<I wrote this post a couple of days ago and am just now publishing it>

A little down in the doldrums today, can’t quite put my finger on it, but i’ll try: It was just one of those days where there seems too much to do, too many different sets of opinions, and the goal post seems far away. Writing is beginning to be therapy, so bear with me while I get it out.

Maybe it’s because i’ve absorbed too much info in the last two days and I need time to sort it out, it all feels like noise right now. It’s funny, because we’ve spent these days meeting awesome new people who are committing to help out and who we’ve already learned so much from, so why be upset? Yesterday and today we:

• Reviewed many of our key cash flow assumptions with an experienced CFO at a 150 person start-up
• Learned about accounting and bookkeeping needs from an accounting firm we are thinking of using once funded,
• Ripped into our direct sales approach with a leader of sales team at a comparable-type fast growing company,
• Pitched our banker who provided constructive criticism on our investor pitch. She shared excellent advice but it will result in a major overhaul of just about the entire pitch. <sigh>…tiring but so necessary.

This entrepreneurial gig isn’t for the faint-hearted – or the person who can’t keep re-inventing, staying flexible, taking input and revising on the fly.

Here’s some of the key advice we received over the last two days:

• Ditch the busy powerpoints. Anyone who knows me will be laughing right now. I guess Intuit taught me a very detailed ppt approach that I need to unlearn – shifting those pages to appendix and follow-up slides…need to remember above all, it’s a conversation and they’re going to be looking at us, not the slides.
• They’re not competitors silly, they’re your acquirers! When we’re discussing the competition, the investor is really thinking “Which one of these companies is going to buy this company??” I also liked advice we heard about ensuring you realize that anyone who buys your company is going to change its culture to the culture of the acquirer, so pick a company that matches your style or else be ready for significant disappointment at best.
• How will the Investor make money? Investors want to know when they’re going to get an exit, for how much. They are looking to reduce risk as their #1 priority. Repeat after me “Have we demonstrated this idea will work for millions of people? We need to address a huge space.
• Pre-funding, many advisors will be very helpful, usually for reduced or no fees. There’s no shortage of advisors (such as accountants, CFOs, and lawyers) who will work for reduced or no fee very early on, providing insight, critiques, and help to get going. If and when you get funding, they come on board and get paid. This seems to be part of this great start-up infrastructure here in the valley. I love these people.
• There’s about one million types of insurance we’ll need: Product liability, errors and omissions, officers, umbrella, theft, disability…and a million taxes to pay. OMG. And this all before the economic meltdown and our era of burgeoning government.
• We can make a inside salesteam work - Our sales advisor created a very compelling case for why we should focus on hiring inside versus in the field, not the least of which is because she’s done it successfully. It’s one of those areas where we’re going back to the drawing board and incorporating this advice plus some others to re-think the acquistion plan.
  
• Sub-lease! The office we visited is about $35/sq foot – an outrageous sum of money. One advisor said “be a light company…don’t sign anything long term, keep laptops only, don’t do anything or buy anything you can’t drop in a box and haul to your next office as soon as you get an offer for lower rent. I’ve seen alot of companies go belly up due to expensive leases.” Good advice! We’ll take it. I was hoping for more like $5/square foot from a company with too much space on their hands.

By now you’re realizing I’m a shnuck because this is good advice and there’s no reason to feel down. And you’d be right. So there you have it.

Ok, time for a little TV. I’m going to watch the series finale of The Shield.
I’m not letting our cat in, he is ripping up our furniture.
Instead I’m going to pet our dog, Koby.