[davismwfl]

I worked with a client last year that was coaching small businesses and my team worked with them to help those clients get off the ground with basic marketing sites launched etc. I'd say that you are at least on to something targeting that market as we found it much larger than anticipated. We have since stopped working directly building the "students" products (unless they have a real engineering problem to solve) but we have made (and are adding more) a few specific solutions that serve the broader community and have brought those to market.

What I learned is that the educational, mentoring, and advice part of the market is quite large with people on both sides willing (if not anxious) to pay money to learn things that others take for granted (be it how to provide the advice or in getting the advice). Linking those two communities together is of significant value, and making it so that they can communicate more effectively seems very valid. Now what that means in terms of potential opportunity, I don't know exactly, but I can tell you we see some of the products we have (and are launching) in the space easily growing into a very nice sized business that do not require investment backing and are profitable from very early on. Our specific focus is very much on delivering the content and marketing the content and solutions versus a social media based forum, although we are integrated to most social media outlets.

As for advice, launch something quickly, get some buy in from people willing to actually pay for it and get some traction. If you are seeking investment you'll need to prove traction anyway so that is the first thing to focus on IMO.

Good luck and have fun!

[sidarok]

Thank you very much Davis, for the insightful comment.

It is indeed a big and underestimated market waiting with full of untapped opportunities.

Currently the site is entirely free - I was thinking of gaining traction first and then monetizing it.

So would you advice me to go ahead and launch it, or keep it at stealth mode and raise money - so I can quit my day job and fully focus on this?

[davismwfl]

I'd advise that you launch with a minimal set of features and get people on the platform and make additions to it as you go. There is a saying, you should be at least slightly embarrassed by your version 1. Can't remember who said it, but man it so works, it also is a great motivator to improve.

I personally don't believe in stealth mode without some very special circumstances, and this wouldn't be one of them. The times I would say stealth is good is for serial founders that have credibility to raise money privately and keep the wraps on something until it launches. And even then, they likely have some large clients committed already and are already on a solid path.

So my 2 cents, don't quit your day job. Launch the site, get some traction, get feedback, don't hide it, promote promote promote. Once you have some traction and have people talking a little about it, then you can start to think about a pitch deck and trying to raise money (if that is your goal). Although there is "easy" money as some say, it isn't that easy really, you still have to have fundamentals in place or have a track record proving you can do it. If you get a little traction though, it isn't unrealistic to have a small group or a high net worth person provide you some seed capital to try and accelerate the pace.

Personally, I wouldn't go the raise money route initially, I'd first start off trying to make money with the platform. Bootstrap it, see what happens. The go big or go home attitude isn't necessarily wrong, but the majority of businesses are not launched or founded that way. They start small and build up. Nothings stops those businesses from being as large as a VC backed business (though money does equal velocity), and you can always attract money at a later date, usually under more favorable terms.