Today I was reading about venture capitalism in general and the different approaches that some people take when it comes to funding a business or organization. The one interesting point I thought was that the ones who were most successful were the people that focused more in investing into companies they felt had a good idea and leadership as oppose to people who were so caught up in simply the numbers.

I suppose in many ways that does make sense right? It must be a lot harder too though to invest in things mostly based on if you think it will be good later as the risk is extremely high as opposed to someone that already has a good revenue flow. Then again, I guess that explains why those people are more successful in many ways financially as it’s kind of like the saying of more risk more reward. At the same time, if you are basing it on a person’s track record or leadership background then one could argue the risk should be less.

In many ways I suppose it is similar to shows like Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank where every investor seems to have a different philosophy whee it comes to investing. I would say when it comes to getting funding on the Internet with places like Kickstarter it feels like it is more a people’s platform where it seems like it’s all about the idea and the people behind it. I feel that is how it should be and we need more things like that.

While reading through this e-mail pitch today this one phrase seemed to have stuck on my mind where a person was trying to convince people to buy his service by explicitly using the phrase that you should invest in you future if you are serious about your business. Do you find that phrase works a lot on you?

For myself I tend to be a little sceptical when people use that phrase mainly because I recognize it’s an emotional string of sort to get you to take action. In general it probably is more effective though than say trying to edify your product or service like crazy. I guess at the end of the day this emphasizes that in any literature it should be more about what your product or service can do for people as oppose to how good it is.

This week I am going to do something that I have never really tried before. Essentially, I am going to create this new venture with a person whom I barely know anything about other than his professional background. Essentially, we both thought that we each brought the necessary skills to the table to do this and figured why not?

This is kind of scary I must say. However, we are trying to do everything necessary to try and avoid conflict such as clearly drafting out a contract of each party’s expectation. Would you feel you need to know way more about a person though before starting a business with them? The ironic thing is from my experience even if it is someone you have known for a long time a business relationship with them can be bad still whether it’s the difference in skill or ethic. So in some ways it’s like the risk factor is the same regardless of who you decide to do business with.

I think for fun I will actually document my experience on this blog this year so that every can see whether or not this kind of a thing is a good idea or bad idea.

This was an interesting topic today as I was looking at this shop and how this guy seemed to have awards and accomplishments plastered everywhere. Some of the items were simply contests as well that seemed to be more of a small event. However, it was obvious that he wasn’t shy in showing in off. I was talking to another person about this and we were saying how this in a way gives him credibility to those that have never dealt with him.

Many times too amongst the same community of people they would argue to no end at how so and so’s accomplishments don’t mean much because it wasn’t as difficult to accomplish or as noteworthy compared to another person’s accomplishment. So therefore, they don’t bother to tell people about it. Like anything there has to be some balance. For example, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to plaster your accomplishments on how you got a gold star for getting good grades in elementary school. However, the little things such as winning local contest or being featured in small publications is a good way to help yourself stand out I think. Like they say, can’t be afraid to brag a little.

I thought this was kind of a fascinating topic to debate about when it comes to business. In a lot of cases people would say all companies care about is money. It doesn’t matter if one guy hates the other for personal reason. Essentially, if they each feel that they can make money or benefit from each other then they would do a deal. However, on the flip side people were saying that is so false as businesses have grudges with each other all the time which can often be a key influence as to whether or not they would cooperate.

For me I tend to think a business primarily deals with people and the transactions that happen because of the relationship that the two parties have with each other. So in that sense I don’t see why one would think just because two people can make say a lot of money together that they would if they despise each other deeply whether it be their values or history. Some other funny examples were how a creator of a product actually gave certain vendors inferior versions of its products for example simply for the sake of politics. That way they can say they tried to work with them and that it is their fault the product isn’t selling as it is with everyone else.

Would you still do business with someone if you knew for example you could easily make $100,000 with them but knowing that this same person is someone that scammed your friends or family into bankruptcy for example? Like in that type of scenario I have personally yet to see anyone not hold a grudge and just go on with business so to speak.