kemo

I've been working on my new start-up for 3 months now. Basically, it'll be the first payments-enabled marketplace for end users in my country with great potential to actually take over the domestic market.

Two investors have already heard of it and made an (IMHO, greedy) offer: an "angel" investment of ~30K (plus office space) for 60% of the company - they'd practically own me. This "investment" would be charged to the company these "investors" work for, but the deal is that both of them get 20% each and their company getting 20% (yeah).

The thing is; both me and my co-founder are pretty much broke since we've been working on this only, so we won't be able to proceed without some kind of investment. I don't know many people who invest in start-ups here and I don't know where to look for them at all. I know about funds like 500startups and YC but I don't think it's worth even applying or pitching their mentors about a product that's targeted for our market only.

Please, enlighten me; what should I do and where should I look for a better deal?

I'm sure many of you here used to work for some larger company before going on your own. I used to work for a 'larger' company myself too before they screwed me over; I was "just a hacker" at the time so none of them took me really seriously.

Now it's payback time: I've been working (and still am, ofc) on a start-up that will compete directly with them. The product itself is light years ahead so I have no doubt it'll get a great percentage of the Goliaths' sales. The questions I can come up with would be:

1. how to use Goliaths' strengths and weaknesses as my own advantages? I've read on this topic lately but still really want to hear fellow hackers' opinions.

2. how to "push" my start-up with practically no funding in a 2nd world country? I'm not looking for funding, going the 37signals way on this one. Except for the idea being super awesome and packaged in the simplest interface possible, I pretty much rely on word of mouth and SEO. Ok, and social media (which I have no experience with). Is there a "pushing your start-up for dummies" book or blog?