[LRUG] Funding a start-up?

[Matt Wynne]

Hi Ellie,

I was lucky enough to attend last year's free startup school[1] where  
I absorbed a load of information about this process, not much of  
which I can remember now unfortunately!

I think what you're looking for is called 'seed funding' - enough for  
you to mature your 'seed' of an idea into something concrete you  
could show to people.

One thing I did learn from it startup school is that Paul Graham[2]  
is a really nice bloke. Having made his billions selling a startup to  
yahoo, he now runs a VC company for seeding startups called y- 
combinator[3] - it might be worth pitching your idea to him, or at  
least getting in touch to see if he's got any advice: as I say, a  
very nice bloke.

best of luck!
Matt

P.S. After a couple of months of lurking, that was my first post to  
LRUG [bashfull face]. How was it for you?

[1] http://startupschool.org
[2] http://www.paulgraham.com/
[3] http://ycombinator.com/

> On 11 Jan 2007, at 17:26, Chris T wrote:
>> It depends on what sort of funding you're looking for ?10k, ?100k,
>> ?1m,
>> ?10m? Can you give us a ballpark?
>
> Initially about ?100k, maybe less. Enough to allow myself and a
> confederate to code for a year, attend a few related conferences and
> general raise the profile of what we're doing. Probably another ?50k
> for deployment and a marketing budget on top of that.
>
> Ellie
>
>
> Eleanor McHugh
> Games With Brains
> ----
> raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason