Monthly Archives: June 2011
Linkedin’s Reid Hoffman, the man with the true Midas Touch, talks about raising capital and how to succeed in today’s world as an entrepreneur. Continue reading
Be Honest: Are You a Blanche DuBois Type Entrepreneur?
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. – Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire
Let’s take a look at the main differences between true entrepreneurs and the Blanche DuBois type wannabes.
True entrepreneurs are very resourceful by nature. Once they make the decision to proceed with a new venture they immediately shift their focus to how they can move forward with whatever resources happen to be at hand. One of the reasons that they are able to start making progress immediately is because there’s always something you can do to move forward. Always. You just have to be on the lookout for it.
In contrast, the Blanche DuBois entrepreneurial wannabes come up with an idea, maybe write a business plan and estimate of how much money they will need to implement it, and then sit down and wait and wait and wait some more for a kind stranger to come along and drop $50k, $500k, or $5 million into their laps.
How to Create Startup Capital
Well, not exactly but it come close. Think of it as an indirect endorsement. Big name east coast venture capitalist Fred plugs one of the many financing methods elaborated on The Smart Startup Guide. It would have been better if he had mentioned the creative financing manual by name, but I’ll roll with it anyways.
When should the payments on a Revenue Royalty Certificate begin?
Since I get at least one email a week about this I will explain how the decision is made.
Got stress? Here’s an amazing little finger exercise that I discovered quite by accident. Do it for a couple of minutes and your stress melts away.
The First Ever Mergers & Acquisitions for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Don’t let the “m” and “a” words scare you off. Give yourself a chance to learn about it. Continue reading
What types of companies is Revenue-based Finance best suited for?
Since most people are only now beginning to discover revenue-based financing they mistakenly assume that it’s an exotic new financing mechanism suitable for a only a small subset of companies. The fact is that it’s a form of financing better suited to the majority of businesses than traditional equity financing. Consider the fact that equity-based financing depends on a profitable liquidity event taking place, such as an IPO or acquisition by a deep-pocketed buyer, to make it worthwhile for the investors. Then consider how unlikely either of those events really is for the vast majority of companies. The answer is highly unlikely. Continue reading
Capitalism like everything else has evolved in different ways around the world. The following lists and describes the different permutations. This is a new improved version.
Revenue Royalty Certificates: Advantages of Revenue-based Financing Instruments
I have been writing about some of the advantages of raising startup capital using instruments such as Revenue Royalty Certificates (or Revenue Royalty Agreements, if you prefer). As soon as you sell any equity for capital the pressure starts to mount for a liquidity event of one type or another. As I mentioned earlier, investors can only make money through a liquidity event. That’s when they normally recover their principal plus any capital gain that has hopefully accrued. Continue reading
How to Launch Your Startup With Revenue-Based Financing
Yes, revenue-based financing can be used to finance startups. In fact it’s been used for many decades by sophisticated entrepreneurs and investors. The thing is that a lot of noobs are only now discovering it and acting like it’s something new. It’s not. Far from it. Continue reading