What new companies might I start and what I'm doing
People have asked me through the years how I come up with ideas for starting companies.
I'm frequently asked how hard it is to find a new company to start when I finish
working on my previous company. The answer is reasonably simple: There are ALWAYS
some things I'd like to do. As I have ideas Sometimes I go through my list of great
ideas and pick one. Other times others come to me with ideas and see if I want to
work with them on the idea. The point is - I never have to try to find
an idea - there are alwoys more great ideas then I have time/money for. If any of the following are interesting to you and you'd like to participate
- let me know!
I must preface this by admitting: I have never raised enough money to start a company.
I think it part this is because I talk about both the positives (opportunities)
I know about as well as the negatives (challenges). It is the second part that I
think has been my reason for lack of success in this area. As a result, I seem to
always end up starting companies that I can personally afford to start and operate
- I seem to be able to sell myself better than other people! However, for example,
the ICF company below, I am working with a partner who does have experience raising
money so that will be his responsibility, my responsibility will be to make the
company profitable if/when he completes his responsibility.
Seriously working on right now...
ICF Company. Looking for $5 to $6M. 10-13% initial ROI, higher when additional sales
are built up. This is where my time is dedicated, simply because it is the one I
think has the best chance of being funded.
My primary commitment: The company will produce and install the absolute best
ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) product. Looking for about $5 to $6M in investment.
We will be producing all the block they use in Alberta, Northern BC and Sask (they
currently produce it in Ontario and Portland.) We are working on tying up some loose
ends and then see if we can raise the money. The preliminary calculations indicate
based on sales they are committing to shifiting to us, means we start right off
the bat with a 10-13% return on investment for the monetary investors even without
working on increasing the sales and only running at 15% of capacity! You can probably
see why, with thot as our starting point it is my primary commitment. We
of course plan on pursuing an increase in sales, especially since 15% of capacity
leaves room for growth. Oh, and I have committed to injecting cash into this company,
but unfortunately I cannot fund anywhere near the bulk of the budget on this one
so this one will only go ahead if we can find $5-$6 in investment..
EXISTING COMPANY, BUT I DON'T SPEND ANY SIGNIFICANT TIME ON IT ANYMORE, MY MANAGING
PARTNER FOR THIS COMPANY HANDLES ALL THE DAY TO DAY DECISIONS:
Development in Costa Rica. No investment required. But there are investment opportunities
starting at $5,000 if you are interested. Taking almost none of my time right now.
A few months ago I was seeing if anyone wanted to invest. As is normal, no one did
- and some other investments came due, so I invested the money myself. This company
has no need for outside investment.
Currently this takes up a very small amount of my time, my operating partners are
running it. Although I'll have to go check it out some villa's in Costa Rica at least once a year and I want
my wife's keen eye as well to fully understand the business, and some of my kids might have valuable
business insights. Some people might think
this is a vacation in a tropical country, but I assure you, these trips are legitimate work...
EXISTING COMPANY, BUT I DON'T SPEND ANY SIGNIFICANT TIME ON IT ANYMORE, MY MANAGING
PARTNER FOR THIS COMPANY (different person than the manager of the previous company)
HANDLES ALL THE DAY TO DAY DECISIONS:
A software company in North America. No investment required. Possibly 800K for growth
in a few years. taking almost none of my time right now.
This company is running fine. I have no need for outside investment (sorry<g>).
Currently this takes up a very small amount of my time, my operating partner is
running it fine. I do have some long term ideas for a major step forward - a major
development effort, but I expect that it will be worth it. Right now we are collecting
ideas for how to do this project. But there is also a company that has expressed
interest in buying us in a couple years (don't know if the latest market downturn
has negatively affected that) So ... when we are ready, if we haven't been bought
out, it will be a fund development project and I'll probably just fund the growth
myself, unless someone wants in earlier.
Ideas I hope I will do, when I have money/time,
if they are still a great idea when I have the time/money or if you want to
partner with me to provide the necessary ingredients to get started now:
A much improved Robot Vacuum family. Need $3.5-5M in investment. This one is a personal
favorite of mine.
A new robot vacuum. I won't go into details, but I have experience with robot vacuums.
