Investrish.com

Middle Class NOT Declining

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:08:29 -0700

STATS: The Myth of the Declining Middle Class

This sort of information has a huge impact on our economy in the form of consumer sentiment and needs to be promoted to counter the negative voices.

CEO Title Danger

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:27:02 -0700

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

Here is an example of the troubles that can come to the CEO. You get a lot more compensation than other employees but you also have a lot more responsibility. With that responsibility and compensation comes increased risk. Jerry Yang's job is on the line depending on how the company does as a whole.

This same thing happens in all companies that take investor money. The CEO reports to the board who represent the shareholders. In a public company the CEO reports, slightly indirectly, to the public. This is a far cry from "being your own boss".

The UI Revolution

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:16:20 -0700

I recently read the best article I've ever read about User Interfaces. It's by a guy named Bret Victor. It's very well conceived and thuroughly examined. You can find it at: http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/

Software as a Commodity Tiered Pricing Model

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:10:41 -0700

So... crazy idea. What if software would cost more each time you used it? but only very slightly more.

Imagine a software license that allowed you to use a program some number of times for free. Then it would cost a small amount for the next tranche of uses and a medium amount for the next tranche, and finally a large amount for uses above some high number...

Site Re-Design coming

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 10:51:16 -0700

I've decided that a better approach to this site will be to blogregate equity finance blogs. I'll have categories for VCs, Angels, Private Equity and Entrepreneurs. I'd like to use RSS to have it all work automatically and would like some sort of voting capability. Anyone aware of software that would do this? I guess it's going to be just a Digg-type site with a clear focus on equity finance blogs. I also still want to accomplish my initial goal which is to facilitate understanding of equity finance for entrepreneurs.

Simpler, Easier, Cheaper, Faster

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 17:25:51 -0700

Ad Thoughts: Cheap startups This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I believe that at the top of the tech industry there is increasing consolidation and yet outside it is getting much more fragmented. This is happening because it's so much easier to create stuff these days. It's becoming true in all parts of business. I'm quite excited about it. The real key is imagination, and execution.

The elevator pitch

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:37:17 -0700

Practicing the Art of Pitchcraft
A VC talks about the all-important elevator pitch. While reading his comments I came across an interesting application: http://www.yourelevatorpitch.com it's a cool little Ruby app that lets you post and rate pitches. Check mine out while you're there.

Business Plan Tips

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:30:20 -0700

Business Plans Gone Wild - Forbes.com Tom Taulli on Forbes writes a good article on a couple of simple but important tips for writing business plans.

Friends Family and Fools

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 10:09:42 -0700

Capitalizing On Family While I am somewhat opposed to borrowing from friends and family, this video segment presents useful tips on the first round of financing for a lot of startups.

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:44:23 -0700

LinkedInThis is one of my favorite business tools. It's incredibly useful for finding business contacts. We were able to use it to find the right people to contact at Yahoo, eBay and other companies in order to find an acquisition partner for byownerdaily.com. I suggest joining to everyone I know, whether it's for the potential of finding the right job, or having it find you, or due diligence, capital sources, team building etc.

Private Money for Real Estate

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 19:09:29 -0700

Private Money Lenders This is a useful audio file about raising capital from private lenders for real estate investing. It's kind of long but it's quite realistic and instructive.

Funding Mistakes

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:37:46 -0700

Fatal Funding Mistakes For Startups This article covers some interesting points relating to mistakes that companies often make when seeking early-stage financing. I think the "Wrong Investors" section is poorly titled. It asks questions that are not answered with advice and it also reinforces irrational fear of idea-stealing that most beginning entrepreneurs have. I thought it was interesting to see the contrast of the advice to not worry about NDAs with this fear of idea-stealing.

Very good article on Venture Debt

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:05:12 -0700

Connect :: Resource/Article :: Poison in the Well This article by Josh Coates of Berkeley Data Systems is very informative about seed funding and venture debt. While he restricts his criticism to Utah angel investors I am confident that similar investors and tactics exist nearly everywhere.

Success!

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 11:16:22 -0700

My current business is consulting with entrepreneurs who are seeking capital. I have been working on this for about 3 months with the current focus where I work mostly on finding debt sources. On Friday I had a conference call with a lender and one of my clients where the beginnings of an agreement was reached. This particular client was a subcontractor with very little collateral but a healthy services business. He was seeking capital in order to bid on a job that would double his revenues. After much searching, it appears I have succeeded. If he moves forward this will provide him with a virtually limitless capital source that is not contingent on his credit or assets.

What Investors Expect and Want to See

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:50:18 -0700

I actually intend to write a book on this very subject. It will cover what makes a business fundable from the perspectives of diverse capital sources. I am thinking of it as "What Those with Money WISH You Knew About Raising Capital". There are lots of good resources online that cover the basics that investors want to see in order to invest. I will compile some of them and see if we can come up with a basic set of docs and characteristics that are necessary to raise capital.