Venture capital (also known as VC or Venture) is a type of private equity capital typically provided for early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the invested company. [wikipedia]
I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t know all that much about VC or the process of acquiring it, so I figured that I might as well share a little about my experience as I learn how to navigate through this community. Even though the chances of women CEOs getting VC are increasingly slim, I like beating the odds, so hopefully this series doesn’t end with, “Giving up on Venture Capital Quest: Part 27.”
To date, my experiences with VC have primarily been through various clients. Typically clients come to us with an idea for a unique social network, and some who treat the project as a serious investment often supplement their own monies with third-party funding in the form of venture capital. This funding might be secured at the onset of the project, partially through the development, or after the site has launched and proven itself to its community and potential investors. We rarely if ever connect directly with clients’ investors, but indirectly, we contribute to the process of securing funding pretty significantly, if that is in the form of a prototype or demo, a fully functioning network, or very early on through a detailed design and development plan that goes into the clients’ business plan.
