Hawaiʻi's Technology Community
Different funding sources
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Views: 158
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Leuck on
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A couple quick references:
Hawaii Angels
Hawaii Technology Development Venture
SBIR and STTR Grants (your CEO knows all about these :-)
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Permalink Reply by Garth Henderson on
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This is just a consideration to traditional funding: Every work contact that you have may be a potential funding source.
A few months ago I got a small request (via email) to develop a project plan for a niche vertical – about a 50 hour request. After building the plan, the project was going to be about a 9 month development effort that the business would have to fund – not anything that I would consider leaving my job for.
After delivering the niche plan, I took the creative opportunity to expand the project into a larger scope that dovetailed with what I really wanted to. My expanded plan offered significantly more revenue opportunity for the business with only a small increase in upfront project costs.
The guy liked the idea and got enough funding (through investors that he had partnered with in other ventures) for me to quit my day job. I now have my dream job and work from my home in Haleiwa for a company located in Oklahoma. Every hour that I work builds my equity in the company – I’m no longer just working for a paycheck.
Please see my “Ideal Business Structure for Programmers” under “Doing Business In Hawaii” (posted 12/31/07). Now I need to help develop the best company environment to support programmers. I would love some collaboration.
Another consideration: The concept of a 221/215 company is that you can take a local business project and convert it into a resalable product. The companies that invest in your efforts buy stock that is a tax credit for them.
The cost of Angel and VC funding is always very high. I would always prefer debt over funding.
Bootstrapping your company with profitable revenue is, IMHO, the best solution for software developers.
My goal is to start up what I currently call a “Community Based Corporation” with the employees being the owners. The purpose and direction of a Community Based Corp is to own and manage several businesses within a local area. This has many benefits – traffic reduction – work near home, long term careers, investment opportunities, etc. With my current revenue/investment track, I will probably have the opportunity to start up a Community Based Corp on the mainland before Hawaii.
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Permalink Reply by Curtis J. Kropar on
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I just found Hawaii Venture Capital Association - http://www.hvca.org
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TechHui is an HVCA affiliate. You will find them featured on our homepage. HVCA president Bill Spencer has been very supportive of our efforts.
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Oh... yea. check that out.
And dude... did you like know there is water surrounding us ? I mean.. its like EVERYWHERE ! strangest thing I saw !
hehehehe yea.. sometimes i cant see whats right in front of me.
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Permalink Reply by Alex on
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I think this makes a lot of sense, and is 99% after my own philosophy. I do think it is a little old school, in the sense that you build equity while working, and thus the company will usually have a slower growth rate. As far as I can see a problem is the valuation and estimation of software work. Many time / cost estimations are naive at best, and is a major cause of all the failed projects. I guess it is redundant to say that since two out of three dimensions of project success is time and cost.
One of the major problems I think for programmers and computer scientists is the lack of training in the business side of...doing business. Understanding that a business plan isn't only a document you create to get investors, but also a good road map for development, to measure the project against objectives. Creating a good business plan isn't at all trivial, and you can probably get a lot more funding if the business plan is detailed and fiscally sound. I think it can often be compared to the analyzing and planning phases in infomation systmes design and development. 10% more effort upfront will save you 90% at the end.
anyhoo I'll stop blabbering.
a.
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:-) I didn't mean it that way. I was just giving Bill credit for helping us out.
We have a lot of stuff on the homepage. Its easy to miss.
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no worries.. no offense taken either.... typically, i smack myself in the forehead at least once a day for missing things that are rather obvious.
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Permalink Reply by Rubén Peña on
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Hawaii Technology Development Venture guided the forming of the Hawaii Dual Use Industry.
(courtesy of Ian Kitajima from OceanIt Laboratories)
"The Hawaii Technology Development Venture was established to assist in the development of technology for dual use. HTDV guided the forming of the Hawaii Dual Use Industry. This video is an overview of HTDV and the Hawaii Dual Use Industry."
Check out the video link here .....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTFcnEg8yvE
Mahalo,
Rubén
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Permalink Reply by Loren Swendsen on
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Well, going with "different" as the operative word in this question, have you heard of Kickstarter?
I think it's semi-new, I've only recently started hearing about it in podcasts and articles. However, it looks like it's more for one-off projects than it is for venture capital. Still, thought I'd mention it here.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Parsons on
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I've was a backer on a few projects last year on http://www.kickstarter.com/
I have a project for non-profits coming up that I plan on using http://www.kickstarter.com/ to raise the capital needed. http://www.mnml.com/ raised close to a million for their iPod Nano watchband the LunaTik & TikTok
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