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As I discussed in two previous posts on my experiences raising venture capital - its hard and takes a lot of time. I’m still more than willing to speak with potential investors and will pitch my heart out, but the reality is I’m moving full-time to Informed Networker in around a month and am already working on it significantly part-time. There isn’t time to continue pursuing venture capitalists proactively. “Okay, so that’s great Dave, but how do you expect to keep your home if you don’t secure venture capital?” Great question.
Venture Capitalists like several features in a business: (a) revenue and (b) a significant investment (e.g. $500k+). Advertisers on the other hand want (a) traffic and (b) traffic. This is something Informed Networker is already able to offer. With a decent traffic base and the potential only being up as well as targeted viewers (IT Professionals) - we can offer advertisers exactly what they need. So, as mentioned in an earlier post we are looking to secure around nine “charter advertisers” before August 1st. We’ll be proactively recruiting them. The commitment on their end is relatively minor ($1,500 for one year - breaks down to $125/mo.) and guarantees them a reasonable minimum number of impressions (72,000 impressions - though their ad continues rotating amongst extra inventory even beyond this number), a logo listing on our charter advertiser page, and a in-depth review of their product/service in a blog posting we’ll write thanking them for their support. They also receive the right to lock in this rate for a second year - a significant offer since we expect to be charging much higher rates within a few months as traffic increases and our reputation as a valuable source for focused eyeballs increases. If you are interested in having your company support Informed Networker please let us know. We’re looking forward to working with you!
Securing these nine advertisers would allow us to garner $13,500. This would fund us for the first several months of operation - allowing us to expand personnel (including a part-time, commission based sales force), continue innovative feature development, ramp up story quality and freshness, etc. etc. At the same time, we don’t give away any equity in the company and we hopefully establish long-term mutually beneficial relationships with our advertisers.
Note: Per previous posts, we are not indicating our uninterest in securing venture capital. We are simply stating our inability in a competitive market to rely upon or expend significant effort upon securing venture capital. We will pitch our hearts out to any interested parties with reasonable ability to invest but in the meantime will secure relationships with advertisers and continue to expand the site.
Informed Networker Blog, Jul 2008Note: The final appearance of your post may be different, depending upon your blog’s style sheets.