Can anyone recommend an investor for IT projects?

[NorksBrideOHara]

We were due £50k of American funding for an IT project (the sort that you build and then sell to Yahoo/Google within 6 months for a quick profit) but it's just fallen through.

Anyone know any banks/investment companies specialising in this at the moment? It needs to be fast or someone else will build the software before we do.

TIA

I think you want venture capitalists for this, don't you? My DH deals with a lot of VCs, checking projects etc. Are you looking for a British one?

We are UK based so yes, probably British although we have clients all over the world and are happy to take anyone's money .

We've spoken to our bank but they are way too slow.

Banks don't do things like this. VCs do, but for a % of the project, not for interest, iyswim. I can ask DH if he can point you at any VCs. Or if you web search for venture capital?

Have you done this sort of thing before? Who were you meant to be getting funding from? I think VCs are more into longer term stuff than this ... and of course copywriting software is very tricky ...

Our bank has a business manager that can put us on to VCs, business angels etc. But they haven't got back to us yet this week.

Copyrighting software is a waste of time, that's why we need to be quick.

We've had minor investments over the past 10 years but this project is the best thing we've ever thought of.

We were getting £50k in return for 30%. The investor was a senior partner in a very well known dot.com - but he's been diagnosed with cancer and has pulled out. He reckoned Yahoo/Google etc would pay around £10m in 3-6 months time. It's a fast buck.

DH beside me now. He says you want an angel, VCs won't touch you for £50K. (All the ones he knows work with £50M-type amounts.)

He is muttering to himself now. More to follow. Ah, apparently the DTI have something? I bet they'd be slow, too.

I think he's a bit confused. He thinks if you need 50K, you should go to friends and family - make the same deal to them, get 10 people to put in 5K each.

He doesn't really see why you'd need to arrange such a small amount. Do you need equipment?

Here is a page for Northern Ireland for grants and so on. He thinks this might be the way to go? You might be able to get a grant for the money, if you'll employ people?

I don't think you're in northern ireland - You need to find the 'regional development agency enterprise zone' for where you are, obviously.

DTI - appallingly slow, we spoke to them years ago and they kept comparing our business to a curry shop ? We'd just finished building the platform for BT's Talk21 site so we were already 'bluechip' and they were, technically, out of their depth but wouldn't admit it. Anyway...

No we're not Ireland, we're England and no we won't be employing any additional staff.

£50k is in part for the global servers we'll need to service the product and the rest is developers' salary.

We'd stump up ourselves but have sunk everything into two other projects at the moment. We're having something of a brainstorm of ideas at the moment and I don't want any of them to get away!

I'd go to friends and family if you can? Or get an extra mortgage, and keep the money yourself?

I am now of course terribly nosy about what the product is.

I really miss coding.

Stephen says 3i do some small vc stuff, and growth capital. Here .

Stephen = DH. I am doing this thread, a relationship one, and a female ejaculation one, all at once. Just be glad I haven't made bigger errors.

I'd hate to ask friends just in case it was an unmitigated disaster (never had one before but there's a first time for everything).

Am toying with the idea of asking mother or FIL, not very comfortable with it though tbh. Not sure why - probably something boring like 'losing my independence'!

Thanks for your advice, and DHs'.

Stop distracting me with tales of other threads!

Am off to look at the 3i site. Cheers!

Well, if you ask 5 people for 10K each or 10 people for 5K each, then the risk of disaster is smaller, iyswim.

Do you have coders working from home? Or is it all central?

I'm guessing the product isn't security-oriented? I ask because that's DH's area.

Oh, DH knows a company who tracks people who invest in things. But I think it's people investing in security and green things.

He says you want Microsoft millionaires, Google bods, etc etc.

No, not security. It's a very web2 product and we're doing quite a lot of virtualisation at the moment as well.

All our developers work from home. Our current clients are in US, Chile & Dubai - so being in London pretty pointless.

What skillset do you look for?

I am not a webby programmer (I do C/C++/a bit of java ... or I used to. Last job was Goldman Sachs.). But I do have a very good local friend who is, and is a lovely bloke besides, and who would like part-time or from-home sort of work. I think.

Difficult to say - the core team all use Linux/Gnu, Java, C, HTML, Debian, DB2, CSS, Mozilla, Exim etc. They've worked with each other for years and tend to learn new skills very often and very quickly (bloody geeks, they all left me far behind when I had the DCs ).

We hate Microsoft a lot and don't run a single MS product on any of our kit.

If we can keep everything moving over the next few months we will have a HUGE project coming up towards the end of the year and we'll probably need to employ some new staff for that. So keep prodding me! It will be very virtual! It will be sensational!

How sad am I?!

Are you still looking? This guardian article mentioned this website, which sounds like it might be what you want? A sort of speed dating for investors.

Thanks NQC. I'll have a look - liking the sound of speed-dating for investors! Although, as of last week, we have another backer (American again) which seems to be progressing nicely atm.

Ah, there you are, I had got you confused with MascaraOHara. Anyway, another option for finding investors is always good.

I had a tiny glance at the website, and unfortunately it's wanktastic (giant animated whatever intro, nothing else there?).