Ask HN: Asperger, How to Get Funding?

[datahellscape]

I've been living with Asperger and without delving into the details too much, it makes some things way easier and some others way harder-- some people treat you like a genius while you fail to grasp things they seem to inherently know--

Working for others hasn't been great for many easily avoidable reasons that can be related to that. I've consistently brought up solutions to issues that were going to be the downfall of a company or a project, for them to be ignored or acted on in insufficient ways. Every single "I told you so" moment like this comes with a longer depression and a little bit more disdain for our society as I see people get hurt and enormous amounts of time wasted for reasons that could have easily been avoided. Every single time I get out of those depression phases by working on something I believe can succeed, either at a new job or a personal project.

I want to be done with that cycle before it makes me bitter. The solutions I see: - Choose my employers way better - Stop even looking for a job, make my own and build great things

I'd prefer to fail on my own terms, not someone else's and I've been working on a project on the side but have never felt quite ready to bring others along.

With all the recent waves of lay-offs, I see many overperforming individuals I've worked with in the past which I would team up with if I could. This would require funding. Looking for funding seems to be a wall I can't figure how to begin climbing and I think it's mostly due to Asperger in many ways and I'm not confident I can surmount that one alone in time. My main issue there seems to be some analysis paralysis, I simply do not know enough about the subject and it's preventing me from action, I see many opaque options I don't understand and haven't figured how to optimize through them and move forward and picking one blindly has too much potential risk.

I seek help, advice, mentoring, examples, solutions. From people that went through this before and know the road, or even hearing from some dealing with Asperger that overcame that in one way or another.

Since I think it matters for funding, I'm in Canada / Montreal area and I'm working on a game that I believe fills a large hole in the market that's been up for grabs for a long time, with players going from a game to another where they all fall short.

[zalkazemi]

A great deal is hard to pass on. As @muzani pointed out, most financiers, like VCs and PE investors, look for hard evidence that point to a future payout. Your challenge then becomes how to build/present that evidence.

Can you share a little about your personal projects that have potential?

I think in terms of you looking for a good deal, that might be too early, instead look for a network you can plug in to that can supply you not only with money but can perhaps recognize your talents (from a showcase of your personal projects) and connect you where your talents can be utilized maximally.

Search for VCs, Investors, Accelerators, or Incubators that specialize in the Video Game industry and build friendships first.

If you document your personal projects consistently at a regular pace, your friendships will evolve into professional opportunities.

[gault8121]

The video game market doesn’t seem like a good market for raising venture capital - there is a ton of competition, and it seems that the folks who can raise money have a track record of previously successful games. With the 5% interest rate, you’ll very likely need to bootstrap your first game to break into the industry and then you could raise for a future game.

[datahellscape]

This would be my plan C. Although I already have a track record of being key to the development of many successful games, I never published one by myself. I do have something I could finish relatively quickly alone (few months) that would be good for this but it's not where I think I should focus my efforts yet.

However, I found myself often in a role detached from the specific releases, helping on many at once, focusing on the bugs others couldn't fix, on reviewing designs early to pinpoint what could be a problem or done better, jumping in early to establish some solid base to build on, etc. This means my name isn't even in 90%+ of the projects I worked on since I wasn't directly affiliated on it at the time credits were written and for the others, my role is probably nonsense. Those teams remember me, those credits do not. Might not be best at a glance for showing to potential investors but as far as knowing things inside out, I've been involved at nearly every part of developing many different types of games, at least once. I can easily demonstrate that.

I don't have a doubt there that I can build what I intend to and that there's a large market for it, also got various plans on how to reach that market. I'm also aware of how much work that is, how long that could take, places where I can use help that can do things better than I could, who that help could be, and more but I'm also unaware of a lot of things beyond developing and publishing, that there's a lot more I'll have to learn on the way and probably a lot of extra things to do I'm not even thinking of yet. Starting with pretty much all the stuff that has to do with starting a business with more than just me

One of the options I'm considering is to straight up send emails to some of the business owners I've worked with that are aware of my impact and ask if they want to give this a shot-- but not sure under what terms I could present that

Still, if the goal is showing I can build the thing, easy. Showing it can be profitable? I can back this with numbers. Having plans on how to reach that market? I've got many before even considering involving a publisher. Will everything in there work perfectly as I planned? unlikely but I'll ramp up, adapt AND seek the help I can.

