Venture Capital / Angel Investors forum

[wayfarer]

In short, a forum about raising money, how to do it, when to do it, who to take money from, who not to take money from, etc. There could even be a private subforum where Warrior Room members can talk to each other about investing. I don't know if there would be interest in the latter one, but raising money is definitely an interesting topic.

[xInd]

This is definitely a good idea, but a very complicated one. They just banned such topics from the JV section due to the level of problems that arise from things not working out with investments and how unhappy people get when that happens. It's also hard to stop the scum from getting involved, who have no intention of doing anything but taking money and running. If we can come up with some good ideas on how to prevent these problems and make it possible to run a section in the forum where it's top quality, no garbage, and next to no problems I know there would be a lot of demand. I've invested in others before both successfully and unsuccessfully, and I've made many small ventures succeed because of somebody else's financial support, I've also managed to try my best but failed in the odd endeavor. Learned a lot from all the experience, and one part is that it's really a lot of work to weed out the problem people. Even come across many before that clearly have no intention of sending anyone any money at all, they probably don't even have it, but they put up a good front and get as much information as they can out of you to use for their own benefit.

The only thing I can think of that might make something like this work, would be to involve a 3rd party which would be something like an escrow service, doing background checks on people before they are allowed to be involved in any threads... If something like this can be started here, I'd be very interested in being a part of it and helping in any way I can.

[wayfarer]

Well, maybe no sub-forum, a forum for DISCUSSION ONLY. Or basic guidelines for investment. A. you need to set up a corporation to buy into. B. Don't invest money with someone you haven't vetted, meaning you read their resume and check them out. Usually, no one should be handing out money without meeting them in person first, so I see scamming as less of a problem, if a few bases are covered. Not everything needs to be handled over the web.

Sites like angel.co have been very successful in getting startups off the ground, so there's definitely a market for it, and the WF has no lack of folks with bright ideas.

[Ben Gordon]

I agree. This would be a great forum. Although the beauty of internet marketing is that you don't need much investment to start -- especially when selling products and doing stuff like affiliate marketing -- you still need to know this stuff when you attempt more expensive businesses. Being able to find investors and invest in others effectively a great skill to have that can make both parties a lot of money.

[Dan Hower]

Originally Posted by Ben Gordon

I agree. This would be a great forum. Although the beauty of internet marketing is that you don't need much investment to start -- especially when selling products and doing stuff like affiliate marketing -- you still need to know this stuff when you attempt more expensive businesses. Being able to find investors and invest in others effectively a great skill to have that can make both parties a lot of money.

I would definitely be interested, since I have three inventions in my drawer since years. Since each needs less than 100K seed capital usually VC refuses them because they deal only with a million or more. And crowd funding is not possible since I am in Australia.

So I think it would be great to have such a forum.

[Ben Gordon]

Originally Posted by Dan Hower

I would definitely be interested, since I have three inventions in my drawer since years. Since each needs less than 100K seed capital usually VC refuses them because they deal only with a million or more. And crowd funding is not possible since I am in Australia.

So I think it would be great to have such a forum.

The only problem is, I think this would be a little off topic to an internet marketing forum since most investments occur with tangible products and inventions. However, it would still be a great addition to the forum.

[Dan Hower]

Originally Posted by Ben Gordon

The only problem is, I think this would be a little off topic to an internet marketing forum since most investments occur with tangible products and inventions. However, it would still be a great addition to the forum.

Yes that is right, I have an invention for heating with biomass, and a public transport system powered with solar power, so that definitely does not have anything to do with IM. Except that I try to raise the necessary funds with IM.

However, the Warrior Forum might give inventors a chance to find partners.

[wayfarer]

Originally Posted by Ben Gordon

The only problem is, I think this would be a little off topic to an internet marketing forum since most investments occur with tangible products and inventions.

What about someone who wants to build the next great dating site? There's plenty of niches left, believe it or not, but it takes some capital to get one started.

This may be a different type of marketing than this forum is used to living and breathing, but frankly, this place could use some fresh material.

