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Can one raise funds for a product without a design?

I have been working with a co-founder that I found on AngelList. He has an idea that he feels is very useful.

After a few months, I got his confidence, I asked to see the design of his idea. (I signed a NDA). He sent me a word file that sounds a lot like a typical product description on Amazon for any product.

There are no wireframes nor details of any kind that specifically explain how the product looks, what components it includes and what exactly they do. No diagrams.

His idea sounds interesting to me but I have no way to know if it would be workable and if it would do what one would expect.

Based on my previous questions that were answered on this list, I would think that order should something like this.

  1. Find a concept that makes sense why it would make things better for people in a practical way.
  2. Develop a realistic design for a product.
  3. See if there is a demand for it.
  4. Make a pitch and a prototype that works enough to convince series A and VC’s to invest.
  5. Get funding to get the product into production.
  6. Manufacture.
  7. Market.
  8. Sell the product.

I would love to hear peoples’ thoughts on how to asses whether or not to proceed with this startup based on what I’ve written.

If people think that it’s normal to do things this way, I would like to know if it make sense to even to try to raise money without a design. That is why my co-founder would like to do now. He wants me to sign up to accelerators and try to get funding.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Answer 11757

You could succeed in getting funding based upon your or your co-founder’s track record and pitching a conceptual solution. I personally would want to see at a prototype if I were going to invest. I think that would be a common expectation, but there are always some people who will invest without - you may just get a worse investment deal.

With the kind of product you are talking about why not go to a rapid prototype design shop? Get them to put a model together and then use that. If there are special heating elements to the concept then you could consider patent protection as a way of increasing likelihood of a funding. However, it also depends on whether patent protection or funding access is something that your prospective accelerators would offer. Then it would make sense to try and join quickly.

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