Kate Nolt ⋅ Glen Mills, PA Creighton University ⋅ 15 years experience

Dear Mark,

Congratulations on your graduation! That's a great start! Have you by any chance reached out to an organization called SCORE? Here is a link to their website. https://www.score.org.

I am not affiliated in anyway with them, but have used them personally over the years, and referred a lot of others to them as well, and the feedback has been good. They are a non-profit organization that connects retired executives or small business owners with individuals like you to assist in new start ups. They usually try to connect you with a mentor who has been in the same business as you want to go into. This is a free service, and they cover everything with you. Business plan, marketing etc., and it's usually a "one stop shop" if you will. If you don't like your first mentor, then request another, but usually these folks are really good. They are all volunteers, and passionate about helping new start ups succeed.

I would also reach out to successful businesses in the same market that you want to enter (call a lot of them from around the country), and see if you can start collecting data from the owners (for instance, ask them what did they do right, and what would they do differently if they had it to do all over again). Once you talk to enough people, you will start to see patterns in the information you gather (some people might call this exercise "doing your homework"). Write it all down as you speak to people, and look it over a lot for patterns, or themes. It's worth the time.

As a veteran, you may qualify for a very low interest type of business loan from the government, or Small Business Administration, if not from the VA itself.

Hope this is helpful information. If you would like to touch base a bit more, feel free to private message me and we can connect over the phone. Thank you for your service, and good luck!

Best,
Dr. Nolt

Ted Mittelstaedt ⋅ Portland, OR Portlandia IT LLC ⋅ 20 years experience

If you have interest from VCs then go for it! Sure, they will own your company. SO WHAT! Start the microbrewery, get it successful, have the VC's pay you off, then take the money and go start another brewery. Might as well have the VCs pay you for learning how to start a successful microbrewery, eh!

Dennis Nadeau ⋅ Pompano Beach, FL Kats Software ⋅ 20 years experience

Mark,

Can you please let me what your funding goals are, and how your corporation is structured.

- How much are you looking to raise?
- Is this a seed round?
-what are you offering for the money raised, debt or equity?
- what is your company structure, Inc or LLC?

Im going to assume that have put together a pitch deck (executive summary, 36 month proforma along with assumptions).

If you do not have a pitch deck, I can send you our deck, which we were successful in raising a equity seed round from friends, family, business associates. I can send you our original files so you can edit them accordingly, if you like.

You can also see some tips here; http://www.forbes.com/sites/chancebarnett/2014/05/09/investor-pitch-deck-to-raise-money-for-startups/

Once I better understand your
funding goals (amount) and structure, I may be able to offer some insight, which can help you to achieve your goals.

Most VC firms usually like to own majority share in a company when they invest.

CrowdFunder.com is a crowd funding platform, which a company gives equity for the money raised. kickstarter.com is another one which is based on donations and company gives gifts for money raised.

I'm not that familiar with government programs and grants, but Score.org is a great resource.

Looking forward to your details. Best, DN.

Guy Wendler ⋅ Cedar Rapids, IA Stamats ⋅ 30 years experience

Some possible sources of information that can lead to funding:
1. Your local chamber of commerce.
2. Local community colleges - many of them have business advisory offices.
3. Small Business Administration - they provide small business loans.
4. Department of Agriculture - they have some programs for rural areas.
5. Local entrepreneur agencies.

Your best bet, though, is to get a local "angel investor" or tap into friends and family.

Hope this helps.
- Guy

Mukhtar Ahmed ⋅ Duluth, GA American Textile LLC ⋅ 43 years experience

Hello Mark,

You may want to check some of the crowd funding websites as well, there are several, kickstarter.com is one that comes to my mind but you can Google crowd funding and should find several.

Good luck.

Kind regards,
Mukhtar