I have a witepaper and a great idea, just need the finical boost to advertise and run. Any advice on how to get early seed stage startup funding?
A crypto currency amounts to potentially strong substitute for brick & mortar-like and financial-intermediary based- transaction structures.
It is a large idea, it is game changing, and it requires a rather substantial balance sheet and time to move from concept, to prototype, to commercial viability.
Having been part of a similar disruption in the financial intermediation / transaction-facilitation space, I can confidently it will take years (3 to 5) and a substantial team (6 to 8 seniors plus outsourcing) to take a concept to fruition, and earn your first dollar.
Conceptually, and as a strong substitute/alternative to traditional structures (and currencies), your idea is most attractive to those larger or international companies seeking to expand in emerging markets around the globe (Note: Firms in Africa are among the largest users/traders of bitcoin).
You might consider a two stage approach. First, find a market leader in the US, a real powerhouse, with belief in your concept, and with a depth of connections and quality of force to lead a start-up drive. Bring them into your team on a partner basis (giving them a lions share). Then, as a second stage, let them led the effort to attract the start-up / development team, the specialized talent, the pocket books of seed round investors, and access to potential customers. Have no doubt, this is a heavy, heavy lift - and you will need to commit for YEARS regardless of the financial impact on you. (Especially that typical Seed and VC are skittish over Fintech, which has produced 98% losers, and only 2% winners (because nearly everyone underestimates how sophisticated one needs to be to disrupt in a space that trades OVER $1 TRILLION PER DAY.)
In short, play to your strengths (the conceptualization) and trade what you can (equity in the venture) to those who have a much better capacity to lead the venture through planning and seed funding. Budget what you need to be able to then do four things: customer validation, planning (tech, rollout, sales, and ops), transaction protocol design, and technology development budgeting.
As relevant to your question - I was a Chief Marketing & Planning Officer for a powerhouse-led group of Wall Streeters and their financial intermediation disruption play (a business that is now skyrocketing).
Happy to have a chat if this is something you really want to pursue.
Does the world NEED another cryptocurrency?
Some experts in Ohio just spent a weekend working on this kind of thing. I suggest you connect up with them, because they are also concerned with startups and VC funding. Kind of gift-wrapped for you in my opinion.
It's the Founder Institute Cincinnati, and the chief guy I recommend you connect with is Michael Hiles. He even has a profile here on Clarity, much to my surprise: https://clarity.fm/michaelhiles
I would suggest using a site called BTCpop (https://btcpop.co/). This site offers peer-to-peer lending where you can raise capital through either business loans where you pay off in monthly increments; much like a traditional loan you receive from a bank; or by offering bonds where you can pay back a percentage of the raised capital amount over time, using a payment structure that you design and is approved by investors. If you already have a corporation or are thinking about starting a decentralized exchange to sell your coin, you can create an IPO (company) within BTCpop and sell shares of the company as you would with more traditional financial institutions such as the New York Stock exchange. You can also try Nexo, (https://www.nexo.io/) and CoinLoan (https://coinloan.io/) these sites are closer to a traditional loan one would receive from a bank, but with lower interest rates and no credit check. I also believe the overall required collateral to qualify for the proposed amount on these sites is higher than BTCpop, and have less flexibility. Here's an article to help get you started: https://crypterium.com/news/post/crypto-lending-platforms
Best of luck, please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions, or need any further help, I am always available
