Early Stage Investing - Still Brutal Out There

Things are brutal out there for early stage/seed rounds. In fact, Stephen Kann wrote a blog about it for Deal Flow Diaries, which you can see at dealflowdiaries.

Free Advertising

When marketing a new business, the goal is to attract interest amongst the center of influence in the field your product or service belongs to. The easiest way to do this is to search on your product or service offering on The Internet and look for active blogs. Follow the threads and take some time to come up to speed with the conversations therein. Note the names of the principal contributors and, where possible, look these people up on LinkedIn. Build a list of center of influence players and then begin part two of the strategy.

Part two is to start commenting on blogs where appropriate and start becoming a trusted member of the conversation. This is not an insincere effort but a willingness to engage and share with experts and players in the niche you are interested in. Consider it an informational interview.

Eventually, it is OK to reference your own home web site and mention your solution. All this has to be done with respect to the Blog's guidelines. The basic point is you want to position yourself as an expert.

Dejection and Rejection

My partner felt especially discouraged when our lead into Health Care canceled our presentation. It is human nature to hope that the moment of relief is finally here. Really, my partner is a very persistent person and I had to echo back to her her own words that to win one must be numbingly persistent. Once you lose the fire in your belly, the venture will fail.

So, today I managed to get the presentation rescheduled, filled out a patent application form for review by a patent lawyer, and starting to rethink my approach. Maybe I should build the working model for presentations myself - code it in Java. I can save a lot of costs that way but then I have to do that a 100% and I have a family to feed. This is called living on vapors.

Patent Law and Non Disclosure Agreements

Well, looking for investors has been a very slow and discouraging process. Without a big name behind you it is hard to win over the decision makers. We had a meeting with a CEO that was canceled at the last moment. No reason given. When I followed up, they liked the business idea we are trying to present. They asked for more background. I forgot to send a NDA. Big mistake. Always protect yourself because you do not know whom is your competition.

Also, consider applying for a provisional patent (costs $105 plus a legal fee). This will protect you from people stealing your idea and your idea becomes marketable to potential licensees.

The SBA and Looking For Money

I thought there were grants for start ups with the new Recovery Act. Well, not so. Grants are limited to non-profits and government agencies. There are SBA loans where they will accept your loan if you are high risk. However, you have to collateralize your home. I looked at Private Equities that receive aid from The SBA - SBIC's. SBIC's are pools of SBA money. When I contacted a Private Equity Investor, he said that I should look at VC's instead - SBIC funds are exhausted. He said to look for Early Stage Investing.

So, you can GOOGLE Early Stage Investing but a lot of funds are either out of money or crashing. Take a look at some of the on line databases of early stage investors to see THEIR ACTIVITY LEVEL. Many say inactive.

So, I managing my project documents on a Wiki and really our active team is only three people now. We are seeking a domain expert in our specialized niche. We will meet with her on Friday and see if she can serve in a consultative role.

Laid off Workers Unite

I am fifty years old with college and high school age children to support. Having grown up in a very Bohemian type upbringing, I always wanted stability especially knowing where my next pay check was coming from. However, intermixed with this desire for stable work was the classic feeling of being chained to a computer screen and not doing what I really love (whatever that is).

I got an MBA about a decade ago and had the desire to start up my own business. My father was an amazingly creative but not so successful entrepreneur. I wrote up and presented a plan to VC's for a New Parenting Coupon book which would in effect be an advertising vehicle for local businesses. It would also provide a service to new parents and would be part of a gift package when they left the hospital. I found out years later someone did this exact idea.

I was laid off about six years ago and started my own small business computer servicing business. I also did some consulting. A fellow whom I was consulting to thought my business plan for raising money for a fleet of computer home and small business technicians was a lousy idea. Well - there are now successful chains of computer technicians servicing small businesses and homes.

So - carpe diem! Seize the day. When an inspiration comes to you, write out a skeleton business plan. Run it by some people you trust.

This blog is about my fourth try at my own business. I would rather have multiple clients and sources of income than be employed by one large corporation which laid me off and many others several months ago.

I found in this case software that I was familiar with and investigated their partner and consultants program. I followed this up by speaking directly to the sales directors. They actually gave me ideas about where their products were lacking. Researching this, I found that the marketplace they were referring to is the potentially huge health care medical records field. One of President Obama's health initiatives is to implement better health care medical record keeping to save on costs while eliminating mistakes.

I have found a partner (a wonderfully bright, former colleague of mine) who also has been laid off. I have written a business plan and a PowerPoint slide presentation. My partner has identified an important member of the health care community and she arranged a presentation to him. We are researching funding - private equity or partnerships. Thus far, I have run my business plan by a friend who is a VC. He said it looks good but there is no money right now due to the bad economy. We will have to press on.

Basically, this is a shoe string operation and we need funding soon. I will keep you posted and hopefully this blog will be useful to nascent entrepreneurs.