Hi Newbie I own a small/tiny company with a partner now for seven years with no debt except for our building. ($9M last yr revenue and 23 employees) We were lucky enough/able get going with credit cards a wing nut and a prayer. Whilst we never had a prayer of getting any money from a bunch of MBAs I also didn't want to work for a bunch of blow dried smart arses that had never built anything in their life except maybe a pine box derby car. I did try to do a start company up during the mid nineties/start of the dot com boom using VCs. I will never forget demonstrating a piece of hardware, a working prototype that was very finished. (There are now several successful versions of this product on the market) One of the VC/dot com wonder boys that was in the process of losing billions for his investors looked straight at me as said "well this is not the internet". I said I could go back through my presentation but I don't recall ever saying that it was "the internet" I did say that it does connect to the internet. This boy genius said that companies that make hard ware are dead.............I suppose he didn't fund the IPod either. My old boss I used to work for at another company is now a partner in a VC firm on Sand Hill road. We were talking at mutual a friend's wedding a while back and I asked him for some tips about acquiring venture capital for a very capital intensive project I have in mind. The short story of what I took away from his counsel was this. When you pitch your idea it should be good enough that VCs are competing to give you money..........if you have to beg someone to give you money then you will only end up selling your soul for a bowl of porridge. You need to structure a deal where you are still in control............ownership is not necessarily control.....the Ford Family owns very little Ford stock but they effectively control the company.) Make damn sure when you do take "the money" that you ask for enough to get the product to market. If you have to come back with your hat in your hand once again the devil will own your soul. Also whilst they do care if the concept will work many entrepreneurs like my early self think that if the product works great and fulfils a market need then that makes it a good idea to VCs, It takes a team to get a product to market and they will care more about your team that you can assemble than about a working prototype. A smart energetic kid with out a seasoned team is a smart energetic kid with no experience. My old boss would say that you gotta ask your self do I want to send this kid to school with my money? Not all VCs are young and dumb and many like my old boss are very smart and they offer lots of good counsel but they do know how to structure a deal so that at the first sign of trouble you now work for them instead of them providing funding for "your" company. Does that make sense? I also know many startups that failed precisely because they had money up front. Yes there are capital intensive projects that need loads of cash up front but many do not need a lot of cash up front. If you have no money then it forces you to be creative. If at all possible I would do the route that my partner and I took. Make a product that works and start selling it now. Live cheap as possible and take the money from those early sales to improve the product. Listen closely to your customers they will tell you what improvements they want and how it should work. (no market research is as good as joe customer telling you what he likes and or hates about your product if you have to pretend you hate your boss on the phone with your customers and let them vent this is pure marketing gold!) With out money you are forced to be disciplined. You will learn quickly when you are making a mistake and how to become comfortable making tough decisions that business/running a company requires in the long run. I have a meeting. Best Regards, Phillip Coiner, Chief Technology Officer GPS Source, Inc. 64 N. Mission Drive Pueblo West, Co 81007 Phone: 719.510.4552 E-mail: pcoiner@gpssource.com cid:image001.jpg@01C76FB5.FC0AD300 Your source for quality GNSS Networking Solutions and Design Services -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of David VanHorn Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:02 AM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [PIC] Total Newbie question On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 9:20 AM, Joe Bento wrote: > Thanks, Rikard. Since it's a rather expensive book, I like to know > others' opinions. I hate to spend that much money on a book that will > only collect dust. Cost of doing business.. If you don't take yourself seriously, why should anyone else? -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist