it was 80k over 2 rounds. That means that they weren't able to raise even 80k at once. That's not "I'm investing money because I expect you to turn a profit for me money" that's "here, I'll float you a little because i like you / your idea and maybe... maybe it'll pan out and I'll get a nice return."
Outside of SV, thats plenty of money to bootstrap a company. Watch an episode of Shark tank -- there 'investments' typically are in the 100K to 200K for the bigger deals they do and many are less than 50K.
50k? Serious question from someone who's never tried: why not just get a loan? I've only watched one episode (I hated it, it reminded me way too much of black mirror's "15 million merits") but the deals they were cutting were... not good. Is it really that hard to get a loan for 50k as a business? Isn't that what small business loans are for?
1) A lot of the people who come on there are 1st time business owners and don't have much experience negotiating with investors
2) The "Sharks"/investors really push the whole "yes I'm taking 30% of your company for $30K but I bring in a ton of value in advice and connections" thing alll the time and most of the time, the people go for it
3) I'm pretty sure the whole pressure of appearing on TV and getting grilled for 6 hours in front of cameras (apparently the 10-20 minutes they show on TV actually takes around 6 hours) and then walking home without any deals feels like a missed opportunity for the business owners so they eventually just give in and end up taking any "deal" the sharks throw out which is almost always terrible
Business loans do not happen without a personal guarantee where you have to put your home or other hard assets as a collateral or have a ton of incoming revenue that can be scalped .
