woooooooo

awesome!! hope you it does great.

wow, congrats. Very interested to see where you go now.

nice, that's awesome! grats

nh gull!

Cheers I'm just so darn excited I can't keep it in!

Win8 btw is quite possibly going to use HTML5 to make desktop apps. Exciting future for HTML5 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17254070 By the time we have our software to a more complete level the timing should be pretty spot on I think

Fantastic news, congratulations.

What's code golf?

Congrats! That's a nice feeling. Hopefully I'll know something like it in a couple of months!

Nice! Are you trying to get angel investment atm?

Yeah, we're looking at angel/venture investment sometime in the next couple of months. We're just starting the process now (giving demos/talking to people).

You should do a mini trip-report ask-me thread here I think. Or if you don't think it could support a full thread, make a post here.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing some more details (how long have you guys been looking, how did the conversation go with your investor, etc. etc.).

++

Congrats Gull! Thats fantastic!

There isn't much to it I'm afraid in our case! We didn't seek it, it sorted of landed on our laps. We have had a few people approach us with offers (we've turned a couple down already). This particular investor is a user of the system who has been around from the early days, we didn't need to demo as he has a great understanding of it all already. His offer was very good and so we decided to go with it after talking to him a while working out all parties objectives.

We're also very fortunate because one of my sisters friends is a corporate lawyer who very generously drafted the shareholders agreement for us free of charge which saves around £3k-£5k in fees, and a family friend who has offered us excellent advice throughout.

Typically you would also have a escrow as well which can be expensive but again we are lucky and our investor was happy to send first and receive the signed documents and share certificates after ward.

I'm a rank amateur at all this (the bureaucracy and money handling), I've been happy to describe myself as such, just being totally honest with these investors (and everyone) is the best path. Pretending to know what your doing then constantly messing up would just make them very nervous and uncomfortable.

What I'm quickly discovering is that accounting is extremely extremely boring. It's another steep, dry, boring learning curve I'm really unenthusiastic about so trying to find a good accounting firm at the moment which is a skill in itself.

It's not what a lot of people would consider a huge amount of money, but it's the most either of us have ever seen and should fund both of us for ~8months living and development in London if we are careful. Sales are going well so that gives a lot more flexibility but not enough of a track record to get loans on it's back which is why we need the money, otherwise we'd have to get jobs which would stunt our momentum.

I'd be really interested in posts from you about your experiences and demos etc, I'd love to read about it and the process.

Very interesting stuff.

I'm not directly involved in the process so I don't know a lot of the details but we've just started making initial contact with potential investors we've been introduced to (either that we know or through friends/old co-workers that can say good things about us).

So far people's reactions have been good (all but 1 have agreed to meet with us to hear the in-person pitch) so that's good - but without knowing the typical percentage of people that agree to meet with you it's hard to gage how good that is.

Edit: We're also further behind then you in terms of an actual product. We'll be ready for alpha users in a couple of weeks but since we're doing enterprise software with real data there are a few hurdles we have to jump through to get our alpha users (and obviously security can't be in an alpha state if we're going to use it with real data).

gull,

i know accounting sucks but my understanding is it's really not that hard. if you suck it up and figure it out, the upside is you get to keep way more of that investor money for you and your bro, which means a longer runway and greater chance of success. i don't see how a two person operation could justify paying an Accounting Firm.

i've never done a startup or anything, but that's what i hear. good luck!

gull, hire an accountant. you're rich now!

That's awesome, grats!!

Accountants and lawyers are two of the necessary evils that startups should NOT skimp on. They will save you money in the long run.

Nice trick for windows to associate filenames with no extension. Run as admin:

SuperUser Post

Good Going, Gull!!!!!

I think their money is well spent, now you have the verbal backing of a 2+2er.


In other news, my employer hired an idiot web developer.

I'll post more about it later. The short of it is that he doesn't know PHP or SQL, we have to create a whole site from scratch because the moron that did the site before can't (won't) release the files.

My employer wants to build a nice modern, pretty, awesome site and we are dealing with a guy who codes in CSS and HTML. I don't even know if he can do javaScript.

barely finished the last sprint, and a sprint commitment meeting tomorrow morning in just under 8 hours. uuugghh

this is why you have a retrospective so you can say "let's take less work this time!"

This is such a common problem with founder types. In my last business I was very hands off with the money side of things, with the accounting and with the paperwork. I eventually found out that my accounting firm, who was also handling my payroll, was not sending in the proper forms to NY state. I was levied tens of thousands of dollars in fines for that, ouch.

I'd be careful with this attitude. I had it when I sold my last company, and it cost me at least 50k from the sale price of my company. In other words, we had a handshake deal on a price and I think they regarded me as small and green enough that they could just lop 50k from that agreed on price and know that I wouldn't create too much of a problem. I just think always saying, "let me consult with my partner and my lawyer" is a great way of not being fake and puffing up your chest, but also not wearing the huge bullseye of a mark.

Btw, one thing I've learned in my round 2 of entering the startup world is that investors put a HUUUUUGE premium on getting into deals with those that they see as "green". It's basically no different than Durrr jumping in a game with Guy and ripping into his flesh.

Btw, what is your software Gull?

Gadgeteer - programmable electronic gadgets for dummies.