New Venture Evaluation #17: Debt

The purpose of this Phenotype element is to determine what if any debt the business may have at the time of the financing, and more importantly if that debt will be serviced immediately upon closure of the round. What one isn’t looking to do is to fund a company only to have all the cash [...]

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Breaking Even: New Venture Evaluation # 13

When evaluating a venture, one of the key areas to look at is the company’s projected time to break even. In economic terms the equation looks like this: (Break Even = Fixed Cost / (Unit Price – Variable Unit Cost)), but in reality the break even point is a huge day for a new [...]

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North Mindmeld: Competitions For Capital

This section wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention the plethora of contests and competitions out there for entrepreneurs. Most of these are business plan writing competitions that target upstart entrepreneurs to enter in hopes they are going to get in front of a panel of investors who will then choose their venture and write [...]

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New Venture Evaluation #7. Don’t Hire a Felon

This element is pretty simple: does the management team seem credible? While this element leans heavily on background and reference checks, it is also important to see if there are any inconsistencies with the business plan (insane growth curves, half truths in the market research, or a general state of optimistic denial). If the entrepreneur [...]

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Venture Evaluation Element #5. Is your IP protected?

Many early stage investors focus intently upon intellectual property protection, advantages, and ownership. This narrow focus can be a bit misleading as IP strategies are often overvalued when compared to the value of flawless execution. However, that doesn’t mean that they can be ignored completely. When looking at  IP, there are some minimal thresholds that [...]

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The secret to making money revealed. New Venture Evaluation #4.

MAKING THE REGISTER RING

Sales and marketing is the knife’s edge for all companies, as these two disciplines can make or break any business. It’s always easier to manage growth when there is top line revenue and some cash flow rolling in. A few key elements to look for in the Sales & Marketing strategy: 1) [...]

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