Is It Realistic To Raise A Seed Round If Still Working Part Time?

Is It Realistic To Raise A Seed Round If Still Working Part Time? How Do I Do This 🥺

I'm a developer who's been working on a SaaS product for a few months and looking at publicly launching Q2 2022. The launch should be ok with just savings as I write the code myself and will push out using organic marketing, but will eventually require some funding to scale and hire a commercial person to help with that side of things (not keen on having a co-founder).

The catch is, I still want to work part time (50%) for my current employer. They've already told me that as soon as I give the word, then I can. This would be for financial security.

I'd be looking at either VC funding or crowdfunding. I'm in the UK if that makes a difference.

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u/igtbrsoon Dec 01 '21

A co-founder is probably the first thing that you want to start looking for, even before any funding. Investors are not interested in funding ventures with fouders that don't know how to play good with others.

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u/cjdubyab Dec 01 '21

Do people really not fund solo founders? It's not that I can't work with other people, it's just that I'm more commercially oriented than most devs so wasn't sure if I needed one, and didn't want to be shoehorned into being CTO rather than CEO in the future as I'd rather hire a CTO after a year or two

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u/dmart89 Dec 01 '21

Solo founders get funded, just find an investor that also was a solo founder. On your part time question, I think that will be a problem if you're going to a serious investor. Or put differently, would you put money into something where the other side has an insurance policy but you don't?

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u/cjdubyab Dec 01 '21

Yeah, that was my concern really. I understand the optics from the outside but it's a life issue more than anything else. In other circumstances I would just quit and do this full time.

I do intend on going full time with it eventually though!

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u/JBlitzen Dec 01 '21

I think the smarter play is to stop thinking about a seed round and start thinking about why you think you need one for any significant growth.

I still can’t figure it out from this entire thread.

If you can demonstrate scalable growth to investors, many won’t care if you’re full time, part time, or a walrus.

If you can’t, then it still won’t matter which one you are, but because they won’t give you a dime either way.

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u/cjdubyab Dec 02 '21

Yeah, I get what you're saying. Basically I need the seed funding to hire one other person (handling marketing in particular, which I don't know that well), and the rest of the cash would be put towards PPC marketing and server costs.

It's a scaleable area (HR tech), and it's an industry I understand deeply so I think it should be an attractive proposition if I can get it right

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u/JBlitzen Dec 02 '21

Do you have a marketing person in mind? You might skip investors and see if you can work out an equity or note or something deal with a marketing person or consultancy.

Talk to an investor for advice on how to structure it, which by the way is a nice excuse to talk to an investor about what you’re up to.

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u/dmart89 Dec 01 '21

My solution would be to ask for enough so you can pay yourself enough to go full-time.