This situation has begun over 1 month now...I think it's time I need a strong partner/co-founder to save my startup.

Because I am very new here,  before I tell you the story, I want to share you some facts to guarantee you how serious I am, as well as showing you my commitment to build this startup into a Million Dollars company.


1. In June 2015, after a few months of brainstorming and market survey,  I started hiring a development team of engineering, designer to start the startup. We have a team of 12 people as of now.

For over 18 months, I have spent about $350 on product development. Because I have a company with ~100 developers and 500m2 office and I do pull resources back and forth for the startup, so the cost will be way higher if I don't have support from other teams.


2. I made the most stupid decision when spend $75K bidding on this domain, and finally won it. I want to a sexy name for my baby, however after having the new domain, my team votes to keep the old name/domain for the project 




3. I spent about $3000-$5000 buying tools to support the project (appsumo deals, intercom, customer.io...)

4. I have spent more than $78,000 of google cloud credits ( I got for free from Google Cloud for Startup program). I still owned Google ~2k. It may have cost less, the credit will expire anyway so we never care about optimizing server resources.


As the CEO, I did not take any salary, the investment so far is already... +500k


And that is how I have spent half of my investment budget for the startup which is called http://www.DesignBold.com


What's DesignBold anyway?

I don't to want this post sound a commercial, but 2 sentences pitch so you can understand why I started it.


1) Inspired by Canva.com - which can be a new Photoshop, we want to join the game by becoming the second player.  Canva had no investment at the time I started DesignBold, but just reached $345M in valuation last month (http://venturebeat.com/2016/09/14/canva-raises-15-million-at-a-345-million-valuation-for-its-online-design-tool/)
I strongly believe I am second to noone else at the moment.

2) We don't try to compete Canva; Canva want to be a Photoshop-alternative, we want to build a marketplace.

Why? PS PSD/AI format will die. All designs files should be editable/collaborated instantly and real time ON THE WEB in just a few years.

And if Canva, DesignBold or other players (SnapIO, Stencil, PictoChart...) can agree on a new format for templates (instead of closed PS PSD/AI format)  to allow designers contribute "editable" template files. There will be a new TemplateMonster, new GraphicRiver....

What if it does not happen? DesignBold will be the first one to offer that when we grow up!

Anyways, let's get back to the main story.

After months of testing and fine-tuning, in July 2016, I decided that it's time to launch the product. I secured a few launching program with some great partners. And most interesting deal is with AppSumo.com which will go live on coming 31st Oct.


But...wait...!

If you offer something very similar like Canva, there is a key element of this business: STOCK PHOTO

Although I  have purchased all of stockphotos used at DesignBold and discuss a 50/50 commission sharing plan with my stock photo partner.  On Oct 4,2016 a got a Skype message that I will have to pay Extended License for all photos that my designers use in the template.

I have paid for regular license for all photos our designers used in the template, but with the current situation, with our 4000 current design, we have used ~7000 photo x $35 = ~$21,000

My plan to build at least 100,000 pre-made templates in the next 2-3 years, it will cost me $3,5M.

++++++++



+++++++++


$3,5M? Really??  My short answer: No way!

I have to tweak my business concept a little bit!!

I spent the past few days to find a similar stockphoto usage, but it seems  Canva & DesignBold are the only 2 platforms offering such new & unique design templates. There are others, but most of them use free stock library.

Canva already built their own stock partnership program, I don't have enough resources to do it at the moment.


What's next for DesignBold?


I happen to find out about our Microstockgroup's community last night. I asked myself why I don't try to seek for opinion, support, advice how I should resolve the situation?

Reading through the forum give me a lot of confidence, and if I am lucky, I may find my co-founder here, right

If you find DesignBold's business is interesting, please help me in many ways.

2 things that I really look forward to:

1.  I don't think the stock photos our designers used in the template will require Extended License. Do you agree? If yes/no, what is the key reason?
(Remember: Unlike PSD template, the author will distribute the stock photos when he sell the template, in our case, users will still have to pay for stock photos when he render/download the design. In no circumstance, DesignBold is reselling/distributing the stock photo.


