July 21, 2011 at 16:12"Divorce" of startups
Searching for an investor is a difficult and exciting task. You can get the necessary funds, not get them or lose.
So, I present the real story of the “wiring” of a startup.
A few years ago, our team started the Infoarena project , it took root well in the Kaliningrad test region, but, as practice has shown, additional investments are needed to enter large Russia and beyond, which we did not have. They traditionally tried to communicate with investment companies, but no one showed interest. It was decided to move on our own - slowly but surely.
So, the largest cost of money and, most importantly, time is spent on programming services and their maintenance. We also had experience creating sites and online stores. Therefore, after a little reflection, we came to the simple idea that our achievements should not remain within the same project, but become accessible to many people. This is possible if you make typical functional elements as simple and customizable as possible so that you can add any website, store, social network or other complex Internet service from them.
No matter how well you plan, conduct market research, in practice, everything will be completely wrong. In life, it is important to quickly deploy your project, start selling and be ready to adapt to new market requirements.
So, together, we came up with and launched the Aichiti project . What we have already done allows us to create Internet projects ten times faster than before, but money is needed to do something really cool.
Once, thanks to the information posted on merar.com, an investor came to us and said that he was interested in our project. We took this issue seriously - we formulated and beautifully designed our new vision, carefully translated the presentations into English and sent them away.
Within a couple of months, by exchanging various memorandums of intent, consent was received to finance our project. Quite simple procedures and the absence of special difficulties did not alert any of us - we attributed everything to the Western style of business communication.
The first alarming factor was the ability to transfer money personally by the representative, but we chose the non-cash option. Then it turned out that the person trusts and is ready to give money, but so far he does not need to be entered by the founder of the company, otherwise he will fly into taxes in his country. Also not a problem - you still need to register a separate LLC.
Sometimes you feel that you are being deceived, but the hope is so strong that it drowns the mind.
The fun begins next. The investor reports that the money is ready and I need to open a bank account in England from which I can transfer money where I need to. I agree, and a representative of this bank contacts me. The first serious mistake of scammers is a letter sent from a free hosting in the Czech Republic. I looked at the bank’s website, it seems that they have branches all over the world, and one of the domains where I opened an account was registered a week ago. I think, well, where is this hidden ..., but I don’t understand where exactly (and in my head there is an optimist’s inner voice - well, people also need to invest money, maybe all coincidences, and the project without this money will crawl like a wounded turtle) . Number two fraudsters miss - a weak functionality of a pseudo-bank account and an insecure connection.
So, the money is “received”, despite the suspicions, we all rejoice when we see large numbers on a personal account in an English bank. We are preparing to transfer part of the money to Russia, although this is also not so simple. The translation scheme has changed several times, but in the end it was built so that I got a loan and occupy my company. A transaction passport is not required, but you can not pay in dollars. By the way, it turned out to be useless to show the contract to employees at a Russian bank - the qualifications of the staff were appallingly low, they almost framed me for violating the law. I advise you to hire a competent lawyer. I urgently open a personal account and transfer part of the amount. The transaction has passed, all parties are happy and here ... here it is - welcome, Her Majesty F ....!
The next day, it turns out that the account was blocked by a certain commission on terrorism by the government Agency, UKAAMT (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), you need to issue a Clean Bill of Record Clearance Certification and it’s worth the pleasure of some ridiculous 3,100 British pounds. Everything immediately fell into place. Well, of course, a false bank cannot take them from the account - it is frozen, a request to lend is passed by the ears, a fraud partner asks from his sources to pay the amount in order to unfreeze the account.
Parallel to what is happening, I googled at the expense of these organizations and a certificate with a long name. There is simply no information on these organizations, because, obviously, such offices do not exist at all. But about the certificate, there were a couple of interesting pages from 2004 and 2006, where the “affected” people tell how they were divorced to pay for this certificate according to the “Nigerian letter” scheme.
Additionally, I turned to a real bank, so that they would confirm whether they were their employees, and to the Internal Affairs Directorate. The bank answered after a couple of days that it was a fraud, but no one was interested in the ATC.
But for fun, I asked where to transfer the money, it turns out, you need to send it to a private person through Western Union.
Personally, I was not very upset, because the information accumulated in the subconscious, and in fact I was ready for such a turn of events. It's a pity a little time wasted, but I got experience and I can warn other start-ups and find people who are ready, one way or another, to participate in our project.
PS If someone thinks that he is so smart and he immediately recognizes the fraudulent scheme - let him not deceive himself, but carefully re-read this article and remember: the main thing is to stop in time.
