more news from the startup front
Been a while again, my day to day job has been taking up a lot of time – massive pitch and big campaigns.
Right now I’m waiting for approval on a pitch doc, so in that time I finally submitted Braqes to Seedcamp.
Think I explained it all well. Job done I hope.
I need to raise funds quickly and hope Seedcamp will give me some guidance in that respect. I have submitted one application to an angel investment network yet think i was a little too keen as my Business plan is not finished yet and that probably doesn’t look very professional.
Business plans… what fun. Not too bad really, as much as I want to get a startup out ther and earn money from it…make a living, I can’t stand the financial part of the business plan. I look at forecasts and I think why can’t i just say ‘loadsamoney’ boom.
I’ll stick at it though, needs to be done. My cousin has a team of guys that did his forcsats, so hopefully they will help. For a price of course.
My tech partner has suggested I come on board his company as a Social Media consultant and what I earn goes towards development costs. Sounds good, I’m just concerned at the time it would take to reach the desired budget.
Anyway, lets see if I get into Mini Seedcamp – 11 August.
…and back
Wow, this whole ‘setting up your own company thing’ has its up and downs.
or is it just me?
A lot has happend since I last posted, but lets do a bullet like update :
- The site is about to change, the past few weeks I have been building a ‘micro sale’ site. that is, I am creating something that resembles what the site will function as,it will include a write up as to what Braqes will do and how it will benefit you -then users will go through the whole buying process. Once they click ‘Buy now” or ‘signup’ they are taking to a page that will state ‘This app is currently under development, please leave your email address to be notified) Now the beauty here is I can use google analytics to measure the interest. That way, when I go into my first round of funding I can show the interest levels, conversion levels. (this is all thanks to a great little book : Start small, Stay small)
- Next, I am running a survey through SurveyMonkey - this is more a little bit of research into how agencies are working, what their frustrations are. Again, more data for my first round of funding.
- Talking about funding, my quote for development has come in and seeing as my tech partner is going to have some equity it is being heavily subsidised. (maybe zero?) I need to fund that first phase as I believe Braqes will pay for itself within2-3 months of launch (that money then gets reinvested into V2 – which is already in plans)
- I have formed Braqes Ltd now and will be setting up the business account. It comes with Barclays, so lets see how that goes. (Want to get this out the way for the online payment processing and paypal setup)
- I have started looking into seedcamp, I have heard good things. From what I understand there is a mini-seedcamp in August in London. So I’m polishing up my presentations, gathering all that data and prepping to land a great investor. (If you are reading this – I’m going to make you rich –
) - Plus I think I have a great personal advisor. My cousin, he knows his shit. (not sure if he would want me mentioning him here)
As I said above, there have been some massive ups and downs on this. About 3 or 4 days ago I was thinking of pulling the plug, but then grew a pair and though fuck it. this is what i want to do, I want to run my own thing, I want to supply great software that makes jobs easier or improves on them, I want to make money based on my ideas (yes there are a load more) and I want to live on an island with the occasional snowboarding holiday in Canada.
But first some bloody hardwork.
Once I get the financing thing out the way for phase one, this ball should start rolling. Hopefully the next post will be announcing the microsale site going live. That should be this weekend.