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Author Archives: Dave Berkus
Turn the tables: What’s an angel look like?
Angel investors, particularly those in organized angel groups, are typically former entrepreneurs who have had successful liquidity events in their pasts, or executives of companies who’ve retired with the funds from their stock options. Occasionally, an angel is a member … Continue reading
Posted in Raising money
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Find your champion.
If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision, become … Continue reading
The Rule of Thirds
It is rare when one person starts a company, supplies all the funding, and shares no management tasks or equity with others, and still grows the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million dollar opportunity to cash out … Continue reading
Huge opportunities do NOT command amazing pre-money valuations.
Dave’s note: Popular Bill Payne returns this week with a thoughtful take on valuations. By Bill Payne One entrepreneur has a company which appears to be scalable to a $30 million exit value in five to eight years, and a … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Raising money
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Craft your roadmap. Plan your trip.
By JJ Richa J.J. Richa is a successful entrepreneur and technologist giving back to the entrepreneurial community in many ways, including his weekly Internet TV program on entrepreneurism, and participation in several mentoring programs. Business planning is a crucial part … Continue reading
Posted in Growth!, Ignition! Starting up, Positioning
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Early stage money: The problem with PPMs
By Bill Payne Bill Payne has been actively involved in angel investing since 1980, funding over 50 companies and mentoring over 100 more. He is the recipient of the coveted “Hans Severiens Award form the Angel Capital Association, its highest … Continue reading
Posted in Raising money
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Both sides must be fair in a term sheet negotiation.
By Basil Peters After being an active angel investor for about fifteen years, I realized that many of the discussions I was involved in were virtually identical to ones I’d had many times before. A good example was during the … Continue reading
Posted in Raising money
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Can you finance your company with grants?
First, here’s a link to my recent TEDx talk, “Smiling at success; laughing at failure.” I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. … Continue reading
Posted in Growth!, Raising money
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And don’t forget creative fund raising.
Let me tell you the story of how I raised $100,000 to fill a gap needed to purchase a new home for my young family years ago. I had located a beautiful home that would be a stretch to finance, … Continue reading
Posted in Raising money
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Accelerators: a recent and positive trend
Often I see executive summaries from entrepreneurs who have never managed any form of business, or even managed employees in their past life, and who don’t know the first thing about business formation and managing for growth. I used to … Continue reading
