Raising Venture Capital? READ This First

[David Sandusky]

Looking to raise venture capital? You really ought to read "Plan B For Fund Raising" by Guy Kawasaki

[jpolito830]

The site was not loading for me...What is the author's name?

[David Sandusky]

Sorry it did not load. I just opened the link with success, you might click again. Otherwise, Guy Kawasaki page on the OPEN FORUM by American Express is here or his Visual CV is all else fails.

[SandraLeeJ]

Plan "B" might not be good enough for the dreamer. Sometimes the plan we are on is the one because passion is so alive. THe only plan "B" I would consider is learning what plan "A" can do better.

[arros123]

But how might these problems affect the digital-content business specifically? Will innovation slow in our industry? Is it really as bad as some would have you believe? I decided to seek out people on the front lines who should know best: namely, partners at three of the VC firms I most respect in the world of seed-stage and early-stage investing in the digital media space. Thankfully, I didn't have to travel far, as I was lucky enough to run into all three of these folks at the recent DEMO '09 conference in Palm Desert, CA, where they were out scouting new investments.

[Carlos]

Always have a plan A, and a plan b. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS.

[Scott Smeester]

A question that was not answered by one of the readers was, in affect, what happens if you have a concept that required funding to get it up and running. For instance, one of the companies I work with needs a contract with a data supplier before a product can be developed. Not sure what the amount is yet, but I guess at least $150,000 to $200,000.

What we're doing is targeting large companies in the market to become partners. They all have an interest and can provide capital and/or resources for the product development in exchange for equity.

Scott Smeester

Scott@Smeester.com . email
Scott.Smeester.com . blog

Business Development 2.0
› Lead or facilitate negotiations
› Establish key partner/customer relationships
› Sales process development
› Remedy ailing and/or deploy sales teams
› Investment acquisition
› Expand and protect digital real-estate