is it wise to build an early team if you don't have funding?

Question

I've been a bit in between, wondering if it's wise to even try to build a team. First, I am building a hardware startup- I am a generalist, I feel like without a tech person in my team, no investor will take us seriously. But on the other hand, I have no idea how to find people that are willing to work on equity only in order for us to even be able to get to the part where we fundraise. Advice?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely you need a tech based co founder to be successful in both your business and fundraising. But keep the team size as small as you can.
You may find him/her on startup events.

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@katyaveremeichik thank you! I've been getting the same instinct, especially given that I don't want to just give away a lot of equity to an investor and roll with it. I kind of want to have things sorted pre-money. So I'll try finding and contacting more professionals!

Deep Sherchan · Answer

If you don't have a strong connection with the investor network or startup community, then it is worth building your network - joining hardware FB groups in your locality, meetups and so on. These are a great place to find your co-founders, like-minded people and get a general sense of what is happening in your industry.

Also at the same time working on the prototype of your product. If you have no skill set to build the product then you definitely need to find someone. But before that, you need to invest in understanding your market. Rather than going to investors, I would recommend going towards your target customers and building enough market intelligence and documentation. This will ensure that at least when you find someone to build the product or invest, you know what exactly to do. I am not sure how much of product plan or marketing insights, you have developed. But that is a priority, as you don't want to invest on a tech person and burn out going through multiple iterations of the product without know what you are building.

Deep Sherchan · Answer

@andreea_bunica thanks for sharing more details. well, it is a tricky situation. Bringing anyone on board whom you don't know properly, even if they are really good at what they do is difficult. I don't have much info into hardware community, myself. But I guess the only thing you can do is keep the search on because it seems even if you do get the funding, you would not have anyone to help you complete the project.

Baptiste N · Answer

@andreea_bunica a pleasure. I'd also recommend to look at other "engaged" community such as Product Hunt and Indie Hackers.
Good luck with that!

nick math · Answer

I know are acceptable in the region I need on LinkedIn and be a flat out jerk checking whether they'd need to team up in case of getting financing https://esurveyfaqs.com/kohls-feedback/

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@klaaz0r I might go and stalk some people I know are good in the area I need on LinkedIn and be an absolute creep seeing if they'd want to collaborate in the event of getting funding.

Katya Veremeichik · Answer

I think it's more than wise to have a professional enthusiastic team before you even start looking for funding. Working for perspective rather tan money is something that only co-foundship can allow. So if you feel like you're not enough qualified to cover certain parts of your project, it's best to find someone with an expertise and share profits on mutually beneficial conditions if (or rather when) they happen. Pitch your idea to some professionals and see what you can come up with!

ray_heriel · Answer

@rajool Thank you for this tip.

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@danyubmustefa I did, but I can only offer equity/ profit share so no one really replied!

Baptiste N · Answer

I recommend to look for love money (funds from friends and family) first. You can then look for freelances (Upwork, Fiver, Angelist, LinkedIn, ...). After hiring your first freelance, you make sure you're a good fit together. Once you're convinced, you propose equity + a fixed salary if this freelance is willing to work full-time AND is motivated/driven by the project.

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@deep_sherchan I've been working on this for about 3 months now, and most of what I did was just that so far. I'm working on developing a community and a brand, as well as open-sourcing the first prototype and sharing it in the maker space. My business model is something like what Prusa did. Now, I've built the first hardware prototype myself, but I am struggling with the software, especially as I want it to be a custom Android platform for people to be able to develop their own AR applications on top of (I am building an AR pocket projector enabling wearable and screen free remote interactions, I haven't mentioned). The problem is I need someone that actually knows their way around software to help with all of this, as I am taking very long doing it myself and I also started to realize it's not sustainable long-term. I have some interest from angel investors and hardware accelerators, but personally, I am not sure I should jump to the next stage until I build a team I can trust (and building a team is confusing for me as I don't have any friends/ connections I could contact, so I'm left with the world wide internet trying to find some early people)

Klaas Foppen · Answer

Well you can build a team without starting straight away right? Why not get a team together and see if they are interested (the first pitch you have to give is to the founding/first members)

Once they give you a go you can start searching for funding

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@baptiste_ncls thanks for the advice! I've basically posted an equity only job on AngelList but no one replied as expected. I'm not in a position where I can get love money necessarily, but I am planning on open-sourcing the first prototype and sharing it to the maker community, so I thought maybe I could find some people to collaborate for the sake of open-source, but except for reddit subthreads and slack channels, I am a bit out of ideas where to find these guys too.

Andreea Bunica · Answer

@rajool thanks!

is it wise to build an early team if you don't have funding?

Replies