As a video producer, director and writer, I meet a lot of great people, our Primeau Productions clients. In addition to receiving a paycheck from the work we do I get to benefit from the knowledge, wisdom and experience of the great clients we produce video for. I have learned so much but one of the best lessons I learned from venture capitalists. Venture capitalists serve a great purpose in the business world. They have money and they, too, enjoy and are interested in different business opportunities. Venture capitalists enjoy the process of discovering good ventures in which to invest capital. One of the most basic concepts of bringing an investor into your company involves looking at the opportunity through their eyes. If you would like them to invest a half million dollars in your business and receive a percentage of ownership in return what else will they gain over a period of time? A 10% ownership in a turtle is not worth half a million dollars. However, a 10% ownership in a nightclub that has a booking agent that previously worked for a major concert promoter has value, because their return on your investment would not only be a percentage of ownership, it would also be a monthly, or quarterly, or annual residual income you would receive as one of the venture capitalist investors. It’s quite interesting, from my perspective, to see how some of our venture capitalist clients have worked through the investments they choose. One thing I have noticed is they only invest in what they enjoy doing. That’s a great message for a lot of us in business because many people go to work every day hating their job. There are business owners who own companies that they are not enjoying running and operating; not very attractive to a venture capitalist. What a great message I’ve learned about money and enjoyment from our venture capitalist clients. So, hopefully, if you ever need to bring in an investor to give your business a shot in the arm or a facelift, look at the venture capitalist opportunity through their eyes and not your own goals for raising capital. If the deal looks good to you, seeing it from their point of view, then it probably looks good to them.
