This was intriguing to read as there was a person who was looking for investment funds to start a project where like most people they began by asking friends and family members. For the most part he didn’t get much where it seemed like fifteen dollars was literally the total out of his whole network. This made him rant about how he doesn’t get how people are willing to treat him to say fifteen dollar meals yet when it comes to donating for a venture that he wants to do as a career everyone stays away from it. Would you think there is a fundamental difference there in terms of treating someone to a meal versus giving the same exact amount of funds as a business donation?
Generally speaking I think one of the key difference is usually when people treat others the value they get per se is that they are spending time with you. Maybe you went out of your way to meet and so it’s the least one can do. When donating to one’s venture though I think most people would see it as you are doing the work for the person where they should be the ones hustling to say sell stuff to get the funds or dong work for others. Or at minimum people would expect some kind of return as if it was an investment.
I think that’s normal where people often expect to get something for their money. So if you are asking for money for your business venture it may not be a bad idea to actually think what you can offer that people would value to want to donate. You may say things like your friendship should be good enough but in reality most people don’t care enough as again I would imagine many would see it as you wanting someone else to do the work for you.