I had two not so great experience working with investors.
The product is a trucking management system that allows you to dispatch loads to drivers in real time via a web and mobile application. I should mention it’s already built.
One “investor” talked a big game but when it came time to lay out the offer it was more of a joke. $2K/month to modify the app to address an adjacent market space + equity and zero payment for codebase we’d be building off of.
Then two other investors came in and presented too much smoke and mirrors for me honestly. When we chatted I thought they were the investors but apparently they were connected to those high net worth folks, etc. I had already built out the product and was in a position where I wanted someone with investment dollars and insight into the industry to take this product to the next level. They essentially offered to pay me as an employee for my own product with some equity so I didn’t go for that.
Now I want to learn about how to get involved with the right investors or people interested in owning a startup that they can build off of. I think because I’ve been doing things on my own for so long the best option I have is to sell the source code, security keys, deployment info, web and mobile app to someone that has the right vision in trucking or auto transportation, and is also more capable of doing the fund raising necessary for the AI part of the project.
Do you have any customers or revenue? The best thing you could do for yourself is to get some, even if only as proof of concept. This would help validate for potential investors that you’ve actually built something people will pay for. It will also help you figure out which of your assumptions are right and what’s missing – in other words to be more specific about what you need money for. You should do all the initial sales yourself (not hire a sales person) for this reason.
If you get some traction this way, you can either raise money or maybe join an accelerator.