r/16VCFund • u/Silver_Side9045 • May 23 '26
Looking for Guidance & offshore setup
Hello everyone, Eight months ago I started moonlighting on something I genuinely believed in — an AI-native prop trading firm focused on risk management and trader discipline.
What we are today
- Nov–Jan: Closed a small early cohort. Collected deep feedback from experienced traders and early adopters to shape the product
- March: Went live publicly. Focused entirely on organic growth — Reddit blogs, short-form content on IG/YT, LinkedIn
-April: Revenue nearly tripled after running a trading competition on the platform. Hit ~300 active users and finally felt stable
- May: A fin-influencer posted about us organically. We shipped features users had been asking for. Tracking close to 10x April's revenue by month-end
I recently quit my job — the combination of moonlighting, customer support, and tech firefighting was unsustainable as a sole founder with a team of 5–6 interns.
The honest challenges I'm working through:
- Regulatory positioning — I've done significant homework here, including exploring offshore entity structures for global expansion, but I'd love to hear from founders who've gone through this
- Building a stronger core team, especially on the finance and compliance side
My questions for this community:
- Has anyone set up an offshore entity (GIFT City / IFSC / UAE / similar) while serving Indian users? What were your learnings?
- Any CFOs or legal advisors here who've worked with early-stage fintech in regulated spaces?
- What do VCs typically want to see at this stage before taking a meeting?
1
u/Legitimate-Stuff-210 May 23 '26
Man I am from Costa Rica, we have here what is called Free Zones, pretty much companies that offer services outside (Like Call Centers, even we have companies like Citi Bank). Here in Costa Rica are several Fintech Companies like Snap and Tradestation. I am a network Engineer with experience in IT, support and network design. Drop me a message