Have you tried y combinator?
Do you have connections with your state small business people?
Do your clients have glowing reviews written down and available to share?

Wrong question
What you should be asking is:
>”Can you make it if you have to deal in the real world?”

>>62228023
In short: yes, or at least I believe so.
Here's the thing anon; If you don't have the grit to make it in spite of all of the odds against us these days, you're NVGMI.
Maybe I'm wrong and we're both fucked. But I'm right about one thing for certain: even if we are fucked only someone who pushed any way would ever get there.
Now tell me what you're company does so I can steal your idea plz :3

>>62228030
>Have you tried y combinator?
Yes, I applied 2 weeks ago for their Summer batch. Should maybe hear back June 5th. We'll see.
>Do you have connections with your state small business people?
Problem is I am in Europe and everyone has paper hands over here. Raising money is extremely difficult, most investors offer really bad conditions and EU/government funding is insanely time consuming, complicated and offers very little money.
>Do your clients have glowing reviews written down and available to share?
I am currently working on improving my businesses online presence. Since I am in B2B online presence was not really top priority for now. But I do have good feedback so far.

>>62228023
You have shitty social capital. If you were doing it right you just chat up the boys and Uncle Joe for your friends and family round. Shit goes well with the $500k they give you ($100k is basically just a nice watch or two weeks vacation so it's nbd with multiple people cutting checks) so Uncle Joe goes to his VC firm and introduces you and they take it from there.

Try networking. Actually meeting people and getting to know them.

>>62228058
>You have shitty social capital.
Yes, I do unfortunately. Truthfully, I have very few connections and all clients I have right now required insane amounts of effort to acquire, but I can see that this thing is scaling.
> If you were doing it right you just chat up the boys and Uncle Joe for your friends and family round.
Yes, I could probably gather quarter mil from friends/relatives. My goal here primarily is to establish connections in the VC world, which my family/friends have no connections to.
>Try networking. Actually meeting people and getting to know them.
That is what I focus on now, I just struggle to figure out the correct approach.

>>62228053
> I'm in Europe
Ah, sorry bro. I don't have much actionable advice then.
I will say though, 4 months is EXTREMELY young for investment in my experience. I work with small businesses and a handful of start ups. All of them were at least 3yrs old before they got their first round, some even 5+.
Get your social capital up, get marketing going, don't stop applying and reaching out.
> Correct approach
Go to events, introduce yourself and like 5 words about what you do, ask what other people do and really listen to them.
If you're smart you can figure out if they're a decent potential client. If you're not smart IDK what to tell you.

>>62228101
>All of them were at least 3yrs old before they got their first round,
Interesting. In what stages were these companies as far as revenue goes ? Any specific metrics you looked for ?

>4 months is EXTREMELY young for investment in my experience.
Yes, it is young. The reason I started reaching out to VCs this early is because that is the message many VCs/Accelerators put out there (make an MVP, get revenue, apply for funding early, scale, etc.).

>Go to events, introduce yourself
Thanks anon. I sort of came to the same conclusion earlier. Will be traveling quite a bit for variety of related events this year so hopefully something will come out of it.

>>62228023
Yeah idk talk to a bank if you have such good numbers. When I went on the VC circuit in the mid 20teens for a biotech startup the reality was anything involving “physical” technology was a huge Nono. All they wanted to invest in were wizkids who could crank out a billion dollar app on a laptop and some pizza.
AI is demanding in terms of chips, and “hiring people” is a major turnoff for investors.
I’m not saying it’s right, in fact it’s exactly why China is kicking our ass and taking names in literally every sector bar theoretical physics, but capitalist gonna maximalize capital.

Fuckers

>>62228023
not sure, but it might be worth getting a credit report from Dun & Bradstreet and then looking at how to improve your business credit score.

I don't know about VC but I'm pretty sure banks and other companies look at your D&B report. If you're not reporting earnings they sorta don't exist. The flip side is if you're reporting earnings you owe taxes. But at $20k per month I'd hope you're hiring accountants and paying taxes already.

a US biz needs to be reporting US earnings and paying US taxes to get on the radar.

Buy $TOSHI you dumb fuck
Memecoins are your only chance and desu Toshi is superior to all other memes. Nothing else has the upside potential and the groundwork laid.

>>62228023
also worth pointing out that banks and other investors often want 3 YEARS of earnings before investing or loaning money.

At 4 months you might be a really great investment, but you might also be a flash in the pan that will be gone in a year. Either way you're extremely risky to bet on because you're so new.

>>62228127
To clarify, I'm not in the investing industry. I'm a consultant for small/med businesses and that's as much detail as I would like to provide.
I'm not aware of their revenue at the time of their initial investments, but most were just recently breaking 1 mil annual revenue when I started working with them.
Starting to reach out this early is the correct thing to do, just don't get discouraged. If you're reaching out to the same investor a year from now, that would be encouraging to them that you're still going. Even if they never replied, it's still building rapport.
Hell, some people I know won't respond for months just because they're busy not because they aren't interested.

