Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

How much money do they need?
Are they looking for investment or a loan?
Have they written a formal business plan?
What rate of return have they seen so far?
How will the money be used?

These are just the tip of the iceberg of questions. If you haven't read any of Guy Kawasaki's books/articles, I suggest you start with:
https://www.guykawasaki.com/files/mp3/raising.mp3
https://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/04/how_to_get_the_.html

Jay has asked the right questions. (Well, they're the ones I would have asked anyway.)

You'll need to put together a presentation for the prospective investors -- whoever they are -- sooner or later, and it will have to address all the questions on Jay's list ... plus a few more.

And the bottom-line questions on the investors' minds will be what rate of return can I expect for my investment, what's the risk, and how soon will I recover my initial investment.

You'll also want to cover contingency plans -- in case things don't go according to plan -- and perhaps a best-case scenario (to show them how good it could be if everything breaks right).

If the company has a solid business plan already, then this presentation should be relatively easy to put together. If not, that's probably the best place to start.

I've found that when I start by creating the investor presentation it's easier to engage my clients in thinking through these issues. Let me know if I can be helpful in this case.

Hi Koen,

As Michael mentions the investor presentation is the key, in fact almost all cases with savvy, serious potential investors it is going to be the make or break factor in your quest for money.

If it is not solid, they won't be interested, despite what a great idea it is or what your pro-formas say. (been there, successfully, after poorly planned starts).

This is where experience developing these has a value that is far beyond whatever it would cost, which actually is usually quite nominal.

Discussing this with Michael offline would probably be a good use of your time.

That being said the natural target market of potential investors is athletes / ex-athletes / ex-athlete sportscasters / ex-athletes involved in youth and alumni sports /alumni.

Networking is going to be the key here and I would think that once you approach any number of people in the suggested list, and if your investor presentation is solid, it won't take long for buzz to start happening as even in a down economy there are always people with money to invest if the return looks golden.

With all those people in the company with Dartmouth backgrounds there has to be a few of them that are only 1 degree of separation from people fitting the suggested profiles that can make this happen. That is the first place I would suggest starting.

Koen,

It's not easy, I understand having been in your shoes like several of the above posters.

As hard as it might be to hear, you have a credibility issue. If the NFL endorsement was completely legitimate, why isn't there a press release on your site, naming the NFL executive spokesman and a quote regarding the deal.

When I review start-ups, I take a quick look at the status of their seo program. It's a quick indicator.

Your logo alt tag says "logo" your title tag says your name rather than the highest ranking keyword phrase as researched with Google Adwords.

Doesn't mean everything, but by a quick glance, I would pass.

hope this helps,

Steve

Hi Koen,

I love your concept. Congratulations on a great idea :)

May I suggest please, 100k is far too small to ask.

You ca borrow that form the bank on a second mortgage on your house.

Most serious investors or venture Cap groups will not look at something so small.

My suggestion, Keep doing what your doing, get more and more users signed up at $25 per month and you should start to have a pretty useful revenue stream coming in pretty soon.

Don't limit yourself to Sports only events, that's a mistake.

People want to braodcast everything.

Weddings, school ballet recitals, High school bands first gig :)

You caster can cover everything and anything so why limit to sports only.

Braden your market, build more subscribers and grow our revenues. Once you hit rec of 1 million per month, then you will be ready to look for investors to come in with 5M or 10M funding.

Good luck,

Matthew

Dear Koen,

I am going to keep this answer to the point. You obviously have an idea of what you need to present to a potential investor and are now looking for resources to contact interested parties.

There are a couple of sites you can visit
1. www.thefunded.com
2. www.go4funding.com

These sites should give you a head start on your search for investors. The Funded also has a nifty search engine that allows you to search for investors depending on geography and amount of capital required.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Clive Fernandes
Clive Fernandes Consulting