Hi HN, recently I started by part-time one-man startup after working as a lead in trading industry for years. The product is a 2B solution for hedge funds and many players expressed interests. So far around a dozen of firms are willing to pay $30K/year for the minimal product. My estimation of the entire customer base is approx 200 firms. The development will take roughly a year.

However, unlike in 2C world, most of its upstream services and data are proprietary, and vendors charge us for about $200K per year for basic licenses even after negotiation.

To cover this cost, I'm considering three options:

1. Raising funds from a tech VC. Pros: very mature business model and mentorship. Cons: This isn't a hyper-growth business. Not sure VC will be happy to see that.

2. Get money from hedge funds' acquaintance. Pros: they know my business model very well and have confidence. Cons: Lesser-known source with no mentorship.

3. Spend my own money. I have $400K liquidable assets in bank.

Could anyone suggest the best choice here? Happy to provide more details per request.

Thanks!