Do it now! I don't know your life situation but there's no reason why you can't just continue to try and validate the idea by generating a few early leads and seeing what people are willing to pay before launching into your first project?
Still gather cash flow generating assets for your mom business; such as mortgages, bonds, and other types of debt/s and repackage them into discrete classes based on the level of credit risk assumed by you as an investor. Then you can help your mom get her business publicly trade.
It can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be. For my first startup we have a few board members, compensation was .5 to 1% equity for monthly meetings vested at 1 year. They are advisors and as such you should ask them what they expect from you, you from them and provide a framewor...
If you have an existing space, why not consider leveraging the current tenants for part of the money needed? Spend some money (tenants can pitch in for that instead) in a fundraising party! Invite local band, caterer (ask for discount in exchange of promotion) have some context for the event suc...
What kind of Culture do you want your company to exemplify? Culture being the shared values - a sense of right and wrong - and principles - guidelines for taking action - of any collective group, what you actually would like to analyze more deeply is...yourself. In the startups I have mentored...
I've been a co-founder of three ventures and have had to negotiate ownership stakes with my partners for each one. I've also conducted intellectual property diligence, as a consultant to IP/M&A attorneys, for multiple multi-million dollar software M&A deals. As Stoney said, it's a bit hard to co...
I founded a VC fund and successfully backed over two dozen startup, seed and early stage ventures. There is a "new" type of security called a SAFE which allows you to raise money and to put off the valuation until the professionals come in on an A round. Failing that you can offer a simple propo...
The easiest way to promote on a shoestring budget is guest posts. Write about the problem your app solves on sites where your target customers will read them. Make sure you've got a strong marketing funnel for the people who click through your articles — if you're not capturing leads properly (...
I very rarely recommend display ads for user acquisition (and I'd be hesitant to call this a growth hack!), but because your product is very visual in nature and you're targeting users of one specific site, it might be worth testing an ad campaign through the Google Display Network, using managed...
External investors are doing their jobs, they are just concerned about the financials of the startup. That is why it is very important to clarify in detail the roles, responsabilities, deliverables, dates, etc.. before close the deal, in order to agreed those point of possible conflict with a ri...