Comment by tptacek
10 months ago
I don't know that you can do this. $600k sounds small to you, but the people making those kinds of bets ($600k is a big bet, but presumably you're thinking of syndicating a bunch of smaller investors) are doing so on the premise that you're going to go on to raise a priced round, then a B round later --- ie, it's the same portfolio theory that the institutional VCs are using.
The thing I think you have to keep in mind that is that risk of failure (where "failure" is defined as "returning the same or less than the same money invested in low-risk investments would have over the same time period") isn't linear; by scaling down your ambitions, you do scale down risk, but probably not so much that you open up new avenues of equity investment.
I'm not an expert, but I don't think you're going to raise 6 figures on the premise of 6 figures ARR in 3 years.
> I'm not an expert, but I don't think you're going to raise 6 figures on the premise of 6 figures ARR in 3 years.
I don't think you are wrong :)
I know the audience I asked the question to (and thank you for taking the time to reply, I know y'all are busy).
I am curious to hear if anyone has tried anything like this or to see if this piques anyone else's interest or matches their experiences.
Heard loud and clear on slow growth curves not being appealing and thanks for not immediately saying "lifestyle business".
I feel like there is a conversation about small software shops making small software being missing from most discourse... or I am missing where to have these conversations because of the HN echo chamber.
There are definitely spaces like Indie Hackers or Startups for the Rest of Us/MicroConf centered around smaller sustainable software businesses, but those people aren't starting with hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment -- they're building something on the side and then bootstrapping or investing their own money. It's going to be a lot of work, but that's what you need to do if you're not going to get venture-sized returns that will attract VC's.
Yes 100% this, there are lots of people with the same ambitions as the OP, but they aren't getting 600k checks for an idea. They're building companies on side, savings, or with a little help from family or friends.
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