This another of my reports from the inside of an internet start-up. It is very interesting to be involved with something so new and so eventful. Every day it seems some new intrigue pops up. The founders, Howard and Brent, have been excellent to work with. Between them and the key advisory board members, we already have the nucleus of a successful team. Those investors who focus on management as the highest priority have been very pleased.
Yesterday (5/24/07) we had another investor meeting with a small group of people to present the latest progress on CB Stealth, my angel investment. The company has made some major strides in the software platform and raised additional capital since my last report about three weeks ago CB Stealth - our start-up gaining traction. We had hoped to have the Beta site up by now but we have added a few more bells and whistles and we are changing our servers (hardware issues) so it has been delayed until mid-June, or so I have been told.
Interest in CB Stealth from old media companies seems to be accumulating and it seems that, two in particular are anxious to meet with us even before the Beta version goes up. This is all new to me because I have not been involved with any Internet ventures as a principal. If we take on any large investors our valuation will go up and our control over the company will likely go down. One of the key decisions is going to be whether we wait for a higher valuation in six months after we are up and running or we take the cash now which would allow us to ramp up faster.
The individual investors we have been meeting with raise some great issues. The guys that are all about capital preservation are not going to participate. They just are looking out of curiousity or out of friendship. The guys that are looking for "adventure" and are satisfied with the team, the business plan and the potential untapped market will invest. In between are the guys that want to invest but must "kick all the tires" not just one. The tire kickers are going to read everything ten times, ask a million questions, look for worst case scenarios and do their own analysis. They will make their own decisions based on their analysis more than our presentation. They also tend to be the fence sitters that either talk themselves into the deal or out of the deal.
We also have met with our legal counsel and insurance agents about moving forward on contracts, intellectual property rights, and risk management. I either run or advise others in several businesses and none require the number of insurance policies of an Internet / media / software company. By this time next month we should have made some major leaps forward. Because of the successes we have had to date, we will probably stop offering warrant coverage to future investors, instead of just reducing the percentage as we had planned. We will continue to meet with investors, advisors, and user groups for our internet software platform two or three times a week over the next couple of months constantly adjusting to the market forcess and needs of our customers. While the meetings are periodic the activity never stops.
Those of you who are new to BloggingStocks can check out my other stories and read Chasing Value or Serious Money to find more potential opportunities and verify my track record as well.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.
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