venture-capital, crowd-funding, business-capitalI’m starting a software project which will include hardware part later on as I progress.
I need some startup fund to cover additional programmers, hardware engineers and marketing need. (I’m a software dev, know nothing about hardware.)
Should I go with Kickstarter or VC? And why?
Both have merits.
Having angels and VCs around means you get some support in various forms in addition to money, at the cost of some - and potentially a lot of - oversight. Angels and very early stage VCs (and family/friends) are, frankly, the only ones who will fund a project at the idea stage.
A Kickstarter’s main merit is that you’re accountable to no one but your backers/clients. You can’t just organize a Kickstarter though: a project’s likelihood to get funded materially increases if it’s in an advanced enough state that you can show the deliverable that your backers will get. When it’s still in ideation, reputation counts a lot. A few tips if you try it regardless:
https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/4098/types-of-incentives-for-powerful-crowdfunding/
https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/5329/bootstrap-marketing-activities-before-crowdfunding/
In practice, ideally find a cofounder or two (e.g. business, then hardware) and bootstrap the project on your own dime. There’s no better backer for a project than paying users, and you should really focus on identifying (and closing) the latter before starting resource intensive developments, as they’ll give you priceless insights on what your market actually values.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.