Unfortunately, many lost thousands in the process. Every new business starts with a vision. The development team often creates the vision for the product. The first challenge is to access financing to produce it. Developers access seed money from someone who personally knows the team.
Developers attract the attention of an investor who buys into the vision.
During the vision phase, investing small amounts of money in several ventures may prove profitable, since one of the visions may become a product. However, since this is as close to gambling as a slot machine, investors should only be willing to put up money at this stage that they are very willing to lose. During the dot-com craze, investors poured money into vision, thinking they were investing in product, and grossly underestimated the risk. The next goal is to turn the vision into a product and a working prototype. Product creation often requires technical, managerial or marketing expertise beyond the capabilities of the in-house team.