For existing business owners and prospective entrepreneurs who have great business ideas worth chasing, finding the seed and early stage funding can be a difficult task. At Nperspective, we take pride in helping our clients walk through this process.
Clients that seek small business capital may use their own personal savings or obtain funds from friends and family if the startup costs are minimal. For most companies, however, regardless of size, funding from the private sector often provides the best options.
Throughout our 15-year history, we have played a major role in the funding space for our clients, through our involvement with Florida Venture Forum, regional and local venture pitch organizations, and several other prominent state organizations. We believe in seeking capital from the appropriate sources when needed, aligning the goals and objectives of the organization with the capital sources who participate in the space of the funding prospect. In this vein, private funding sources often provide resources to small but growing companies that might not otherwise be available to fund growth.
The private funding sector consists of three primary sources of capital: angel investments, venture capital and private equity. These groups of investors have funds at their disposal that is obtained privately, rather than using the public markets to raise funds. Angel investors will typically invest in early-stage deals while private equity investors are more interested in well-established (later-stage) companies, with venture capital being a source that can cover both ends of the spectrum. In exchange for their invested capital, these investors often seek an equity stake in a company, representation on the company's board of directors and a handsome return on investment.
The funding sources actively search for new investment deals. Often they base their investment decisions by reviewing a company's overall success and prospective profitability. Since venture capitalists emerged from the Silicon Valley, they have often been recognized for their investments in software and biotech companies. Venture capital firms, however, can be found in just about every industry. They will often assume more risk than a private equity funding source, but that risk is accompanied by seeking a greater stake in the company's ownership and often more involvement in day-to-day operations. Some of the spectacular venture-backed successes from the Silicon Valley were accompanied by colossal venture-backed failures. The overall success of venture capital speaks to the rewards from taking big risks that are tempered by careful consideration of a company's business model so that the rewards of the collective successes outweigh the risks from the collective failures.
Private funding sources put their money at risk for every investment made. To compensate for such possible losses, they seek a large return on investment. By partnering with a private funding source, an entrepreneur is inviting the funding source into the realm of running the business, to varying degrees. If things are running smoothly and the company is generating expected profits, the investors will likely be satisfied with monitoring progress. Should things not develop in the way they were originally expected, the investors may want to take on a more active role in the company's operations.
We take pride in walking our clients through the process
For existing business owners and prospective entrepreneurs who have great business ideas worth chasing, finding the seed and early stage funding can be a difficult task. At Nperspective, we take pride in helping our clients walk through this process. Clients that seek small business capital may use their own personal savings or obtain funds from friends and family if the startup costs are minimal. For most companies, however, regardless of size, funding from the private sector often provides the best options.
As stated above, Nperspective takes pride in finding and developing the right resources for our clients and we know that it takes more than just a great business idea to make a new company successful. Growth capital funding is needed to provide resources that fund the operations and sustain business growth. By successfully determining if and how a business concept can be applied into practice and achieve its market potential, the entrepreneur will have less of a chance of failing, but only if financial resources are secured that match the company's needs. We know that private sector financing provides a tremendous resource for entrepreneurs to obtain needed capital, from startups to later-stage companies, to allow them to achieve levels of performance that would otherwise be foregone.