So, I present the real story of the “wiring” of a startup.
Introduction
A few years ago, our team started the Infoarena project , it took root well in the Kaliningrad test region, but, as practice has shown, additional investments are needed to enter large Russia and beyond, which we did not have. They traditionally tried to communicate with investment companies, but no one showed interest. It was decided to move on our own - slowly but surely.
So, the largest cost of money and, most importantly, time is spent on programming services and their maintenance. We also had experience creating sites and online stores. Therefore, after a little reflection, we came to the simple idea that our achievements should not remain within the same project, but become accessible to many people. This is possible if you make typical functional elements as simple and customizable as possible so that you can add any website, store, social network or other complex Internet service from them.
No matter how well you plan, conduct market research, in practice, everything will be completely wrong. In life, it is important to quickly deploy your project, start selling and be ready to adapt to new market requirements.
So, together, we came up with and launched the Aichiti project . What we have already done allows us to create Internet projects ten times faster than before, but money is needed to do something really cool.
Communication with investor
Once, thanks to the information posted on merar.com, an investor came to us and said that he was interested in our project. We took this issue seriously - we formulated and beautifully designed our new vision, carefully translated the presentations into English and sent them away.
Within a couple of months, by exchanging various memorandums of intent, consent was received to finance our project. Quite simple procedures and the absence of special difficulties did not alert any of us - we attributed everything to the Western style of business communication.
The first alarming factor was the ability to transfer money personally by the representative, but we chose the non-cash option. Then it turned out that the person trusts and is ready to give money, but so far he does not need to be entered by the founder of the company, otherwise he will fly into taxes in his country. Also not a problem - you still need to register a separate LLC.
Sometimes you feel that you are being deceived, but the hope is so strong that it drowns the mind.
The fun begins next. The investor reports that the money is ready and I need to open a bank account in England from which I can transfer money where I need to. I agree, and a representative of this bank contacts me. The first serious mistake of scammers is a letter sent from a free hosting in the Czech Republic. I looked at the bank’s website, it seems that they have branches all over the world, and one of the domains where I opened an account was registered a week ago. I think, well, where is this hidden ..., but I don’t understand where exactly (and in my head there is an optimist’s inner voice - well, people also need to invest money, maybe all coincidences, and the project without this money will crawl like a wounded turtle) . Number two fraudsters miss - a weak functionality of a pseudo-bank account and an insecure connection.
So, the money is “received”, despite the suspicions, we all rejoice when we see large numbers on a personal account in an English bank. We are preparing to transfer part of the money to Russia, although this is also not so simple. The translation scheme has changed several times, but in the end it was built so that I got a loan and occupy my company. A transaction passport is not required, but you can not pay in dollars. By the way, it turned out to be useless to show the contract to employees at a Russian bank - the qualifications of the staff were appallingly low, they almost framed me for violating the law. I advise you to hire a competent lawyer. I urgently open a personal account and transfer part of the amount. The transaction has passed, all parties are happy and here ... here it is - welcome, Her Majesty F ....!
Fraud scheme
The next day, it turns out that the account was blocked by a certain commission on terrorism by the government Agency, UKAAMT (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), you need to issue a Clean Bill of Record Clearance Certification and it’s worth the pleasure of some ridiculous 3,100 British pounds. Everything immediately fell into place. Well, of course, a false bank cannot take them from the account - it is frozen, a request to lend is passed by the ears, a fraud partner asks from his sources to pay the amount in order to unfreeze the account.
Parallel to what is happening, I googled at the expense of these organizations and a certificate with a long name. There is simply no information on these organizations, because, obviously, such offices do not exist at all. But about the certificate, there were a couple of interesting pages from 2004 and 2006, where the “affected” people tell how they were divorced to pay for this certificate according to the “Nigerian letter” scheme.
Additionally, I turned to a real bank, so that they would confirm whether they were their employees, and to the Internal Affairs Directorate. The bank answered after a couple of days that it was a fraud, but no one was interested in the ATC.
But for fun, I asked where to transfer the money, it turns out, you need to send it to a private person through Western Union.
Personally, I was not very upset, because the information accumulated in the subconscious, and in fact I was ready for such a turn of events. It's a pity a little time wasted, but I got experience and I can warn other start-ups and find people who are ready, one way or another, to participate in our project.
PS If someone thinks that he is so smart and he immediately recognizes the fraudulent scheme - let him not deceive himself, but carefully re-read this article and remember: the main thing is to stop in time.