Okay Don, Now you can quit your day job

I had a 56 year old Founder/CEO come into my office to give me a 30 minute no harm/no foul pitch on what she is up to.

[Important note to Woman Studies majors everywhere: She opened with her age to make a point about 'kids' doing all these start ups with no revenue; don't shoot me.]

First opening words:

"I'm sorry, I'm not MySpace, YouTube, or Digg, but my business makes money, has been for 3 years and I'm looking for investment capital to expand/grow."

It was a great meeting with a great CEO and we are digging in. 

This morning, as part of her follow up, she sent me Don Dodge's latest missive. I was reading email so I hadn't seen Don's entry yet via my newsreader.

Don:

"How many companies can afford to pay $1 billion dollars for any company, let alone one with no barriers to entry, no revenue stream, and copyright lawsuits hanging over its head."

Sheri's commentary, in part:

"I'd like to believe that making profits, paying taxes, creating a few jobs and satisfied customers, might be worth, maybe a little something."

Keep the faith, Sheri, keep the faith.

Comments

[Don Dodge]

Rick, I am honored that Sheri is reading my blog. She should be proud that she has created a profitable business. That is not easy to do.

There is another blog post she might want to consider reading about the thre kinds of businesses; Lifestyle, Cash flow, and High growth. VCs normally only invest in high growth businesses with big markets, barriers to entry, and lots of upside. Lifestyle and Cashflow businesses are great, but they often don't have the necesary upside potential to justify VC investment.

Check out this post http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2005/12/three_kinds_of_.html

Don

[Matt]

Here's hoping (on behalf of this woman and all my other colleagues in the "profitable" category) that Our Host and his partners continue defying the VC conventional wisdom and refuse to be scared off by the notion of a business that actually makes money.