Investors want to fund good business ideas. That’s a broad statement because what seems like a good idea to me may be different from what seems like a good idea to you. So many ideas never seem to go anywhere. Some are just so uninspiring that they can’t seem to get the attention of anyone, much less investors. You can even write a whole business plan around a bad idea, leading to great disappointment when investors spot the fact it’s bad.
A good business idea is much more than just an idea. You can sit there all day and come up with ideas, but that doesn’t make them good. Good business ideas have certain qualities that differentiate them from other ideas. For one thing, a good business idea fulfills an unmet customer need, and it is often a need the consumer doesn’t even recognize yet. That may sound odd, but great ideas are often not great until someone invents a product or service.
Determining if a business idea is a good one requires more than just knowing the market will appreciate products or services. The idea must be feasible and realistic in terms of production costs, the time from funding to sales, profitability and safety. A good business idea is also one that can be brought to fruition because the entrepreneurs have the knowledge and skills needed.
There are more qualities associated with good business ideas, but one of the most important is related to innovation. Good business ideas offer a new twist on products or represent creative and innovative new products. The new twist or innovation should represent something that matters to people which means it brings some kind of satisfaction.
There are no hard and fast rules or magic formula to define a good business idea. Instead, investors will consider all of the qualities of the idea coupled with the marketing, competitive and financial factors.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
SuperDuperSecret Co., a San Francisco, CA-based, Operator of a meta-game platform, planned to make a chess battle games. Instead, the company offers ten players encounter in a blazingly fast-paced showdown, making their activities synchronous matches against the other nine players individually, enabling users with a multiplayer game.
SuperDuperSecret Co was funded by $1 million investors, including 13 Digital Asset Funds, Merit Circle, Polygon Ventures, Solana Foundation, LD Capital, Overwolf, Big Brain Holdings, and angel investors. The company’s launch title, Royale Chess—a 10-player, battle royale chess game—honors the first of many games across their underlying meta-game platform, concentrating on multiplayer, evergreen games.
According to SuperDuperSecret Co., the new mode will allow players to compete against each other in epic battle royale-style gameplay, but with the added twist of classic games such as chess, checkers, and tic-tac-toe. The company believes this new mode will revolutionize how people think about classic games and make them more engaging for a modern audience.
“We’re thrilled to have raised over $1 million in funding for our latest project,” said the CEO of SuperDuperSecret Co. “We believe that adding a battle royale mode to classic games will breathe new life into them and make them more appealing to younger generations who are used to fast-paced, competitive gameplay.”
The company has yet to announce a release date for the new game. Still, it has stated that it is currently in development and will be available on multiple platforms, including mobile, PC, and consoles.
The success of SuperDuperSecret Co.’s crowdfunding campaign is a testament to the growing demand for innovative gameplay experiences. With this new project, the company hopes to tap into the trend of battle royale-style games and bring a new twist to classic games that have been played for centuries.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Ditto, a San Francisco, CA-based, is a developer of a software development kit and application designed to help data sync with or without connectivity. The company’s software development kit directly communicates with other devices without the need for a server and automatically manages the complexity of using multiple networks means of transport, like Bluetooth and wifi, to discover and connect to different devices and then synchronize any changes, enabling developers to build applications that sync with each other with and even without internet connectivity.
Ditto was funded $45 million led by Acrew Capital, with participation from U.S. Innovative Technology Fund and existing angel investors, True Ventures and Amity Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the development of its revolutionary data sync technology, which allows users to sync their data offline.
Ditto’s data sync technology is a breakthrough that solves the problem of syncing data in areas with poor or no internet connectivity. The technology allows users to sync data offline and automatically update it when an internet connection becomes available. Particularly useful for people who work in remote areas or travel frequently.
The new funding also will be used to develop the technology further and expand Ditto’s operations. The company plans to hire more engineers and data scientists to accelerate its technology development. Ditto also plans to expand its operations globally to reach more users.
It comes at a time when data privacy and security concerns are at an all-time high. Ditto’s technology uses end-to-end encryption to protect user data, which is becoming increasingly important to users. The company’s commitment to privacy and security has helped it gain a loyal user following.
