the startups.com platform about startups.comCheck out the new Startups.com - A Comprehensive Startup University
Education
Planning
Mentors
Funding
Customers
Assistants
Clarity
Categories
Business
Sales & Marketing
Funding
Product & Design
Technology
Skills & Management
Industries
Other
Business
Career Advice
Branding
Financial Consulting
Customer Engagement
Strategy
Sectors
Getting Started
Human Resources
Business Development
Legal
Other
Sales & Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Public Relations
Branding
Publishing
Inbound Marketing
Email Marketing
Copywriting
Growth Strategy
Search Engine Marketing
Sales & Lead Generation
Advertising
Other
Funding
Crowdfunding
Kickstarter
Venture Capital
Finance
Bootstrapping
Nonprofit
Other
Product & Design
Identity
User Experience
Lean Startup
Product Management
Metrics & Analytics
Other
Technology
WordPress
Software Development
Mobile
Ruby
CRM
Innovation
Cloud
Other
Skills & Management
Productivity
Entrepreneurship
Public Speaking
Leadership
Coaching
Other
Industries
SaaS
E-commerce
Education
Real Estate
Restaurant & Retail
Marketplaces
Nonprofit
Other
Dashboard
Browse Search
Answers
Calls
Inbox
Sign Up Log In

Loading...

Share Answer

Menu
Venture Funding: If a company had $800k in sales and decided to expand that into a much larger idea, to go to investors would they need to have an MVP of the new idea?
DM
DM
Dan Martell, SaaS Business Coach, Investor, Founder of Clarity answered:

Because you mentioned MVP, Im assuming that your current business is a service company, not a technology/product company.

If that's the case, then you would definitely need to build out an MVP of the product and ideally show customers using the product as is.

The major issue of a service company trying to productize their offering is that the customers actually don't want a product, they want someone to just solve the problem - so without an MVP demonstrating, it leaves a lot of risk.

The more risk involved, the lower your potential valuation and quality of investors.

The fact that you have $800K in revenue definitely gives your points around business acumen (history) and deep domain expertise around the problem space.

The way I look at fundraising is this ... the more you have done, the easier it's going to be to raise your round from higher quality investor.

Can you raise a round without an MVP, yep - anything's possible, but will you get a good valuation, and raise from high quality investors - not likely as they have so many options of other companies to invest in from incubators and sites like www.angel.co.

Always up for a call to discuss further.

-

Talk to Dan Upvote • Share
•••
Share Report

Answer URL

Share Question

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Google+
  • Share by email
About
  • How it Works
  • Success Stories
Experts
  • Become an Expert
  • Find an Expert
Answers
  • Ask a Question
  • Recent Answers
Support
  • Help
  • Terms of Service
Follow

the startups.com platform

Startups Education
Startup Planning
Access Mentors
Secure Funding
Reach Customers
Virtual Assistants

Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.