Check back each week for a new article, or subscribe to receive articles delivered by e-mail every Monday.

219. Venture Capitalists Put Market Before Product

The most successful venture capitalists first want to know how well the entrepreneur understands the target market’s problems. Only then do they want to hear about the solution.

216. Entrepreneur Alert: It’s Time to Prepare for Technology Summit

In January, 2012, TVC will select up to 20 entrepreneurs with the most commercially marketable ideas and help them prepare business plans to pitch in April to funders at TVC’s Deal Stream Summit, formerly called the Equity Capital Symposium. TVC must receive plans by Jan. 6, and entrepreneurs should contact TVC (www.techventures.org) right away at 505-246-2891.

211. Identify Specialty Before Looking for Investors

Professional investors currently fund about one out of every thousand startups. With the odds stacked against obtaining equity capital, an entrepreneur must identify the investors most likely to invest in his business.

210. Venture Capital: It’s More Than Money

As professional investors, our evaluation of each potential investment opportunity emphasizes the entrepreneurial team more than market strategy, technology or financial projections. When evaluating the pros and cons of bringing on an investor as a partner in your business, your considerations should be similarly weighted toward who-decisions.

203. Entrepreneurs Beware the Valley of Death

Entrepreneurs with a business idea have a great need for up-front cash. Without adequate initial investment, they risk falling into the so-called valley of death – the deep and wide gulf that separates a company’s need for capital and investors’ willingness to supply it.

198. Consider Strategy before Seeking Equity

Once an entrepreneur decides that equity capital is the best way to finance his business, the next questions are how much and when should it be raised? Ideally, raising money in rounds will give the entrepreneur and early investors the most profit when it is time to sell the business.

196. Businesses, Like Life, Have Stages

Few businesses follow a predictable path and timeline from one stage of life to the next. Some linger for a long time as startups, while others dash directly from startup to rapid growth. Knowing the life cycle of a typical business can help an entrepreneur know where to find capital to reach the next stage.

184. Looking for Equity? Seek the Right Specialist

Specialization is common within the equity investment world, with investors generally focused on specific stages of business development. An entrepreneur who knows the terms used to describe development-related types of equity financing is more likely to increase the chance of obtaining funds.

180. Loans for Legacy, Equity for Growth

Anyone looking for a business investor must examine their personal goals before looking for funding – different reasons for starting a business mean different ways of finding money.

176. Venture Acceleration Fund Now Accepting Proposals

The Venture Acceleration Fund, administered through Los Alamos National Laboratory, awards up to $100,000 to qualifying ventures. This year, the VAF is changing some of its rules: calls for ideas will be accepted year-round, and companies no longer must have a direct technology-transfer association with the lab — though some preference is given to those ventures.

Article Categories

Finance New Mexico is
SPONSORED BY:

NMSBIC

NM Economic Development Department

NNM Connect

Accounting and Consulting Gruop

Century bank

Los Alamos National Bank