Comments on: Raising money for your business: What are the options?

By: VentureDen

VentureDen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:26:35 +0000

Well written post as usual.

I agree that far too many businesses seek funding way too early in the game. Consequently, they end up losing control of their company along with their origional vision.

By: Bill Reichert

Bill Reichert — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:31:11 +0000

Dave: Great overview. Also, it’s worth mentioning grants. We see lots of teams, often still at university, that have made tremendous progress with grant money, including SBIR grants and grants from other federal and state entities. And as an extension of your “bootstrap” point, leveraging a local university is a great way to get cheap or even free resources, including space as well as talent.

By: Ron Thompson

Ron Thompson — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:23:10 +0000

Dave,

Enjoy reading your articles.

Having been an Angel investor for 10 years and maintainiong a portfolio of approximately 20 ventures, I can confirm many companies are in need of financing.

Interestingly, given the challenges for early stage investors to realize returns commensurate with risk, plus the need for Founders to be sophisticated in business – it is easy to understand why it is difficult for companies to obtain venture funding.

To help address the issue, what can Founders do to effectively leverage Angel expertise (as well as $) to improve decision making and fast track business progress ? Further, what can Angels do to add more value to improve the probability of venture success (when making an investment) ?

In the end, more businesses need to produce results. In basic terms this means sales ramping, validation of the business model, and the creation of signifciant shareholder wealth. When this ocurs more frequently in the venture funding ecosystem, I suspect financing will be a lot easier.

Regards,

CAIL

Ron Thompson

By: Michael O'Daniel

Michael O'Daniel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:13:47 +0000

This post is invaluable in terms of helping entrepreneurs understand the reality in terms of what sources of capital might be available to them, and the pros and cons of each, enabling them to focus their pursuit of capital more effectively on the options that make the most sense at that particular stage of the company’s development. Bravo!