Financing: When your great idea needs some help
ICANN won’t admit it, but their high TLD application fee is clearly meant as a barrier to entry, in order to prevent too many applications. They’re trying to ensure that this round has only well-heeled TLDs so that they don’t have any embarrassing failures.
That’s understandable, but it’s not very fair. You may well have a great idea, but ICANN’s high fees means that instead of thinking about how to make it great, you have to go chase after money instead.
Minds + Machines can help you get the financing you need.
First, we can help you write a killer business plan. We’ve been in front of many venture capitalists and angel investors, and we know what they’re looking for. We can help you present your story to its best advantage for these audiences.
An important part of your business plan, and certainly the part of most interest to investors, are your financials. It’s not just that you have the numbers; it’s crucial to present them to investors in a way that shows you understand how they think about an investment.
Depending on your plan for a TLD (or multiple TLDs), we may know of investors who are interested. We’re in touch with people on both the east and west coasts of the U.S. , and in Europe, who have indicated interest in TLD investments. If your plan fits their criteria, we can introduce you to them.
Once you find an investor, you’re going to go meet with them. We can be present at that meeting, either physically or on the phone. We can support you as experts with regard to ICANN, costs involved in the application, timing of your launch, income projections, and market research. You don’t want to have to say, “I’ll get back to you on that.”
Every investor looks at the plan, the market, and the team. The team is important because they’re the ones who have to execute the plan; an idea is no good if there aren’t the skills to carry it through. It may be that you don’t have a team assembled yet, in which case we can act as proxies — it will show the investor that you have knowledgeable people behind you, if not yet on staff.
On some occasions, we will invest directly in your TLD, either by providing cash or reducing costs. We will do this with a very limited number of TLDs, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
