Entrepreneur Commons blog

Please contribute $25 to the Entrepreneur Commons Mutual Guarantee Fund

Hello,

I am happy to report that our campaign to raise the mutual guarantee fund is doing good, and we are now at $2650, including a $1000 from one generous "hero". Thank you to all of you who have already contributed.

If you are registered to this list you have some interest in Entrepreneur Commons, and what we are doing to support entrepreneurs, including what we are trying to do on the funding side.

And if this is the case, could you contribute $25 (or more, you can be a hero too) to the campaign? You can do it here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Guarantee-Fund-for-Entrepreneur-Commons-2

Note that this is a tax deductible contribution.

** Why you should contribute? **

- This mutual guarantee fund is for entrepreneurs and it could be you: you today, or you tomorrow if you are just getting started, or maybe the you from a few years ago when you were looking for funding for your venture.

- And if this entrepreneur is not you, you should still contribute because entrepreneurs are the vital force of our economy, and we need to reduce the barriers to entry into entrepreneurship to build a better future for every one of us. Funding is one of these barriers.

** you can do more **

Now that we are talking about working together on this, and while I will keep sending email to people I know who could be interested in contributing, the campaign would be even more successful if everyone on this list sets a goal for himself or herself to raise at least $100 through direct donation or through contributions from personal connections.

Note that this would also help us get featured on the indiegogo site as they measure the activity level of a campaign, number of updates and the pace at which the money is getting raised. If we can be on the front page of the Indiegogo website it will be all the more publicity for Entrepreneur Commons. And I am sure that once we have raised the money we will get a lot of attention and a lot more donations from people outside of the current ecosystem, so that we can do more loans to more of you.

** some clarifications **

During these first few days I was asked 2 questions:

1. Why $25k loan when we raise $30k?

Indiegogo is taking 4% commission on the raise if it is successful, and 9% if we do not reach our goal. That's $1200. Then Community Ventures, which is hosting the project so that it can be tax deductible, is taking 7% management fee, which is another $2100. So after fees we have $26700, of which I figured we should set aside some amount to pay for legal costs (contract for the loan), and therefore $25k is what comes out to be the right number. It is also a good number because this is on average what it tooks for the companies who made the Inc Top 5000 list to get into the list. Average does not mean that it will be enough for everybody, but it is a good amount for a lot of projects.

2. I was asked why not raise more, and why not leverage the money with the bank.

- Raising more can be done, but it does not have to be done in this campaign. Raising more through one campaign would be taking the risk of not reaching the goal set, and pay 9% fee instead of 4% fee. Not a good idea. But of course we will not stop at $25k

- Leveraging the money will happen. For example in Europe the bank will be happy if the mutual guarantee represents between 2% and 8% of the total loan amount, So we can get a nice leverage as we move forward. But it will take establishing a track record of low default. The first loan may be no leverage, but we will get it more and more as we go. This is the whole point of starting now and implementing the process so that we can get to that next level.

** it's time to join **

If you have read this far, you have already done most of the work, so please join us and start with a contribution here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Guarantee-Fund-for-Entrepreneur-Commons-2

And then let's have fun with the campaign and let's see who can raise the most money :-)

Best

Marc

This email was sent to entreco@posterous.com.
You can instantly unsubscribe from these emails by clicking the link below:
http://unsubscribe.flowtown.com/contacts/d3a4a50385a5735a4cc5ab25255f6637/uns...