The future looks bright for Ditto as it continues to innovate and develop its technology. With the support of its investors, the company is poised to become a leader in the data sync space and revolutionize how people sync their data offline.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
To successfully land funding, you need to think like investor when reviewing the business plan. If you were considering lending money to a business what would be one of your first concerns? Naturally it would be the chances of the business failing. An investor lends money with the intent on getting a return on that investment. So it makes sense that the business plan should be evaluated from the same perspective by the business owner.
Small businesses have a high rate of failure according to the Small Business Administration. There have been many studies done to determine why this is so. These studies have identified common errors that businesses make, so you want to consider these problems before they ever become an issue. Realistically, potential investors will have them in mind before agreeing to lend money so being prepared to respond is important.
Typical reasons for small business failure include over-expanding to prove growth to investors, underestimating expenses or overspending, assuming too much debt based on revenues and cash flow and underestimating the competition. Also included on the list are choosing a poor location and lack of capital. The likelihood of these factors occurring in your business will be considered by investors evaluating a business plan.
If you have already thought through the reasons for failure, investors will recognize that fact. For example, location is high on the list of reasons for small business failures. Presentations to investors, therefore, should address the choice of business location and explain the competition and accessibility by customers. Making sure you address the reasons why your business could fail is an important step towards ensuring it doesn’t.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
SpecterOps is a Seattle, WA-based cybersecurity solution and assistance provider specializing in profound knowledge of enemy tradecraft to support clients in detecting and defending against sophisticated attackers. SpecterOps was funded $25 million led by Decibel with participation from Kevin Mandia, Jon Oberheide, Dug Song, and other strategic angel investors.
With the new funding, SpecterOps plans to continue building its team and further develop its technology to remain ahead of the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape. The platform encountered quick customer adoption in 2022, with significant product income growth and new customer purchase growing by more than 600%. Today, BloodHound Enterprise is operated worldwide by companies like Capital Group, the University of Texas at Austin, and Woodside Energy.
According to the company, the funding will accelerate SpecterOps’ growth and expand its capabilities, including its proprietary software platform, RITA (Real Intelligence Threat Analytics), enabling organizations to detect and respond to advanced threats faster and more effectively.
CEO at SpecterOps David McGuire said they are thrilled to partner with Decibel and their existing investors as they continue to grow and expand our capabilities. This investment will allow them to develop their technology further and provide even greater value to our customers, helping them stay ahead solution of the evolving threat landscape.
SpecterOps has quickly gained recognition for its innovative approach to cybersecurity, and they have also been called a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Services worldwide.
Decibel Founder and Partner Jon Sakoda said SpecterOps is uniquely positioned to help organizations defend against the most advanced threats. They are excited to support their continued growth and success. The team’s deep expertise in cybersecurity, combined with their innovative technology, sets them apart in a rapidly evolving market.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Everyone who starts a business starts it with great passion, strong ambition, and a clear vision. However, things don’t always go the way the founder of a business wants them to. When people see a failing small business, they can wrap up the whole discussion within a second by saying something along the lines of, “Just shut it down.” What they don’t realize is that shutting down a business is a much more difficult decision than starting one. No matter how unadvisable, there is an undying emotional attachment of a business owner with his/her business. So, what can you do if your small business is not performing well?
Pinpoint the Reasons for Failure
What do the doctors do when patients go to them with an illness? They don’t hand over a bunch pills, and tablets straight away do they? The first step, of course, is the diagnosis of the issue. Once the doctor knows the problem, he/she can prescribe the right medicine. This is exactly what you have to do with your business. The first thing you have to do is make efforts to pinpoint the reasons and problems that are causing your business to fail. If you don’t have the expertise, you should hire a professional accountant to look into your profits, losses, incomes, and expenses. Maybe you are doing business perfectly, and it is just your tax calculation that is causing the damage.
Don’t be the Business
Many times it is the owner who causes the failure of a business. When you think you are the business, this is the recipe for a business’ failure. You must learn to delegate responsibilities and become comfortable with the idea of taking help from others. Don’t act like an owner when it comes to using the money that your business making. Keep yourself on a salary, and this salary should be based on the current condition of the business. Make the team and involve some of your best employees in deciding what the solution to the problems should be. You are in the business, and so you will see everything from your perspective. A neutral person will tell you what they find lacking in your business strategy.
You have to be very patient and understanding when you ask others to help you. They might point out factors that you might not like. They might even raise questions about your strategy, and that’s when you have to show real patience.
