10 - Rules of Investing

Summary

It’s only business. Nothing personal.

Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

Entrepreneur’s Diary

I recently was involved in raising capital for starting an indoor shrimp farm. Just about everyone likes to eat shrimp. Interestingly, just about all of our shrimp (90%) is imported, creating a fairly obvious market opportunity. So, several years back, we put some seed money together and started working on the constraints that prevented someone from successfully raising shrimp indoors and making a profit. Well, after three years of research and demonstrating a prototype production system, we were ready for our next round of financing (we needed about $500,000). We prepared a presentation and invited a group of high-net-worth individuals. We presented in one of the high-rent office buildings in the financial district of Atlanta. You know, people do like shrimp, but they also like to have a sense of confidence about the people they are dealing with. My cousin John, a businessman in the Atlanta area, brought that credibility to the table. Our challenge was to present the opportunity to the individuals in the room in a form they could understand. We had all the necessary legal documents with us. We knew the rules and followed them. We were successful that night and raised most of the equity capital we needed. The investors all seemed to like and respect my cousin. And they all ate a lot of shrimp that night, too!