It’s a strange place I’m in…

This week has been filled with a lot of out-of-box thinking… and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve gotten some very good feedback that has made me rethink how I should go about funding my idea.  There are basically a few paths I can go down:

1. Raise an angel round from friends, family
2. Get funded as a work-for-hire by a company who wants to build my product
3. Get a trial investment from a company looking to “test” this product category.  Seek a share of upside, and offer a downside protection.
4. Seek an alternative role within a similar value chain which might include various things like consult, go to work for one of my current partners, etc.

Without getting into too much detail and giving up too much irrelavent specifics, let’s just say I am leaning toward 2 and 3.  I have a company in mind, and if we can agree on a deal that makes sense it is probably the best way to get a piece of hardware built. I think 4 could work, but it would obviously depend on the partner and their willingness to bring me into their house.

For completeness sake, option 1 would be problematic, as I am becoming less attracted to the prospects of trying to launch a new hardware brand that is going after the market I am focused on.  The amount of investment and goodwill required to have an effective marketing channel is something that takes a long time and large amounts of capital to build.  I am not sure this economy is ready to support such ventures.  The alternative of self-funding and building a solo operation invariably means you will have a small direct channel and a niche market.  While this is one path that I admire and have seen work for certan folks, I am not prepared to operate something like this at this stage… I would prefer doing so at a time where I could rely on fewer outside dollars, and have only myself to be held accountable to.  These smaller types of operations are suited to labors of love, and I guess I am not entirely done with the larger rat race… for now.

Another fact of the matter is I am running out of runway.  Certain developments will or will not occur in the next few weeks and if they don’t go their way to kicking me off, but rather kick me out… then I need my plan B lined up.  So I am budgeting a certain amount of time to that end and have seen a couple paths that are indeed attractive.  I was telling a friend tonight that I have 3 options… 2 in the CE industry, 1 in another industry, and I guess a 4th if you include moving to an island and becoming a bartender.