Dealing with a JV?

Well Honestly,

I Know that there are honest people on this forum.

If you are looking for a JV this is defiantly a good place to start.

But if you want to be safe you should share you idea's with someone on this forum with a reputation.

The reason i say this is because someone with a reputation would never steel your idea because that would ruin there reputation do you see what im saying.

Or you can just give me your idea lol

But for real give me your idea

Eric

Hi Bryan,

My personal practice is I do not JV with
anyone I have just met.

I JV with people who I have small partnerships
in the past such as minor projects like
ad swaps, cross promotion, JV giveaways...
and we help out one another to get their
products launched successfully.

After doing many projects (small ones),
you should have a better feel of what is
this person like, if he has integrity and is
credible and walks the talk.

It is also a long process to foster and
build great long term relationship.

Cheers,
John

Well absica you have dont a great job at making me very curious to find out what your talking about.

I defiantly dont think you should give up on it if you think its a good idea the first think you should do is take action!

If you need investors send me a PM of course i would need so information. Im not here to steal your idea but be careful for others.

Eric

Too bad there's no online site (that I know of) for IM venture capitalists Not sure how that would work out though...

Anyway, when looking for a good JV partner for such a product, you could set up a thread or page where you would detail what niche your product is in, that it is a piece of software (I'm assuming), and that you require certain things from prospective JV partners such as list size.

Like Eric said, this place is mostly full of honest marketers, so this would be a good place to look for a potential JV partner. Another great forum to look for JVs would be Joint Venture (JV) Lists, Announcements, Blogs, And Community Forums.. I would strongly recommend you contribute to the forum before posting your JV request (i.e. introduce yourself, ask/answer questions).

Good luck!
Curtis

thanks everyone. I will keep researching and determine the right action to take.

a general question would be though if I have a great idea, but no financial resources...and someone has the financial resources...how do "typical" partnerships like that work.

Who gets what %, etc...

If someone put up $5,000 to have a piece of software built...would they expect that $5,000 to be made up in sales first, then anything after that starts getting split? Or does it start splitting right away?

Have you ever watched the show Dragon's Den? I don't know if they air that show in the States, but it's a British show and has a Canadian counterpart as well which features a panel of rich people that basically finance any business venture they see on the show that they like. The product owners offer a certain percent equity for a $ amount. For example, "I'm asking $1 million in return for 50% equity".

I think someone putting up money for your software would ask for a percent of everything..so yes, splitting right away as you put it.

this online forum, as in real life, has all kinds of people.

many are honest and hardworking

some are scammers.

come tips:

check "when joined" date
check number of posts.
check quality of posts.

see if they have dealt with known warriors in the past.

ask for references.

I spent three years of my life assisting inventors etc. in introducing their products into foreign markets etc. and it is virtually impossible to protect your idea.

Yes, there's patents etc. but unless you've got the funds to pursue litigation in the event that something goes wrong, then it's of little help.

However at the end of the day, you've got to ask the question do you want to give it a go or just shelve the idea, never knowing what might have been? There's plenty of poor inventors around whose ideas never saw the light of day because they were overly cautious.

Just my 2 cents.


Jonathan

Before approaching anyone with a joint Venture proposal, there are some things to consider

1. The other party has other dreams too, and would not necessarily share your vision, even if it's an ingenious idea they may not value it the way you do, that is why it's always good to do all you can to create the product first.

Except you connect with someone who shares your passion, not just money, someone who complements you.

2. If you,re looking for an investor, you should also keep in mind that and investor has only on goal in mind, and that is to make a profit... So you'll have to create a business plan with realistic figures for someone to take consider shelling out cash, and that again is no guarantee that they will be interested, nor if they will not steal your idea after you've laid it out so nicely for them

So having said that the best approach from my point is to do all in your power to come up with a realistic business plan for your business. You can find this information free online, as well I'm sure in this forum there will be a lot of guys who an help guide you on this too.

The idea is that you try to put your idea to the test so that you're prepared for what's to come as well strengthen the idea.

This step may seem laborious, and but it's really necessary to give you the confidence you need to overwork yourself, even borrow, starve if possible just to get your project going.

From your post, I am guessing it's a software. If so, after you've convinced yourself that this idea is worth chasing further, then you can even start by hiring a coder to begin the process I'm talking from my own experience...

They won't finish anytime soon if it is a software, but this will give you a chance to start gathering the money at all cost... maybe get some more design jobs and less sleep to pay it off

Anyway what I'm all trying to say is that I think the first approach is not to look for a JV just now rather to focus on bringing it to life as best you can.

Once you' reached a reasonable stage, it won't be easy that easy for someone to steal your idea, because it's no longer just an idea. Also anyone you speak to will be more confident to deal with you, knowing that you'll do your best to make this work.

You should always aim to make life easy for your potential JV partner, do all the home work about your idea and you'll find serious people who will help support the project either in marketing, funds, even development.

Finally, when you do most of your homework before hand, you won't leave your business to faith when it comes to a JV deal. You will also become indispensable.

Overall... you should never give up and let money be the hindrance, figure out exactly how much you need to build this project and you'll figure out how to get the work to cover that....

A couple of observations:

1) There are no truly unique ideas. You just haven't found someone else doing what you're thinking of yet. The world is a very big place.

2) If your idea really is unique, it's for a reason. It won't work. A market without competition is not a market.

3) Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what counts. The competition among investors isn't for ideas, it's for individuals and teams that can make something happen.

4) Any investor that is inexperienced enough to sign an NDA is not someone you want to do business with. There are very good reasons investors don't sign NDAs.

Don't waste time trying to secure your idea. Instead, get to work on executing on it. Can't afford to implement it? Can you afford a prototype? At least draw up a business plan, market analysis, etc. Then go pitch that to someone that can help.