simonhamp

Sounds interesting. I'll DM you

Wow, it's the first time I'm hearing about a company not being allowed to use PHP... especially when sometimes PHP is the best tool for the job (but of course, I would say that).

I think part of the appeal for me is that the size isn't that big... I don't want to be inundated with clients and developers... plus as I'm already a part of the Laravel community myself, I feel like I know it well and this platform can stand out a little more.

It's a niche, but not too small

Thanks. This is great feedback. Some of these points are already covered in the system, but not exposed on the publicly-available search tool (which is intentional)

My experience—and I believe the extended experience of many other orgs—is that it's actually quite tricky to find a reasonable pool of developers with specific skill sets using LinkedIn without considerable time investment, let alone get that down to a warmed shortlist

This is a top marks answer! Thank you 🙏🏼

It currently sounds like you're wholly dependent on this one partner right now

That feels like a major risk already

Can you find a way to diversify your relationships to mitigate them pulling out or building their own version? Or can you lock them in with some long-term contractual agreement? Who owns the IP?

Aside from those questions, when you're tight on resource but you have to keep building, you have a pretty important choice to make:

Knuckle down and build as fast as you can while ALSO looking for funds (i.e. put in the hours and hard work and do what you must)

OR

Accept that development is going to be slower and ruthlessly prioritise accordingly - focus attention on the next big value-add for potential customers that is also low hanging fruit from a dev perspective and keep trying to bring in more paying customers

Thanks 🙏🏼

Get your business plan and a pitch deck worked out before speaking to any investors

Remember that investors want a bang for their buck - so a hefty return and that means a decent chunk of the business

Your plan should focus on the size of the market (potential revenue figures), how you plan to tap that market (GTM strategy), a high-level plan of feature development (how are you going to stay ahead), some proof that you've done some risk and competitor analysis (is there already market validation and do you know your enemy), and that you have some idea of how to reach profitability (can this thing be self-sustaining and when)

Then start looking for investors with a portfolio that includes businesses in that industry

If you're pre-revenue or only have one customer, that doesn't exactly scream traction... most investors will want to see that you're either already generating sizeable revenue ($100k+/year) or that you're able to sign up new customers regularly and reliably and that they don't churn out quickly