How much money do you need for your startup? [Poll Results]

MMM Inside StartUpArabia

In the latest poll on StartUpArabia, the question to the readers was: 

How much money do you need for your startup?

The result of reader voting came out as follows:  

How much money do you need for your startup?

 

Out of 230 readers who responded to the poll:
– 37.83% of them say they’d need only between $10,000 and $50,000
– 17.83% say they need $100,000 to $250,000 
– 14.78% only need $50,000 to $100,000
– 11.74% said they need $250,000 to $1,000,000 
– 7.83% need more than $1,000,000
– and the remaining 10% don’t need any money at all

I think the results of this poll are very interesting, because they highlight a number of really important issues:

– The evident gap we have in angel and seed funding that covers the lower startup budgets that make up the biggest percentage of startup needs, as confirmed by the numbers above.

– Are the region’s VC firms being realistic with the investment sizes they’re looking for in the online and technology startups area?

– Are entrepreneurs being realistic with the amounts of money they think they need? Are they asking for too much or too little? Are they taking into consideration all the costs they need to get their startup on its feet, or are they just looking at what it costs for them to get a prototype out the door? 

These are all important issues to think about, and that I’ll be exploring in more detail in future articles.
If you have any ideas or thoughts about this, or if you would like to help in writing the articles about these points, please do drop a comment.

7 thoughts to “How much money do you need for your startup? [Poll Results]”

  1. MMM – thank for this survey. its quite interesting and hopefully accurate and representative of the startups in the region. please continue the discussion on this topic.

  2. MMM – thank for this survey. its quite interesting and hopefully accurate and representative of the startups in the region. please continue the discussion on this topic.

  3. Mohamed,

    The implications that you have identified are very accurate. I agree that we do not have enough angel investors in the Middle East. I also believe that many entrepreneurs think about the cost from 0 to first release, rather than 0 to the breakeven point.

    Thanks for sharing this valuable information !

  4. Mohamed,

    The implications that you have identified are very accurate. I agree that we do not have enough angel investors in the Middle East. I also believe that many entrepreneurs think about the cost from 0 to first release, rather than 0 to the breakeven point.

    Thanks for sharing this valuable information !

  5. A little money goes a long way, especially if you’re a tech. startup in this age of cheap computers and open source software.

    I agree with Amad: As a founder I’m not looking for just enough money for a prototype (a prototype somewhat implies applying for more funding) but just enough for an initial release.

    It varies according to the type of product, I guess. If you’re competing in the same market as, say, Amazon then it might pay off to grow as fast as possible, which means a lot of initial investments.

  6. A little money goes a long way, especially if you’re a tech. startup in this age of cheap computers and open source software.

    I agree with Amad: As a founder I’m not looking for just enough money for a prototype (a prototype somewhat implies applying for more funding) but just enough for an initial release.

    It varies according to the type of product, I guess. If you’re competing in the same market as, say, Amazon then it might pay off to grow as fast as possible, which means a lot of initial investments.

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