Over the past 7 years I've been building a SAAS. It's good. I have 20 customers all from referral. They think it's good. It has the potential to be huge. Currently, it earns me a low income - bootstrapping it's development.<p>I'd like to raise VC to grow it. But the last time I did that, it swallowed a year and brought down a 25-man company.
I tried hiring a developer but didn't have the cashflow to cover the time recruiting, finding offices and managing.
I've tried raising cash from friends / family / clients. That might happen yet, but it's an incredibly slow and time-consuming process.<p>Can HN help suggest the best route forward?
So here's the question: would you bring in a 50-50 partner (both of you on a vesting schedule) in order to scale and not merely grow? That is, would you give someone half the company to triple customers in a year...or something like that?<p>The last seven years is sunk cost and the only effect it can have on the future of the company besides providing a knowledge base is psychological drag. And bringing in a partner with large equity is exactly what taking VC is anyway..except that VC will make decisions based upon distribution of risk while a 5050 partner will have a similar concentration of risk to yours.<p>Overcoming the sunk cost mindset is tough. Just giving someone half a company you spent seven years building sounds crazy. But the seven years you spent getting to this point are irrelevant to VC decision-making. All that matters is going forward.
Any different orientation on your part creates an impedence of expectations.<p>Good luck.
There is no single best route. It all depends on the specific business you are in and at what stage are you today.<p>To suggest a way, share more details about your product / company. Looks like an B2B focused product.
- What is it?
- Howz the current distribution
- Who are these customers (I mean type)
- Why has it took 7 years to get 20 customers? Is your product is very heavy to even evaluate?
- Why do you need money and where will you put that (hiring, product development, marketing, distribution, etc)
This seems to me to be right from the MBA textbook chapter called, "What happens if you have no Business Development".<p>You need to get more customers (and not just from referral, though that's great), and you need more buzz. When you get stronger demand, the capital supply will more easily rise up to greet it.
Its hard to give you much detail based on information you have provided. 7 years seems a long time for company earning low income. Do you see yourself in this industry in few years? Do you have possibility to grow? Who is your customers - large companies, smes?
If you're after VC cash then you should plug your company every chance you get including here.<p>I can't help you other than that but I will say that you should consider remote workers if it's feasible.