0 users, $2.5 million for seed

[ashleyisshort]

• We are building a new social media, it’s unique, we have
• very solid pitch,
• Great number calculations, realistic,
• We already invested $20K into the product beta and
• We are a team of 8 - programmers, managers, designers, marketers
  -We have a great board advisory from people working for world-class companies such as Microsoft
• Founders have previous startup experience building products but no exits

We don’t have any users yet, we need to invest a lot into marketing (ofcourse) that’s why we ask for $2.5 million for 10% to run for the 12 months

Is that do able? How does it sound?

 

[rockfish37]

@ashleyisshort No.

 

[ashleyisshort]

@rockfish37 Thanks

 

[margaretjean]

@ashleyisshort $25mil valuation for something with zero users? Maybe in 2021.

 

[ashleyisshort]

@margaretjean Well how else you launch a social media without a ton into ads..

 

[adams17]

@ashleyisshort You launch it on your own dime.

 

[ashleyisshort]

@adams17 Thought about this and honestly this is the other option if we don’t get a good deal..

 

[kisekwa]

@ashleyisshort Keep looking but honestly no one is going to go for that. Ideas don’t sell.

You might have to get the initial traction on your own dime

 

[hiccup]

@ashleyisshort Have your users do the marketing for you, look at bereal and how they did it. They made free content promoting their app on TikTok to get initial users who then enjoyed the app and got their friends to use it who wanted to see what they posted. If you can’t integrate something that makes your app shareable then it won’t do that well even with paid ads

 

[ashleyisshort]

@hiccup We have carefully studied what Bereal has done, most of it was paid marketing

 

[hiccup]

@ashleyisshort Fair enough, best not to try organic social them to promote it

 

[ashleyisshort]

@hiccup Ofcourse, we aiming on Network Effects

 

[humblecat7]

@ashleyisshort Read Reddit's story, and watch facebook's movie for starters

 

[ashleyisshort]

@humblecat7 lol my guy living in 2010.. see how bereal grew.. $$

 

[humblecat7]

@ashleyisshort And how is bereal doing now? What fb and reddit did is 5x easier now, the road is paved. Sounds like you just want to justify taking investment to avoid the hard work. Nobody is saying get to PMF, but SOME kind of traction to validate the concept. I'd say more worryingly is that the founders/"great board" haven't come to this realization before trying to raise $2.5m lol.

 

[valueofliving]

@ashleyisshort Read "The Cold Start Problem". It includes examples of how everyone started a social network and makes it clear that spending a lot of money is not going to win. Facebook: For Harvard students, Uber: area around one university, Tinder: A frat house in a university. Any network needs a core base of very dedicated users that makes sure there is something there. Remember Google Plus, Google Wave, Threads, there is a graveyard of successful social media companies failing to create a social network.

 

[ashleyisshort]

@valueofliving Interesting! Thank you!

 

[loyola]

@ashleyisshort I just raised 2m for around 22% of my company - we already have first clients and a literal Rockstar team from hyper growth startups and the likes of Google Deepmind and OpenAi. It's a hard time to raise, and VCs will definitely not give you such a large amount of cash for marketing. Honestly, based on what you're saying here, I don't think you'd be able to raise anything at all until you prove your concept. There is a HUGE graveyard of "innovative social media" companies and VCs know this better than anyone.