Thursday, August 11, 2022

Soft vs. Hard Launches, Varsity Gems Upcoming launch, Business Startup Challenges, and More!



Soft vs. Hard Launches, Varsity Gems Upcoming launch, Business Startup Challenges, and More!  

Ren Carlton and Thomas Coke discuss soft versus hard launches, Varsity Gems upcoming hard launch, business startup challenges, and more!  

Quality Resolution Systems had technical difficulties, let's try again soon Kiara!

Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 



Thursday, August 4, 2022

Ren Carlton, Thomas Coke, and Scott Whitfield discuss the preparing for fundraising for Spiritz of America



Ren Carlton, Thomas Coke, and Scott Whitfield discuss the preparing for fundraising for Spiritz of America, previously Alcohol of the month

Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 



Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Alcohol of the Month Club - What do you think?


Alcohol of the Month Club - What do you think?

What do you like? What don't you like? We want your thoughts!



Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Make Angel Investments That Go 10x, Unleashing Monster Returns for a Family Juice Business

Angel Investing – Entrepreneurs, Founders, Business Startups, Early-Stage Businesses, Lead Investors, Making Your First Angel Investments  - Series 2, Episode 1


I look for angel investments that have the potential to produce a 10x return on my investment in 5 years. Startup investing is one of the more risky investment categories. Therefore, you should expect these businesses to have the possibility of doing well. If you invest in 10 businesses, and nine of them fail, the remaining business needs to give you a 10x return just to break even. Ideally, you will do better than that and enjoy healthy returns.  

Hansen’s Fruit and Vegetable Juices started as a family business in 1935. Decades later, the company was acquired for $14.5 million in 1992. In 1997, it was already listed on the public stock exchange as a NASDAQ small cap. This is when they first entered the energy drink market. In 2002, they made a slight modification that changed the energy market. They started selling energy drinks in a large can. 

This energy drink, “Monster” launched in April 2002. In 2003, their sales passed the $100 million dollar mark. Sales were $98 million in 2002, in 2018, they had $3.8 billion in sales. $3.5 billion of its $3.8 billion in sales were from the Monster line of drinks.

If you invested $10,000 in Hansen, now renamed Monster Beverage Corp, in 2002, your investment would have been worth over $800,000 by 2007. That is over an 80x return on investment in five years for a publicly traded company. Imagine what returns can be achieved from startup investing.

Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 


Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Build Your List of Potential Investors, Pitch Investors Properly, How Kevin Systrom Raised $500,000 in Two Weeks to Launch Instagram

Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 12



This video is part of my series - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders, learn more by visiting https://bit.ly/3hExYJX


Most startups need funding at some point. Once you have the addressed all of the items in the previous episodes, it is time to build your list of potential investors and start the conversations. They can be friends, family, social network, social media contacts, work colleagues, people in the business industry, etc. Try to put together a list of at least one hundred people. A list of one hundred potential investors may seems like a lot, but the more people you have on the list, the better your chances are of success.

The next step is to talk to people on your list about funding your business. If you want to pitch investors properly, I suggest you do it in a soft, but direct manner. I typically kick off the conversation on a light note. Something along the lines of, “I am starting this business project,” or “I am testing this business concept.” Avoid using salesy language and observe if others show any interest in being a part of your startup business plan.

After starting the conversation in a casual manner, discuss your investment opportunity. Warning, discuss does not mean pitch. These people know nothing about your business. You do not want to overwhelm them with loads of information about your business model. 

Think of fundraising as giving people sips of water. Give them information in bits and pieces so they can process them. It depends on how you phrase your sentences to make the potential investor ask for more sips of water.

One mistake excited entrepreneurs make is sending every business detail to everybody. It is almost like giving sips of water with a fire hose and drowning all your potential investors. It makes you sound desperate and you lose credibility. Be patient. Some investors will come to you, and some will not. If they are interested, they will come to you for more. And when they do, feel free to explain your business to them. For the ones who do not come for more, move on to the next one. Or maybe try again with a different business approach in six to nine weeks.

