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I'm just curious as to how others look at domain squatting.
For the past month or so, I've been jotting down notes on an idea I had for a social network. After passing the concept by family and a few close friends, I've decided I want to go ahead and make it a reality. That's just what I've begun to do.
My parents gave me $1000 to get the ball rolling, and I can proudly say that I used that money as effectively as I possibly could. I spent $300 on a down payment for a designer and $600 for a freelance developer, so far. Albeit a $300 down payment for a designer may sound cheap to some, it's turning out to be very clean looking and contemporary. In regards to the developer, I pay him $300-$350 for a set of tasks every 5-7 days. This way, it's much easier to keep track of his progress and pay him accordingly. As of now, the basics of the website have been developed, and it's now to the point where you can play around with the very basic functionality of the social network.
Now that I've just about exhausted the $1000, it's time for me to start seeking seed funding. I had considered a business loan, but even though I have my own LLC registered, I'm unable to open any type of account under my name with any financial institution, due to my age. I reached out to a few firms that I found on CrunchBase that focus primarily on early-stage investments, providing them background on who I am, what I feel I'm capable of, and then asked if they could grant me a few minutes of their time to pitch my idea. Unfortunately, I've yet to hear back from any of them. I'm unsure if I'm just not being taken seriously of if they're simply not investing in anymore companies at this point in time. A simple reply to my email would've definitely been helpful to help me determine what I'm doing wrong, yet that wasn't the case.
In 2009, I started a hosting company that offered Xen-powered virtual private servers. Within the first week of being open for business, I was able to get over 100 paying customers to sign up and buy a VPS. It became quite successful until I had to shut it down to focus on school. In addition, I've taught myself Objective-C and have experience with Linux and managing servers (I have also been running an IRC network and managing it myself since 2007). Now, I'm an early high school graduate. I finished my last day of school a few weeks ago and can now pour all my time and energy into bringing this project to life. Additionally, college doesn't start anytime soon, and I don't have a job that would occupy my time.
I assure you my idea isn't a "Pinterest for dog lovers," or an "Instagram for sports photos." I consider my idea to be pretty unique, thus the reason I'm going forward with it. I apologize if I sound arrogant or cocky at all (I promise you, I'm not like that!), but I just want to make sure nobody thinks I'm here to waste anybody's time.
Would you guys be able to point me in the right direction? Do you know of any investment firms in the position to make any new investments? Anyone I could talk to for advice? I'm in the Los Angeles area, but flying up north to meet with investors wouldn't be a problem at all. I'm very eager to keep the ball rolling and continuing to build this website the way I've visioned it.
Thanks in advance for the advice!
Michael Goss michael@kode.nu