capital – Impact Lab

Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Money Talk

Angel Investing: Rise of women investors fuels businesses run by women

September 12, 2014

Amy Norman and Stella Ma started pitching investors on their San Francisco-based startup, Little Passports, in 2009. Both women had young children and Norman was pregnant. The overwhelming majority of the investors they met with were men who wanted to know “if we were running this as a ‘lifestyle company,’” Ma recalls. Investors passed and word got around Silicon Valley that “there’s no way women like this could grow a company fast enough” to satisfy venture capitalists, Norman says.

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Money Talk

It’s time to disrupt the venture capital world

June 11, 2014

We are set to disrupt the way startup investments are made.

Billions of dollars are flowing through Venture Capital Companies into startups. And that is an incredibly important development to bring more innovation, disruptive thinking and many more businesses to life. However, the Kauffman Foundation, a pretty influential force in the VC world, has expressed their frustration in a recent report:

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Analysis, Business, Robots, Science & Technology News

Biggest myth about the robotics industry

January 13, 2014

The claim that robotics is capital intensive is a myth.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a much-discussed piece, a little over a year ago, on the discrepancy between corporate profits and labor compensation. Krugman’s column sparked a huge debate, and on the Times website alone readers left more than 1,300 comments. In his article he referred to robotics as a capital-intensive technology. The problem is, it isn’t true.

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Money Talk

Crowdfunding changes the game – investment bankers will no longer be the gatekeepers

January 7, 2013

Investment banks will no longer be the gatekeepers to access to capital markets.

The gatekeepers of access to the capital markets have traditionally been investment bankers. Now it is time for crowdfunding to play a greater role.

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Analysis, Business, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

How to make a five-figure income off of bootstrapped products

October 15, 2012

Brennan Dunn’s product revenue growth chart.

The natural course for most startups is to raise money. Investments give a necessary runway of capital that will allow you to survive as you develop and attempt to sell your product.

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Analysis, Business, Economy, Money Talk

Putting sidelined cash to work to help move the economic recovery

September 11, 2012

There are other ways to generate a return on capital—and help move the economic recovery.

Over the past 24 months It is well known that America’s largest companies have been stockpiling cash over at alarming rates. It has been estimated from $1.5 trillion to $2.8 trillion. And at first blush, who can blame them? With interest rates at historic lows, market volatility, political uncertainty, the European crisis, severe commodity price fluctuations, and other unpredictable market conditions, corporate brands and executives have been understandably inclined to sit on the sidelines.

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Money Talk

Where small business owners get the money to expand their businesses

August 7, 2012

Where do small business owners get the money to expand their businesses? Many entrepreneurs, policy makers, and academics have wondered about that same question but thanks to the efforts of researchers at the Census Bureau, we know the answer.

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Analysis, Business, Economy, government, Internet, Money Talk

Crowdfunding bill to allow startups to fundraise online

December 8, 2011

The new bill will make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital and create jobs.

Have the Republicans and Democrats may finally agree on something? They have agreed that small business owners and entrepreneurs need better and more plentiful opportunities to gain access to capital, grow their businesses, and create more jobs.

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Historical Perspectives

9 Steps to consider when valuing your Startup

June 26, 2011

Valuing a Startup can always be challenging.

Determining your startup’s worth is one of the hardest parts of the fundraising process. There is no magic formula that will spit out a valuation, namely because the number is highly subjective. The entrepreneur, for example, anticipates huge potential and may therefore put a high valuation on his company. The investor, on the other hand sees a company that needs capital to grow and may fail without it, so he may set a low valuation. To help the process, we’ve devised a few considerations to help value your company…

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