Working Capital (Debt) Financing For Entrepreneurs: Heather Onstott, Director Of Small Business, LaunchCapital (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What kind of companies do you prefer?

Heather: We are industry agnostic. What that means is that we don’t really focus on a specific sector or a specific type of company. If you looked at our portfolio, you would see that we had a concentration of sorts in mobile and Internet, but on the small business side, it’s really more focused on those mom-and-pop type of businesses. >>>

Seed Capital: Jim Jaffe, CEO, National Association Of Seed And Venture Funds (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jim: So, as I was saying, “the valley of death” [for a technology startup company] is the place between, roughly, the $100,000 that you can raise on your own and maybe the $2.5 million or $3 million, which is the level at which a venture capital firm is going to be interested in you.

It’s an enormous gap because among other things, people who used to be able to easily put together a brand new fund can’t do so.

The really big challenge in this industry is where is the money that can go into startup businesses? How do find it? What do you do to get it? Where are the investment opportunities? >>>

Working Capital (Debt) Financing For Entrepreneurs: Heather Onstott, Director Of Small Business, LaunchCapital (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the forty-fifth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Heather Onstott, director of small business at LaunchCapital, a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based seed investment firm with a twist. In addition to traditional seed-stage venture funding, they also offer a non-recourse blend of equity and debt financing up to $150,000, which is rather unusual in the VC world. >>>

Seed Capital: Jim Jaffe, CEO, National Association Of Seed And Venture Funds (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the forty-fourth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Jim Jaffe, the CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Fund (NASVF).

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–based NASVF is a global non-profit with over 600 individual members in 43 states and four countries that connects investors, economic development organizations, public and private funds, and tech transfer professionals. Its core mission is to advance formation of innovation capital programs and by doing so facilitate early stage entrepreneurship and job creation. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Garrett, Co-Founder And Managing Director, Crosscut Ventures (Part 11)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What else do entrepreneurs need to understand about venture funding?

Brian: There are five- or ten-year time frames before you have success, so you have to really be aligned with your investor on the vision, what you hope to accomplish, what hurdles you’re going to see along the way and, in essence, be ready to go to war with that individual. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Kiki Tidwell, Board Member, Northwest Energy Angels (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you think entrepreneurs should take the lead and ask for help?

Kiki: I’ll tell you one thing entrepreneurs should really do. Once they have investors who’re investing in their company, they should give them regularly scheduled updates no matter what. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Garrett, Co-Founder And Managing Director, Crosscut Ventures (Part 10)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is your preferred type of investment?

Brian: It’s preferred shares in a traditional equity financing. If we do a note, it’s usually a convertible piece of debt with a cap. Going back to that original comment, we don’t like our money being used to drive the value of the business up and then let it get converted at whatever price the new investors come in at; that’s not the proper sort of reward for the risk we took alongside that entrepreneur.

So, most of our deals are preferred equity financing, and you can now get those done for $25,000 or $35,000. In certain circumstances, we’ve done convertible [note] done that’s capped so we know that the price with which our money will get converted won’t be any higher than x. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Kiki Tidwell, Board Member, Northwest Energy Angels (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Kiki: We try to direct people if we know that there’s a particular grant opening, but, generally, we wouldn’t be the best source for being the repository of all that information.

Irina: What is the best way to learn about cleantech grants?

Kiki: I would go to the states’ energy departments. I would search online. Sometimes it’s worth hiring attorneys, like Stoel Rives, to expedite the process and help an entrepreneur actually get funding or find the most appropriate grant. An entrepreneur might spend a lot of time spinning wheels and not getting funding, where the attorney could make all the difference.

But it has to be an attorney like Stoel Rives who specializes in clean tech, not just any attorney. They keep up to date on the most current information and most current programs. >>>