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I have been working on this project for a while now and it has got to the stage where the website needs to be developed for the business to start and grow.
All information is on the holding page I created for investment and partners to look at: www.clifface.com
If you would like to know more then please find more information on the website or email me on beat@clifface.com
I am offering a stake of 20% for the development of the website and partnership.
Read the link Fumigator posted, that puts the car comment into context. Basically he is saying that doing 98% of the work for 20% of money that might never appear isn't a very good deal.
I read your holding page, it sounds like you know what you want built, I highly recommend just hiring a web developer. You can still offer a cut of future profits but you'll get a much better developer if you are willing to put up some money up front. And since your entire idea revolves around this website working really well, you don't want to cheap out on a developer.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GRobertson
What are you talking about a car?
Its a website I need built for my company?
Grant
Yeah you're right, I didn't convey my point very well at all. I was trying to compare your request to a request to design and build a car, or any complex product, for free, on the promise of 20% equity in a company that may never make a dime. If you were in the business of designing and building cars, you'd never accept that offer, not in a million years. So don't be surprised when you don't get a web developer to accept the same offer from you.
I understand where you are coming from but someone may have an interest in the company and a piece of it and therefore would like to offer their services to get involved like I will be offering a lot of my services to the business. i.e. Marketing, PR and business knowledge.
What you are trying to say is that the website is 100% of the company and I have noticed a lot of businesses get discredited for this. You are right it is a part of the business but once it is running the business has a lot of work work behind it and even before it is built. Building a website is probably only 10% of the work that goes into creating a business that is different, unique and will capture an audience enough to make it a success. Which is why I feel 20% is fair for their expertise in their field of business and I accompany that with all the legwork and business behind it.
Location: Utah, USA, Northwestern hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Alpha Quadrant
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You're absolutely right. And based on this, I would suggest you need to model the offer to parallel the workload. Something like, 80% equity for the first year, drops to 40% equity the second year, 20% the third year, and either none or 5-10% beyond that. Oh and the equity reductions only happen if the agreed-upon revenue projections are met.
Or, just pay for the work up front and keep all the equity for yourself.
I understand where you are coming from but someone may have an interest in the company and a piece of it and therefore would like to offer their services to get involved like I will be offering a lot of my services to the business. i.e. Marketing, PR and business knowledge.
What you are trying to say is that the website is 100% of the company and I have noticed a lot of businesses get discredited for this. You are right it is a part of the business but once it is running the business has a lot of work work behind it and even before it is built. Building a website is probably only 10% of the work that goes into creating a business that is different, unique and will capture an audience enough to make it a success. Which is why I feel 20% is fair for their expertise in their field of business and I accompany that with all the legwork and business behind it.
Regards,
Grant
What leg work is it that you are doing?
Unless I missed it, I don't see any mention of what exactly this project is all about. If it were manufacturing a widget, marketing that widget, and then providing a web portal for sales of said widget then your 20% revenue for the website might make sense. From what I see though it's all intellectual property and IT. A virtually zero-overhead trade of some sort where the website IS basically the entire business. Can you elaborate on your project a bit to explain your rationale?
You have identified your target audience: teenagers. And you have mentioned several popular kiddie websites (like Facebook and YouTube) that you intend to compete with directly - and on that strength alone you're hoping for a 10k buy-in from lots of people. This is all refreshingly optimistic, but not very convincing.
Plus, if you're looking for 20 investors to pay 10,000 pounds each to, among other things "enable us to launch the website" why can't you pay the coder up front?
And finally, but perhaps most importantly, how can I be expected to trust anyone who intentionally listens to Kings of Leon?!
But seriously, the math doesn't figure on all of this. Can you do some long division here so that we can have more faith in your project?
I think another issue to consider is who's taking on risk. Seems to me that you're asking investors to take a "risk" on your idea (10k pounds for 5%) and developers to take on a risk in developing the site - what risk are you taking?
If an investor puts up 100k pounds, and this fails they loose a lot of money.
If a developer puts in 300 hours and this fails, they loose a lot of time (and, therefor money because they couldn't bill).
However, the way I see it, if this fails, you loose nothing.
Welcome to the "Web Projects" forums. Before you post, make sure you've selected the correct category based on the size of your project (in US dollars), or whether it is a partnership or "looking for work" request instead. Observe the guidelines for this section:
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