Sorry for the vagueness. I don’t want to air more of our dirty laundry than necessary if I can avoid it.

TL:dr; Launched a unique product in a niche market, patented it, and designed a platform that serves as retail and process management and has the potential to be a successful & scalable business platform in its own right. Product and Platform feedback is positive, and customers who can find what they want are satisfied and returning regularly. However, the company has been plagued by people and technical problems that have stopped growth and potential. We had an inept/over-confident developer who abandoned the project in an unrecoverable state, a sole investor who is cosplaying as “CFO” with no budget or valuable financial information delivered, even after three years, and myself who has some good ideas and has drummed up clients and customers with enthusiasm but has no experience raising external funding or growing a business. Need help and advice!

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I am reaching out to this community for advice, feedback, and recommendations on the next steps for my company which was launched in the past three years. Here’s a high-level overview of where we stand:

We crowd-funded a niche gaming product successfully, using the profits to purchase manufacturing equipment so we could control production of our made-to-order products, and ultimately received a fairly broad patent for our innovative product.

Our product is primarily served through an in-house marketplace of artists and content creators, that is fully integrated into our production process. The nature of the product means our creators actually drive a lot of our traffic from referrals who are then paid royalties. (Red Bubble / Etsy Model)

Due to initial dempand we expanded production facilities internationally to cater to a growing customer base in the US and find discounted international shipping solutions.

Based on the initial success, and feedback from our creators we pivoted from sole focus on the product to providing a broader service that there was and still is a need that we are able to fulfill. One which uses our patented product as a pillar, but allows us to expand rapidly into other related products and services. Once fully realized, this platform could be spun off into other niche spaces easily.

Although we have had multiple succesful crowd-funded projects, and were starting to approach profitibility after 18 months, the website development and financial management have been a challenge, leading to wasted costs, unstable website functionality, and little financial clarity.

Early on, before expanding I was approached by an enthusiastic family member who stepped in to and put up capital as my sole investor. They offered to manage financial matters, as well as help drive the business and legal needs of the business but has floundered, never providing a clear budget or demonstrating any financial knowledge. While they are still covering our operating deficit, they have no ideas how to bring in the tpe of knowledge necessary to resolve some of our financial and business needs.

We also had a critical software failure at the peak of our initial growth at the hands of a siloed developer who had overpromised their capabilities then left the company and the platform in a nearly unusable state. Multiple development firms informed us we could not salvage our existing site and are in a near complete lockout of adding functionality that is needed to grow what little functionality we d, instead we were advised it had to to rebuilt from the ground up with almost no documentation left by the previous dev.

I’ve put in substantial effort to design and document what is needed for the new platform, which is now currently in development with a new agency. Although the feedback from my team and the agency is very positive, I fear my lack of development/technical knowledge may have led to overcomplicated solutions for our needs or unclear documentation that will lead to delays in getting the site relaunched.

I keep pitching connected products and services that meet positive feedback from our clients that we might be able to do outside of our platform, but have no way to properly asses financial viability or a stable platform to manage them on. I also just do not have the skills to attract talent and capital or lead the projects when most of my employees see me as the idea/hype guy not the “boss.” Ultimately, we need to find ways to raise revenue while waiting for the new site to go live, put ourselves in an attractive place for potential investment and growth if the new site is realized and disentabgle the company from the well-meaning but incompetent family member. Easy right?

I think where I’m at is looking for guidance on finding a business-savvy partner who can help tighten the ship, secure additional capital, and provide expertise to navigate this complex situation.

Here are some specific questions I have:

What kind of partner should I be looking for to address these challenges effectively? I’m open to finding a COO or similar, but with shit books and a flailing platform, we’re not attractive and in need of a ot of help.

How can I attract and retain top talent to help oversee the development process and serve as a bridge between my product design and the external development team without slowing down our current schedule?

How can I deal with family investors who are providing funding but may not have the required skills or expertise to act as a CFO? Although we are FINALLY in a place were a CPA will sign off on our books, and are starting to get regularl P&L, Cashflow and other reports (still no Budget!) we’ve spent a ton of the investors money fixing the mistakes he created, and I can’t imagine anyone coming in as a partner or investor will see that much money wasted as reasonable.

I would greatly appreciate any insights, suggestions, or personal experiences that can help me steer my company in the right direction.