[sportcycle]

My name is Joe- I am a 30 year old entrepreneur.

I am battling the standard stuff most of you probably are. I'm looking for business partners who want to put both time and money into the best idea, ever.

Seriously.

It has nothing to do with the internet, brand new unproven technology, travel agencies, real estate, MySpace, space travel or advertising or any of the other concepts- all of which are awesome and deserve considerable merit- that seem to dominate this site.

The market I am forging, simply doesn't exist yet. There is a concurrent industry running along side the market I intend to build and cater to, and it is an $8 billion dollar a year industry in the USA. Not only can we take large parts of that industry, we will open up the new market to many people and I have no reason to believe it cannot equal the similiar industry I speak of.

I have patents on the process and devices necessary.
I have substantial barriers to entry.
I have a pilot program which has been very successful.
I have technology which will create even more barriers to entry and a business which I own in full which is considered an industry leader that augments the technology and the asset management.

Last year my business did $2.4m in revenue at a 9% bottom line.

Where am I today? I am at proof of concept at 200 units. This requires some pretty substantial capital, as individual units are about $10,000 a piece. I've lined up some advantageous debt terms with my bank and I am ready to roll.

Once the model is proven and within a year, the business will be generating about $70,000 per month and about $100,000 per month, if you amortize the debt out and the residual in.

I am leasing motorcycles. Sportbikes, to young people, in fact. Nobody does it. It is far too "risky" for the banks to touch and that's exactly why we will sneak up on the industry, overtake them before they have a chance to react and establish ourselves as the market leader within 5 years. Maybe less if it's capitalized and managed properly.

I have a thorough executive summary, pro-forma financials and some historical data on the rate of return.

I am not seeking money. Well, I am- but I am not seeking money at the expense of a partner who has my vision and can help me grow this.

The bottom line is this- everyone on my team -if they aren't already-will be incredibly wealthy, VERY soon. We are going to provide a service that on the surface seems incredibly risky, low margin and all-but impossible to manage. The good news is I've run the scenarios, I know the market potential and now I need a partner.

I am not "rich" but I have solid financials, assets (both real estate and personal/business property) and an entrepreneurial spirit. I intend to grow this, organically or otherwise.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, let me know. I'd love to discuss some of the details -none of which are proprietary or require an NDA or any kind of confidential agreement- but I'd rather not post up the whole business plan for anyone to see. This is my life's work, and I'm very proud of it.

you can email me at joseph@sumofallparts.net or you can call my cell phone
512-947-5422

I don't have a canned elevator presentation, but please PLEASE- I've had it with the fake venture capital, fake angels and fake MLM promoters. I'll see through it pretty quick so just do us all a favor and if you aren't serious- let's just go hang out, have a beer or go for a ride or play golf or something. If you are serious and you want a chance to be a part of something really big and you have the brains and/or money to step up and help-I am excited to talk to you.

Thanks so much and good luck to you all~
joe

[akula]

you really should be talking to people in Austin like alex muse, AV, CTAN and the TXVCA...at any rate, the IC2 institute would give you referals

[sportcycle]

Thanks so much for the directions-> I've not contacted any of those orgs or people except AustinVentures.

AV sent me back a canned letter of denial. Really disappointing- I know they didn't even read the pdf file because I gave them a dedicated link for JUST them to access and my weblog file shows it was never even downloaded. They said "we have reviewed your plan and it doesn't match our investment criteria... " I'm like- how can you say it doesn't match your investment criteria if you don't even read it?

There are many people out there who are looking for projects like this- If Austin Ventures doesn't want it, ultimately it's their loss.

But like I said- I'll definitely followup with the other referals you pointed out in your post. Thanks.

[Unreal030]

Thats an automated rejection letter. You can usually tell from the wording. I know of a similar one for rejecting applicants that states:

Thank you for the interest you’ve shown in a career opportunity with our firm. We were fortunate to have interviewed a number of applicants with strong backgrounds such as yours, making our selection process difficult.

Be assured that your résumé has received our full attention. While your background is interesting, unfortunately we have no openings that are a match for your skills and experience.

We would like to again thank you for your interest in our firm and wish you continued success in pursuit of your career objectives.

