Comment by mayukh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mayukh | Hacker News Reader

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I find myself in a very similar situation (married/mortgage/kid) building product fulltime. I intend to go on till I get some evidence of traction before I see any investors.

It sounds like your product is some sort of a marketplace where one side (sellers/businesses) will pay and the other side will come in free. If so that's one of the oldest games in town. And showing an angel that sellers will pay to sell/promote their product on your platform is not going to generate much excitement. (Sellers ALWAYS want to sell and will pay for customers if they see a particular system/channel working).

Your challenge will be to build up the user base quickly. Identify a segment (your customer's customer's perhaps) and offer some sort of an exclusive (you will have to pay for that discount most probably unless your sellers are willing to chip in)

If you do want to go the angel route immediately some options are > angel.co > local tech meetups > cofounders lab (I've found good entrepreneurs there)

Happy to compare notes, drop me a line at mayukhm@gmail.com

Cheers

It is strangely comforting to know there are others out there in the same boat.

>> It sounds like your product is some sort of a marketplace where one side (sellers/businesses) will pay and the other side will come in free.

Spot on.

>> showing an angel that sellers will pay to sell/promote their product on your platform is not going to generate much excitement.

I was thinking along the same lines. The only thing that it may do is prove to them an initiative. On the flipside, it'll slow down adoption significantly.

>> Your challenge will be to build up the user base quickly.

Agreed. This is what is really motivating my interest in finding an investor now. In order for me to build up both customer bases, I'm going to need to give away the service to the restaurants and bars (paying customers) for a duration of time (I'm thinking 3 - 6 months). Once I get enough of them enrolled, I'll use gorilla marketing, social networks, and simple word of mouth to spread it amongst the buyers.

The problem I have is that pushes me out 3 or 6 months before I see any sort of revenue. On top of that, the cost of getting both user groups goes up as I attempt to expand to other nearby cities.

Thanks for all of the points man. I sent you an invite on gchat. Hit me up if you're ever in the mood to compare notes or need a wall to bounce ideas off of.

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