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robertj

posts: 1458

Jan 07, 2008 6:51 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

OK - I agree with both of your points.

   1. I personally dislike those sites that don`t tell you how much something is unless you:
          a. register or subscribe or input all of your personal information
            b. Start the "buy now" process

2. I like things that can be measured. (ie - you run an ad and see how many call you get)

So I`m not a big fan of these passive methods of "connecting" people such as the post your business plan and "lots" of people will read it. I`d want to be able to track how many people expressed interest - or at least get that information.

All the best

-------------------------

Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

bytenram

posts: 55

Jan 07, 2008 7:10 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Robertj,

I reviewed your websites above and found the site very informative.

Can you give me a break down of the process with "Quickstart Capital"?

-------------------------

Come check me out at www.bytenram.com. Your one stop shop for all your technology needs!

www.flipitbig.com - Your resource to efficient Real Estate Investing

crazydiamond

posts: 38

Jan 07, 2008 7:50 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

...SUBMIT button. then woops...$59 for this $129 for that and so on.

$59.00 for a company that says they match you with investors is ok if there was some way to verify what they say they do. References maybe. This is the most frustrating aspect.

I don`t know a lot about these services. I`m more a VC guy and a bootstrapper, combined with corporate finance background. So if you wouldn`t mind, I`d like to ask a question . . .

Did you cough up those kinds of bucks for a referral service not knowing what their actual placement success rate is, or what kind of profile their investment community is? I`ve never known an investor who was prepared to tell anyone (let alone an on-line service, what their financial resources were, or what their investment philosophy or criteria were. So I find this idea a little, ummm, otherworldly.

Other than ELCEO who thinks that funding universe has something to offer, and Roblue who suggests this snap loan idea, has anyone else found these services viable and useful inestments of their time and effort?

Curious . . .

-------------------------

Need help with your bootstrap business?
Check out The Harbour Forum for advice from dedicated staff in a secure environment and fellow entrepreneurs

bytenram

posts: 55

Jan 07, 2008 8:01 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Crazydiamond,

I have never heard of thesnaploan.com until I got on this site. I can`t find much information about them and can`t say I am interested in them at this point.

Also, I have not paid those fees to submit my business plan to god knows who. I am very protective of what I have here and not just going to hand it out to people. I just find it despicable how some of the sites are ran that state they will hook you up with investors.

I was born at night but it wasn`t last night. I need hard evidence of what someone is selling before I am buying.

-------------------------

Come check me out at www.bytenram.com. Your one stop shop for all your technology needs!

www.flipitbig.com - Your resource to efficient Real Estate Investing

crazydiamond

posts: 38

Jan 07, 2008 8:10 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Crazydiamond,

. . .

I was born at night but it wasn`t last night. I need hard evidence of what someone is selling before I am buying.

My kind of guy !!
I was born last night but it was before 3:00 a.m. . . .

I just find the idea, weird, but then whaddIKnow

-------------------------

Need help with your bootstrap business?
Check out The Harbour Forum for advice from dedicated staff in a secure environment and fellow entrepreneurs

robertj

posts: 1458

Jan 08, 2008 11:53 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Thanks for asking. I don`t think this is the appropriate place to go into detail but in short:

Quikstart Capital is a advisory, mentoring, coaching program that we designed to help people prepare for and successfully execute their first round of capital acquisition.

If you`d like to know more send me a Private message with your email address so I can provide more detailed information.

Roblue

posts: 74

Jan 16, 2008 9:28 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Crazydiamond,

I have never heard of thesnaploan.com until I got on this site. I can`t find much information about them and can`t say I am interested in them at this point.

I was born at night but it wasn`t last night. I need hard evidence of what someone is selling before I am buying.

Like you, I heard of www.snaploans.com. I admit the give me your email box on the bottom of the home page does look suspicious and acted as the deterrent on several occasion.

When I did finally press the submit button, having entered my email, I just knew a page full of information about price packages would pop up.

Instead, they email a Fee Agreement to you with a link to an additional information site with about snaploans.com and 4 very short simple instruction videos.

Here were my two biggest worries the cost and the probability of s positive outcome:

1. The do charge a fee; however, this is based on whether or not they acquire an approved loan for you. If they do acquire a loan for you, their fee is 5 point on the amount.

2. The provide thorough information in every step to get you through not matter what lever of computer literarcy you are at.

www.snaploan.com is the intenet arm of parent company Midas Financial based out of Colorado. However, their iinternet arm caters to all US resident business owners.

Hope this adds some clarity for you.

IdeasandInnovations

posts: 409

Jan 21, 2008 12:51 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

great topic,

If anybody can solve this problem you would figure it should be worth a great deal of money. But isnt that part of the problem in the first place , somebody has developed a web site feel that they have the answer/resource to help you out and feel they deserve to be compensated....

But then again, that is not what you are upset about ( which I felt was obvious from your first post) so I`ll answer it with another question.

What percentage of people who stumble onto their site would purchase their service if they were told upfront what it was going to cost them, as compared to the percentage of people would pay the fee if they already had invested all their time going through all of the submittion process and then was told about the fee to participate. ?????????

I`m not speaking from experience but I would guess that they ask after the fact because they get a better participation rate. Actually I would bet on it.

Personally I feel it is a very unethical way of doing business. Something like your mechanic doing the job first then telling you he did it then asking for compensation, because your time is worth money and that is what they are taking away from you.

Back to solving that problem, Fund raising...I know somebody that is working on a solution.

Mike

crazydiamond

posts: 38

Jan 21, 2008 1:43 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Thanks for the answer Roblue - so it is basically a loan brokerage service, right? Hmm. Well anytime I have dealt with a broker, the foundation was trust, and that was built face-to-face. Kinda curious what steps this sort of service takes to create that trust. And I`m with Ideas - it doesn`t sound like they make trust their top priority.
Still, maybe it is a developing thing, and something will emerge in time. I did read somewhere that prosper.com is running into some trust problems with some pretty disaffected people commenting negatively experiences. It will be interesting to see this unfold.

Mike

-------------------------

Need help with your bootstrap business?
Check out The Harbour Forum for advice from dedicated staff in a secure environment and fellow entrepreneurs

mstaples

posts: 5

Jan 29, 2008 12:50 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

A company that will match you with investors for $59 is something of a scam, but it`s still the smallest amount I`ve seen asked for a similar "service". I`ve been incorporated for over a year and have been asked to pay fees in the range of $120 - $3000 and up. I was once asked to pay $10,000 in order to cover an "interested investor"s due diligence fees, with no term sheet on the table (I declined all such offers).

There is a secondary economy attached to the entrepreneur phenomenon and it is a chaotic mixture of facilitator and parasite. My advice is to not trust any service which can`t demonstrate its worth without a down payment.

The social networking services are what they are: do not expect them to find investors for you, however, they are opportunities to show off the virtues of your business to potential investors and facilitators. It is up to you to judge which of these sites have audiences whose readership warrants your funds.

Good luck with your venture!

-------------------------

Margaret Staples

www.multiaxisgames.com

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