You're Wrong! - Money Is Not Just Money - By Rick Williams
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Before a large audience, I said “money is money!” A panelist came back to me with, “You’re wrong! Money is not just money.”
I was moderating a program in Boston on how to raise funds for med tech and pharma companies. An audience member asked a question about different types of investors, and I made an offhand comment about “money is money” as I passed the question to the panel.
The CEO of a growing med device company on the panel jumped in to say that “money is not just money.” When you accept significant funding from an investor, you are partnering with that investor. He talked about the danger in taking funding from an investor with different goals for the company than you have. Expectations for time until an exit is a good example.
When raising funds, including debt from the bank, make sure that the investor or lender is buying into your plans for the company and has realistic financial expectations for the company.
As soon as the CEO started talking, I regretted my throw-away comment. One of my published articles describes your relationship with major investors as a marriage. Like a marriage, before accepting the funding, ask yourself if this is the right long-term relationship for the company.
Paige Arnof-Fenn described firing one of her first and most important clients when she first established the Mavens and Moguls marketing and communications firm. Paige came on my Create the Future™ Podcast to tell the story of making this difficult decision. Would she keep going with a difficult and ungrateful client or give up the important income and fire the client. Paige tells this story on the podcast HERE.
Money is not just money. Money comes with lots of strings and, yes, ropes.
White Blossoms at the Beach
If you are following my photography, you see that I find wonder and beauty in flowers. They are complex, intricate, colorful, and beautifully composed. Flower blossoms are a wonderful combination of fragility and striking beauty.
This white blossom was close to the beach where I walked barefoot in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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