>>62228023
>Honestly, can you even make it in Silicon Valley (and VC world in general) as a non-jew, non-Ivy league, Eastern European ?
Obviously not. When did you think someone who doesn't go to the synagogue could make it?
You deal in the real world, goyim.

Hows you social media marketing/shilling? If you dont have an active and somewhat curated profile on xitter (esp. for tech related solutions), it will be very difficult to get signiticant exposure and get noticed by some VC bigwigs , as silly as it sound but a big part of startup financing is done via DM sliding today

Also try to expanding your MRR, if you still in Evropa then 20k MRR is an insanely good number and you can live like a poverty king here if you scale it decently, additionally with the European Digital Sovereignty shift you chances could be even better if you manage to market it smartly

>>62228023

What AI startup, retard?

What can you even show that Stanford/MIT grads and alumni can't do in a week?

Do you fucking have any idea what kind of talent pool is just in these two universities? And there are also Caltech, CMU, Cornell, etc.

And there tens of thousands of are ex-es: ex-googlers, ex-meta, ex-whatever.

So what have you to show? An ipython netebook with some pytorch shit?

Touch some grass, retard.

>>62228023
> 20k monthly recurring revenue
> can't get investors
What are you even talking about? What do you need investors for unless you your expenses are over your revenue? If you are just burning cash, that's the answer.

Nam to ne pizdi.

> Problem is I am in Europe and everyone has paper hands over here. Raising money is extremely difficult, most investors offer really bad conditions and EU/government funding is insanely time consuming, complicated and offers very little money.
So now you are getting to the core if the issue - yea, it's harder to get investment while you are in Europe.

>Yes, I could probably gather quarter mil from friends/relatives. My goal here primarily is to establish connections in the VC world, which my family/friends have no connections to.
That's what a friends & family round is anyway, makes it more likely to get VC money.

Again, if you actually have 20k revenue and you didn't just buy all your users and it's not all transient, you will get investments at the first major investment event you go to.

>>62230548
It doesn't matter what the tech is if he has 20k real revenue a month. The issue is that it's probably all bought clicks. Otherwise he would self fund.

>>62228036
And the answer is no. By definition practically, no.

>>62228023
>What am I doing wrong
You were born as a Straight, White Male.
>You have shitty social capital
This is to say, in the new Western Liberal system, only certain social pedigrees are allowed to advance.

>>62228023
Investors are herd animals. They wait for a lead investor to believe in you. Most don't understand the technical side of what you do and whether you or your business model are sustainable. You have no history (how you deal with difficult business problems), didn't move to a startup hub ("low effort"), you're not introduced by someone they know and trust (warm intro).
4 months provide not enough data points. $500k may be even too little, that's rather angel investment territory.
Rather build and grow your business than try to get VC money with the odds against you for now. Once you have some track record and significant $$$, more will listen.

Also (don't be discouraged by the author) this Friday evening read,

https://playbook.samaltman.com/

>>62230548
>What can you even show that Stanford/MIT grads and alumni can't do in a week?
OP here, Most of them have no revenue, just a shitty idea and shitty MVP. If you think scaling any AI startup is easy you are delusional and going to MIT or being ex-google is little advantage when getting clients, it only helps getting investors money. Having the revenue I have in that little time puts me in top 5% of all the startups. You are basically confirming what I was saying in the original post (am not a jew and/or didn't go to ivy-league).

>So what have you to show? An ipython netebook with some pytorch shit?
Real product, customers, demand and fast traction. Something that unironically most of the MIT/Ivy League fags don't have (most of them just have a shitty website and 0 revenue when they apply for funding.)

>>62230633
>What do you need investors for unless you your expenses are over your revenue?
To scale faster. Getting in these investor networks opens opportunities to deploy my product in more companies they already funded &have connections to. That is why most startups go for funding. Its actually not even about the money but about the doors it opens for you.

>Again, if you actually have 20k revenue and you didn't just buy all your users and it's not all transient, you will get investments at the first major investment event you go to.
I do and already mentioned to another anon I am going to bunch of events in SF later this year. The problem was cold outreach to investors has shown to mostly be a waste of time.

>It doesn't matter what the tech is if he has 20k real revenue a month. The issue is that it's probably all bought clicks. Otherwise he would self fund.
It's B2B sector I can't buy some "clicks" or users. You are making incorrect assumptions. I have real clients and contracts in place.

>>62231243
Thanks for the insight anon. This is actually useful advice. Thanks for the link as well, I read through it quite some time ago I believe.

>>62231340
>To scale faster. Getting in these investor networks opens opportunities to deploy my product in more companies they already funded &have connections to. That is why most startups go for funding. Its actually not even about the money but about the doors it opens for you.
This isn't an answer. I am very familiar with how ycombinator and other accelerators work. The reality is that you can "scale faster" if you can acquire customers that fast or want to monopolize the market. OR if you need large capital investments like a factory / data center.

Based on everything you said (which is very little), your only cost is hosting, services (OAuth, payments, geoloc, KYC, etc). None of those need funds. If you have 20k revenue in 4 months, you should easily be be at 200k by the end of the year without funding.

> It's B2B sector I can't buy some "clicks" or users. You are making incorrect assumptions. I have real clients and contracts in place.

