Category: Types of Financing – a series

Bootstrap Companies Succeed Without Big Venture Capital

Five out of six of the fastest growing companies in the US grow with capital from sources other than traditional venture capital.  How about the banks? Talked to an entrepreneurial banker lately? Didn’t think so. Bootstrap companies are creative in finding capital, often out of simple… Continue reading

Diverse Fundraising Market Requires More Filtering than Ever

Private company fundraising is becoming more diverse, robust, and complicated by the day.  This is good news for private companies, but not without some downsides. When unique (and often better) doesn’t fit traditional fundraising A core hypothesis of my investment fund, Greybull Stewardship, is that there… Continue reading

Angel Investing Not As Prevalent nor Effective As You May Think

Angel investing has reached a new level of interest by the general public because start-ups are doing well and there are new ways to be an angel (AngelList, crowdfunding, etc.).  The New York Times recently published an article about the pros and cons of angel… Continue reading

Disparate Data Points: Entrepreneurship Exploding or Dying?

An explosion of young companies that are bootstrapped, or financed outside of traditional venture capital (i.e., Silicon Valley) or traditional bank financing, is what I see every day.  I see many companies finding their way to a point of lift-off, stability, and medium-sized revenue and profit… Continue reading

Companies and Founders Deserve Better Financing Options

Business financing and capital raising are full of contradictions.  The world is awash in capital, but the availability of capital to businesses is often binary.  For some, too much capital is stalking them.  For others, the switch to turn on capital flow remains hidden.  Size… Continue reading

We’re In Seed-Stage Boom, Not a Series A Crunch

Two related trends in venture capital investing have been getting attention for the last few years. The first is the growth in angel investing, particularly after the crowd-funding provisions of the JOBS Act. The second is the “Series A crunch” where many companies that receive… Continue reading

Evergreen venture fund structure offers new strategy

Heartening to read a blog at Axial about the Evergreen Venture Fund Structure that we use at my Greybull Stewardship:  http://www.axial.net/blog/evergreen-fund-structure/ Thanks to Billy Fink and his M&A blog, I’m excited to have the conversation about how the traditional fund protocols are changing with new… Continue reading

Align Your “Loss Ratio” Expectations with Your Investors

In early stage venture capital, the best investors expect that 40% of their investments will become worthless.  Thus, they focus on companies that could be worth billions because the winners have to make up for all their losses.  They want every company to shoot for… Continue reading

Ideal business financing for growing, profitable companies in 100 posts or less?

“Teach what you want to learn” is the theme with which I started this blog in April 2012.  Since then, I have written 100 posts — which means I’ve learned for myself and shared what I’ve learned under several themes: Business financing and venture capital… Continue reading