I'm attending the Video Game Investor's Conference in San Francisco Sept. 19-20 If you have general or specific questions about video game investing that you want asked, post them soon, as I will be able to gather them by no later than Sept 17th. Adventuredesign

Given that 80% of jobs are obtained though word of mouth, I suspect the venture community works much the same. Thus it is easy when you are with EA or Ubisoft to know where to go to find investors, who's reputable, who's not. But as an Indie, you are on your own and finding an Investor is purely a game of luck and chance as in you bump into someone or you already knew them from way back. My questions are be based on that premise and come from a person who's an Indie Game Developer themselves:

How do I find an Investor that's right for me? ...how do I tap into this seemingly closed off investment community or network and then get noticed?

How can I tell an investors reputations? What tips off a good investor? A Poor one?

I'm not looking for generalities (go to conferences, attend business seminars, join the republican party), but specifics (here is a publication/website/radio show dedicated to investors and investees, here where all the VCs have lunch every thursday, here's an agency that can help you).

Thanks for the oppurtunity, Adventure. :)

Hey, thanks for doing this. I got a few questions:

Like fastlane69, how do you get the opprotunity to pitch to an investor?

When you get the pitch opprotunity, what would an indie have to do to give a knock-out pitch? The kind of pitch where they say "Damn, I'm impressed! I can't wait to see this make money for us."

Just how many investors are out there? And how easy / hard is it to get funding from one?

What kind of control does an investor want over the project?

What does a VC expect to get from an Indie when they agree to fund their project / marketing / etc?

1. What level of experience would someone need in order to secure funding? (Experience in the target industry and/or industry running a company)?
2. What rate of return are they looking for and over what period of time?
3. When seeking investment would the developer need to invest their own money and if so what percentage of the investment?

Quote: Original post by Big Sassy
Hey, thanks for doing this. I got a few questions:

Like fastlane69, how do you get the opprotunity to pitch to an investor?

When you get the pitch opprotunity, what would an indie have to do to give a knock-out pitch? The kind of pitch where they say "Damn, I'm impressed! I can't wait to see this make money for us."

This has something on it from the article I wrote at GDC 2005, Click

The other questions are on file, and will attend to them during the networking sessions

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Hey, there was a pedestrian accident I was involved in today where some special ed kids got hit by an elderly driver and I took a hard fall getting some of them out of harm's way. I am laid up for a few days at least, and wrote the conference vp and asked if I could get ahold of some transcripts of the presentations. Dang tough luck, but better than the others. I'll present what I get should they send it.

Adventuredesign

Wow, tough break. I hope nobody was seriously injured. Get better soon [smile]

Whoa!

I hope you and everyone involved in the accident is alright.

Thanks for all your continued efforts in advance. :)

Quote: Original post by Big Sassy
Wow, tough break. I hope nobody was seriously injured. Get better soon [smile]

It was pretty gnarly, dude. One kid is seriously hurt, and the other two are banged up but ok. They should be, I broke their fall, heheh.

The real thing that bugs me is that the driver was this totally old dude who had no business being behind the wheel for about twenty years now. Well, I'll be back in action in a few days, and for now, I just went to the beach and enjoyed a paid day off, if nothing else. :)

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Quote: One kid is seriously hurt

The kid passed of brain trama two nights ago.