I'm currently refining the pitch and well, it definitely leaked into this answer

[muzani]

You don't need that much charisma. YC expects charts to do most of the speaking for demo day. I find that many investors are also experienced enough to go through a bad pitch and find out the details of what you meant to say.

Impressing people with a pitch is more about having the right slides in the right order, rather than making some joke. I've pitched to dozens of people, and it's never like it is on Shark Tank... most investors are already rooting for you by the time you meet them.

There's plenty of resources for this, but the easiest is to just join an accelerator. They're very beginner friendly. Many aren't that good, but they should help you to at least learn to pitch.

[datahellscape]

Who could I pitch to? What's a good deal? Accelerators/Incubators seem like a potential pitch target sure, maybe even solving most of those problems quite efficiently but they also seem like a path that comes with a bad deal, even more so for this industry

[muzani]

YC does basically 7% for $125k + $375k. Plus mentoring, discounts, access to higher level VCs and so on. https://www.ycombinator.com/deal

The deals seem to drop substantially from the top accelerator, but the bar drops too. I like accelerators though, because going in cold to a larger VC is hard, and just the "acceleration" of a few warm intros is usually worth the 7% or so. You'd be looking to grow 7% weekly anyway, it's not a huge cut even if you get almost no money.

The bad deals are generally the ones that slow you down. These are the guys that drop bad advice, interfere in how things are operating, scare off other investors. Like you don't want to give a portion to a bad accelerator and then try to join YC.

IMO if you're learning a lot just by talking to them, they're probably a good deal. Most will open the door for you, listen to your pitch, give you all kinds of amazing advice and data, then wish you luck. Those ones are good.

[ourguile]

I'm autistic and this sounds very familiar in regard to my issues with executive function. Most of my friends who are also autistic have thrived in fully remote positions or where they work for themselves or with a small group of others.

I think coldtea's example of partnering with someone else to handle the soft skills and marketing is a great idea.

[twosdai]

I'm a yc techincal founder, if you want to chat some about the process and getting connected feel free to shoot me an email and we can chat about going from nothing to something, and how to get in front of people, a lot of it is actually really formulaic.

My contact info is in my profile, just mention this hn post in your message.

[coldtea]

>Looking for funding seems to be a wall I can't figure how to begin climbing and I think it's mostly due to Asperger in many ways and I'm not confident I can surmount that one alone in time.

Maybe get a person with great social/marketing skills to fill that role as a "co-founder"? The main problem then, is to know you can trust them (and set up the legal contracts between you so they're fair).

[datahellscape]

From that I'm getting the implicit information that maybe this is less of a thing I should learn and do on top of all the other things and more of a full time thing I need to learn to let someone else do anyway so I can focus my efforts elsewhere.

I was under the impression that a burst of investment in this early stage might be sufficient for now and that this might only take a couple weeks to sort out if I can find some guidance to make sure I don't forget anything major along the way.

There's also that I'm not convinced I know someone I'd trust to be that person

[coldtea]

>and that this might only take a couple weeks to sort out

Unless you have the demo to end all demos and some VC connections, I don't think "a couple of weeks" is anywhere near realistic to sort our a "burst of investment". Not to any amount enough to hire to make a dev team, as you said is your goal.

"Six months to a year, and after quite a lot of struggle" is probably more realistic.

[whalesalad]

Have you considered becoming a full time contractor/consultant?

[datahellscape]

Been there, my experience can mostly be summed up by seeing how your work will become pointless due to internal issues of your clients. I was successful enough at it but it was killing me, I get too invested in the products I work on for staying at that kind of distance.