Linked In QnA, How functional must a prototype be if my goal is to get an investor or potential partner interested in the concept?

This question was asked by a gentleman looking to build something that he could start and wanted to start but would like to get help with finishing. This is the question for virtually everybody with an idea for a product. Essentially it is “How much of what I am thinking do I have to have built and have ready for show in order to attract people with capital to help me”. The Linked In Experts or at least people with experience and were not to scared or greedy to share weighed in and provided some good information.

There were 6 answers to this question total, of which 4 were chosen as good answers and 1 of the 4 was the best answer. Lets take a look as speaking points for the best answer in this case.

Best Answer

1. Convince them that the product could work
2. Mock up only trivial parts of the system but have enough wow parts working to keep interest
3. Allow investors to play if they would like
4. Research attendees and know your audience (If you have ever read “The 48 Laws of Power” this is of major importance for anyone looking to sell anything)
5. When demoing to developers make sure you show the challenge in the application

This is a nice set of rules to go by based on 2 preconditions of having the prototype ready; and having found people that would want to get on board with you. However, those issues to me seem to be of greater importance because you can’t really do any of what is stated here unless those conditions are met. So lets take a look at the other answers to see if someone piped up about ways to find those willing to help you.

Good Answers

1. Functioning product (2 Nods)
2. Get it used by actual users (2 Nods)
3. The other 1 that answered really just pitched their services and piggy-backed.

Answers Note Rated as Good

The strangest thing is that I think that both of these answers are actually much better than the answers of the 1 that was selling. Points from not good answers.

1. Know what your VC is looking for
2. Have a working scale at least
3. If it is a physical product have a working scale version
4. Make sure that it shines (people don’t get under the hood if the body is garbage)

for not rated as good answers these 2 guys actually provided some good insights. For instance number 4, where the the statement is ” Your GUI must rock..” is very true. I have seen many products where the part that the customer, investor, user sees is not appealing and the product fails because they can’t get past the look. So when you go looking for investors make sure they can get past the first impression so that you can sell them on the real meat of the thing. The other points of the not good answers all mimic what had been said before just with different examples.

Well I hope this was a nice little look into this Linked In question and answer. Will have another one next week.

Link to the actual post: