VC and angel investments are very difficult to get. You can spend months perfecting your pitch and never find an interested investor. Less than one percent of businesses receive this kind of funding. As our pie chart shows, private investment capital only represents about 4% of the total capital that is available for investment. The [...]
Greg Steltenpohl, the founder of Odwalla, spoke to a rapt audience at the recent Social Venture Network spring conference in San Diego. Here are some excerpts from his talk: The riskiest thing I ever did was bring an investment banker in to invest in the company. Us entrepreneurs don’t think nearly enough about the decision [...]
In California it is possible to do a private securities offering without a great deal of regulatory compliance work. This offering under Section 25102(f) of the California Securities Code is sometimes called a “friends and family” offering. Using this exemption from the general requirement that securities offerings must be registered, you can sell securities to [...]
When the predatory and irresponsible practices of mortgage lenders like Countrywide caused a financial meltdown, who did the Countrywide CEO blame? In April 2007, Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s CEO, in a speech at the Millken Institute, blamed the Greenlining Institute, a nonprofit organization that had been advocating for more lending to minorities. Mozilo stated that Greenlining’s [...]
So, say you own a startup company that’s trying to raise seed funding to create the next great software platform for social change, such as Kiva or Echoing Green. You’ve exhausted all your personal finances, maxed out your credit cards. You’ve already taken on some investment capital from family and friends—now it’s time to really scale and hire [...]
This is common question and the answer is – it can vary quite a bit! There are three stages of a DPO: preparation compliance filing selling the investment opportunity Preparation The preparation to do a DPO can take as little as a few days or several months. This process involves ensuring that the entity that [...]
I recently listened to the TedX talk by Chinwe Onyeagoro of Fundwell called “I’m an Inefficient Market Entrepreneur.” The talk provided good insight into the small business financing market and its many inefficiencies. Ms. Onyeagoro provided some very interesting information about small business financing: 7 out of 10 small businesses are rejected for loans businesses with revenues [...]
Personal finance gurus shout about the latest stock picks on MSNBC. Radio shows like Marketplace Money repeat the mantra that you are an idiot if you don’t maximize your contribution to your 401(k). A recent book, “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry,” by Helaine Olen, provides evidence that much of [...]
Good food needs time and money to grow and ripen. Credibles make it possible for communities to support small, sustainable local food-related businesses through a form of crowdfunding. Credibles are a tool for pre-paying food purchases. A customer purchases Credibles for businesses that she wants to patronize. She then spends the Credibles at the business [...]
The first step once you decide you want to raise money for your business, whether through a DPO or otherwise, is to decide what kind of investment vehicle you want to sell. There are lots of options and each one will have different implications for your business over the long term. Also, what kinds of [...]