Yours truly,
(name)

The real kicker is the part I bolded. As we all know that if HR goes through a pile of resumes/applications and things are misspelled or something of that nature they won't even look at it, just throw it in the trash can. Its a pretty standard policy so I don't know, I just find that funny.

Good mindset though, don't give up.

[akula]

Originally Posted by sportcycle

Thanks so much for the directions-> I've not contacted any of those orgs or people except AustinVentures.

AV sent me back a canned letter of denial. Really disappointing- I know they didn't even read the pdf file because I gave them a dedicated link for JUST them to access and my weblog file shows it was never even downloaded. They said "we have reviewed your plan and it doesn't match our investment criteria... " I'm like- how can you say it doesn't match your investment criteria if you don't even read it?

There are many people out there who are looking for projects like this- If Austin Ventures doesn't want it, ultimately it's their loss.

But like I said- I'll definitely followup with the other referals you pointed out in your post. Thanks.

okey dokey..

well, I've worked in vc and you being rejected is a totally expected, natural outcome. when you contacted austin, you made two basic mistakes and in this situation, the partner didn't have any other option but to turn you down, because it would not have been prudent for him to read your proposal (on account of adverse selection).

firstly, you contacted the firm without a personal referral from one of austin's sucessful investees, or a coinvestor who is part of austin's syndicate. when this happens, you will get rejected for reasons described at length by tim oren

secondly, your other mistake is that you contacted the firm. what you should have done is contact the relevant partner in the firm, because it's him who is gonna be reviewing your deal, not the firm it self. when you contact the firm (rather than the partner), you will, again, leave no other option for the partner other than to reject you because your pitch was not addressed to the right recipient

to stop getting rejected, you must use venture source, to access the right referrals, and you must change the way you pitch. your pitch is bad because it does not conform to the best practices expected by venture managers, as explained by Allen Morgan....you really must follow what Allen says (particularly point 3)

I hope that you now understand why you've been rejected and what you must do to stop being rejected

If you do not understand, I will explain it to you, if asked

[usakos]

I don't like the idea of approaching VCs. I like when they come to us, pitching their proposals of what they can do for us. We have received a few since we've launched and we just never really followed up on their offers, because we're still fine tuning our business, products, etc.

We are in the process of getting into DEMO (www.demo.com) for September in Cali. We have already passed the initial screening process, and we're now in the final stage. We have a few more cool features that we're going to unveil at DEMO.

Why am I saying all of this here? Because everyone in the biz world will be there. We will pitch our business and products there and those who might be interested may come to us there. Most funded startups have pitched their startups at events like this.

So, if you have a really good business idea, as you have stated, it seems like you're already rolling on operations, then try to find conventions like DEMO and go pitch yours there.

Oh, just a quick tip, most VCs don't like to talk to individuals, they like to deal with more than one person, like if you're alone and trying to find VCs funding, then that might be hard, so if you're alone, try to find someone more experienced, make him or her the CEO if you think your resume comes short to starting up startups.

[sportcycle]

That's a great idea- have VCs approach me. Seems great, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I've built my business up organically. I know a few VC people but they focus on high tech or very very high growth consumer products. Referals have been less than fruitful.

That's really awesome about DEMO for you- sounds like a tremendous opportunity and a great networking tool.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. I don't disagree with that. I've had lots of ideas. But how we are implementing, see that's the difference.

As far as my resume, I have no experience in startups at all. I have 3 MBAs all working with me (2 full time)

It's just a matter of time and timing on this. We are dealing with an asset-backed investment that yields 55% annual ROI with just reasonable assumptions.

[syia]

how is the status of your business right now? find anyone that can really push the idea together with you?

[sportcycle]

IS currently in pilot program on our growth division and currently slightly down on revenue in the cash generator. Mostly seasonal, but my parts business has -0- barriers to entry and it causes a lot of trouble with fast entrants into our market.

I wouldn't know where to find someone to push the idea with, honestly. It's a brand new concept in a relatively new industry.

[David Rocci]

There is nothing wrong with seasonal businesses. I own a Liberty Tax Service franchise and we do all of our business in 100 days. In fact, we do 60% of our revenue in 3 weeks!

Dairy Queen in my area is only open a few months of the year and they seem to do just fine. I don't think it being a seasonal business is a detriment. In fact, it can be a treme