How to get Funding for My startup Idea [closed]

Question

I have been looking out to asking the right person, only I don't know how to ask, hence I decided to make it an open question here and see who can be of help somehow.

So i have always wanted to run my own startup. A payment service startup where one can initiate payments for Africans (Apparently, I am African and we need some form of cross border payments too down here) So i decided to ask this. What's the best way to get funding for a project i want to turn into a Business? I am a developer (Software Developer / Mobile app Developer) and I also know some UI/UX design as well. What is the best way to get started? Do I need to come up with an Android APK or is a prototype with figma or Adobe XD to show what I can do? Please advice me in this case, I need some guidance here somehow

Answer 1

Create a business portfolio including images, cost breakdown, logistics, strategy, mission, your background, print it on SquareSpace free in HTML format and in PDF to post with emails, do a video presentation in 4k describing the PDF as well as you can, post it on YT when your project starts.

Contact companies that can sponsor you, if the company has some kind of altruistic person, or try patreon to say you wish to start a business, find buyers through PR, try a crowdfunding campaign.

Work every day contacting people, companies, looking for new communications opportunities, sending around your video, portfolio, build an email list through squarespace (small business accounts gives you 3 emails, infinite subscribers), do original and artistic publicity stunts dressed up asking for help to create awareness. :)

Read up about your sector, it's called microfinancing and micro financial services, there are many startups and lessons to learn in that industry.

good luck

Answer 2

You will need some sort of proof of concept for your idea. A business plan.

A payment software for example is not about the UX/UI or the coding. Any university dropout can program the UI for a payment service.

The question is how do you actually move the money? Do you partner with a bank? Do you become a bank yourself? Are there are laws and regulations for banks in your country and internationally?

How do you position yourself in contrast to the existing providers of such services? What can you do that they don't? Why would people use your product? What if they abuse your product? How do you make sure they don't and what do you do if they break your security? Will you be liable? Are there laws and regulations for that?

So... those are the questions you need to have answers to. Coders are a dime a dozen, you want to found a company, a business, you need to think in terms of business, not code.

Answer 3

You are a software developer (so am I) so you are probably thinking of what you need to write. That's not as important in starting a business as you think, even if the business relies critically on software.

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan

The first part of starting your business is to do some planning. This basically looks like "how we are going to make money"; but, it is done in a much finer grain detail than you are dealing with.

Let me give you an example, I came up with a brilliant idea on how to save money on heating water; and, I also had a pretty good idea of how much money it would cost to build the prototype. As I was working out my business plan, I realized that my plan ran directly in contrast with the law, because of a water heater health-related issues that I knew nothing about. If I skimped on doing a full business plan, I would have invested heavily in a startup that was guaranteed to fail.

An older example, I wanted to open a computer service shop. In doing that shop's business plan, I realized that small computer repair shops had very high overheads (cost of keeping the shop open) in my area, and that if I opened it, I would effectively be working 12 hours a day and earning less than half my (then) current salary.

Good business plans do more than detail who their customers are, they also detail how many of them there are, how many of them you're likely to attract in the first year, how likely you'll be able to keep them happy (support / service), and roughly what your expenses and income would look like. If you can't even estimate that, odds are you don't know enough to open a successful business. Yes, there are rare businesses that succeed without these details, but there are hundreds more that fail.

You probably know how to design your software. If you're opening a business, you need to put that kind of effort and dedication into designing your business too.