[modernfranchises.com]

The amount is real small to get anyone serious involved. I would not give away 1% for that little sum of money. - plus nobody who is in the game would take you serious asking for that little amount of money.
Number one mistake is under capitalization. Either get a friend or local professional to help with this little amount or raise your sights and try to get a million or more. (you better have a kick ass business plan and business concept in this market.)
Do you have a non-disclosure form ready? (step 1)

[kindafishy]

Originally Posted by modernfranchises.com

The amount is real small to get anyone serious involved. I would not give away 1% for that little sum of money. - plus nobody who is in the game would take you serious asking for that little amount of money.
Number one mistake is under capitalization. Either get a friend or local professional to help with this little amount or raise your sights and try to get a million or more. (you better have a kick ass business plan and business concept in this market.)
Do you have a non-disclosure form ready? (step 1)

Yes, I have an NDA. I fully agree on not giving a percentage away on the amount. I am going to finance this initial stage myself, and when I need to raise a large amount of capital to really get off the ground, I will have a finished device, market research and a polished business plan. It is a lot of work, but it will all be worth it.

[kindafishy]

Originally Posted by capforge

Number 2 should be number 1, because, in the course of your research, the thing you end up with might look pretty different from the thing you have now, and that area of potential overlap may be one of the things that gets tossed out in the customer analysis, making it a non problem.

Yes, I agree. This is the same way I have been developing software for years and it works far better than creating something real and then having customers review it (because as you stated elsewhere, you end up doing the same work twice). It makes perfect sense that this same approach would be best in this case.

I should have seen this, but I guess that is why I am here discussing these things. It is far better to realize potential mistakes during a conversation than to discover them after putting time and money into something.

Thanks for being so gracious with your advice.

[jasaunders]

Originally Posted by kindafishy

Yes, I have an NDA. I fully agree on not giving a percentage away on the amount. I am going to finance this initial stage myself, and when I need to raise a large amount of capital to really get off the ground, I will have a finished device, market research and a polished business plan. It is a lot of work, but it will all be worth it.

Good to hear, that's the way to go. Fund the earliest stages yourself and have a sound business model before you seek larger investments. Hope you received help in between all the noise in this thread.