An Interview With David Monkman, President And CEO, National Business Incubation Association (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What else is important for a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem?

David: The corporations are an important ingredient. They reflect potential demand for the products and services produced by these entrepreneurs. So, making sure they understand the participation expectations is important. That’s one thing we need. Another is making sure that the kinds of services that incubators offer are robust and provide a strong foundation for entrepreneurs in becoming a sustainable group for participating in an incubation process. >>>

An Interview With David Monkman, President And CEO, National Business Incubation Association (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is NBIA? Give us a brief overview.

David: NBIA is a trade association that services and works with business incubation programs around the world. We are a 25-year-old organization that has about 2,000 individual members, representing about 1,000 organizations in 65 countries. >>>

An Interview With David Monkman, President And CEO, National Business Incubation Association (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the forty-ninth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to David Monkman, president and CEO of the National Business Incubation Association.  Athens, Ohio–based NBIA is a trade association that services business incubation programs around the world. Founded in 1985, this non-profit organization today has about 2,000 individual members, representing about 1,000 organizations in 65 countries worldwide.

Irina: Hi, David. Where are you from?

I was born in Illinois, raised in the States. I lived in Northern California for about seven years. I lived in New York for a couple of years. I lived in London for a year, the Netherlands for a couple of years, South Africa for five years, Pakistan for three, and the rest in the States. >>>

Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) For Entrepreneurs: Andy Sack, Co-Founder, RevenueLoan (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you have any target returns on investments?

Andy: Yes, we do have targets. We look at it from a portfolio approach, but generally speaking, we tell people that we’re looking for a 20% IRR. >>>

Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) For Entrepreneurs: Andy Sack, Co-Founder, RevenueLoan (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What kind of businesses do you prefer?

Andy: Think of revenue loan as growth capital for small to medium-sized businesses. The demand for that growth capital is really high. There aren’t many sources of growth capital other than traditional venture capital, sometimes angels. So, there’s a lot of demand. Probably the biggest filter is a gross margin and a clear revenue model. >>>

Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) For Entrepreneurs: Andy Sack, Co-Founder, RevenueLoan (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Andy: What we look for are companies that have figured out – no matter what their size is – how to make money in one way or another. They basically have what we call a revenue engine, and what’s lacking is they need capital to rev that engine. We look for those opportunities.

When we find them, we make a determination about the amount we would like to invest. Our investment amount is generally $100,000 to $500,000.

We are in the process of looking at a deal larger than that as well. We’re considering doing up to $1 million. But right now, our stated focus is $100,000 to $500,000. So, we filter through the leads that come in.

We decide on a company that we want to invest in, and then we issue them a term sheet, which articulates the amount that we would invest as well as the target RevenueLoan term and the target RevenueLoan cap. >>>

Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) For Entrepreneurs: Andy Sack, Co-Founder, RevenueLoan (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the forty-eighth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Andy Sack, who is a co-founder of RevenueLoan, which gives entrepreneurs unrestricted capital for growth in return for a small percentage of future years’ revenues. In operation since mid-2010, the size of the fund is $6 million. Based in Seattle, RevenueLoan is focused on the Pacific Northwest.

Irina: Hi, Andy. Why don’t you start with your background and how you arrived at this point?

Andy: I’m a graduate of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Sloan School [of Management]. Coming out of business school, I’ve been a serial technology entrepreneur since 1994. I’ve started a handful of companies – depending on how you count, four or five, and I had three successful and one unsuccessful exit.

[Andy was co-founder and CEO of Judy’s Book, a local search social network. Prior to founding Judy’s Book in 2004, Andy co-founded three successful Internet technology companies: Kefta, a provider of real-time customer interaction solutions (acquired in 2007 by Axciom); Abuzz, an enterprise knowledge management solution (acquired by New York Times Digital in 1999); and Firefly Network, an Internet company that pioneered internet personalization technologies (acquired by Microsoft). Andy also spent time as an entrepreneur-in-residence for SOFTBANK Venture Capital (now Mobius VC), where he founded and served on the board of three companies: BodyShop Digital, Quova, and Kefta.] >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What other opportunities do you offer for university students?

Brian: I wanted to have more collaboration with students, bright students, MBA students – preferably in these cases. So, I created the Future Angels. Now, every meeting, every month, we have the top schools in New York give us their best students, who sit with all the angels in the angel group meetings, listening, participating, and offering their input. It’s really exciting. >>>