My partner and I have an idea for a website. We are 18 and 17 years old. I thought of idea and do web design, and he has 4 years of programming experience. If we build a prototype or beta do we have enough for an investor to invest in our company/website? Plus I live outside SV.
Sounds like a good team. What's the idea? Three things I've learned thru the YC experience:
1) Investors like big ideas. If you can't tell a convincing story about how you've got the potential to build a $500m business, almost all investors will pass.
2) Traction wins. Don't build a prototype. Build a product. Prove that users want what you build and show a healthy growth curve BEFORE you take investment. It opens a lot of doors.
3) Distribution wins, too. Have a GREAT story on how you're going to find users without spending a nickel. SEO and viral marketing win. Don't say "word of mouth", "PR", "blogosphere" unless you've proven that your startup has legs there.
Regarding, "outside SV"... It depends. Right outside? Or in the Yukon? Where are you?
If funding is the path you should follow, not living in a hub is making a REALLY hard game a LOT harder.
Hmmmm have our paths crossed before, I do enjoy traveling and networking? Your passion and energy about my work is surprising!
I am no different then anyone in this forum. Just a regular guy with ideas who decided to startup from his room in Baltimore, MD.
As for our work ...There is a huge value in taking a 221 year old wake up device and injecting the Internet into it. Whether we wake up to social sounds(Happy Bday, get up meet me at gym) or intelligent sounds(wake up tornado, your plane is delayed (broadcast X is catching flight to X on network=social), it's Jane's Bday tomorrow (social)) our lives will be richer and safer! Maybe it seems that your friends can control the time you wake up... that is not the case! We are innovating the sound and waking you up during life threatening emergencies only!
If you are not interested personal wake up communication, that's cool!
Though since we responded we are curious as to who you are and have we spoken or met before offline?
right, i was looking for something actually cool and useful :)
i guess my unspoken point was to try and note that even if an idea kind of sounds stupid, there might be a good way to implement it to achieve success.
Right. Don't put the carriage before the horse. If you have living expenses taken care of and time to spend then you can create something. It does not take investment to get started. Don't think about it too much and just make something.
"GET GOING. Start creating and delivering your product or service. Think soldering irons, compilers, hammers, saws, and AutoCAD -— whatever tools you use to build products and services. Don't focus on pitching, writing, and planning."
You need investors when you need heavy funding. For now just live with your parents or wherever and make a prototype. From there you might be able to convince an investor that this is the next big thing. If you are hosting a website, then start it up, and show it off.
Hell I am 24 and I am not waiting for an investor to make my company a reality. If it fails, who cares, I got many years to try again :)
You'll really never know if you spend your time speculating and hesitating to take a step without 100% certainty. Just do it. See where it goes, and judge accordingly.
You must build first. It is much easier to sell and you have more pull with a completed or ready system. Also, unless you have real professional experience you can't call that 4 years experience. If I could count my experience back to my C64 days and Apple II days then it would be highly inflated. Experience usually means professional work experience, at 18 you need to prove yourself more. Deliverables help this immensely and once you throw down experience means minimal.
The hard part is building and getting noticed, once that happens the investment part is much easier. Truly great business ventures dont' always need lots of investment though, just enough to buy some time to build it or get it in production.
See how far you can get without raising money, even if you have to work part-time on the side. Unless you're building something that requires a lot of storage, bandwidth, or people you can get a lot done without a lot of cash. Your location outside a tech hub won't be a factor until you need to start hiring experienced people or you need to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. By that point you may know if the site is going to be successful or not, and you can move if you need to.
if you build it (and its a good idea), they will come.
at 17/18, you can (most likely, i'm assuming) live with your parents or do the work in your dorms and not have to worry about making a living while starting your business.
find some time and just do it. worry about making money after you have something.
A great way to get some real feedback is to make it, then post it as an Ask YC. The community really steps up to give credit and criticism where they are due. Take this recent thread on Dabbleboard as an example.
"If we build a prototype or beta do we have enough for an investor to invest in our company/website?"
Investors tend to invest in companies/people and less in ideas (unless the idea really is something revolutionary). Get your prototype in order, but also do a little business legwork. Are there competitors? Who is the market? What's the revenue potential? How are you going to market the idea?
You should do it, but don't expect to get funding. Make your site support itself. Since you are young, you can sink this if it doesn't work out and move on. This may sound pessimistic, but if you are going to fail, fail fast, so you can keep trying more things.
When asked what would be the main factor for someone to succeed, Bill Gates answer was how young they start their first company, Warren Buffet who really is smart and was sitting next to him agreed.
Go for it, if you start now I guarantee you will have your life fixed by 35 yo.
Your ages will be a strike against you; expect problems with that for another two years or so at least. It's not a fatal strike, though, so definitely give it a shot. Apply to YC. Above all, keep building.
Umm... there are plenty of 17/18 year olds (probably younger) who make thousands online every month, all without the need for "investors". No offense to YC, but a lot of people on this site seem to think they need to quit their job, lock themselves in a dark closet for 6 months, apply for money, and build a stupid site without making any money at first. Meanwhile there are people (teens, dads, grandmas) building high-quality content sites and making the big $$$ via ads, all without needing "investors".
Yes, you have a chance, of either invetment or (even better) market success.
A prototype might be enough to approach early-stage investors, mostly angels, and a live beta definitely is -- if either helps confirm a market exists, by demonstrating a compelling experience that attracts real use or a craving from a valuable market.
I think you're on the right track: build, build, build first. (Take up some programming yourself to help.) Use that experience to understand the interesting parts of the problem and test the concept either with representative customers or (best of all) real via-the-web users.
If you achieve accelerating adoption with users, or even hints of revenue. you have a good story to approach investors -- who exist everywhere, not just SV.
(Experienced folks can defer building a bit, because they can raise money based strictly on their proven abilities plus the intended market. But for young first-timers, proving-by-doing can offset that advantage quickly.)
No, coward. You have no chance. Hide in your basement and weep.
Seriously dude just do it. You're young, fuck it. Asking if you can do it is foolish; people have no idea what you're capable of until you do something.
1) Investors like big ideas. If you can't tell a convincing story about how you've got the potential to build a $500m business, almost all investors will pass.
2) Traction wins. Don't build a prototype. Build a product. Prove that users want what you build and show a healthy growth curve BEFORE you take investment. It opens a lot of doors.
3) Distribution wins, too. Have a GREAT story on how you're going to find users without spending a nickel. SEO and viral marketing win. Don't say "word of mouth", "PR", "blogosphere" unless you've proven that your startup has legs there.
Regarding, "outside SV"... It depends. Right outside? Or in the Yukon? Where are you?
If funding is the path you should follow, not living in a hub is making a REALLY hard game a LOT harder.