Thread: Venture Capital

I am wondering if anyone from NB has experience with obtaining venture capital?

Previously, I have not wanted/believed my project does not require VC, but have come to the conclusion I need to hire some developers and professionals to help with content.

While my site is making $0 profit at the moment, I am working extremely hard and am aiming for $5,000-$10,000 profit by the end of the year through affiliate programs and advertising. I am hoping to get VC funding somewhere around AUD$300,000.

Would appreciate your help if you if you know anything about VC or if you just want to give encouragement, feel free to do so.

I have just a bit of experience with VC's (Vulture Capitalists), and I may have more discouragement than encouragement.

• VC's tend to invest in projects represented by people already in the VC community. Outsiders (you and I) tend to get ignored.
• VC's these days tend to invest in project that are already showing positive cash flow -- by which time you don't really a need a VC.
• VC's tend to invest in projects which have the potential of becoming enormously huge -- which isn't likely for the web content business in 2009.
• VC's tend to demand a large ownership stake in the company, diluting the value of your share of the company. This is particularly true when they invest in businesses that are not yet cashflow positive.
• VC's tend to take a long time to recruit, which is time you could spend building your business instead.

VC funding is necessary for some projects, but I recommend other funding avenues if at all possible (self-funding, debt-based funding, angel investors, etc...).

Australia does seem to have a mature VC market though, which is a benefit that many communities don't have:

• Australia Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
• Australia Venture Capital Marketplace
• Australia Business Angels
• Australia Private Equity Media

Yeah, your probably right. Instead of going to the hassle of finding VC (i.e. time and opportunity cost), I should probably keep persevering with my site. I am aiming to get it to 10K revenue as outlined above- to get it to 100K (cumulative) should not be too much of a problem if I can get the 10K in the first place.

Thanks Will.

I'm wondering why you need 300k to get 10k in revenue? You could flip houses in Phoniex with that kind of money

Bill Gates was able to buy QDOS, the "Quick and Dirty Operating System" for $50,000.

All it takes is a $1 and a dream.