LFGSS: Turning a hobby into a technology startup

My next massive expenditure will be three of them, a graphics card and suitable arms to mount them portrait above a standing desk.

Are you building a holodeck?

http://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations

^ anything less than 5 can gtfo

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/282495_10150731129955151_8328837_n.jpg

^ anything less than 5 can gtfo

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/282495_10150731129955151_8328837_n.jpg

pffft.

That's ridiculous. He's even taken the cases off to get them all closer together.

I think I'd wee myself or die of a heart attack if I played a game on something like that.

^ anything less than thunderbird 5 can gtfo

27" at 16:9 is 23.5 x 13.25
19" at 5:4(TFT) is 14.85 x 11.88

So 3 portrait screens would be 33% wider and 100% taller than my current pair of screens. The pixel density would be about the same.

In.
Things I have to donate
1 x 2 drawer filing cabinet (but its beige)
power extensions (lots)
possibly some computer kit
possibly MOC's old desk, but we have to buy a dining table first.

There's a lady who makes good cakes somewhere in the market on Lower Marsh. She sent several along to Londoners on Bikes meetings with Briggy.

Mmmm, cake.

There is a stall down at the bottom end that sells these amazing burritos made with Indian ingredients instead of Tex-Mex - My mouth is watering just thinking of them.

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They work very well for known quantities where the venture can be assessed against a level of known risk and the investment then made.

But if you are a tech startup where you still need to validate the core of the business then you have a lot of unknowns. A single unknown and you'd have a business plan with ranges instead of numbers in answer to the questions. But a collection of unknowns, and a real likelihood that you will pivot towards a different end-point and you find yourself unable to complete a business plan without just cold-faced lying throughout the process.

.... The funding really is: Friends and family, angels, seed investors, venture capitalists.

Annoyingly, whilst £30k is a lot of money, for the angels, seed investors and venture capitalists it's too small to be worth their time. That, and raising £150k to secure £30k continues to seems like a crazy thing to me.

I've only just seen this next stage in this thread and it's really interesting, good luck with it.

Out of curiosity how robustly do you think you could demonstrate the potential value?

You've really hit the nail on the head. The problem is with a small amount of fund raising there's no margin for anyone to help you.

We've had a breif look at the idea of Seed EIS, and from an investors POV it is a really attractive one. But the amounts a way to low to make any margin. The only route around is some form of portfolio, but then there are extra risks, both in keeping the SEIS's separate and distinct and then for whoever has put the portfolio together, because you're then drifting into advice territory.

Still I'd be currious to know if there are enough start-ups in need of <£150k (or whatever the max investment is).

Have you checked whether it's posible to set up the company in a qualifying form so that in the event you want to issue shares it's already in an attractive structure for an investor?

Out of curiosity how robustly do you think you could demonstrate the potential value?

Right now... not very well at all.

I had to split Buro 9 into two companies, one for LFGSS on it's own, and the other for Microcosm.

Effectively Microcosm started on Friday, has no assets, revenue, traction or growth. I'd value it at £20 today.

LFGSS does have all those things, and in time Microcosm will be the new home for LFGSS and take that value with it along with any it can earn in it's own right.

So it will have a lot of value in only a year. Still, that's a year away.

I spoke to an investor earlier (a Silicon Valley one), and his view is that no-one has solved communities yet. No-one, and no piece of software either. He is interested, but won't do anything until I can demonstrate why what I'm doing is different from what has gone before, and why it will work for me when it hasn't worked for others. He even admits suffering the same problems (trying to keep a community of startup alumnis engaged with each other), but until he sees a working solution he doesn't have anything to say this is different from the things that failed before it.

Those are fair concerns, and ultimately get answered by something that can demonstrate it. I need to be building version 1... and I need Matt (the co-founder) to help make that happen.

Ultimately people invest because they believe what you're doing will make them money, or that it will change the world (in a way they want).

Right now I can't prove the former, just the potential for it. And the latter is a belief thing... you lot are better placed than anyone to say whether a community like LFGSS changes people's lives for the better.

List of people who say "Fuck yeah, LFGSS has made (real) life better."

1. Mashton
   2 http://www.lfgss.com/thread4846.html
   3.
   

If I give you 20 more, can I have 50% equity share? ;-) dibs!

And the latter is a belief thing... you lot are better placed than anyone to say whether a community like LFGSS changes people's lives for the better.

Life would be so poorer, diminished, without such vital threads as the hipster thread, the memes, the hip hop sleds, the .gifs, fishy looking bikes, bills 1 star chat, I bin scobled, foffa bikes and of course the cycle training forum. Thank you for all these and so much more

List of people who say "Fuck yeah, LFGSS has made (real) life better."

1. Mashton
   2 http://www.lfgss.com/thread4846.html
   3.
   
   

I was drunk when I posted this. This place sucks.

"it's fucking shit but it's free"?

Says the cunt with a donation star

Hang on, where's mine? Oh, PayPal amount change yeah.

Says the c*nt with a donation star

Donation star?!
I thought is was for us jews.

Again, not in Yiddish?

Count me in for a donation to this project.

Spot Apple - "Apple Forrest Gump" - YouTube

Office looks like this: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a9c832pvsz2tn4j/GPY0jFn_UX/Offices

Painted it today, constructed Ikea desks, storage cupboard, hatstand, etc. Picking up the chairs on Monday and the monitors have been ordered.

Even though the office isn't finished, first day with Matt and I both in and working is tomorrow... Sunday.

Hopefully we'll get a load of the design work done for the APIs.

On more boring news, HSBC haven't yet opened out account, and until they do crowd-funding cannot start.

I nearly got a painting studio there once. It's fun watching the trains.

It's a great space. Full of good energy. And across from velocio's office is someone with a collection of unusual bikes.

oh hey, I know that place, has some interesting artists working up there. I always wonder how long it will last, but nice feeling climbing the stairs.