Business must be past the idea stage
Business must be past the idea stage
Fundraising takes time. Just how much time depends on your approach. Traditional fundraising methods, like applying for business loans or pitching to angel groups and venture capitalists, are still very effective ways to raise capital for your business if you have access to them, but the fact is most American entrepreneurs – including those who have completed their fundraising checklist – don’t. Even if you do, these methods can take upwards of six months to close and require a lot of legwork that’s just not necessary in today’s business world.
This is the fifth post in an ongoing series we’re calling “Entrepreneur Spotlight” where we get the chance to speak with entrepreneurs and listen to their stories. Here we feature Sam Tamiz and Lawrence Deneault of NeoCrumb. You can check out their EquityNet profile here.
What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture?
Sam: It’s not as simple as sitting down one day and saying to yourself, ‘Today, I’m going to start a new business venture.’ For me, the entrepreneurial spirit is continuous: everything I do, everywhere I go, I’m examining my surroundings to see how something can be improved, how someone’s life can be better served. It’s a mindset of always being on the lookout for new opportunities, of confronting challenges whenever they arise, and finding ways to overcome them. With this mindset, I’m not waiting for a spark to be ignited: I’m already lit. I’m just waiting for that opportune moment.
Arguably, labor markets are stronger today than they have been in the past 20 years, but expectations of financial security for many of us are virtually non-existent. As ZH readers are no doubt aware, despite job numbers being “up” 280,000 last May, and average annual wages increasing 2.3 percent, Americans are still having a difficult time finding full-time work that pays a livable wage.
Many of the jobs that have been created since 2009 have been part-time or temporary. Since the recession, companies haven’t invested in equipment (software, machinery, etc.) that would allow for more productivity; the funding isn’t there. So, these companies are forced to hire cheap part-time labor which ends up looking like job growth, but puts a vast number of people in a position of constant underemployment.
This is the second post in an ongoing series we’re calling “Entrepreneur Spotlight” where we get the chance to speak with entrepreneurs and listen to their stories. Here we feature Brad Kittel of Tiny Texas Houses. You can check out their EquityNet profile here.
EquityNet founder and CEO Judd Hollas recently spoke at the Second Annual Crowdfund Global Expo in San Diego, California. The Expo provided attendees with an unparalleled, comprehensive overview of the global crowdfunding industry.
With over 40,000 entrepreneurs on the site, we’ve had the chance to hear countless stories from people across the world about their ideas, their companies, and why they decided to become entrepreneurs in the first place. We’ve enjoyed listening to every one of them, too – from the truly inspirational, to the ones that leave us scratching our heads – they serve as a reminder that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all definition for an entrepreneur. Now, we’ve decided to share some of these stories with you.
This is the first in an ongoing series we’re calling “Entrepreneur Spotlight” where we get the chance to speak with entrepreneurs and listen to their stories. First up is John Reese, CEO of Open Book Ben. You can check out their EquityNet profile here.
What Arkansas’ EquityNet lacks in scrappy appeal it seeks to make up for in experience and performance.
Of course, the 10-year-old company, based in Fayetteville, has an audience and purpose very different from Kickstarter or Indiegogo. While Kickstarter links donors seeking rewards in, say, cheese, EquityNet is an equity investing platform, linking startups to investors seeking a stake in the startup.
