Show HN: Founderpath – Raise $10k-$1m in 72 hours, free revenue analytics

13 points by juhaszhenderson 5 years ago | 10 comments

Hey HN!

We're launching Founderpath today to help saas founders raise cash without diluting their company

Instead of a merchant cash advance needing to be paid back within 6-12 months, our standard deal is 15% interest, 4 year payback, $200k check

We get no equity, no warrants, no weird covenants, and don't require personal guarantees

This cash is way cheaper than if you were to raise from a VC (normally diluting your equity pool by 20%+ and losing a lot of control via a board seat and veto powers)

We're around all day today showing demos & answering questions over at https://www.producthunt.com/posts/founderpath

Hope to see you there!

artur_makly 5 years ago |

Nice idea. I gave it a spin for https://VisualSitemaps.com

and after submitting our Stripe data, it showed this page which should REALLY use some love: https://share.getcloudapp.com/9ZuXWPl5

This page is a golden opportunity to perhaps:

- showcase current case-studies - show more info graphics about your process - show videos from the founders - or just a random far-side cartoon.

Now it's just a dead looking page w/ a broken image.

artur_makly 5 years ago | |

Strange.. I asked for that $200k, and the computer offered me ... a whopping 13k @ 17% /3yrs. I'm guessing it doesn't just look beyond the #s..yet ;-)

quickthrower2 5 years ago |

Is this a lemon market? If I’m sure I’ll use my $200k wisely I’ll self select out and get a second mortgage for 3% or whatever. Leaving the riskier people to come to you?

whimsyzero 5 years ago |

Clicking connect with "Quickbooks" results in a "500 - Server Error" fyi.

But, interesting model. How does this deal compare with getting a loan from a bank (e.g. SVB)?

mritchie712 5 years ago | |

15% is not a terrible rate. If you look at companies like OnDeck[0] they start at 11% and don't lend to SaaS companies. There are also companies that already do this like "saas-capital"[1] which start at 12%. SVB won't lend until you're > $1M ARR. This just slightly above the market rate for a lower MRR SaaS company.

0 - https://www.ondeck.com/resources/top-10-faqs 1 - https://www.saas-capital.com/our-approach

Nlarch13 5 years ago | | |

i've sent founders to all those firms (list of 50+ debt providers and their cost here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17M_zgfNG20Z-cqQ6SqxQ...

SaaS Capital: Won't touch you unless you have $3m in ARR. Yes they can get down to 12% but they also take warrants. We'll start at $250k in ARR, and take no warrants.

SVB: Banks will only lend to software companies if they have VC backing. (yes they lend at cheaper rates)

OnDeck and Kabbage/others are at 25%+ interest rates. Read the terms.

Nlarch13 5 years ago | |

working on this now, good catch. site is getting slightly overwhelmed.

in terms of SVB, banks are a great option if you've raised VC. they can usually give you debt at 5-6% interest rates and 0.1-.5% warrant coverage but will only do a deal with you if you are "sponsored"

(meaning you've raised VC).

we're a much better fit for bootstrappers

optemization 5 years ago |

why do you think the vc have not thought of that? also, why do this over like the shl micro angel?

juhaszhenderson 5 years ago | |

VCs are in a different business with a different model. VC is always great for the VC, not always so much for the founder. So this is a great alternative

Nlarch13 5 years ago | | |

yeah agree. there will always be big need for VC capital to fund big billion dollar ideas.

we're focused more on helping folks that want to bootstrap a $5-10m business and don't want to give up equity.