I'm kind of bored working for failing startups in LA. I have 10 years of technical experience building pretty much everything between video streaming, automation, finance applications, inventory software, and IT software. How do you actually start the process with contacting a VC and get funding? YC seems to only fund SaaS companies and requires you to relocate to SF. I'd rather stay in West LA where rent for a studio isn't a majority of your VC money
Hi, I've worked for a VC. There are several ways and it depends on the VC tbf. However, in every case you need to have a solid business plan, product, and team- even early stage. They want to see some sweat equity at least invested, and it helps if some angel funders (incl founders and friends and fam) have skin in the game. Your pitch materials may seem like small potatoes but they are key to getting your message across, so you want to have a fantastic one pager and pitch deck that is clear about the market opportunity, problem, value proposition, and how you're differentiating yourself. Start with an idea. Local universities usually have experiential learning courses where students help startups, take advantage of those. Enter pitch competitions. Apply for grant funding (look at SBIR and STTR among others). There's loads of them. Some cities even have angel grant programs to attract businesses. It will be a lot of scraping around for cash in the beginning, but building interest is important. There are a variety of pitch competitions and conferences across the country for VC funding which helps, but honestly what helps the most is knowing someone at the VC firm. Having an "in." If it's not you it's a cofounder or someone you've worked with who can make a recommendation to an LP who will pass it to the fund principal. SO MANY pitch decks cross these people's desk they can't even keep them straight, so a champion is very important. It's hard work getting VC funding. But, if you have a good product you can make it work. Even better if you're already generating revenue. There are downsides to VC funding, including sacrificing some ownership and in some cases control if the board wants an operating interest/board seat. If you can start with grant funding and build a revenue engine, you might not need VC at all! The advantage of VC funding besides the obvious funding, is having expert advice on iteration and growing your business - but you must be willing to take it.
PS try looking for incubators and accelerators first, once you have the idea and pitch down
Thanks for this insight. I think I may take the revenue route because I couldn't really put exact numbers to a page backed up by any hard data that the company will make x dollars by 2021. I do know there is interest though. Might check out the grants available to see if that avenue is a good way to kickstart
Two words, shark tank
Sounds like a plan
If you look like this, try approaching SoftBank with your idea.
Hey, walking out with 700m would be fine by me.