{"id":1631,"date":"2009-06-15T01:43:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T01:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/"},"modified":"2017-11-01T02:29:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T02:29:31","slug":"getting-the-moolah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the moolah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Finding money to fund one's endeavor--a topic close to entrepreneurs' hearts and blogged about almost incessantly. This is our experience, and please tell us about yours.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, we have enough savings to bootstrap; which is not to say that we don't need extra investment, or that we didn't have to slash features to arrive at a realistic \"can-launch\" plan.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing full well that we're still seed-stage, and that logically seed-stage companies normally don't attract many investors, plus being apprehensive of giving away too much equity at this point, we targeted the following, in descending order of priority:<br \/>- Government-type no-strings-attached grants: If they like us, they'll fund us; very few questions asked. Problem is, \"like\" is loosely-defined and infinitely-opaque here.<br \/>- Angel funding: Hallelujah!<br \/>- VCs: Epitome of the business world--no customers, no money. Well, that's a silly assertion I suppose, like saying fish don't swim without water.<\/p>\n<p>Singapore has many initiatives to provide funding through government agencies. There has been a lot said about the pitfalls of such funding: lengthy, opaque application process (typical picture of government bureaucracy), non-consistent decision-making by non-committal stake-holders (mostly panelists from industry who aren't really responsible for the $$ they dish out), etc. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulgraham.com\/articles.html\">Paul Graham<\/a> wrote several insightful articles on the topic, as have many bloggers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/www.thefunded.com\">TheFunded.com<\/a> also covers many aspects of funding in general.<\/p>\n<p>The first one we applied for was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spring.gov.sg\/tecs\">TECS<\/a>. Spring Singapore provides a variety of schemes to finance budding entrepreneurs. We didn't get the money, and didn't particularly enjoy the whole experience because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We waited 6 months for the entire process: application, business plan, presentation. Thankfully, the results were announced quickly.<\/li>\n<li>There was little transparency--our questions to people other than the facilitators were never answered, although we, being the sellers, were naturally very responsive.<\/li>\n<li>There was _no_ feedback on why we didn't make the cut.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Perhaps if we had gotten the money, I won't be complaining that much ; )<br \/>Now we understand why things are the way they are at Spring Singapore, and we sincerely hope for improvements.<\/p>\n<p>On the bright side of things, the process itself was great, because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It really helped us put our business plan together, especially the balance sheet forecast and the costs breakdown.<\/li>\n<li>Nothing beats the real-world experience of pitching, albeit to the government. Wearing a suit in Singapore is a killer replacement for hot yoga.<\/li>\n<li>Now we can share some good information with fellow entrepreneurs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Would we apply again? Of course! One rejection motivates us even more, so watch this space : )<br \/>Good luck to all funding-seekers out there! We'd love to hear from you.<\/p>\n<p>Harnhua<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finding money to fund one&#8217;s endeavor&#8211;a topic close to entrepreneurs&#8217; hearts and blogged about almost incessantly. This is our experience, and please tell us about yours. Fortunately, we have enough savings to bootstrap; which is not to say that we don&#8217;t need extra investment, or that we didn&#8217;t have to slash features to arrive at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Finding money to fund one&#039;s endeavor--a topic close to entrepreneurs&#039; hearts and blogged about almost incessantly. This is our experience, and please tell us about yours. Fortunately, we have enough savings to bootstrap; which is not to say that we don&#039;t need extra investment, or that we didn&#039;t have to slash features to arrive at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Plunify Blog &amp; Support\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kirvy Teo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Plunify-Support\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/05\/Plunify_Logo_Outline_TranspBG_sm.png?fit=600%2C159&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/05\/Plunify_Logo_Outline_TranspBG_sm.png?fit=600%2C159&ssl=1\",\"width\":600,\"height\":159,\"caption\":\"Plunify-Support\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Plunify Blog &amp; Support\",\"description\":\"Everything you need to know about Plunify products\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/\",\"name\":\"Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Getting the moolah\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e837e6c73fa6ac9d51563659f5703277\"},\"headline\":\"Getting the moolah\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":432,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"General\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e837e6c73fa6ac9d51563659f5703277\",\"name\":\"Kirvy Teo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/774c97d4bacda481b716e8168ce23aad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/774c97d4bacda481b716e8168ce23aad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kirvy Teo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/author\/kirvy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support","og_description":"Finding money to fund one's endeavor--a topic close to entrepreneurs' hearts and blogged about almost incessantly. This is our experience, and please tell us about yours. Fortunately, we have enough savings to bootstrap; which is not to say that we don't need extra investment, or that we didn't have to slash features to arrive at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/","og_site_name":"Plunify Blog &amp; Support","article_published_time":"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kirvy Teo","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization","name":"Plunify-Support","url":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/","sameAs":[],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/05\/Plunify_Logo_Outline_TranspBG_sm.png?fit=600%2C159&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/05\/Plunify_Logo_Outline_TranspBG_sm.png?fit=600%2C159&ssl=1","width":600,"height":159,"caption":"Plunify-Support"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/","name":"Plunify Blog &amp; Support","description":"Everything you need to know about Plunify products","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/","name":"Getting the moolah - Plunify Blog &amp; Support","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Getting the moolah"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e837e6c73fa6ac9d51563659f5703277"},"headline":"Getting the moolah","datePublished":"2009-06-15T01:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-11-01T02:29:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#webpage"},"wordCount":432,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#organization"},"articleSection":["General"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/2009\/06\/15\/getting-the-moolah\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e837e6c73fa6ac9d51563659f5703277","name":"Kirvy Teo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/774c97d4bacda481b716e8168ce23aad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/774c97d4bacda481b716e8168ce23aad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kirvy Teo"},"url":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/author\/kirvy\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7XiEH-qj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.plunify.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}