The tale of how I sought investment
“Investments of Russian venture funds you do not need”
So could say Jedi Yoda
I have a mobile application in the App Store, which was first written for the experiment, and then turned into a full-fledged project. The project made a profit, I didn’t even think about investing, modifying the application, releasing updates, the program went up in the TOP of the App Store, money was dripping. All flowed slowly and measured. The first "serpent tempter" was Arkady Moreynis, who sent me a letter inviting me to participate in the program of the accelerator Plug and Play Russia. In short, the proposed 50.000 usd for 5% of the company (now, it seems, the conditions have changed), 2-month internship in Moscow and 3-month in the United States. I prepared and sent all the necessary documents (presentation and executive summary), and then the first bummer was waiting for me. No one answered me. It looked strange, they contacted me, they themselves suggested, and then they didn’t answer, not even in two words. Although the refusal could be sent. Later I realized that not responding to letters was such a style of our venture funds, but at first I was at a loss.
They didn’t answer and ok, I didn’t worry about it and continued to work. I released another update, the application again rose to the 2nd place in the paid TOP Russian App Store. A couple of articles and reviews came out. Letters from potential investors began to arrive again. One offered to sell him the project entirely. I immediately refused, even without knowing the price offered, explaining that the application would not just bring money. They need to deal with, improve, develop and release updates. Another offered 100.000 usd for 10% of the company. The offer itself is not bad, but 100,000, firstly not enough for organizing a normal development process, secondly the investor was non-core and could not help anything with money, well, in the third I already have 100.000 without any investors and needing to give part of the company. But as a result of all these negotiations, a start-up bacillus infected me too. And what if to attract a normal profile investor, to make an excellent Product out of an ordinary mobile application (exactly with a capital letter) and conquer the world, well, for starters, you can also Russia. And I got to work.
')
At first I tried to place information about the project on Startup Poster, filled in all the fields, and sent a request. A few days later, bam, I get an answer that the project did not pass moderation. The comment of their analyst struck me outright “Apple has already done support the Russian language in Siri and rolls it out in a few months, you have a window of opportunity closed” . Usually, information about future Apple products gets into the Internet bit by bit, and here there is such a storehouse of insider information and everything — just for an analyst position, that's really sometimes better to chew than to say. Nevermind.
I decided not to waste time on a startup startup, but to go directly to the funds. After analyzing the requirements for projects on venture fund sites, I decided that, in general, I fit them. I had not just an idea or a prototype, I had a finished product, which, moreover, made a profit. I had a monetization model, both at the current moment and for the future. I didn’t have to prove that I can create something, and not just waste my money, I had a ready application. I filled out applications on the websites of venture investors or sent letters with the executive summary to the contact addresses and waited two weeks promised on the websites.
This was the second bummer. All these investment funds located in Class A office centers with secretaries and analysts in 70% of cases simply won't respond to you at all, neither within two weeks, as they have written on the sites, nor later. One thing is not clear, is it really so difficult to put a person who will answer everyone with “your project is sad?”, Well, or a more loyal “it did not interest us.” Against the background of this discouragement, Respect to Yandex and the few funds that responded, and some even justified why they would not invest.
Probably, my project did not interest anyone or the executive summary did not impress, I thought, and decided to find out which projects venture funds would prefer to invest in. I subscribed to the pages of investors in facebook and twitter, read a bunch of their interviews in which they complain that there are very few worthwhile projects. I was looking at projects that received investments, but did not grasp this truth. But I understood something else, first, our investors are not eager to invest in a project, in the classical sense. They want to buy a stake in a ready-built, highly profitable and fast-growing IT business (not quite true, I understand why such a business is an investor). Secondly, by sending letters, you become 100,500 in a long line of people who want to receive money, naturally and an appropriate attitude to you. And it is rightly said that an investor himself will come to a good project (startup). Thirdly, because of the weakness of their own expertise, they finance either a copy of a successful foreign project that is adapted to our realities or winners of various start-ups (so that you can always cover your backside, they say, they took XXX place on the start-up party YYY. and if they all made a mistake, then what do you want from me). So I stopped suffering from garbage, went back to work on the project and realized that I don’t need investments yet. I do not think that I wasted time in search of investments. I met many interesting people. I talked fruitfully with business angels, and even received valuable advice from them. I was able to look at my project from the side and rethink it. Opened a company in a foreign jurisdiction. And got a new experience, which, as you know, is invaluable.
PS I'm not trying to show with this article what all investors are bad, and startups are good. I just set out a personal experience. Perhaps I was just unlucky, or maybe my project is a complete din.
About grammatical errors in a personal email.
