Can a solopreneur get investors support and mentorship?

Shubham Pratap Singh
13 replies

Replies

Pranab Buragohain
Absolutely! While being a solopreneur allows you the flexibility of taking your own decisions (and fast), I personally feel getting a co-founder is important once you've reached certain milestones, say for instance, an MVP. It also shows investors one's ability to find the right people to slowly build a team, apart from helping with division of work for better efficiency.
Yasharth Mishra
I might have a contrarian view here but I believe it is important to say so Shubham knows what to expect. Fundraising is hard. Especially from institutional investors. They see thousands of pitches and 90%+ times say no. Typically to build a business you need multiple skill sets like building product, sales, marketing etc and it is extremely rare to find all skills in one person. You do need a team most of the time, and VCs expect a solid founding team in place. Not only to bridge the skill gaps but also for motivation - things do go wrong and having supporting partners always helps. Hence, if you are a solopreneur, you would be starting at a disadvantage. So my recommendation would be to either build a solid team first or have solid metrics around growth and traction before you fundraise. This of course applies if you are looking for institutional investors. If you are looking to raise from friends/ family/ angels who know you and your capabilities very well, it could be different. All the best!
Shubham Pratap Singh
Thank you @yasharth02 . And i completely agree having a team is really important for growth and success. :)
Daniel
Yes definitely, a solopreneur can definitely get investors and a mentor. You have to take into consideration that having investor is very hard to find and even if you get a yes from an investor do not always jump on the idea and instead make sure you picked the best investor for your company. When making a pitch to investor it is important to show that you are serious with what you are doing an if you haven't launched yet to show that over 100 individuals or in the waiting list to use your technology. When finding an investor keep in mind that most investors invest in your startup idea because for them, they want to generate more money from your idea. If they see the potential after idea and they see that many people are ready to pay for tool, they most likely tend to say yes then no.
Shubham Pratap Singh
Thanks for sharing this @daniel112 . As an early stage startup founder will you focus on user acquisition first or pitch your product to investors ?
Daniel
@shubham_pratap Both are important, but your investor should see the potential of your business, and especially he can make more and how he can help you. I tip, many people have money but you need to find the angle/VC with startup knowledge and network, so don't hunt for a doctor than give you a lot of money find the one that knows your industry, even if it's less money his network and knowledge will make you more .
Ahmed M. Hussien
Absolutely! As a solopreneur, you may think that going it alone is the only way to go, but that's not necessarily the case. Many investors are eager to support and mentor solopreneurs who have a clear vision for their business and a solid plan for growth. With the right approach and a compelling pitch, you can attract the attention and support of investors
Shubham Pratap Singh
Thanks for sharing this @a_hussein , do you know any specific platform for solopreneurs to showcase their idea/MVP or product ?
Yavuz Tunc Emran
Tamly: Automate B2B Sales Outreach
Tamly: Automate B2B Sales Outreach
Being a solopreneur is a serious red flag for investors. However, if you are already making a lot of money by yourself and you just need money to scale it I guess that might be a lot different. When it comes to mentorship, everyone can be a mentor it doesn't mean that's the mentorship you need. A lot of people judge your company in 10 minutes and try to give you constructive criticism without knowing all of the factors that go in the market. When we talk about mentorship, it is maybe even harder to find than investors. You need a person who knows everything to know in your field. That person is most likely killing it in the market so he/she wouldn't have spare time for you. So mentorship is about trying to convince one person into seeing each periodically even though it is very hard to create that time for anyone. As a result of this, the mentor would need to see some validation to your ideas so that it would be worth his/her time.
Shubham Pratap Singh
Agree @tunc_emran , having a right mentor who understands the field is really important for right direction and growth. Thanks for your advice :)