My product* has a huge inherent cold-start hurdle and it's not going anywhere without a funded launch. Unfortunately, the "team" is just me. Accelerators won't take solo founders, I've been unable to find a viable co-founder in my existing network (trust me, I've tried) and I won't partner up with anyone I haven't known for years -- too risky and investors don't like it anyway.
Given my background: proven engineer, "finished" product, long history of entrepreneurship (with some moderate success), solid resume and decent sales ability...
1. How difficult is it to raise money (maybe $250k) as a solo founder without big past successes? "Happens all the time", "nearly impossible" or somewhere in-between?
2. Does it matter that I need the funding almost exclusively for a launch? The only hire would be a launch specialist, possibly on a temporary basis.
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* http://www.words4chrome.com
A friend of mine raised $500k+ by himself outside a major tech hub. However, he already knew these investors well and they're local-yokel D-listers I wouldn't take money from anyway.
I joined as the 3rd person on a pre-money team. Hardly knew one dude, still haven't met the other in person. 6mo into this we got a few bucks from an Angel and 6mo after that we got another Angel.
My experience was that its impossible for solo; but easy for a team. I also firmly believe in the three founder model (biz, sales, tech)
I would be careful calling any investors yokel or D-List. To me investors seem emotionally sensitive. But regardless, economic scarcity is working in their favour so you better come correct to the game.