Meet the Team, Follow Progress and Enjoy the Ride

This blog is about the lives of a few entrepreneurs who are aiming to establish the next trend in social networking and the concept that will make it happen. Since our venture is all about connecting people together, we want to be involved and connected to you and we want you to be involved and connected to us. We'll be sharing with you: who we are, how we got started, how we’re doing and where we’re going...we're taking you along for the ride!!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Blessing the Investor Binders

Last night I finished the investor binders. We started them about two weeks ago in the hope they would already be well on their way and finding us investors.

A few things held us up:

1) A misunderstanding of what needed to be in the binders.
2) Getting the appropriate feedback back on the executive summary included in the binder (we finally decided to print it the way it is, although my good friend Alex did send me some feedback).
3) It took longer then anticipated to receive our business cards.

The binders include a 12 page extended executive summary, a 10 page power point presentation and one of mine and one of Martin's business cards. Nothing too fancy or complex. Enough to provide an overview of Why Go Solo, our product and services, mission statement, target markets, marketing plan, management team and projected earnings.

The binders will be mailed out on Monday, 35 will to go Florida and 31 (4 were already hand delivered) to Connecticut. Once they reach their destination CJ and Gregg, respectively, will then further distribute them to their joint partners they have identified as potential interested partners that are affiliated with accredited investors who seek out this particular type of investment.

The same documents included in the binders will also be posted on secure websites for other accredited investors, who can browse our project at their leisure, when they are seeking investment opportunities. Our goal in the first round is to find 25 investors who will make a minimum investment of $10,000 for a certain amount of shares.

While I was looking at the binders last night, I definitely said a quiet prayer. Getting the initial round of funding will allow us to implement Why Go Solo, prove the concept and then go for more money. Getting the initial round of funding means that I can take a sigh of relief (however short) and proceed with making Why Go Solo happen.


It's been over six months that Martin, Ruth and myself have been working at getting Why Go Solo ready for show time. The business plan has been reviewed, chopped, changed, and edited multiple times...with many more changes to come since that's the nature of the beast; we've talked to over a hundred people, continued to do research, and expanded the concept, but the core of what we are aiming to do hasn't changed, only grown and so has our passion.

This is our moment of truth. Yes, we've hit road bumps, dead ends, and many obstacles and we’ve persevered, adapted and we've kept on going which has gotten us here today. Why Go Solo will not appeal to all investors and we're ready for that however, we look forward to welcoming the investors who share our vision, who are ready to join our journey and who are ready to make a positive impact in people's lives.




3 comments:

Martin Saenz said...

A Harvard Business School Professor once said that the key to a successful business is:

1) having sufficient capital
2) a strong management team
3) an entrepreneurial spirit
4) a marketable idea

We have a management team and board of advisers that any start up would die to have. We are all life long entrepreneurs (Ruth is the closet case one:)). If you or anyone can relate to loneliness on any level, you will understand the enormous potential of our concept. The capital is the missing piece. However, I must say that we have all put in serious capital and are launching with or without the investor dollars. These additional dollars will simply get us there faster.

Martin

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a major milestone!
I'm pulling for ya.

Martin Saenz said...

Thanks Trik, Appreciate the kind words. The world of blogging is fun and interesting, but as you know there is a lot of work and energy behind rolling out a business venture. Martin