Arbitrage opportunity

Aquarians said:
Take a sidestep and look at the greater picture. I'm not talking ONLY trading, EU grants sponsor ANYTHING. Albeit mostly car washes and nail polishing saloons where I live and it's these retarded imbeciles I have to compete with if I'm to get a grant for my trading R&D business.

It goes like this: EU has 10 billion dollars for sponsoring new businesses per year. You apply with an idea limited at $50k. You enter a contest with other ideas and win. From this point on it's an arbitrage. Whatever the idea you stick to it. It's like getting $50k to bet on the roulette. You stick to the idea and bet them all. If you lose, you owe nothing back, not even regrets since they weren't your money anyways. If you win it's all yours (after taxes but again, it was free money anyways).

It's unfair towards hard working honest citizens like me who busted their ass for 20 years to save $50k for a similar investment, and if they lose (independently or worse, towards arbitrage-sponsored competition), they've essentially flushed their life down the toilet?

Sure is but that's how EU works.
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If you have to beg, borrow and steal (you're doing all three here) then your idea is worth exactly... shit.
 
Deshiterio, you're so clueless as to not even know that if you throw out feces at the passers-by, shit comes back and sticks to your name.
 
destriero said:
If you have to beg, borrow and steal (you're doing all three here) then your idea is worth exactly... shit.
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@destriero: sorry for snapping at you. It's harder to take criticism than to give it and heck knows, I've little reserves of "offering" it aplenty. But the whole point of asking a question on an open forum is to get more opinions on it apart from my strong and stubborn ideas. So being criticized or doubted is not just expected but actually desirable.

I'm not begging, borrowing and stealing as you seem to think, I'm working since about 20 years already, saved some money and looking to start my own business and if I can get some EU funds for it, even better. Since there's always an element of risk in a business, like starting it is 100% doable but making it profitable is a whole different story.

Anyways one of the basic things I want in my company if I'll have one is the guarantee that you can express your opinion whatever that might be, including blunt criticism and not get punished for it as it's the norm almost everywhere.

But as I said above, easier said than done :) I'm learning, though, so again sorry for snapping at you and instead thanks for your opinion.
 
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I didn't know about this funding. What's the catch, if any? If the business fails, what's the thing you lose? In any case you will have lost time and I suppose the bureaucratic time investment must be horrendous? Otherwise there are tons of ideas you can try. Just hand in 10 ideas and if one gets funded it's a free option.
 
>> If the business fails, what's the thing you lose?

The time (and hope :) ) invested and most likely some own money.

There is some bureaucracy, honestly no idea how much just hoping that not "too much". You gotta have a business plan and the bureaucrats check that you're actually following it.

From the EU point of view it makes sense if the invested money actually bootstrap profitable businesses since that means they recover their money from taxation over the lifetime of the business.

I think it's the European equivalent to what the United States calls "venture capital". In the US the process is more privately owned, the Europeans are more socialistic so the states do it.
 
And I actually got a Californian VC interested in my venture although they were shy in actually letting loose actual money investment. They're applying a "wait and see" tactic and I'm not opposed to maintaining contact with them since after the initial investment from the EU grant (I'm quite sure I'll get it) and some of my own money, if the business is profitable, I'll still need money to scale up.

And there's noting VCs love more than scaling up. Of course if they'd invest now they'd get a bigger share of the business for a lower cost compared to what they'd get if the risk has been cleared. No free lunch in real businesses either :)
 
And you may find it odd but I'm almost as terrified at the prospect of being successful as by the perspective of failure. After 20 years of being an employee breaking loose is almost like getting released free after serving a 20 years prison sentence. I guess it would take time to adjust.

I guess the closest equivalent to myself would be Dilbert ( http://dilbert.com/ ), a smart, hard-working, skilled engineer but can you imagine him being a CEO? :)
 
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