It all starts with a great idea. You think about it more and more, change and adjust your ideas to create something you believe the world needs to have. Yet, the biggest issue is money. How can I convince people to give me money? It’s the question every person asks when they need capital to build a business or product. Proof of Concept One of the most important pieces to getting funded is creating a proof of concept (PoC). This is a visual of how your idea will work in the real world. To prove that it can actually work. Another word for it is a prototype. It is not the final coded version at all, it’s just the designs with clickability. It allows people to actually see how it would work and be viable. For example. Let’s take a mobile app. You lay out the designs for each screen, then take those screens and make the buttons clickable. This prototype just allows the user to click on a button to be taken to the appropriate screen. No backend functions are actually happening. Nothing moves on the screen at all. It’s simple but allows people to actually see how it will be used. Of course, there are different levels of prototyping which can be used. A development company like SDI can help you determine what will work best for you. Fancy PowerPoint presentations and diagrams are not sufficient enough. It’s a great sidekick to the PoC but will not gain you any points from potential investors. If you really want to put on a good show, show them a working PoC along will all the projections for it. However, your prototype shouldn’t be too simple either. You won’t be the only one doing this so you still have to compete against others. Knowing that however, gives you a leg up on them. Yours needs to stand out. You need an experienced team to help you understand exactly how to create an amazing PoC. You can contact Sakshi at 408.621.8481 To give you a better idea how this can actually help you in the real world, let’s take a look at what Nasa did. Nasa recently selected 128 proposals from different small businesses to help with research advancement. Nasa took these PoC’s very seriously and used them to see whether or not what these businesses were representing was actually feasible. Based on that they made their selections. Just imagine being granted $750,000 to build your product. Breakdown of What’s Needed When you walk into a meeting with these potential investors, it doesn’t pay to be prepared. It pays to be over prepared. Although a prototype is important, it’s not the only thing you need. Here is a quick breakdown of what you should have. 1. A brief description about what your project is, which should include the users it targets, the problems it solves, and a personal or meaningful story they can connect with. 2. The proof of concept which must be working flawlessly. If you can provide each person in the room with an option to play with the prototype that would be beneficial. 3. Your revenue model which shows exactly how your product will make money, the projected revenue, development costs, maintenance costs, marketing costs, and long-term financial earning and costs. 4. Survey results from you testing it in the market. It is really useful to have a test market of people who look at your prototype and provide feedback about usability, likeability, functions they find most useful if it solves their problem, and if they would use it. Do keep in mind too much information can get overwhelming and boring so make sure you keep it interesting. Use personal stories in your presentation. Tell them to imagine a scenario first before starting so they have a story to go with the information. That being said none of this means anything without your PoC. To be completely honest, investors are way more likely to say yes with a PoC than without. If you have a great idea in mind for an app, website, or custom software that you know should be in the market contact the team at SDI about getting your proof of concept or prototype created.