With all respect to Dan, I'm not seeing anything like that. You said "pre-revenue." If it's pre-revenue and enterprise, you don't have anything proven yet. You would have to have an insanely interesting story with a group of founders and execs on board with ridiculous competitive advantage bui...
I have been in a similar situation with a client recently: a startup with a compelling software solution that needs a large partner to develop and bring it the market. We have done a partner selection together where we looked at strategy, value proposition for all parties (what is the win/win/wi...
An increasingly popular ideology among startups is to create strong partnerships with outsourced assets. I have recently done a lot of work in the speaking industry and they outsource everything basically running a virtual office. In short, my answer is yes, know what you do well and find othe...
If that's illegal, then there are a lot of criminals walking free and raking in money. Copycat startups are everywhere.
NDA's are certainly a must have for new startup companies, especially if you are developing intellectual property. I would recommend consulting with an attorney that is licensed in your home state. Attorney's have very strict client confidentiality obligations, so you won't need an NDA with you...
Family & friends. This is where all begins. If they don't trust and believe in you it will be difficult for others to follow.
You could use a payment processor and also a call system such as twilio. If you want to work with the phone companies (i.e. 1900 number in the US) this is also an option but the API's are not friendly (or non-existent) and they will take a larger fee.
High net-worth individuals familiar with the industry or credit cards. Visa can make an amazing investor, just be sure to ask for money when you don’t need it.
It's never too early to bring in experienced people. At an early stage company you're operating with limited resources and you can't afford to waste time making other people's mistakes again. Bring in experienced people as soon as possible. If you think you can't afford them, try to find peopl...
Angel.co and gust.com are two places to start. I would also buy premium access to matermark.com provides a full list of Venture Capitalist by sector who has invested in what and what are their portfolios composed of