Posts by hans

November 2012

November 2012

It quite often happens that a company is (about to) run out of money. That can happen for lots of reasons; more costs have been made in order to get ready for market, more money is needed for using the momentum, change of business model, or even external factors can contribute to the fact that a company runs out of money. Basically there are two solutions: reduce your burn rate when you see...

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October 2012: The non disclosure.

October 2012: The non disclosure.

Last week a starting entrepreneur approached me via LinkedIn. That has happened a few times, and I think it is good that founders try to make contact with potential interesting or helpful people. That often leads to being a send a deck (a pitch or proposal), and quite often unsolicited. But, that is not relevant for this month’s blog. The proposal I was sent claimed to be the next big thing...

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September 2012: The “hassle” of networking

September 2012: The “hassle” of networking

As in investor or entrepreneur it is extremely important to have a good network. And, perhaps even more important, maintain that network. That also means you need to put a fair bit of effort in maintaining it. As so often is it not necessarily the quantity that matters, but more the quality. In maintaining the network you unfortunately need to spend a fair bit of hours zipping coffees, latte’s,...

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July 2012

The second investment that didn’t fall through was end of June. Although that occurred in June, it is an experience that needs sharing. For this opportunity, a large investment was needed (funds required were $500k to $1M). Quite often these type of investment are syndicated. That means that the investment is to be shared amongst 4 to 5 investors. That is a completely different arena and...

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June 2012

Deal just don’t always fall through…. Guess that’s the best way to describe June. As we were very enthusiastic about two new deals, both didn’t make it through to the finish line. The first one of these deals, we were to be their first investor, and although we had an agreement about the money invested and equity, just the “simple” term sheet turned out to be a hurdle the entrepreneurs...

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