Startup Funding Challenges

No. Most of it is smoke and mirrors. It'd hard to get funding anywhere. It's just easier to find the vcs but that doesn't mean it's any easier to get funded. I'd suggest going solo without funding. I sink my own cash into my company so I can control it without having to report in weekly to someone that doesn't know my business

i dont know why people over here are giving an impression that its difficult or not that possible - i think it is 100% possible - if Angels can do it and VCs can do it and Seed funding people can do it then why not you ...according to pg's essay http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html - there are 3 phase of funding - Seed, Angel and then VC. YC model comes under pre-seed funding phase (am i right?), nevertheless

Sure, it's hardest to get funding at the idea stage, when one most needs it. But if I look at your Linkedin, you had some cred as a founder, having had great success with your previous project.

Do you need to raise money to be a startup?

And for anyone with a decent idea and the drive to start a company, $100,000 to get it off the ground is easy to come by.Bullshit. Out of the thousands of people that come to Hackers & Founders on any given month, I know exactly one person who has been able to raise money on an idea alone. And, that young woman is an absolutely an exceptional sales person.I should know. Hackers & Founders _is_ early stage in Silicon Valley.We boot strapped an incubator at Hackers &

Because interest rates are now nonzero so they couldn't get their startup funded without a string of successes to point to?

Hard to raise money with that plan. The VC world wants the 10x. Difference between SME and Startup.

Addressing 'b': Since you won't need a lot of money, you should try approaching angel investors -- affluent individuals who invest small amounts in startups in return for some share of the company. I suggest looking in your local area for angel networks and see if you can gain audience with them. You'll usually need a full business plan and presentation for audience with them.

Good luck you guys :) We have a similar problem here in Russia. The investors or too small to fund you or they too large to work with you)Hopefully we dont't need money to start a startup)My advise - submit your application. I've submited mine yesterday.

That's a pretty extreme position to take. Sure it's harder if you can't show some prior validation or backing, but it isn't impossible. Hook up with any one of the accelerators, sign up for some mentoring programs and you'll get your introductions sooner or later if that is what you desire, provided your start-up has some merit.And then there is the dumb money, of which there is plenty floating around, and which keeps on surprising me with the stuff that gets f