Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Contact the business school ... I know that when I took classes at Johnson (at Cornell), some of the instructors had investment connections. You might find an audience there.

Walker, I think you will need to refine your approach to obtaining funding.

If your capital requirements are indeed only about $10,000-$20,000, which I doubt, then your options will be extremely limited. You can continue to tap into financial resources provided by family, friends, or other believers or you can try to leverage these resources by establishing a credit line and have some these folks guarantee it.

You also might want to try Charles River Ventures, who have a micro funding program in place that will initially loan you the money in return for first dips in subsequent offerings.

As far as accommodating outside investors for such a nominal amount is concerned, you should be extremely careful, as most entrepreneurs tend to relinquish way too much equity in return for such small investments. While the need for capital is understandable, it can become a game changer in subsequent rounds, as existing ownership interests are typically substantially diluted, which can lead to you and your team loosing control of the company.

Of course, there are ways to avoid this, for instance, the issuance of different classes of stock, but in general granting equity stakes for micro funding should be avoided.

If you’re interested in discussing your situation in greater detail, please feel free to send me a PM and I will see if I can give you a few pointers.

I hope this helps.


Mark



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Jackson Steiner
http://www.JacksonSteiner.com

Advanced Document Design for entrepreneurs, intermediaries, and the financial services industry.
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what are your legal expenses - what do you want a lawyer to do for you?

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com