Use the Funding Options
Sometimes, you just start on the wrong foot. You are so eager to start your own business that you don’t even arrange the proper capital to support it. You might spend too much on arranging your office furniture and be left with nothing to spend on marketing. In this particular situation, you want to arrange funds to meet the needs of your business. Whether it’s marketing, the lack of staff or the wrong location, you can fix any of those issues when you have the money. If you think your business is built on a unique idea and that more people need to know about it, you should look for ways to arrange the funds.
Look around, and you might come across friends or family members who could help you arrange some funds. If you don’t have any contacts that can help you with business funding, you should consider online crowdfunding. You always have options like Funded.com available to arrange the right funds to support your unique business ideas. The thing about online funding is that you can always find people who understand your idea no matter how unique it is.
Set Goals and Measure Their Progress
No matter how hard the times are for your business, there is always going to be a way out. However, the emotional setback and mental stress that come with business failure can eat up your positivity and optimism. Despite such hardships, you have to know how to set realistic goals and achieve them. Set defined realistic and achievable goals and measured the progress. When you are facing hard times, you have to set small goals. It is important at this point that your goals are defined in the form of numbers. The ambiguity of goals makes them less achievable. If you are losing customers and you want to retain them, you must first know the rate at which you are losing them.
Now, the example of a weak goal at this point will be setting something like, “I will not lose customers in the coming month.” That’s an ambiguous goal, and no set point will define how badly you have failed or how tremendously you have succeeded. Instead, you should set the goal by first defining a period during which you will calculate customer retention or attrition. Secondly, you will calculate the customers acquired during that period. Thirdly, you must know how many customers you had at the start of that period. You will now set your goal regarding retention percentage during that period.
Reconsider Your Pricing Strategy
More often than not, businesses fail because the owners don’t set the right price for their product or services. You might be pricing your products too low or too high. What if you have already started charging your customers for the value you haven’t provided them? A business must price its products/services to cover their expenses. Later, the business can start making a profit. The third and last stage is to charge for the business value. You have to be constantly looking into your customer data to know how much value your customers find in your services/products before you charge them for it.
As mentioned earlier, it much more difficult to shut a business down than it is to start it. Furthermore, you cannot let go of the mission and vision that’s associated with your business that easily. For this reason, you have to show tremendous perseverance, patience, and determination, and try all your options before deciding to shut down your business
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Native AI is a New York- and Cincinnati, OH-based startup specializing in artificial intelligence development—developer of cloud-based business-to-business customer service software designed to democratize data to enable market transparency.
Native AI was funded $3.5 million, guided by Ivy Ventures and JumpStart Ventures, with participation from other strategic angel investors, 11 Tribes Ventures, and Connetic Ventures. The company aspires to help brands make digital clones of their customers, utilizing generative artificial intelligence to answer questions and provide insights.
Native AI technology is designed to help businesses automate their customer service operations. The company’s software uses natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand customer inquiries and provide accurate and helpful responses. This can help companies reduce response times and improve customer satisfaction.
Frank Pica, the CEO of Native AI, commented that they are thrilled to have the support of investors as they continue to build out our technology and grow our business. Their goal is to help companies provide better customer service while reducing costs, and this funding will help them achieve that.
Several large businesses, including a major airline and a telecommunications company, already use native AI technology. The company plans to expand into other industries and markets in the coming months.
The seed funding round comes when many businesses seek ways to improve their customer service operations. With the rise of digital communication channels like chatbots and social media, there is a growing need for businesses to be able to respond quickly and accurately to customer inquiries. Native AI’s technology solves this problem, and the company is well-positioned to take advantage of this growing market.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Sarna Finance is a Chicago, IL-based developer of a digital trading platform designed for individual investors at zero commission. The company’s platform exchange-traded stocks, traded equities, options ETFs, and opportunities through its advanced mobile trading application, enabling investors to have a better trading experience.
Sarna Finance was funded $2.5 million. Motivate Ventures and Simplex Ventures led the funding round. It included participation from Wedbush Financial Services, Wedbush Ventures, and several angel investors with trading, clearing, and financial services backgrounds. The capital input will help the business bring its mobile investing app, currently in beta, to market in the United States this summer and Europe at the end of 2023. The company will also continue making its best-in-class risk management engine for real-time customer buying power calculations, enabling T+0 settlement.
