Week 8 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The biggest surprise came from the “Deal Killers” section of the reading.  “Vulnerability of the Founder” deal killer was a little bit of a surprise when talking about venture capitalist examining a business plan.  I understand why the overdependence of the founder would be undesirable, however I would think there would be a lot of dependence on the entrepreneur when a business is starting up in most cases.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Figure 8.2 was a little confusing.  I understood what the chart represented, but the numbers were hard to follow.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

1. With the internet becoming more and more popular to do business, will the social lending success rate rise from 10 percent?  This seems like a low number when compared to how many people are on-line, and how many businesses are now on-line.

2. With more pension institutions becoming sources of capital, will this make finding a VC harder?  I think they would definitely want risk to be at an absolute minimum because of the danger of losing pensions.   

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I think the author was spot on with this chapter.  When raising capital there are a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs to find funding.  I personally liked “The Art of Doing More with Less!”  This was something that was drilled into me from my experience in the Marine Corps.  We always had to make due with less, which took some imagination to get things done.