Where can I get funding for my startup (s) besides angel investors, VC firms, and government grants?

[bingbongbangbung]

Updates

+1 y

My startup involves AI and will be remote, not gonna indicate more than that

[jamesgoldman]

If you won't borrow then it'll take a lot of hard work to raise funds

I started out in scrap metal and that became my funding when I first got into silver/gold
I've borrowed from family and returned the money with a profit and still have an couple of bridged investments that pay the stakers a percentage every month it remains with me

[bingbongbangbung]

I was told the same thing when I was trying to find people to be my team members, but it didn't take too long for people to be interested in my startup

[bingbongbangbung]

Maybe you should learn what angel investors and VC firms are

[jamesgoldman]

Know what they are, touched on them in my business course but I'm in a old school business that manufactures nothing and can't really fall into the startup camp

[bingbongbangbung]

Then why are you telling me this when my startup isn't "old school" and is entirely remote so I don't need to pay for the usual expenses most startups have to consider

[jamesgoldman]

I thought you were telling me so I've looked at it
Doesn't work for me but if it works for you
Go for it

[Anpu23]

Banks, credit cards, and other traditional lenders. You can also crowd fund it. There's also pre-sales IE selling your products before you have crated them. You can also sell stock to friends and family.

[bingbongbangbung]

I am not going to rely on lenders. I doubt anyone would want to pay for my startup through crowdfunding, since it's B2B.

[Anpu23]

Why, B2B can be pre sold as well. I've seen B2B successfully crowd raise. And of course you can always boot strap. You would be amazed at the ways you can save money if you just look. I own a company, and have been involved in multiple companies and start ups.

[Anpu23]

You could also try a funding accelerator. I also know of a company that has created a game out of VC a lot like fantasy football. People essentially bet on you snd you get some of the funds.

[bingbongbangbung]

My theoretical expenses originally exceeded a million dollars per year, but by cutting out useless employee positions , forcing them to be part-time, and also making it online/remote, it's now down to 250 grand per year (excluding taxes ofc)

[bingbongbangbung]

Forcing the remaining essential positions* ofc I haven't started running the business

[Anpu23]

Whats more important is whats the expected financial needs until profitability? How much do you need to open your doors and keep them open until you are in the black? That should give you an idea of how much you will need in reserve.

[bingbongbangbung]

I don't need anything to "open the doors" but I need money to pay the employees as well as for R&D, manufacturing, and logistics later on (the 3rd and 4th would be done by third parties)

[Anpu23]

Cool, good luck to you. I don't know any other options.

[bingbongbangbung]

Do you think I can rely on MaRS Discovery District and Startup Canada for assistance?

[Anpu23]

No idea, I'm in the US

[Anpu23]

For the record my company is an early innovator in the AI field. We currently have products on the market. Why would you need $200k in labor? Seriously man, learn to code and do it yourself. Don't pay someone else to do something you can do.

[bingbongbangbung]

Lol it's not just for coders, but also engineers and other employees like DevOps, Quality Analyst, etc; yeah for the time being, my team members specializing in AI would develop the solutions, instead of hiring people for that

[bingbongbangbung]

Besides, I have a friend that is running his own tech company offering a wide variety of niche services, so I can probably cut down the costs a bit more

[bingbongbangbung]

The theoretical salary costs used to exceed 750K dollars until I cut out useless jobs like technical writer, customer service manager, sales consultant, corporate lawyer, etc

[Anpu23]

Early stage = outsource and fractionalized partnerships. You're doing it the hard way. I only pay for what I use, use AI where possible, outsource the rest. Even QA and DevOpps are outsourced. If you need a contact or two HMU. That way I can pay as I go, scale as I need it's SaaS man if you can't do it on your own get a partner, but don't start hiring out the gate.

[bingbongbangbung]

Yeah I'm gonna outsource the cybersecurity, accounting, and legal aspects of the startups... what's HMU?

[bingbongbangbung]

I think the only jobs I can't outsource would be the engineers/developers

[Anpu23]

HMU "Hit Me Up" are you saying you are hiring a full time attorney? Not just one you pay for by the hour? Accounting, lot's of very reputable 3rd party accounting companies out there, cybersecurity is a tricky one but yes there are fractional security experts. And developers should be the only staff you keep in, and outsource piecemeal the rest of the code. If you outsource coding you lose everything. Happened to a buddy of mine. Hired out 3rd party developers and they ran with his code. Had to fight to get it back, his source code and here we were rebranding all of his code because the developers put their own tags in. Screw that, and yes I was part of the team that helped him. Truth is if you don't code and/or partner with someone who does this will fall flat on it's face.

[Anpu23]

You're doing this the hard way. Pound out a working model, get it to the point you can demonstrate functionality. Start pre-selling the product. Use the money to hire a reputable programming house, and then build it completely. Hire a sales team on commission (there's always some sucker who thinks they can SELL) and let them bring you in business. Scale as you need to, the best sales person becomes your lead and you pay them a base rate to keep them and have them train the rest of the sales staff. Use premade forms (NDA's etc) at first and get your product to market. Waiting for some magical money will not get you there, you'll fall behind and then small nimble companies that are already out there will kill you.

[Anpu23]

Listen, my company was demonstrating AI chat tech pre-Chat GPT. We were no where near ready for market but we had a PRODUCT! guess how many investors swarmed once Open AI hit it big? I could reach out and put my hands in some deep pockets if I chose. But I don't need them as I am already post revenue

[bingbongbangbung]

Lol no I'd hire a private law firm on a needed basis. My friend so happens to run his own cybersecurity firm 😎. Yes I know how to code but not anything related to AI sadly

[bingbongbangbung]

My team members range from specializing in machine learning to specializing in finance

[bingbongbangbung]

Well I wouldn't be waiting for money to just magically arrive, because eventually I'm gonna be networking with angel investors and VC firms on LinkedIn and AngelList. Of course, first I'm gonna have to set the business up first and as you suggested, complete a working prototype.

[Anpu23]

Most AI is written in Python. But a smattering of LISp wouldn't hurt either.

[Anpu23]

Follow me back and I'll DM you my LinkedIn profile

[bingbongbangbung]

I just got permanently banned from LinkedIn about half an hour ago lol... maybe I should've used my real legal name and/or not spam invites

[Anpu23]

Thanks for MHO

[bingbongbangbung]

Should I create a new LinkedIn account or just use an alternative? I've signed up for AngelList, but they don't help people unless they have a corporation (mine is a partnership)

[Anpu23]

I'd create a new account, mke sure you refresh your ip (reset your router) first.

[bingbongbangbung]

Do you think me constantly signing in with different devices also made it seem like I was acting suspicious? For a few weeks I was borrowing Huawei P20 Lite, and just yesterday I switched to the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G I got from Amazon

[bingbongbangbung]

I was gonna get A54 but that costed 100 dollars more

[Anpu23]

I simply don't know. I do know that spam accounts are usually banned, as are accounts that violate their "community standards"

[bingbongbangbung]

So constantly trying to connect with people as soon as the weekly invite limit is lifted would be considered as spamming right?

[Anpu23]

Yes. Honestly I connect with maybe 2 people a day, and they connect with me. Not the other way around. I've got nearly 1000 connections and an additional 500 or so followes. Honestly, I dont really send connection requests unless we spoke online or know each other irl.

[bingbongbangbung]

I had over 330 connections and around the same followers before I got banned; the vast majority of them are people from my current college and from the past university I attended

[Anpu23]

Makes sense. I post a lot about AI and innovation. So many people follow me because its a hot subject.