msobkow's Journal: My investment in technology IS my retirement plan

Investors like to know about your customer base and your projected value in the future before they'll make you a fair offer. I find it rather insulting that they under-value sweat equity.

I've spent at least 20 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, for 15 years doing the research, development, testing, and enhancements to this system. That's a low-ball estimate of 15,600 hours of programming.

At $75/hour (a very reasonable rate for a senior consultant), that's an investment of $1,170,000. The truth is I've probably put in double that number of hours, and had I remained in the US and Greater Toronto Area, that billing rate would be more on the order of $125-150/hour, plus expenses.

There's no way in I'm taking the typical "angel investor" terms with that much as my opening stake in the business. No one in their right mind would table a fair offer to invest in a business that doesn't even exist yet, and which has no customers.

If you want to try out the technology that will be driving Singularity One, you can check out the GPLv3 licensed research and development project at http://msscodefactory.sourceforge.net/ That's right -- you can try out a multi-million dollar tool and even use it for free if you can stomach the licensing terms of the GPL (some businesses can't or won't, and for their attitude I'm thankful -- they're the ones I hope to service and partner with.)

Before you even think about coming to the negotiation table with potential investors, you have to know what you've invested so far, what the realistic revenue potential is, and show a plan for getting to those goals.

You have to admit it's one heck of a retirement savings plan! Tax free, too, until I actually earn revenue from the investment.