Equity Crowfunding – the selling of shares in new ventures to the general public – can give entrepreneurs access to a vast resource of new capital. While this will stimulate the creation of more companies and jobs, not everyone thinks that this is a good idea. Securities regulators are worried about investors losing out due [...]
Archive for the ‘posts’ Category
Making the Business Case
March 9th, 2012 
admin Thinking about starting a business? Why? Can you explain what the business opportunity is and how you will make money? I hear hundreds of pitches every year from budding entrepreneurs. Their main challenge is making the business case.
Capital Prohibitions and Crowdfunding
January 30th, 2012 admin Securities regulations severely limit access to capital for start-up ventures. The average citizen is precluded from investing because of these regulations. The government’s goal of protecting investors is achieved by preventing them from investing! What can be done to give companies better access to capital and better protect investors?
Musings from the Consumer Electronics Show
January 10th, 2012 admin This week, I made my annual pilgrimage to the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show & Conference in Las Vegas (CES) – an annual event that I’ve been coming to for many years (actually, I came to the first COMDEX in 1979 as an exhibitor and when it disappeared in 2003, I started attended the CES [...]
Posted in posts 
Tags: absolute, CES, consumer electronics, consumer technology, innovation, oled, recon, sierra, ultrabook, vantec 
No Comments »The Valuation Question
March 1st, 2011 admin What’s my baby worth? Figuring that out is the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face when attracting investors. Many negotiations break down over this issue. The good news is that there are contractual mechanisms that can be used to resolve any disparities.
Posted in Business Basics, posts Tags: angel investor, dilution, seed investors, start-up capital, valuation No Comments »Making Canada Innovative
January 30th, 2011 admin Innovation is a popular subject these days. It was raised by Obama in his State of the Union address as a major challenge for Americans. Here, in Canada, many think tanks, committees, interest groups, etc are rallying to the call for more Innovation.
Business Basics – Introduction
January 1st, 2011 admin Over the years, I’ve written a number of articles to assist entrepreneurs, especially tech entrepreneurs, with an understanding of business matters. On the Simon Fraser University Website, much of this can be found at www.sfu.ca/~mvolker/biz. These articles are in the process of being updated, with new ones added, and will gradually start showing up on [...]
Investing in Greentech Start-ups
October 30th, 2010 admin At the October 28, 2010 Vancouver Greentech Exchange, Mike talked about investment options for investors, challenges for entrepreneurs, incentives and impediments to innovation and finally explained a new investment vehicle – GreenAngel Energy Corp – could benefit both investors and entrepreneurs. Here is a summary of Mike’s talk:
Posted in Commercialization & Innovation, posts Tags: angels, clean tech, green tech, investing Comments OffAngel investor returns
October 3rd, 2010 admin Recently (Sep 28,2010) I went to a presentation in Bellingham by Rob Wiltbank of Willamette University in Oregon. Wiltbank does research on angel investing and the returns enjoyed by angels. He looked at 1000 “exits” in North America – i.e. companies that gave a payback to their investors (however large or small, including zero return [...]
GreenAngel shows strong growth
September 9th, 2010 admin Here’s some good news on GreenAngel Energy Corp and why it might be a good investment opportunity…
