Finding Investment Money

I occasionally recieve calls from people seeking my assistance in finding capital for their businesses. Therefore, an article in the New York Times caught my eye. Entitled “A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms,” the article talks about Union Square Ventures, venture capitalists who demand little in term of an ownership stake and give a great deal in terms of management. Here is a quote from the article:

From the day he founded Etsy in 2005, Rob Kalin refused to raise money from venture capital firms to expand his company…He met with several top firms, but they all wanted a 20 percent stake in his start-up company…[O]ne of his board members advised him to visit Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures…Mr. Kalin was impressed when Mr. Wilson said he would settle for less than 5 percent of the company in the first round of fund-raising… Grounded in a philosophy of discipline and openness, the three-partner firm focuses on services that use the Web to change a market rather than simply make it more efficient.

As so many toy inventors are now involving the web in their creations, these might be good people to contact for funding.

Also of value in the article was information on a website called The Funded. The site states its purpose as being “an online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. In addition, TheFunded.com allows entrepreneurs to view and share term sheets, to assist one other finding good investors, and to discuss the many facets of operating a business.