ActSeed is for Entrepreneurs and Startups

To understand where our mind is when we think about investment and funding, it’s helpful if we tell you where we’ve been and how our thinking has been shaped.  I originally come from an investment banking and finance background, both academically and professionally.  I’m an “old school Graham & Dodd” kind of guy.  Think “fundamendal analysis“.  While I’ve spent the better part of two decades working with and for startups, I got my start in the business world in Morgan Stanley’s meat grinder of an investment bank.  …a great boot camp to transition from the world of academia to business.

My intention is to translate this into simple terms and metaphors here.  My hope is that I can share my experience and a bit of financial wisdom while introducing you to the wisdom of others who I know and discover.

But again, just to be clear, I’m a proponent of “The Wallet Economy” more than “The Attention Economy”.  Maybe we’ll dedicate some future, more intensive, blogging to this distinction.  For now, please know that I care about helping you think about positive cash flow, making profits, spending less than you make and having some perspective on how to achieve this instead of lucking into it.  The Wallet Economy focuses on providing a product or service for which someone else is willing to pay.  The Attention Economy requires some sort of operational subsidy (investor funding, etc.) while “eyeballs” are being amassed in hopes that another entity wants to acquire the population of users; think “user generated content” and “ad-serving” business models…

Finally, I do hope that “Funding Matters” evolves into a dialogue between reader and author and together we can keep this section relevant and valuable for all of us as we create and build our businesses.

Cheers!