On The Fundingraising Trail: Let’s Make Some Calls

I’m a little late with this post. But hopefully the wait was well worth it as I do have some good news to share.

Yesterday ended Global Entrepreneurship Week, a week long program, celebrating entrepreneurs and encouraging free thinking within our youth. The goals of the week are to Inspire, Connect, Mentor and Engage. As an interesting coincidence the early goals of MySchoolAct were to Inspire, Educate, Create and Celebrate. Personally I think MySchoolAct’s goal’s are much more catchier,  and so they should be, after all we are in the entertainment industry.

As I said, Global Entrepreneurship Week brings together people from around the world to celebrate entrepreneurship. Incidentally, I popped my head out the door on a number of occasions and didn’t here anyone chanting my name. Does that mean I’m not an entrepreneur, or could it be that the organisers of the event ironically lacked their own entrepreneurs to develop effective promotional tools?  Regardless of which scenario is correct, finding out about Global Entrepreneurship week motivated me to kick my fundraising efforts into top gear.

My first action was to call on a contact in San Francisco. After playing phone-tag for several hours, I eventually spoke with Chris. Chris is a close friend of my good friend, and mentor, Hugh Anderson. Chris is like no other. He reads countless newspapers and books each day, is a strong debater, world traveler and all round interesting guy. He’s the type of person who you could sit and listen to for hours on end and I’m sure would be a great source for most newspaper columnist’s should he ever offer his services.

luckily for me, Chris has a passion for business and is highly knowledgeable on the money incubus that is Silicon Valley. Over the phone I confirmed a meeting with Chris to discuss firstly the MySchoolAct business plan (it needs some fine tuning to appeal to my US audience) and secondly to establish/understand an acceptable offer for the deal (how much money to raise versus how much of the company to give up in return). Incidentally, Mark Davis offers an interesting post on this topic.

With the thought of a trip to San Fran clear in my mind, I took the opportunity to call on another contact, Craig, located 20 or so minutes out of San Francisco. I often compound distant meetings, not to be efficient, but because I haven’t had much luck in the past calling people and offering to fly in just to see them. For some reason people don’t like it. They feel they aren’t so important that I need to make a special trip for them. Several years ago I contacted Sir Bob Jones, a property tycoon, author and former politician in New Zealand and offered to fly from Sydney to Wellington to have a chat over a cup of coffee. Needless to say he balked at the idea and in his typical fashion told me I was being irrational. Personally, I thought it would have been money welt spent; after all the guy is a property genius. So I now always lead with an alternate reason for my trip, however, I always maintain my alternate reason to be less important then the reason for seeing them. They may not think they are so special that I should make a special trip for them, but they always want to feel as though they are special enough that they are the main reason for my trip (egotism is a tricky and complex beast).

On this occasion I used visiting Chris as my alternate reason. Visiting a friend is not out of the ordinary, it doesn’t lead to further questions, and most importantly, it’s a common thing for people to do.

Craig is a person I met at the start of this year. To paint the picture, I so happened to be invited to meet with a group of investors (a hand full of VC’s and several members of various Angel Investor Groups). The session was a round table meeting, where various companies and entrepreneurs present their business or product to those sitting around the table with the hope of securing funding. Craig was one of the members sitting around the table. It was a great experience and being in a room filled with successful business men and woman had me feeling empowered with confidence. Was it my surroundings that led me to feel so strong and confident, or was it the (let me get into my J. Peterman catalog voice for this) rather sharp pinstriped, Calvin Klein, pure wool suit I was wearing? For a man in a pinstriped suit can’t be flummoxed or rushed. Departs slowly but arrives on time. Cogitates, muses, affects long pauses, but answers with stunning clarity. You could listen to him forever. In fact, you have. That was me, someone who demanded attention.

All jokes aside, Craig really liked my business style and gave me his contact details suggesting we should talk about some of the ideas that I had. Since that meeting I have spoken with Craig on a number of occasions, and every now and then I would drop the thought of MySchoolAct into the conversation hoping to spark some interest. I only did it half heartedly as I knew we weren’t really ready to take on the US market just yet, but the seed had been planted.

This week, when I put in a call to Craig, I gave my full MySchoolAct elevator pitch. Craig was excited. He even offered some ideas of how we could expand in the future……..Excited tone…..contributing to the future of the company…..saying “we” when referencing MySchoolAct……But from what I can tell, that is very much Craig. He’s a personable chap, very positive, and full of praise. He’s definitely someone I would like to work with, which is probably why I confessed to him that I would give him first bite of the cherry, should several investor gr0ups be interested.

With Craig, things are looking positive, but I’m not over joyed just yet. One thing that I have learnt over the years of start-ups is that you should never get excited too soon. If you do, you will be constantly dissapointed. I personally try to hold back on the excitement until contracts are signed and money is in the company bank account. But by then, I’m thinking about how I’m going to deliver on the promises we just made, and all of the work that is ahead of us. So when do I get excited???? Good question. Ask me when I’m retired.

Business hasn’t been all bright and sunny this week; it actually ended with a knock back from a VC. I contacted Fred Wilson to propose the idea of MySchoolAct. Fred is the Managing Partner of two venture capital firms Flatiron Partners, and Union Square Ventures and is reportedly an avid music fan. Before contacting Fred I was very positive on the possibility of us working together. But it wasn’t to be. Unfortunately Fred wasn’t interested in MySchoolAct. To Fred’s credit he responded to my email very quickly, was open and honest in his response and was extremely appreciative for me having contacted him. Fred’s attitude is very refreshing in what seems to be a very serious world.

All in all, Global Entrepreneurship Week was a success for me and I hope it was for you also.