CHAPTER 10
RAISING MONEY FOR STARTING AND GROWING BUSINESSES
Jim Poss and BigBelly© solar-powered trash compactor.
You've developed your business idea and written a business plan in which you have forecast how much money you'll need for your new venture. Now you're wondering where you will get the initial money to start your business and the follow-on capital to grow it. In this chapter, we discuss the mechanics of raising money from investors, including business angels, venture capitalists, and public stock markets. First, we revisit the Jim Poss case, which you studied in Chapter 3, to examine how Jim scraped together the resources to start his business.
Jim Poss, BigBelly Solar
During the second year of his MBA studies, Jim enrolled in Babson's Entrepreneurship Intensity Track, which is for students who want to develop a new venture that they will run full time as soon as they graduate. Jim's first product, the BigBelly® is an automatic, compacting trash bin powered by solar energy. The innovative BigBelly dramatically cuts emptying frequency and waste handling costs, trash overflow, and litter at outdoor sites with high traffic and high trash volume. The BigBelly's target end users, such as municipalities and outdoor entertainment venues, face massive volumes of daily trash and very high collection costs. By the time he graduated in May 2003, Jim had a company, originally ...
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