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by Terry Collison,
Blue Rock Capital
| TERRY COLLISON is a co-founder of
BLUE ROCK CAPITAL. Previously, through 11 years of work as an advisor to
entrepreneurs, young companies, and investors, Terry helped a wide variety of
companies develop commercialization strategies, management teams, marketing
programs, formal business plans, and new financing. BLUE ROCK CAPITAL
makes venture capital investments in high-growth seed-stage and early-stage
companies from New England to the Carolinas. |
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1 |
Know what kind of company you have and what kind of funding situation you
have. Be clear in your own thinking. |
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2 |
Be
realistic. Don't waste your own time or the time of others by seeking
funding that doesn't fit.
Do go after funding that does fit. |
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3a |
If
you're a
start-up, specifically plan an operation that will be "squeaky clean". |
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3b |
If
you're already in operation, run your company to keep it completely clean. |
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3c |
If
things are in a mess (or if an outsider could fret about something), review
and clean things up right now. Deal-killers include unpaid taxes,
law-suits, problems with old partners, the accounting system, your corporate
records, technology rights, etc. If there is a "surprise", call a huddle. |
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4. |
Operate to demonstrate a clear competitive strength (not just an
"advantage") and to achieve solid, current profitability. To get
funded, these are more important than a strategy which achieves "market
positioning" through negative cash flow. |
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5a |
Don't allow your situation to get desperate. Manage your company so that it
is not dependent on getting outside funding. |
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5b |
Develop an incremental strategy for development. Use
"milestone" planning. Grow opportunistically, i.e., when the critical
elements are available. Don't force it. And don't try to mortgage your
future as a way of increasing the probability that funding will somehow
appear. |
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6. |
K.I.S.S. make information about your company easily accessible and
understandable. Use the Army presentation and the Grandmother test. |
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7. |
Always have information that is current. When talking about funding,
always be able to show (or at least discuss) both "in" and "out". |
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8 |
Continue. "Sticking with it" accounts for most successful outcomes.
Remember: to benefit from "luck", you still have to be in existence. |
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