Let The Fund Raising Begin

We have finally taken a company on board to help us raise the funding we need. It was a nerve wrecking decision to make, but a decision Martin and I, both felt was necessary to make. We came across this particular company on the GoBigNetwork.com over two months ago. After I joined the website, I sent out my 20 maximum a day emails to investors and investment banking companies that met our criteria. I was contacted by CJ, the President of Millennium Capital Quest Corp,. either the same day I sent the email or the following day. With in the following days, we had quite a few phone exchanges and a 2 hour conference call between CJ, Millennium’s CFO (Gregg), Martin, myself and our lawyer. After the conference call, we were ready to start doing business with Millennium—that’s when my phone rang and it was an individual interested in funding Why Go Solo. That particular investor never came through, which is why, we went back to our original decision.

The really nerve wrecking portion of signing up with Millennium came after I spent some time reading the forums on GoBigNetwork.com. The many listings and comments pertaining to NEVER paying a fee to a company to raise funding were daunting, especially since we were about to pay…what I consider, a hefty fee up front. I emailed CJ right away. I needed to get some reassurance from him and also wanted to let him know, that if, they take us for “a ride”, I would come knocking at his door!! He promptly called me. He reminded me of their process, and also, that ultimately, closing the deal is entirely up to us (the Why Go Solo team). He promised he will put us in “front” of many investors and coach us through the process however, our performance and ability to sell Why Go Solo rests on our shoulders.

I want to insert a quick note, right here, about whether or not anyone should pay upfront fees to raise funds. I AM HARDLY AN EXPERT but the saying goes: You need money to make money…right?? Well, I would add: You need money to RAISE money. This realization hit me while I was working out. Going back to the forum, people were saying to never pay any fees upfront…well, the ironic thing is, in order to post your listing and email investors on GoBigNetwork.com, you have to pay a FEE!! So, to simply be exposed to potential investors, brokers and investment bankers…you have to PAY. (Same with the Grubstake Breakfast we attended two weeks ago) It would be great if you didn’t have to pay anything…but I think that’s very unlikely. There are many scams on the site and all sites that deal with raising money, so you do have to be cautious and careful.

Martin called GoBigNetwork.com customer service and spoke to Steve, who told him, Millennium has been listed on GoBigNetwork.com since last September and no one has ever reported any bad dealings or interactions with them. This confirmed the other research we had done and put our minds a ease a little more. I don't think you can ever be a 100% sure with these things.

We did the fund transfer on Wednesday to cover the required fees, and today, we received our marching orders from CJ and the due diligence package. We all have a lot of work ahead of us. Personally, I really have to review, update and improve the business plan. I also have to get more supporting material together.

I’m also going to start an investor’s series…the series will be about the various reasons to invest in Why Go Solo and will cover a little more about the research that validates our concept. We want to help our investors feel good and confident about their investments…we also want them to be ready to sign their checks very quickly!!

If you are an entrepreneur doing what we are doing...or about to do what we are doing, this blog is about to get very interesting for you.