If this is all true, ya tebe naidu investorov blyat zavtra. Ser'ezno, tvoya istoriya ne ochen svyazivaetsya.

Doxuya ludei xotyat investirovat v normalnie startapy, a to chto ty opisal, eto prymo axuetelno - tochno est kakaya ta zagvozdka o kotoroi ti ne govorish.

If you aren't a real slav, run that through GPT. But yea, put together a 10-slide powerpoint, go to an investor event and you will get funded for a mil or two in 5 minutes. You aren't telling us something, and your business isn't that secret. And if it's "that secret", then it's what the trolling anon said - you will get copied immediately.

I literally know a construction slav who is putting a mil into a "lost and found" app right now. I am sure he would rather invest in you if you aren't bsing.

>>62230540
>Hows you social media marketing/shilling?
Really poor unfortunately. Since I am in B2B and due to the nature of my product I had very little reason to market it online so far. X does make sense for AI/tech related stuff and I am already focusing on this.

>Also try to expanding your MRR
20k MRR but the profit is about 8-10k. I am putting most of it back in the business now.

>if you still in Evropa
My problem is just the shitty attitude, laziness and slow moving pace of the European market and people in general. The American market just moves and scales quickly. I had some really poor experiences with European-based investors as well unfortunately. Truthfully, I want to get out of here as soon as I have the chance. There is a reason why our founders move the fuck out of here.

>>62231399
>I am very familiar with how ycombinator and other accelerators work.
Honestly no, you don't sound really familiar. I spoke to a handful of people who get into YC and for many startups their first and/or major clients come from the YC network. The point is you can easily approach fellow YC startups and pitch your services. Not to mention the entire network is deeply connected into the entire Silicon Valley network and god knows how many other investors. It could be said the entire point of YC is to polish your startup in the 3 months and put you in front of investors on the "Demo Day" to raise more money &gain exposure to other businesses. It basically validates your entire startup and makes pitching a lot easier.

>You aren't telling us something, and your business isn't that secret.
since this is 4chan I intentionally don't want to disclose too much about the business because you could easily figure it out but there are many costs (token cost, some outsourcing, etc). With all the expenses I am looking at ~10k/month.

>go to an investor event
Yes, I mentioned to other anons that is what I will do. I relied on cold outreach for now and it showed very little results. Thanks anyway anon.

>>62231482
You are stating that you have a profit of 10k a month. What you haven't answered is what you need the money for. 10k a month is enough to do almost anything you want - you can hire a marketing team in Europe to run serious campaigns for less.

Like let's say you got 200-400k NOW at a 2 mil valuation, what are you going to do with it?

What you are describing this whole thread is a business that doesn't need any funding. You can outright hire a team with the money you have and you don't have any capital expenses.

Token cost is variable on business and directly tied to your model.

I assume you don't speak kazap/ hohol, correct?

>Honestly no, you don't sound really familiar.
lol

>>62231531
> What you haven't answered is what you need the money for.
I admit I have not really explained it clearly earlier. The money is not the priority right now. As you said I can self fund just fine. I could raise maybe 300k from friends/family if I wanted to if needed. The point is to get into the accelerator/VC networks which in turn makes it easier to pitch to their business networks &larger enterprises. TLDR I don't have the social proof and it is limiting the potential of the business.

>Like let's say you got 200-400k NOW at a 2 mil valuation, what are you going to do with it?
Mainly hire sales people and hire a few tech people to help deploy the tech for clients.

>I assume you don't speak kazap/ hohol, correct?
No, I am west slav.

>>62231587
> Mainly hire sales people and hire a few tech people to help deploy the tech for clients.
You have the money to do that now, though you might need some east slavs. You can get an east slav senior that speaks english, has a decade of experience, and can do whatever the fuck basic-ass shit you are doing to connect their enterprise to your AI/MCP middle layer and/or set up RBAC for your agents and get them "on the network" (which is not really true, since it will be VPN / ExpressRoute, but whatever).

> The point is to get into the accelerator/VC networks which in turn makes it easier to pitch to their business networks &larger enterprises.
That is literally YCombinator or similar - most VCs won't get you into those doors.

But yea, if you are really at that scale, I DON'T know how that works. I just know that people with 500 mil net worth generally won't be able to get you into those doors magically, BUT if those corporations really need the product, it should sell itself.

If you are expect to be in on the Oracle -> CoreWeave -> NVIDIA circle jerk, you are lying to yourself.

Note, while my posts are aggressive, I am actually not intentionally trolling. Saying what I think is objectively true. My only advice is you absolutely have money for a team, and if you got 300k from family, that's enough to pay a slav team for a year or two.

>trying to work within the system
KEKAROO
No wonder white men are so fucking poor and childless.

>>62231654

>That is literally YCombinator or similar - most VCs won't get you into those doors.
True. That is why I mostly gave up on European investors and solely focus on Silicon Valley based VCs and accelerators at this point.

I do appreciate your insights. I just happen to see it differently from my point of view and what the limiting factor seems to be when going forward and trying to scale. Thanks anon.