[alexc93]

Closed

[MrRoboto]

Do you have any sales?

[BwoodBMW]

I hope your wearable has something incredibly unique about it...

[catchm3ifyoucann]

Originally Posted by BwoodBMW

I hope your wearable has something incredibly unique about it...

Your biggest competition is Apple. Wish you the best mate.

[infinityplusone]

Dude, you are in PE. leverage relationships. People should know and trust you. just be clear to do it in a way that will not be a conflict of interest. you may have to feel someone out, so a little networking until you find someone who would entertain the conversation. I work for a publicly traded international company, simple dropped a comment on what project I was working on an got a client (owner of a business) to invest without trying. It was clearly a personal relationship.

Just don't do anything that may feel like you are poaching existing clients or unethical.

I think a good way to approach it is to ask them if they of any other firms interested in investing in wearable and then let them ask "why" and let doors open...

[dreamingat30fps]

Currently I have too much going on, have a lot of assets tied up in various endeavors right now. You know how it is. However I am personally very well acquainted with several members of Nigerian royalty who are very interested in transferring large sums of US dollars into the state. Just let me know and I can introduce you.

[Nkc]

Wife: Ummm... we're low $100k in our bank account, what happened to it?
Dude: Oh yeah forgot to tell you. So this guy on an off topic car forum asked for some angel money.
Wife: And?
Dude: I gave it to him.

[catchm3ifyoucann]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

Currently I have too much going on, have a lot of assets tied up in various endeavors right now. You know how it is. However I am personally very well acquainted with several members of Nigerian royalty who are very interested in transferring large sums of US dollars into the state. Just let me know and I can introduce you.

+1

[P1]

Originally Posted by Nkc

Wife: Ummm... we're low $100k in our bank account, what happened to it?
Dude: Oh yeah forgot to tell you. So this guy on an off topic car forum asked for some angel money.
Wife: And?
Dude: I gave it to him.

Haha, spot on...

[paradoxical3]

Originally Posted by alexc93

Afternoon guys,

I'm about a year into the process of my wearable tech startup, patents are solidified, prototypes are pretty much 90% perfect etc. Business plan, pitches all that jazz is complete.

Haha, I remember those days of naive optimism. Wait until manufacturing. You will realize that 90% perfect is really 09% perfect.

Now I am in the process of trying to raise $100k for marketing/e-commerce and manufacturing.

$100k is too small for VCs, you are looking for an early stage angel investor. You will also need much more than that for any type of actual manufacturing, so I have a feeling your business plan is wrong (they all are). Tooling alone for my relatively simple plastics was about $60k. Use shopify for your e-commerce and save yourself thousands. I would be very, very surprised if any high quality consumer electronics product could be brought to market for under $500k (if you have to pay salaries, engineering costs, tooling costs, etc).

If you want to give me details about your widget I can possibly provide some pointers and pitfalls on bringing a product to market, depending on what exactly it is and what manufacturing techniques you plan to use.

EDIT: Also, don't manufacture in China unless you have a full time employee living there to oversee things. It will be more expensive for you in the end.

[MrRoboto]

You may want to test the market before you get too deep into it. Wearable tech is a pretty competitive space at the moment with some massive players dominating the space...samsung, apple, etc.

I am reminded of this little gem.
http://techassimilate.com/2014/12/is...uct-ever-made/

PS. Read 'The Lean Startup'

[upstatedoc]

this is getting good

[csu87]

Please, oh please, is this what you are bringing to the market? Because I'm pretty sure everything else has been done at least once, then copied by the Chinese 5 times.

[alexc93]

Was more looking for advice or at least some connections on bringing product to market/seeking funding rather than actual funding from forum members...I can't imagine many 2addicts members are investing in startups, I imagine that would be more rennlist forums etc.

Thank you to the members who have posted some positive feedback.

Anyone with more positive feedback or challenges I may be running into in the next 6 months please feel free to post, i appreciate any feedback. Not too interested to hear from the people who just try to crush others' entrepreneurial drive.

[Vitalität]

Originally Posted by alexc93

Was more looking for advice or at least some connections on bringing product to market/seeking funding rather than actual funding from forum members...I can't imagine many 2addicts members are investing in startups, I imagine that would be more rennlist forums etc.

Thank you to the members who have posted some positive feedback.

I understand your desire and I commend you for it but you may be asking for trouble. Best friends becomes enemies when they venture, invest together on business. Best route would be to go to the Bank.