In 2010, Kevin Systrom went to a party for a startup called Hutch. Kevin met two venture capitalists that were impressed by his App, Bourbon. The purpose of Bourbon was so people could make plans, check in, and share photos from places that had good drinks. Shortly after the party, Kevin decided to quit his job and focus on Bourbon. Within only just two weeks, Kevin raised $500,000 from those venture capitalists at the party. By July 2010, they pivoted Bourbon, focusing just on the photo sharing feature of Bourbon. Bourbon was renamed Instagram. 

Two years later, in March 2012 Instagram had 27 million users. Facebook purchased Instagram later that year for $1 billion. 

Do you want more? 


Previous Post - Faster Traction Through Funding, How Zoom and Eric Yuan Defeated Apple’s Facetime, Microsoft’s Skype, and Cisco's WebEx - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 11



Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice.



Source



Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Faster Traction Through Funding, How Zoom and Eric Yuan Defeated Apple’s Facetime, Microsoft’s Skype, and Cisco's WebEx

Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 11


This video is part of my series - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders, learn more by visiting https://bit.ly/3hExYJX


You have proven you have a business that works. Now it is time to put the foot on the gas pedal. When you do this, here are some questions you should be considering.
How can you leverage technology? 
Which roles need to be filled? 
Should you hire staff or contractors?
Do you have enough space? 
Where will the money come from? 
Can operational cash flow sustain your business? 
Are you profitable?

If you have not started raising capital, now is the time. If your business created a solution to a problem that can be sold for a profit, you will have competition. You need resources to compete. Resources require capital.

Eric Yuan founded Zoom, originally known as Saasbee, in April 2011. Yuan did this while working at Cisco's WebEx Cisco video conferencing business, after noticing that WebEx was not keeping up with what customers were demanding. 

Eric Yuan raises $3 million in seed funding In June 2011, two months from founding, from TSVC, WebEX founder Subrah Iyar, Matt Ocko, Dan Scheinman and Bill Tai. 

Yuan did this despite massive competitors.
CISCO acquired WEBEX for $3.2 billion in 2009
In early 2011, Apple launched FaceTime
May 10, 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications for $8.5 billion
 
First customer, at one year and seven months from founding, three months from launch: In November 2012, Zoom signs up Stanford Continuing Studies, Stanford's continuing adult education program, as its first customer.

Product one, at one year and nine months from founding, five months from launch: In January 2013, Zoom releases its Unified Meeting Experience (UMX) cloud service, which allows 25 people to participate at once, either up to 40 minutes with its free version or unlimited with its $9.99 business plan.

Second funding, at one year and nine months from founding, five months from launch: In January 2013, Zoom raises a $6 million Series A from Qualcomm Ventures, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Iyar and Dan Scheinman.

"I put the phone down and stared at it intensely. I was transfixed. Sure, I had just learned about Eric’s terrific background as an engineering leader at Webex and an executive at Cisco. However, more importantly, I was totally blown away by Eric’s unique vision on the future of video collaboration. Eric had explained his unique technical approach, and I felt that it was significantly different/better than others I had seen in the industry (from both video startups and Internet giants). Eric essentially had constructed an incredibly well thought-out “First Principles” multimedia approach for this new multi-device, cloud-based world."

Traction, at one year and nine months from founding, five months from launch: In January 2013, Zoom reaches over 500,000 participants, has held over 140,000 meetings, and has 1,000 businesses on the platform in over 2,500 cities around the world. 

Traction, at two years and one month from founding, nine months from launch: In May of 2013 Zoom reaches one million participants. It has connected over 400,000 meetings and 3,500 businesses in over 2,500 cities worldwide.

Traction, at two years and three months from founding, 11 months from launch: In July 2013, Zoom has nearly two million participants, 5,500 meetings/day and 100 million meeting minutes.

Third funding, at two years and five months from founding, one year and one month from launch: In September 2013, Zoom raises $6.5 million in Series B funding led by Horizons Ventures, with Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jerry Yang also participating. Bart Swanson, Advisor at Horizon Ventures, joins the Board of Directors at Zoom.

Traction, three years and three months from founding, one year and 11 months from launch: In July 2014, Zoom reached 10 million participants. 

