Visit from John Dimmer

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Mr. Dimmer's presentation was the most information about funding so far. He has funded/owned thirty-five different businesses and was able to present to us a lot of information on the early stages of business. In particular, for a new business, the sole funder is typically the founder. He stated that in his experience, people that don't put their own capital into their business ideas aren't serious enough about the business itself. In fact, he implied that it's essential for business owners to have a majority of capital in their company so they can control and protect the business from vulture capitalists. Vulture capitalists are a spin on venture capitalists who their major goal is to lower the percentage of ownership the founder has over the company and it's products so they can control it and basically steal the company. It's also important for a founder to have a majority portion of their company so when they decide it's time to exit the company, they have earnings that are comparable to the amount of time and work they put into it.

Mr. Dimmer made it very apparent that fundraising for business is a full-time job. He said that in some companies, the owner has less time spent in the actual building of their product/service and more time spent just raising money to pay for it all. In this, he also mentioned that pitching the idea of a company works better when pitching to groups as opposed to individuals. I'm not sure I'll ever have a large enough idea to actually be presented to a significant funder, but I'm very glad to know the ins and outs of it as I consider funding for my own ideas.

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