The blog’s latest Seed Capital from Angel Investors series is with Lewis Hower, executive director of a student-run social impact fund designed to bring about positive social change while delivering a return to investors. Click on the full article to read this and the rest of this week’s posts. Read the full article »
This FREE online strategy roundtable for entrepreneurs will begin at: 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT/8:30 p.m. IST on Thursday, October 21, 2010. Please join us and let other entrepreneurs know. You can find more details and register here.
Chak Onn Lau’s Foldees was chosen the best business of those presented at yesterday’s roundtable through a poll on our Facebook page. Congratulations! In case you missed it, you can read Sramana Mitra’s roundtable recap here or listen to the recording found here.
At today’s roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities – $500 million to a billion. But you have, perhaps, heard less specific discussions on what angel investors are looking for.
Well, some angel investors are looking for exactly the same thing as what VCs are looking for. Mike Maples calls it Thunder Lizard Hunting. In other words, these are angels looking for billion dollar opportunities as well.
Read the full article »
In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here.
Please let us know which business you like best by participating in the poll found here on our One Million By One Million Facebook page.
To all my Bengali readers out there, wish you a very happy durga pujo. We have pujo at our ancestral home in Calcutta, and I must say, I miss it terribly. One of the big upsides of India’s recent boom is that opportunities for professional growth and actualization have become available closer to home. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my international experience over more than 20 years, it is during these major holidays that I feel a sadness for not being able to participate in the wonderful family celebration.
One of my yoga teachers commented some years back that she never thought of god as a woman, growing up in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. Well, since I grew up in a traditional Hindu family surrounded by Durga, Saraswati, Laxmi, Kali, and Annapurna, I never had any such ambiguity …
Anyway, for those of you who are celebrating, have a wonderful time!
Even though I have been thinking about it for a while, I have taken my time to write this final piece on the Capitalism 2.0 series. Well, it is my conclusion that capitalism 2.0 needs to be rooted in value creation, somewhat distanced from the reaches of the speculators who have basically hijacked the 1.0 system, and it needs to be democratic, distributed, and its fruits far reaching. Read the full article »
On Oct 6, we had a synch-up call for the global 1M/1M ambassadors over video conference. Initially, my instinct was to simply share the recording of the call with the ambassadors. Over the weekend, I thought about it more and decided that we will make the video available for all the readers so you can catch up on what’s going on behind the scenes in 1M/1M.
It has been an interesting journey, somewhat grueling for me personally, but nonetheless infinitely rewarding. In this video, I have shared metrics, strategies, projects where we need help, etc. I have also answered questions, and if there are additional questions, please feel free to ask here, I will try to answer.
I want to reinforce one thing I have said right from day one: I’d like 1M/1M to be a for-profit, self-sustaining business, and not a non-profit. We are trying to solve a big, hairy problem in a scalable manner. This is better done as a for-profit, sustainable business model, and not depending on charity.
I will also emphasize one more thing: 1M/1M is an educational program. We’re not a funding broker. Yes, we do make connections to investors, but we also make connections to customers, channel partners, and other influencers who can help you grow based on revenue without costing you equity.
Remember, over 99% of the businesses that go out to look for financing are rejected by investors. Our goal is not only to help the 1% find money efficiently, but also to coach and educate the 99% that is making numerous avoidable mistakes.
So. Without further ado, here is the Oct 6 video conference recording for all 1M/1M afficionados.
