Scrappy Entrepreneurship At Its Best: Fresh Diet CEO Zalmi Duchman (Part 5)

Sramana: So you took out an SBA loan for $900,000 and used that to acquire operations in Chicago and New York, and to expand your Florida operation. How much did you have to put towards the SBA loan? Zalmi Duchman: I had to put $200,000 toward it, which meant I had to mortgage my condo.

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Do I Dare Disturb The Universe?

As 2010 draws to a close, I want to suggest that you read T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all:— Have known

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Saad Khan, Partner, CMEA Capital (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the forty-sixth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Saad Khan, partner at CMEA Capital, a San Francisco–based venture firm. His focus is seed investing in early stage tech entrepreneurs. Irina: Hi, Saad. Why don’t you briefly start with your

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Working Capital (Debt) Financing For Entrepreneurs: Heather Onstott, Director Of Small Business, LaunchCapital (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Heather: For the market size, there’s no real minimum because minimums are going to depend on whether the success of the business is based on traction and customer leads and hits or whether the success of the business is based on profitability. That affects what your minimum

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Sramana Mitra’s Lean Start-Ups Workshop At NASSCOM Product Conclave

Here is some video from Sramana’s workshop at the NASSCOM Product Conclave last month:

Scrappy Entrepreneurship At Its Best: Fresh Diet CEO Zalmi Duchman (Part 4)

Sramana: What did you put on your menus? Zalmi Duchman: We bought all the Zone Diet books and did our own twists on those menus. We tried to stick to the 40/30/30 concept [eating 40% percent carbohydrates, 30% percent protein, and 30% fat] back then. Today we have moved away from that. The menus back

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Working Capital (Debt) Financing For Entrepreneurs: Heather Onstott, Director Of Small Business, LaunchCapital (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you charge entrepreneurs a fee for mentoring them? Heather: No. We don’t charge for entrepreneurs to be mentored. We do struggle. Just like everyone, we have limited bandwidth, so we highly encourage people to get involved with multiple mentors, even if you only get 30

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Seed Capital: Jim Jaffe, CEO, National Association Of Seed And Venture Funds (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Where do you think entrepreneurs could acquire business skills for building and developing their companies? Jim: There are lots of organizations. I’m in the Philadelphia area, and the purpose of many organizations here, universities and incubators that run entrepreneurship courses, is to try to help people

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