Raising Equity

5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Raising Equity

Raising capital for a business, whether it is a start-up or a mature company, can be an extraordinarily frustrating and time consuming experience. Entrepreneurs want to operate and grow their business, not raise capital. But the fact is that for most businesses, the entrepreneur or CEO is responsible for raising capital. When attempting to raise capital, CEO’s very often make some crucial mistakes. These mistakes not only can dictate whether or not the business will be able to raise capital, but also how long it will take and the ultimate cost of the capital. Using the wrong assumptions, raising capital can be impossible. We believe there are 5 common mistakes that CEO’s make when raising capital: 1. Unrealistic Expectations of Value Most of us has watched Shark Tank at least once. Just watch one episode and you will likely see this mistake. The entrepreneur goes to professional investors with a company that did $100,000 in sales last year and confidently tells the Sharks he will sell 10% of his business for $1 million. What’s the chance of this CEO getting funding? Zero. With few exceptions, investors will pay for what you have already done – not what you believe you …

Caribbean Healthcare Project Expands

That last several weeks has brought us some great, new opportunities to help develop the healthcare system in the Caribbean. As those who read me regularly know, I’m a co-founder of a new medical school on St. Kitts and as part of our agreement with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis, we will be developing healthcare services in the Eastern Caribbean — starting on St. Kitts.  Our agreement with government to provide hemodialysis has been approved by the minister of health and is awaiting Cabinet approval. In the meantime we are working hard to develop a new outpatient surgical center and cardiac cath lab on the island.  DOCTORS — I’m looking for surgeons and cardiologists who would be interested in working part or full time on the beach.  No Medicare.  No managed care.  Just patients and healthcare – what a concept.  See the St Kitts Project tab and then click on the link for physicians. Four weeks ago I was in Las Vegas for Freedom Fest and met The Real Estate Guys.  My previous post has a link to the radio program we recorded.  They have a project on Ambergris Cay in Belize and need healthcare services for the …

Pelosi moves towards the Center

A couple of things happened today: The House Majority Leader said today that there would not be a vote on healthcare in the next two weeks. Yesterday the October recess was canceled. Pelosi today is moving towards a public option with negotiated payor rates, rather than Medicare payor rates. There is a faction in her party that says it won’t vote for negotiated payor rates and insists on paying Medicare rates – which overall are less than provider actual costs of providing service. One vote counter said that she doesn’t have the votes for a public option with Medicare rates and she doesn’t have the votes for a public option with negotiated rates. My guess is that she and the President can force Dems to accept negotiated rates and pull in the Blue Dogs. The Senate is moving at a snails pace – now trying to figure out how to pay for the bill. When they are done, it will be up to Senate leadership to merge this bill in with the Dodd/Kennedy bill. There aren’t 60 votes for either bill – yet. All the stocks got hammered today with the market. Those with the greatest gains gave up the …

Senate Finance Committee progress

The Senate continues to work in getting a bill ready for the floor.  The Senate Finance committee vetoed two attempts to add the public option and as they wind up their bill a public option will be excluded.  The Dodd/Kennedy bill has the public option and it will be up to Henry Reid to determine what will be in the bill that goes to the Senate floor for a vote. The Senators that tried to amend the Senate Finance Committee bill yesterday have publicly stated they have more than 50 votes to pass a public option in the Senate.  That would require a reconciliation bill and it is unclear whether or not the parliamentarian for the Senate would allow a provision that may not be seen as a budget item.   If he agrees that a new government health plan can be part of a reconciliation bill, then it is possible that the Senate passes a bill with a public option.  This will continue to play out over the next couple of weeks. In the House there has been silence which may mean that Pelosi still doesn’t have the votes to bring a bill to the floor.  At one point she …