Fourth funding, at three years and 10 months from founding, two years and six months from launch: In February 2015, Zoom raises $30 million in a Series C round led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Horizons Ventures, Jerry Yang, Qualcomm Ventures, and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Traction, at three years and 10 months from founding, two years and six months from launch: By February 2015, Zoom has 65,000 companies, 40 million individuals, over 1 billion meeting minutes and 2,500 educational institution customers.

Zoom went public on April 18, 2019, valuing the company at nearly $16 billion by the end of its IPO. 

As of March 2020, Zoom has a market cap of $38.52 billion.

None of this would have been possible without funding.



Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 




Do you want more?

Previous Post - Making Money With Your Business, Profit and Cash Flow, Five Sustainable Companies That Make a Lot of Money - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 10

Sources 




Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Making Money With Your Business, Profit and Cash Flow, Five Sustainable Companies That Make a Lot of Money

Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 10


This video is part of my series - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders, learn more by visiting https://bit.ly/3hExYJX

It is time to make money! You have been through a couple of rounds of market testing now you feel like you are on to something. The next step is to run the numbers to make sure that the business is sustainable. There are two sides to making money, profitability and cash flow.

Profitability is the difference between the expenditures of a business and its revenues. Typically, businesses sell their products or serviced for more than their purchase price or costs. The difference between revenue and expenses is profit. For example, if you buy a car for $5,000 and sell it for $7,000, you make a $2,000 profit.

Positive cash flow is different. It means more money is coming in than going out, and you have enough cash in your business bank account to pay your bills. There is a significant difference.

In the previous example, you bought a car for $5,000 and sold for $7,000. If you purchased the car using a credit card and sold the car immediately, your current cash flow would be $7,000. You sold the car before you paid for it. When you pay off the car, your cash flow will match your profit of $2,000. This is assuming no interest expense. 

If you did keep a balance on your credit card or did not pay off the car immediately, your interest expense will reduce your profitability and cash flow, If you never pay your credit card, your cash flow from the transaction will remain $7,000. 

Cash flow can be used to repay creditors, pay dividends and interest to investors, 
engage in buybacks, investments in acquisitions for inorganic growth, investments in innovation for organic growth, or debt reduction. More cash allows for more maneuverability for a company. This can allow for positive growth during economic booms and flexibility during an economic downturn, regardless of the cause of those bad times, e.g. the broader market, the industry, or the company itself.

Here are five examples of companies that have consistently make a lot of money.


Company Name
Free Cash Flow (FCF)
Debt to Equity Ratio (D/E) 
1-Year Stock Performance
Dividend Yields

Apple (APPL)
$7.17 billion (TTM ended in 06/20) 
0.61 (for the three months ending 06/30/20)
55.38% (since 12/31/19)
0.71% (as of 8/13/20)

Verizon (VZ)
$2.11 billion (TTM ended in 06/20)
1.94 (for the three months ending 06/30/20)
-4.39% (since 12/31/19)
4.20% (as of 8/13/20)
 
Microsoft (MSFT)
$4.52 billion (TTM ended in 06/20)
0.57 (for the three months ending 06/30/30)
32.47% (since 12/31/19)
0.98% (as of 8/13/20)
 
Walmart (WMT)
$1.84 billion (TTM ended in 04/20)
0.85 (for the three months ending 04/30/20)
11.58% (since 12/31/19)
2.85% (as of 8/13/20)
 
Pfizer (PFE)
$1.26 billion (TTM ended in 06/20)
0.78 (for the three months ended in 06/30/20)
 -2.86% (since 12/31/19)
3.99% (as of 8/13/20)



Are you looking for funding for an idea or business, send us your stuff and we will take a look, Funding@OmegaSeedFund.com

Are you interested in investing time or money into any of our businesses, info@omegaseedfund.com

Are you interested in promoting your product or service to our audience, contact Opportunities@OmegaSeedFund.com


Disclaimer: This is only for informational and discussion purposes. This does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or any other product or service. We are not offering any legal, investment, tax, or medical advice. 



Do you want more? 

Previous Post - Starting to Grow, How Rushing to Market Turned Crystal Pepsi Into One of the Worst Product Fails of All Time, Even After Half a Billion of Sales in Its First Year - Find Angel Funding & Venture Capital for Business Startups, Entrepreneurs, & First Time Founders – Episode 9


Sources