[ExI] Kickstarter (was Re: RES: Written for another list)

Kelly Anderson kellycoinguy at gmail.com
Thu Aug 2 22:49:42 UTC 2012


On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 8:24 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:51:48AM -0300, Henrique Moraes Machado wrote:
>
>> Have you tried kickstarter? Kidding (or am I?). I'd really love to see that
>> happen in my life time.
>
> Kickstarter hasn't yet broken into high GUSD to TUSD fundraising regime yet.

It doesn't matter.

In fund raising circles, there is an early round called "Friends and
Family" or "Doctors and Dentists"... and Kickstarter is more than
sufficient for raising capital for that first round, so long as there
is advertised that further rounds will be necessary and raised once
the concept is proven using this first round money.

Kickstarter would almost certainly get you enough money to determine
if there is an error in the math. And if there isn't, and you can
prove it with current technology, you won't be able to beat off the
venture capitalists that will be beating down your door.

The key for that first round (in addition to proving the concept in
more concrete terms) is to fill out an executive suite with key
players that have previous experience (and success) with making money
for venture capitalists. The due diligence of a venture capitalist is
nothing compared to the due diligence that these guys will do on you
from inside your company... If those smart first business people
believe in your story after a few months of kicking it around, then
the venture people will believe it too.

Don't be an idealist, hire people with a history of successfully
dealing with venture before. Preferably in the energy arena. Look for
a venture fund that is focused on energy, preferably green energy (if
such a fund exists), then look for the big successes in their
collection of companies, and send a professional head hunter after the
executives in those companies. Be very aggressive in hiring those
people, and if you succeed in hiring someone that the venture people
have made money off of before, then you're in!

Don't try to be the president of this company yourself. You just be
the technology guy. Stay humble, the VCs like that.

-Kelly



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list