Q- What does the Pacific Venture Club do regarding helping entrepreneurs locate investors?
A- We are highly seasoned experts at building and executing campaigns to locate investors. We help the entrepreneur with:
- Project review and debugging
- Investment campaign planning
- Preparation of documents
- Preparation of presentation materials for investors
- Locating potential investors
- Presenting to investors
- Closing investors
- Evaluating and correcting investment programs
Q- How is this different than finders or brokers who say they can help us find investors?
A- We operate under a completely different system than finders or brokers. Finders/brokers represent that:
- They know investors who may invest in your deal
- They will make introductions to these people
- You will likely receive investment from these people.
In most cases, this simply isn't true. It's not true because there isn't a generic group of investors who will invest in any and all deals. You must find the investors who will invest in YOUR deal, not another one. You have to find the people that your project naturally attracts and promote your investment to them.
Also, in all likelihood, you will need to close the investors for your deal yourself anyway. Only a handful of licensed brokers have both the required licensing and inclination to close investors for a startup company. They are very rare, because it is not a particularly good business for a licensed broker to be in. They take on tremendous liability for relatively minor compensation.
We specialize in helping entrepreneurs raise money themselves without the need of outsiders. You can do it, but you have to know how. It's more than putting together legal documents and forms, it's an entire coordinated campaign to locate investors, promote to them, and close them.
Q- Will you accept compensation on the basis of success?
A- We always require some compensation as consultants. Because we do not represent that we already know and will close the investors for you, your success depends to a greater or lesser extent on you. Can you present your project well? Can you persuade others that you have an exciting opportunity? Can you close them? We can help you get the potential investors in front of you; what happens next then largely depends upon you.
In some cases, we become involved in projects over the longer term, months or even years. When this occurs, we may be able to close investors directly ourselves as Officers within the company. However, we never assume this on the front end of working with a client. We only participate at this more involved level when the opportunity and team chemistry is appropriate.
Q- Our Founder/Officers are already attending venture capital club meetings and presenting to venture capitalists. How is what you do a better solution?
A- Venture capital clubs and similar approaches are largely an exercise in frustration for entrepreneurs. These groups rarely contain enough true investors to justify the cost and time to present. And, even if investors are present, they are unlikely to be a good match for the deals presented. Finally, the investors who attend may review hundreds of deals before investing in even one- if at all.
These groups are great general networking opportunities and good for getting constructive feedback about your project. But, if you are hoping to locate investors through them, you are likely to be disappointed.
Q- We have already presented our project to everybody we know. How can you help us locate additional investors?
A- You can locate additional investors through what we call “Affinity Groups”. Affinity groups are groups of people who would naturally have an inclination to participate in your unique project. The people within these groups would be less likely to invest in other deals that are dissimilar to yours.
Q- How do you find the people for our Affinity Groups?
A- There is no single answer to this. It involves a lot of thinking and strategy. Perhaps some of the people can be found through meetings that you could attend. You could possibly locate others on-line or through social networking. Still others may be participants in special interest groups, members of organizations or companies that could be interested in your deal, and so forth.
The point is, the affinity groups vary for each and every project. We put a great deal of time and effort into researching and determining what affinity groups could plausibly invest in a given project and how we can find them. It is an art unto itself.
Q- I've heard that you can't legally advertise for investors and that you can only offer investments in a private company to friends and family. Is this true?
A- You must abide by the securities regulations at a federal and state level. These can be complicated and require a high level of understanding to navigate. However, it is certainly possible for you to meet new people and bring them in as investors in your project. We always work directly with securities attorneys and follow their guidance when promoting projects.
Q- Do you guarantee success?
A- Of course not. However, we do guarantee that the steps we take will make sense to you, that you will come to understand why we are taking them, and that you will recognize that we are genuinely giving you the greatest chance possible to close investors for your deal. We start small with our clients and build our relationships over time with completed milestones at each stage of the process. Many clients work with us on and off for years on this basis. We consider our client relationships to be valuable assets.
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