Dominik Sarna, the founder of Sarna Finance, said they’re thrilled to have the support of their investors as they continue to grow and expand their services. This funding will allow them to reach even more businesses and provide them with the financial services they need to thrive.
Sarna Finance has grown enormously since its launch, with a rapidly expanding customer base and increasing revenues. The company’s success is due in part to its focus on providing personalized service and support to its customers and its use of advanced technology to streamline its operations.
The Founder and Managing Director at Wedbush Ventures, Petra Griffith, commented that Sarna’s team of industry veterans is building the next-generation retail brokerage platform for US and European investors. Rather than putting a modern spin on legacy infrastructure, Dominik and the team are building the technical backend and internal risk management capabilities for today’s trading volumes and volatility with intraday buying power calculations and margin capabilities. Wedbush Ventures is proud to support Sarna’s mission to reset the technical standard for the digital brokerage industry.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Wilderness Labs is a Portland, OR-based developer of real embedded and secure enterprise-grade IoT designed for enterprises and professional developers. The company offers a complete IoT platform with defense-grade security that runs full .NET standard applications on embeddable microcontrollers, enabling developers to build secure enterprise.
Wilderness Labs was funded $3.3 million, led by Apertu Capital and strategic angel investors such as Miguel de Icaza and Scott Hanselman.
Wilderness Labs founded in 2016 by a group of experienced engineers and entrepreneurs who wanted to build a platform to make it easier for developers to build IoT applications. The company’s platform includes various hardware and software tools, including an operating system, development boards, and a cloud-based management platform.
The company aims to enable developers to build IoT applications quickly and easily without worrying about the underlying hardware or software. The platform designed to be flexible and scalable so that developers can build applications deployed in various environments and scenarios.
With the new funding, Wilderness Labs plans to continue developing the Meadow platform and expanding its team. The company also plans to launch a range of new products in the coming months, including a new development board and a range of sensors and other IoT devices.
Bryan Costanich, CEO of Wilderness Labs, is the inventor of Meadow, a Secure, Production-IoT that enables developers to create embedded-IoT solutions and allows organizations to securely manage those devices in the field at scale with Meadow.Cloud.
The IoT market expected to increase in the coming years as more and more devices become connected to the internet. With its range of hardware and software tools, Wilderness Labs well-positioned to take advantage of this growth and become a leading player in the IoT space.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Social media has become a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience and connect with customers. However, creating a successful social media marketing campaign can be challenging. Here are some tips on creating a successful social media marketing campaign.
Define Your Goals: Before creating a social media marketing campaign, defining your goals is essential. What do you want to achieve with your campaign? For example, do you want to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or generate more leads? Your goals will guide your social media marketing strategy and help you measure the success of your campaign.
Know Your Target Audience: Understanding your target audience is crucial for the success of your social media marketing campaign. Who are your ideal customers? What are their interests, needs, and preferences? Knowing your target audience will help you create content that resonates and engages with them on social media.
Choose the Right Social Media Platforms: Many social media platforms are out there, but not all are suitable for your business. Instead, choose the platforms where your target audience is most active and where you can showcase your brand in the best possible way. For example, if you target young adults, Instagram and TikTok may be more effective than LinkedIn.
Create Engaging Content: Social media users are bombarded with content daily, so creating content that stands out and grabs their attention is important. Your content should be informative, entertaining, and visually appealing. Use high-quality images and videos, and keep your captions concise and engaging.
Be Consistent: Consistency is vital when it comes to social media marketing. Post regularly and at the right time to reach your target audience. Use a content calendar to plan your posts and ensure your content aligns with your brand’s messaging and values.
Engage with Your Audience: Social media is a two-way conversation, so engaging with your audience is essential. Respond to comments and messages promptly, and ask for feedback to improve your content and customer service. Use social media to build relationships with your customers and show them that you value their opinions.
Measure Your Results: Finally, it’s essential to measure the success of your social media marketing campaign. Use analytics tools to track your reach, engagement, and conversions. Use this data to refine your strategy and improve your results over time.
Creating a successful social media marketing campaign takes time, effort, and creativity. By defining your goals, understanding your target audience, and creating engaging content, you can build a strong presence on social media and connect with your customers in meaningful ways.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