[Sean Tudor Carter]

As noble an idea as it may seem, its best to not even touch that one. You see how problematic it can be at times when a person orders a service from another warrior, imagine how much more problematic it'd be if we were talking investment capital.

[SteveSRS]

I don't agree... the 'problems' that arise need to be dealt with personally as are the rules anyway on this forum. It is up to all forum members to go with extreme care and reputation as always is an important factor...

it is not the job of the forum owner to hold hands and solve problems. I think this would be an awesome addition to the forum

[Workman]

Originally Posted by wayfarer

I don't know if there would be interest in the latter one, but raising money is definitely an interesting topic.

Wait a minute, this could be a really valuable addition to WF.

Originally Posted by Ben Gordon

The only problem is, I think this would be a little off topic to an internet marketing forum since most investments occur with tangible products and inventions.

There are a number of VCs that fund web-based startups with no physical product. Y-combinator funds <$20k to 40-50 tech startups twice a year. 172 of them (including Dropbox, Reddit, Disqus, Stripe, Heroku, and Weebly to name a few) went on to create a total value of $7.78 billion. Consider this: as an investor, would you invest $500,000 in 25 promising founding teams who might come out with a single, successful startup that generates 10x the value of your seed investment?

Tech startups are unique positioned to MASSIVELY scale with minimal capital costs explaining why it's such an appealing model for seed-round investors. Several tech startups are simply focused tools to improved one particular aspect of some other company's product and price it at a lower cost than what the company believes it would cost to develop the tool on their own. This could be a great opportunity for founders of promising marketing companies to get the capital they need to hire development staff to take a product to market.

Originally Posted by xInd

They just banned such topics from the JV section due to the level of problems that arise from things not working out with investments and how unhappy people get when that happens.

Originally Posted by Sean T Alexandre

As noble an idea as it may seem, its best to not even touch that one. You see how problematic it can be at times when a person orders a service from another warrior, imagine how much more problematic it'd be if we were talking investment capital.

Investing is a risk and should be treated like a real business -- Vetting the founders, fulfilling a real need, existence of a hungry market... that comes with the territory. Most of these startups will fail, but a few will succeed wildly.

A VC board would be a great addition.

[wayfarer]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I wonder if WF has taken notice?

[ronrule]

Originally Posted by wayfarer

In short, a forum about raising money, how to do it, when to do it, who to take money from, who not to take money from, etc. There could even be a private subforum where Warrior Room members can talk to each other about investing. I don't know if there would be interest in the latter one, but raising money is definitely an interesting topic.

I'm not sure that this really fits here... I think it would be a distraction from the goal of the forum. This is a subject I have a lot of experience with (both in raising capital, and in funding ventures), and in spite of that I couldn't see myself visiting that board here. I would also venture to say that no other accredited investors will ever set foot in it either - anyone involved in the VC space is constantly bombarded with people looking for funding for half-baked web ventures and Internet marketing schemes. Most entrepreneurs don't understand the process of attracting capital, and I think the forum would quickly degrade into a series of "I have an idea" threads like the boards at YoungEntrepreneur.com. Ideas don't get funded... a proper business plan/executive summary, complete with revenue projections and a management team with executive experience and working prototypes do.

There's a common misconception among Entrepreneurs that all you need to raise capital is a good idea, but reality has a different view. Before anyone even reads what your concept is, the first thing they do is look at the numbers... if it doesn't fit their model (usually a clear exit with 20 times initial investment), it's not even going to be seen. Plans that have no revenue projections won't be read. Plans with revenue projections that don't meet the investor's goal won't be read. Plans with revenue projections that do meet the goal, with a management team that has no advisory board or executive experience won't be funded.

Entrepreneurs looking to get their companies funded would be better served getting involved with a local startup accelerator than having discussions on this, or any forum. Just my 2 cents.

[gregdavidson727]

There's a website at www.angel.co where you can pitch investment firms. However, I wouldn't suggest using this website unless you're a serious business person.

[jungl]

This is an interesting idea, but there is a big possibility of fraud happening on the forum this way. Perhaps at least a dedicated place where Warriors can tell other Warriors about their new projects and solicit investment through other, secure sites like Kickstarter etc.