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.] >>>

Entrepreneurship Education: Why Do Business Incubators Fail?

While my previous post on entrepreneurship education, Bootstrapping at B-Schools is still generating hot discussion, I would like to pose another important discussion topic: Why do business incubators fail?

Those among my readers who have perspective and analysis to offer on the subject, please feel free to jump right in.

[Please note that since this discussion started here on the blog in 2010, we have launched the One Million by One Million global initiative, and for incubators looking for a viable business model, you are very welcome to reach out to us to become a partner of our program.]