, PressureNET is very cool. If I had more time,
it'd be fun to play with the dataset, particularly to tease precision results
from the necessarily messy dataset.

It's not immediately obvious how it will make money, which is ultimately what
any investor will care about. Is the plan to sell data to NWS? Weather
Channel? Agribusiness forecasters? Who? (needn't tell HN, but you will need to
tell your prospective investors)

Everyone wants better forecasts, but few people want to pay for them. What's
PressureNET's killer app?

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argonaut
> We're growing our active user base 40% monthly and are currently receiving
> about 250,000 measurements per day

I think it's a stretch to call these people "users," in any sort of monetary-
potential way. Nonetheless, definitely use that number in any pitches you
give.

> 1.5 years

That is a big red flag, and I hope you never mention that to investors.

> are now waiting on 3 VCs / incubators to get back to us

This is fairly standard in the VC community. "Yes" means maybe, and "maybe"
means "no." And "no" means "hell no." VCs are notorious for saying no very
politely and in a way that doesn't burn bridges, while leaving you hanging.

> We plan to apply to three funding sources per week, every week. Will that be
> enough?

Clearly that is not enough. You need to be out networking.

> To be clear, I have extremely high confidence that we will find funding.
> It's obvious to me that we need it and that others will be excited by us and
> want to invest. But since we want to gather springtime and summertime
> thunderstorm data in the USA, we're running out of time fast.

I want to be brutally honest with you. I have a fairly high confidence _you
won't_ find funding. Looking at this from a VC perspective, the only way you
are going to make money, it seems, is selling the data to weather companies.
That's not exactly a huge business. Most VCs do not know _anything_ about the
weather/meteorological business. Even if a VC thought your idea was
interesting, they would not invest because they don't have domain experience.
VCs are very conservative. VCs want to minimize risks (paradoxically). Why do
you feel others will be excited by what you do? Why do you feel _it's obvious_
that others will be excited? Because it's not obvious to me. I don't want to
seem pessimistic, but why would I feel excited about this? I check the weather
maybe once a week, to figure out if it'll rain in the next few days. That's
it.

I agree with staunch. Give yourself a deadline (6 months?) for either finding
funding or becoming ramen profitable, and if you don't make it, pivot or shut
down. Applying through online forms is _the worst_ way to apply. Those forms
get passed to Associates, who have no power to make the deal happen (only
Partners have that power). Even cold-emailing partners at VC firms is a better
path than that path. You _need_ introductions. Go out and network. Go to
meetups. Maybe even come down to the Bay Area and try to meet people and pitch
what you're doing. The startup investing climate down here is much warmer (for
better or for worse) than any other place in the world.

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maxbrown
How are you applying? Maybe this goes without saying, but it's not nearly
enough to go on a VCs website and fill out a form. Having managed dealflow for
a while at a VC before, I can tell you that they will often mostly ignore the
applications from their webform because there's so much noise/junk from it.

Find a way to get an intro. Talk with people at their portfolio companies.
Meet with non-VCs in your space that likely have VC connections, make them
advisors in some capacity, and ask them who they can introduce you to. Send
them something exciting, that they'll talk about. You have to find a way to
make yourself a qualified lead, or at least interesting.

If you're getting the meetings, but no interest, that's a different issue.

~~~
cryptoz
That's excellent advice, thank you. Yes, we're primarily applying by filling
out forms on websites. I'm glad I asked, since I was planning on keeping this
up as my primary task. I do have a few connections that know VCs in Toronto
and Vancouver and we've spoken a bit already, but we haven't pursued those
options completely yet. We'll look for introductions and to keep the
conversations going. Thanks!

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ig1
Read the Venture Hacks book (it's $9 from <http://venturehacks.com/> or you
can get it from amazon, etc.) as it gives you a lot of the basic advice on
pitching VCs.

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tectonic
A very cool idea with interesting science applications. Maybe you can partner
with a university or the government as a data source?

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sharemywin
maybe you should look at indigo or kickstarter. maybe there a $5,$10,$25
things you can offer to contributors.

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orangethirty
How do you plan to profit?

