We’re in the midst of creating our MVP and we currently have a waitlist going. How much traction do we need before looking for funding?
Do you need revenue? Or is the waitlist enough? I know it’s a tough market, and I’m sure having revenue would help, but we’d like to raise now.
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If you plan to raise its going to be a long road. Start talking to them now and do a monthly newsletter to possible investors. You have to create the hype.
Not nearly enough information for anyone to give you guidance. Are you b2b? B2c? Software? Services? What industry? Is your waitlist 10s? 100s? 1000s? Hundreds of thousands? Have you tested pricing false doors or just leave your email?
Leaving an email on the waitlist is about the lowest commitment someone can give, without more info no one can really give you any meaningful advice.
Not nearly enough information for anyone to give you guidance. Are you b2b? B2c? Software? Services? What industry? Is your waitlist 10s? 100s? 1000s? Hundreds of thousands? Have you tested pricing false doors or just leave your email?
Leaving an email on the waitlist is about the lowest commitment someone can give, without more info no one can really give you any meaningful advice.
Depends how much you want to give up.
I have experience with both ends of the spectrum.
I raised $100k for my side project off of 10 slack and LinkedIn messages saying. “I would buy that if it existed”. I would NOT recommend this generally but I’m a marketing guy and had an idea in biotech that I could market but had no idea how to build.
On the other hand I helped a company I worked for get an exit by focusing on revenue and expected growth based on years of data.
If you can accomplish the basics of an MVP and good messaging I wouldn’t raise.
What problems are you facing that giving up 30%+ to VCs would solve?
congrats dude!
Depends how much you want to give up.
I have experience with both ends of the spectrum.
I raised $100k for my side project off of 10 slack and LinkedIn messages saying. “I would buy that if it existed”. I would NOT recommend this generally but I’m a marketing guy and had an idea in biotech that I could market but had no idea how to build.
On the other hand I helped a company I worked for get an exit by focusing on revenue and expected growth based on years of data.
If you can accomplish the basics of an MVP and good messaging I wouldn’t raise.
What problems are you facing that giving up 30%+ to VCs would solve?
Not enough info to go off of but I would like to see product or revenues. If it’s pre revenue and pre product. It’s just an idea
Not enough info to go off of but I would like to see product or revenues. If it’s pre revenue and pre product. It’s just an idea
$10K MRR is typically when you can start getting attention for the typical SaaS business. But that varies greatly by industry.
$10K MRR is typically when you can start getting attention for the typical SaaS business. But that varies greatly by industry.
kind of depends on your business. but if you’re in SaaS, pre-MVP, you need to show growth rate and total numbers on your wait list, bonus if they pay you a deposit.
for our accelerator basically we look for growth rates of 20-40% month to month and/or revenue reaching around 10k ARR - just to give you an idea.
but there are so many variables at play you need to take into account.
so, lets put it another way. just try, reach out to 4-5 investors, see what they say as feedback, that’l help you decide, if they all say ‘no need more traction’ then you have your answer.
kind of depends on your business. but if you’re in SaaS, pre-MVP, you need to show growth rate and total numbers on your wait list, bonus if they pay you a deposit.
for our accelerator basically we look for growth rates of 20-40% month to month and/or revenue reaching around 10k ARR - just to give you an idea.
but there are so many variables at play you need to take into account.
so, lets put it another way. just try, reach out to 4-5 investors, see what they say as feedback, that’l help you decide, if they all say ‘no need more traction’ then you have your answer.
You should be more interested in quality than quantity.
Your traction should represent your progress toward establishing a reliably repeatable sales process.
From the beginning of the customer development process, one of you primary goals is to prove that you can successfully identify, locate, engage, and sell to a specific customer segment, and do so with predictable conversion / churn / return / etc rates.
As others have said, the evidence takes different forms at different stages, for different products, in different business models, and for different types of customers and markets. But it all comes down to proof that you’ve accomplished the above.
You should be more interested in quality than quantity.
Your traction should represent your progress toward establishing a reliably repeatable sales process.
From the beginning of the customer development process, one of you primary goals is to prove that you can successfully identify, locate, engage, and sell to a specific customer segment, and do so with predictable conversion / churn / return / etc rates.
As others have said, the evidence takes different forms at different stages, for different products, in different business models, and for different types of customers and markets. But it all comes down to proof that you’ve accomplished the above.
Make a one pager and list numbers.
Find a scout and argue about the amount you are seeking. Like ask for way more than needed.