I have spent hours purposely watching them work (always while doing something else
like eating, reading a book) and I came up with many pages of, mostly significant,
improvements, many of
which should be patentable (and therefore won't be noted here). I haven't figured
out how much investment I would want, I just know that $3-4M is
probably in the rght range so the amounts above are probably safe numbers, I will be doing a more careful budget before spending
any investor's money (including my
own) of course, but in round numbers: I'm figuring about $1-1.75M
in product development. About $1M in marketing and another $800K-1.25M in production
molds and a final $500K-$1M for general business expenses and other expenses. If
you want to see and/or buy the
current best competing product, go to iRobot. Until mine is produced theirs is by far the
best - and I use their product in my home - all the while wishing mine was ready
to use instead. Unless someone decides they
want to fund this project, I won't be going ahead until I can afford to fund it
myself or through companies I control/influence, and I don't expect the ability
to do that for a few years.
If you have ever used a robot vacuum and you have suggestions you want to
share with me - let me know, I'll keep you in mind for a beta tester when I get
around to doing this company. And if you have $3M+ that says I should make this my
top priority - let me know!
A software project for companies like McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart etc..,
This company would develop a significant system for them, the details I'm not releasing
publically right now. I have no plans to move this project ahead unless I can get
one of the large companies to come behind me on it. I have not had time to approach
them properly on it and so, I haven't approached them yet! If I found a marketing person that would be willing to take
on that side of the role, I would consider starting sooner. If and when one signs
on, there may or may not be an opportunity to invest, depending on what direction
the first customer decides to take.
New product company. Looking for $1.5M minimum investment. Expected 100% ROI over
1st 3 years.
I was invited in as a significant partner on a project for a specific product that
is really exciting. Unfortunately I can't give details without an NDA until we have
a patent, and the only people I'd give the NDA to would have to be serious that
they could invest $150K to $1.5M. With one approprate sale all the costs will be
returned. The potential sales are many many times that of course. In this company,
anyone investing cash will receive 100% of their money back before my shares pay
me even 1 cent in dividends. If in about 2 years (when another investment of mine
comes done) we don't have the investment raised, and no competitor has come out
with a product, I am looking at funding it myself.
New Photographic Studio lighting, New Theatre lighting. Need about $800K-$1.2 in investment.
A new lighting that will give significant advantages, ease of use, flexibility.
These would sell primarily to serious professional photograhers, though they would
also sell to up and coming photographers. The second line would sell to churches
and theatres and would give a huge increase in flexibility making them ideal for
amatuer theatre lighting people as well as high end. And they would be in the same
price range as current equipment but would use about 1/6th the light and the bulbs
would last 100x's longer (so more flexibility in the lighting options, where to
get power - more per circuit, and if they are hard to reach - less changing of bulbls.)
Unless someone decides they want to fund this project, I won't be going ahead until
I can afford to fund it myself or through companies I control/influence.
So ... if you have ever used studio lighting or theatre lighting and you have suggestions
you want to share with me - let me know, I'll keep you in mind for a beta tester
when I get around to doing this company. And if you have $800K+ that says I should
make this my top priority - let me know, I will then personally spend the money
needed to make a proof of concept, and if the proof of concept is successful, we
will then continue on in earnest.
Want to Hedge your bets?
If someone wanted to hedge their bets and fund more than one of the above projects,
I would be prepared to manage more than one. I have done this successfully in the
past and would do so with teams that would work towards the success of both or three
of the projects.
The key to how I like, and succeed in doing business, is to manage teams of people,
each person working on their areas of strength and expertise. I direct them, and
them give them as much leeway as their skills and experience deem appropriate. I
do not ever micro-manage. While I maintain the absolute right to make any decision,
I exercise this right judiciously and encourage all people below me in the structure
to think independently and not be afraid to make decisions.
But looking at my track record, though I've run multiple companies, I've never raised money for a project - so far I always
use my own money for every project of mine.
So being realistic, I'll probably have to wait
until I can do them myself. As I
have the money and time available, I evaluate the current best options and go for
them.
What about previous ones I listed here as needing resources
to get started?
Some have been started and are successful - two of them are listed above, the ones
that I don't spend much time managing. I put in personally (or through companies/foundations
I own/control etc..,) the capital I was trying to raise, because I got the capital
through other successful projects. A couple simply became obsolete because I did
not earn the money needed to start them in time - and as time passes, ideas that
would have been good ideas are no longer. I list the above ideas because, I'd prefer
to start them now with a partner, than wait until I have access to the capital to
do them myself. So the ones above will either become ideas that I personally fund
later or they will become obsolete and drop off the list.
Are there more?
Yes But the last time I went through my list (December 2008) the above was my list
of most interesting options. My experience is that great ideas come faster than money and time!
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