Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011, when the Asociación de Inversores y Emprendedores de Internet (AIEI) had just been founded. AIEI, the DAD investor network and the LinkToStart awards may no longer exist or work the same way.
If your bank shuts the door to financing because it doesn’t believe in your online business project, that’s not the end. There are other ways to finance your project, although, I’ll say it again, whoever you go to, you’ll have to prove that your business idea is profitable. (See also: ways to finance a business)
The Asociación de Inversores y Emprendedores de Internet (Association of Internet Investors and Entrepreneurs) has just been launched. It offers the support needed by anyone with an innovative idea for starting an internet company. To visit its website, just go to aiei.es.
Then there’s DAD, one of the largest investor networks for technology projects, which is also looking for new ideas or businesses that can make it on the internet: dad.es.
There are also the LinkToStart Awards, competitions that select innovative business ideas and give them the support they need to develop: linktostart.com.
So if you have a good innovative business idea and need funding, go to your bank and to associations like these, always analyse the terms, ideally with a gestor (an adviser who handles business paperwork and taxes in Spain), and choose whichever option suits you best.
If you can’t get funding anywhere, start developing your idea little by little, and over time you may be pleasantly surprised to see how many people want to be part of your project. Good luck.
Further reading
Featured image: WOCinTech Chat, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
