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ENTREPRENEUR_ARE_YOU_THE_ONE_IN_10000
| ENTREPRENEUR, ARE YOU THE ONE IN 10,000?
THE ENTREPRENEUR'S JUNGLE
You’re in the office of a Venture Capitalist. Stacked on his
desk are dozens of business plans. On the table beside him are
many dozens more. His secretary enters, burdened with the
morning’s mail. He groans. More business plans.
Is this man, who manages a VC firm, unique in his field?
No. Every individual VC or VC firm is being inundated daily with
people wanting investment in their ideas, their concepts, their
companies. It’s been this way for decades.
THE GLORY DAYS
Back in the 90s, when the DotCom fervor was in full flower,
there were even more business plans coming through the door, far
many phone calls asking for the chance to make a presentation.
There were then, too, hundreds of Venture Capital Clubs. These
were groups of individual private investors who had gotten
together to provide breakfast or luncheon meetings so that
potential projects could be looked at, their principals open for
questions.
Those were the glory days. Companies were getting hundreds of
millions of dollars on concepts only. Wall Street was alive with
brokerage houses taking brand new companies, with inexperienced
executives, through the IPO circus, garnering still more
hundreds of millions of dollars. Investors were in the grasp of
a ”Tulip Mania," throwing cash at every new stock issue
as long as it had to do with the DotCom industry. But your
chances of getting funded were still only about 1 in 1000-2000.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
That was then, this is now. And what are your chances today?
I’ve spoken at length with a wealthy VC who’s been investing for
over 20 years. He consults with other VCs and VC Clubs, runs his
own VC Club, one of the largest in the world. He told me that
the VC club ranks have been decimated since the DotCom debacle.
“I estimate that there are now less than 15-20% of the numbers
of VC clubs back in the 90s. And most of the names now were not
on those lists then,” he told me. “The private investors are
also a different lot and they’re far more cautious.”
I asked him, “Between the VC firms and clubs, what is your
estimate of the number of companies being funded today?” His
reply was startling.
“About one in ten thousand.”
So those are your odds.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF INVESTOR. ARE YOU A REAL
ENTREPRENEUR?The Equity Investment Private Trust with
which we work concentrates primarily on the quality of the
Entrepreneur presenting the package. About 80% of their decision
is based on that. As their US consultant said to me, “A great
project with a mediocre entrepreneur will lose money every time.
Even a poor project, with a great entrepreneur, will make us
money. If they’re both great, that’s the ones we’re looking for.”
The question for you, Mr. or Ms. Entrepreneur, is “Are you that
one in 10,000?”
Contact us to find out.
About the author:
Mr. Barnes is President & General Manager of Capital Funds Group
Ltd., a Canadian based consulting firm specializing in
Putting Companies and Money Together. They also
work with non-US companies to take them public rapidly and
inexpensively, then getting them funded. Visit our Web
Site
Email Him
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