So I've been in the industry for about a decade and have established relationships internally with colleagues over that period, while my client relationships are almost as old. Now that I'm senior and my partner and I went independent and started our own boutique a while ago, my work hours have diminished and I've gotten time to focus on side projects. One such side project is a fintech startup (not blockchain) that is getting off the ground and so far doing well. Some details that I think are important:
1. It is only very tangentially related to my day job.
2. It's relatively low cost for now, but maintenance will rise exponentially with scale.
3. I'm one of two founders, neither of us have a tech background (both finance).
4. While my work and I are U.S. based, the project targets a foreign market.
5. We were offered initial funding from an incubator but turned it down (bad fit, don't want to dilute ownership at seed stage).
6. I'm fully self-funding the project for now.
7. My niche is working with large asset management firms (average AUM is probably $20b among our clients).
8. This startup's valuation won't eclipse $10m now, and even if it's wildly successful may never be worth more than $100m.
I expect us to scale to the point where I can't afford to keep it running in about a year, so I'll want to start reaching out for funding in maybe six months. I'd like to leverage my relationships, but I don't know how to do this. Can I just reach out internally and externally? Is there a compliance issue I need to worry about? Is it in bad taste--should I just not bother and try cold calling VCs I don't know?
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