Any questions, write in the comments, I will answer.
So could say Jedi Yoda
I have a mobile application in the App Store, which was first written for the experiment, and then turned into a full-fledged project. The project made a profit, I didn’t even think about investing, modifying the application, releasing updates, the program went up in the TOP of the App Store, money was dripping. All flowed slowly and measured. The first "serpent tempter" was Arkady Moreynis, who sent me a letter inviting me to participate in the program of the accelerator Plug and Play Russia. In short, the proposed 50.000 usd for 5% of the company (now, it seems, the conditions have changed), 2-month internship in Moscow and 3-month in the United States. I prepared and sent all the necessary documents (presentation and executive summary), and then the first bummer was waiting for me. No one answered me. It looked strange, they contacted me, they themselves suggested, and then they didn’t answer, not even in two words. Although the refusal could be sent. Later I realized that not responding to letters was such a style of our venture funds, but at first I was at a loss.
They didn’t answer and ok, I didn’t worry about it and continued to work. I released another update, the application again rose to the 2nd place in the paid TOP Russian App Store. A couple of articles and reviews came out. Letters from potential investors began to arrive again. One offered to sell him the project entirely. I immediately refused, even without knowing the price offered, explaining that the application would not just bring money. They need to deal with, improve, develop and release updates. Another offered 100.000 usd for 10% of the company. The offer itself is not bad, but 100,000, firstly not enough for organizing a normal development process, secondly the investor was non-core and could not help anything with money, well, in the third I already have 100.000 without any investors and needing to give part of the company. But as a result of all these negotiations, a start-up bacillus infected me too. And what if to attract a normal profile investor, to make an excellent Product out of an ordinary mobile application (exactly with a capital letter) and conquer the world, well, for starters, you can also Russia. And I got to work.
')
At first I tried to place information about the project on Startup Poster, filled in all the fields, and sent a request. A few days later, bam, I get an answer that the project did not pass moderation. The comment of their analyst struck me outright “Apple has already done support the Russian language in Siri and rolls it out in a few months, you have a window of opportunity closed” . Usually, information about future Apple products gets into the Internet bit by bit, and here there is such a storehouse of insider information and everything — just for an analyst position, that's really sometimes better to chew than to say. Nevermind.
I decided not to waste time on a startup startup, but to go directly to the funds. After analyzing the requirements for projects on venture fund sites, I decided that, in general, I fit them. I had not just an idea or a prototype, I had a finished product, which, moreover, made a profit. I had a monetization model, both at the current moment and for the future. I didn’t have to prove that I can create something, and not just waste my money, I had a ready application. I filled out applications on the websites of venture investors or sent letters with the executive summary to the contact addresses and waited two weeks promised on the websites.
This was the second bummer. All these investment funds located in Class A office centers with secretaries and analysts in 70% of cases simply won't respond to you at all, neither within two weeks, as they have written on the sites, nor later. One thing is not clear, is it really so difficult to put a person who will answer everyone with “your project is sad?”, Well, or a more loyal “it did not interest us.” Against the background of this discouragement, Respect to Yandex and the few funds that responded, and some even justified why they would not invest.
Probably, my project did not interest anyone or the executive summary did not impress, I thought, and decided to find out which projects venture funds would prefer to invest in. I subscribed to the pages of investors in facebook and twitter, read a bunch of their interviews in which they complain that there are very few worthwhile projects. I was looking at projects that received investments, but did not grasp this truth. But I understood something else, first, our investors are not eager to invest in a project, in the classical sense. They want to buy a stake in a ready-built, highly profitable and fast-growing IT business (not quite true, I understand why such a business is an investor). Secondly, by sending letters, you become 100,500 in a long line of people who want to receive money, naturally and an appropriate attitude to you. And it is rightly said that an investor himself will come to a good project (startup). Thirdly, because of the weakness of their own expertise, they finance either a copy of a successful foreign project that is adapted to our realities or winners of various start-ups (so that you can always cover your backside, they say, they took XXX place on the start-up party YYY. and if they all made a mistake, then what do you want from me). So I stopped suffering from garbage, went back to work on the project and realized that I don’t need investments yet. I do not think that I wasted time in search of investments. I met many interesting people. I talked fruitfully with business angels, and even received valuable advice from them. I was able to look at my project from the side and rethink it. Opened a company in a foreign jurisdiction. And got a new experience, which, as you know, is invaluable.
PS I'm not trying to show with this article what all investors are bad, and startups are good. I just set out a personal experience. Perhaps I was just unlucky, or maybe my project is a complete din.
About grammatical errors in a personal email.
Any questions, write in the comments, I will answer.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/167757/
All Articles