Ask HN: Is it Good to approach My Employer as Investor?

[mcnemesis]

Am stuck. In my country - Uganda, Tech-Startups are a very virgin thing, and most potential investors are reluctant to move.

I currently work for some manufacturer as the programmer in their IT section, but I have my own business ideas, and I want to develop my prototypes into real products, with my own Company. But I've still failed to find an investor in tech, should I table the interest before my current employer? Would it be a good move?

This dude has money and other resources, but though I could continue to work earn from salary, the pay is not so good plus i want ownership and freedom.

And if am to approach him, should it be for VC or Angel Investor?

[mindcrime]

I think it depends on your relationship with your current employer, and the availability of other employment opportunities. I've worked for companies where my boss knew I had bigger goals than just being a code-monkey for him for the rest of my life, and where it wouldn't have been a problem for me to go to him and ask him to be an investor in a startup. He might have said "no," but he wouldn't have been all "what, you're working on a startup?!? You're fired."

OTOH, I've had employers where I would never even consider it, and where the hint that you were working on a side project might get you fired.

I don't think there's any universal answer to this, other than "it depends." If you and your boss are on good, friendly terms and you feel comfortable talking to him/her about things outside the scope of your present employment, it might be worth going for it. But it's a judgment call on your part, IMO.

[nl]

There's a saying:

Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice and get money

You should go to him, tell him your idea and ask him if he can see any problems with it.

In the best case, he'll get really excited about the idea and ask if he can be involved. In the worst case he won't show any interest (which means he probably wouldn't have invested anyway).

(This assumes that he's not going to try and steal your idea and do it himself. You'll also need to make sure he understands it's your idea - not something you've been working on at work.)

[eggbrain]

I think it would be a good idea to separate your personal business from your job, unless you are very close to your boss. It may send bad signals to your boss if you are trying to get him to invest -- not only are you asking money from him, but you might be implying that you are dissatisfied with your current job, thus your venture into other territories. My advice would be to seek out a third party, but perhaps I am wrong.

[mcnemesis → eggbrain]

Thanks eggbrain. I've also been feeling it might be wrong to present such a thing before him, but then I have to now hunt in an even darker jungle for a potential investor.

If I had enough money, I'd do this on my own (I can already do the dev part alone, but I need test gadgets, legal, accounts, etc).

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

[noahc → mcnemesis]

You're not in America, so I'm not sure of the implications of this, but honestly there's no reason to do the legal and accounts stuff until you absolutely have to. You can avoid that until you bring on investors, co-founders, etc for the the most part, which would mean that you can do the dev part your self and avoid the legal and accounting and thus avoid the investor.