2. If I can't work out a proper agreement with the stock photo partner + their contributors. I have to build my own stock photo program, is there anyone here would love to join the team as co-founder with equity option?

You must:
- Have access to a few million stock photos
- Have a wide connection with stock contributors
- Have experience and capability to build and grow the contributor program

That's all for now, I will share more about myself and the DesignBold startup if you want to know.

Feel free to ask in the comment, and I am very eager to answer.

PS: We had a pre-A investment offer at 2.5M valuation, I have not accepted. Is there any investor here? Any opinion?

To be brutally frank I think you are crazy but good luck

Yeah, but in which way 

The market is totally saturated with images and people selling images you are looking to spend �3.5m  on a business valued at �2.5m to start generating income when? Maybe crazy is wrong but too risky to me.

No, I am not going to spend 3.5M that way bro. That's why I said I have to tweak my business. May be I have to rely on free stock photo or find other sources. But premium photos are also very important.

I dont agree that editable template design are saturated. Who is providing it?

Why an extended license? Use a API and pay a regular license per single use.

Thanks @Hellou!!

That is what I am implementing now, but stock photo partner and their contributors are insisting that I have to pay the Extended License. Please help me to provide more opinions so that I can share with them.

"My plan to build at least 100,000 pre-made templates in the next 2-3 years, it will cost me $3,5M."

Quote from: Pauws99 on October 18, 2016, 08:06

"My plan to build at least 100,000 pre-made templates in the next 2-3 years, it will cost me $3,5M."

That is when they ask me to pay for Extended License.

But with my current implimentation & usage, I am supposed to pay for regular license!

For regular license, it ll cost me ~50k

Having trouble making this add up 50c a template? Think if you did a bit of work on presentation of the financials it might be of more interest from investors. I also see nothing about projected income.

If you want to spend a bunch of money, you can buy me out. I'd could take a little retirement.

Outright purchase of peoples portfolios! special portfolios of course. You own the copy and everything you sell is 100% profit.

not sure if language like  'wanna' and 'bro' will attract a million dollar investment

Why business has to be serious? I built $30M in revenue already bro!
Does that count?

Wye-aye man, if you got $30M in revenue why don't you just spend $1M yourself and enjoy the remaining $29M?

The only reason i see for the extended license is that you host the images on your own hosting. Yes it is right, you want sell a template and you need a extended license.
Solution:
If you act like a affiliate/ refferral partner all images stay at the stock photo agency.  There are endless reseller.  Poster and printing services for example.
They do not pay a extended license becaue they act as a reseller.

A second solution could be to accept people as seller. Invite photographers to upload directly some choosen photos and graphics. Pay more as all the stock photo sites. Make a good offer for photographers and you save money because you only pay for sold template.

Choose some of my graphics and i will upload them. Give me $2 each time a image will be used on a template. Iam in.

Quote from: DesignBold on October 18, 2016, 09:07

Why business has to be so serious? I built $30M in revenue already bro!
Does that count?

Doing what? Another company?

Yes. We had JoomlArt.com - a small Joomla company, but we built the best Joomla templates for many years. I can proudly say that we are the biggest Joomla company so far

Quote from: DesignBold on October 18, 2016, 07:35

1.  I don't think the stock photos our designers used in the template will require Extended License. Do you agree? If yes/no, what is the key reason?

You are kidding me right? You admit a mass fraud in public and you should get sued. You basically sub-licensed our image material without paying the corresponding license fee (extended). If you purchase a standard license it is for a end user.

If you run a "serious" business you should find at least the time to read the TOS.

If you want content, pay for it. Start to talk to contributors. Pay a upfront fee. Build a relationship with photographers. And first and foremost DELETE any material you created with invalid licensed content.

Be calm Tror.

1. You have to understand that our templates are new kind of templates.They are not like PSD or AI, I clearly stated in the post. Your photos are not being sub-licensed. Every time a stock is used by our users, you will get a payment

2. Have you tried our system? It not, take 1-2 minutes to try it and you will see the difference.