[alexc93]

Originally Posted by infinityplusone

Dude, you are in PE. leverage relationships. People should know and trust you. just be clear to do it in a way that will not be a conflict of interest. you may have to feel someone out, so a little networking until you find someone who would entertain the conversation. I work for a publicly traded international company, simple dropped a comment on what project I was working on an got a client (owner of a business) to invest without trying. It was clearly a personal relationship.

Just don't do anything that may feel like you are poaching existing clients or unethical.

I think a good way to approach it is to ask them if they of any other firms interested in investing in wearable and then let them ask "why" and let doors open...

I am set up to pitch to an angel fund that I was put into contact with through work but I have not been working here long and don't feel appropriate purely because I do not want my job to think I am uncommitted due to my own outside ventures; thats the main reason I have tried to avoid bringing any work connnections on board.

[alexc93]

Originally Posted by iDrive3

I understand your desire and I commend you for it but you may be asking for trouble. Best friends becomes enemies when they venture, invest together on business. Best route would be to go to the Bank.

I'd go to a bank in a second if they would ever even blink at backing a pre-revenue startup.

The first $100k is essentially to finish product development/packaging. Already in works with a chinese manufacturer who is more than able to replicate the product but it needs to be perfect before I hand that over to them because as another poster mentioned, normally what you get back from a manufacturer is 9% correct versus 90%, which is very true.

$100k will definitely not get the business off the ground but it's definitely enough to complete product development and be ready to manufacturer. The next step would be raising capital to actually manufacturer x amount of units.

[alexc93]

Originally Posted by MrRoboto

You may want to test the market before you get too deep into it. Wearable tech is a pretty competitive space at the moment with some massive players dominating the space...samsung, apple, etc.

I am reminded of this little gem.
http://techassimilate.com/2014/12/is...uct-ever-made/

PS. Read 'The Lean Startup'

Have done a few focus groups among several universities in the area as that age group is the main target market, and it seemed to be a lot of positive feedback, granted mainly from girls than guys, but I couldn't care what gender plans to purchase, as long as it sells.

I have also had interest from a large retail outlet that I have a close friend connection with, who are happy to help me at least promote the product.

Obviously this is all circumstantial considering how early in the process I am. Not naive at all about this, I know there is months more work to come, and many hurdles to jump. Or should I say many MORE hurdles to jump.

[csu87]

have you tried go fund me?

Ive noticed with some companies, this actually works better since it A) gives you exposure to the market with little to no risk and B) gives you insight on how the market will respond to your product with little to no risk. Not 100% sure on their policies, but after conversations with an acquaintance who launched a fairly successful product (Raised well over 100k) on there, it seems like a viable option if someone didnt have the upfront capital or the investors to launch something.

There have been many products launched through them.

[paradoxical3]

Originally Posted by alexc93

a chinese manufacturer who is more than able to replicate the product

You bet your ass they are. And not for your company, either.

I lost $200k going to China. Don't make the same mistakes I did.

[paradoxical3]

Originally Posted by csu87

have you tried go fund me?

Ive noticed with some companies, this actually works better since it A) gives you exposure to the market with little to no risk and B) gives you insight on how the market will respond to your product with little to no risk. Not 100% sure on their policies, but after conversations with an acquaintance who launched a fairly successful product (Raised well over 100k) on there, it seems like a viable option if someone didnt have the upfront capital or the investors to launch something.

There have been many products launched through them.

That's how we got started, the money we raised was nice but nothing compared to the publicity that let us raise real investment.

[alexc93]

Originally Posted by csu87

have you tried go fund me?

Ive noticed with some companies, this actually works better since it A) gives you exposure to the market with little to no risk and B) gives you insight on how the market will respond to your product with little to no risk. Not 100% sure on their policies, but after conversations with an acquaintance who launched a fairly successful product (Raised well over 100k) on there, it seems like a viable option if someone didnt have the upfront capital or the investors to launch something.

There have been many products launched through them.

Have been very close to going a kickstarter route, however kickstarter takes 5% of total raise, plus 3% for transaction fees at the end so essentially i'd be left with $92k, which granted I could just raise my ask for the funding to balance this out.

I agree, the publicity and response you get from doing the campaigns is almost as valuable as raising the money itself.

After already putting a decent chunk of money into this myself, I'm pretty much dried up until funding comes in.

Thanks for the advice!