Updates, etc.
Today went pretty well. I had a good phone conversation with Joe Moss (another IBI 1004 grad.) He is starting up a franchised psychology “thing” (I am not a Ph.D. like he is, so the words escape me.) Basically, he’s patenting and teaching a technique that unlocks a “first memory” that allows patients to figure out the root of their problems. I read a big email he sent me about it a couple days ago and it seems interesting. Plus, he is a good guy.
Joe says he’ll be back at IBI in December, which reminded me of my goal to 1) go back and 2) bring someone I think will benefit from IBI. I’ve already committed to going back; it’s the second part I’m having more trouble with. I know 2 people who would greatly benefit from going, but how do I explain it to them? How do I say “Lay out $3000+ and bank on the chance of meeting cool people”?
Joe and I talked about that for a while, and finally he said something that I realized would make nearly anyone looking for startup capital go to IBI. He said, “Erica, December is the month everyone goes to IBI to invest because they have to get the money out of their pockets before they turn in their taxes.” And he’s right, of course! Tons of IBI grads will be back in December looking for new companies to invest in. All I have to do is get these people there and they’ll meet enough people to achieve whatever they need to achieve next in their business.
It’s funny, because I’ve talked to at least 10 people who went to IBI, and everyone has varying opinions on how worthwhile it was. However, everyone I’ve talked to agrees that it was definitely worth paying the money. I’ve gotten tons of business plans with “Here’s my management team” and on the teams are all the IBI faculty and staff. I have to grin at the audacity of asking a staff member to be on your team, but hey, whatever works.
My personal experience with IBI was always that it was about bettering myself, not getting contacts or investors (though plenty of IBI’ers have offered to come forward and invest or find investors for me.) People ask, “What do you need next?” and I invariably respond with a one-off comment like “More time” or “Another ‘me’.” Seriously, I didn’t go there to find investors; I already have investors. I came there to learn, and learn I did (and met some wonderful people as well.)
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Brandon (if you don’t know who Brandon is, he’s one of my employees) sent me a to-do list today. How funny is that — getting a to-do list from your employee. I actually got a kick out of it; it means he’s motivated to make Simpli succeed, even if I have my head firmly stuck up my *** sometimes! Anyway, on the to-do list were several interesting items, but not one we had discussed earlier, which was Simpli getting a reseller permit. With his help, I dug up the requisite forms and will file them tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have a reseller permit before the end of the month and can set up direct accounts with distributors.
I also made some decisions regarding financing. I’m going to approach Wells Fargo first and ask for a loan. I’ll probably do a SBA-backed loan. If, for whatever reason, they’re unwilling to give it to me, I’ll explore debt-based financing in the form of convertible bonds (bonds that can be converted into equity later.)
One of my hosting customers has agreed to do some PHP programming for me, which is good. I also took a deep introspective look at myself and wondered why I was so unwilling to do the work myself. I guess I just assumed that someone else would enjoy it more than I would, but honestly, I’d rather get someone else to do billing and administrivia and program my heart out. I find myself thinking that I would enjoy doing all this more than server administration or other tasks I spend my time doing, which has made me decide to take on part of the programming workload myself and outsource other things instead.
How’s that for a ramble? I’ll update more later as things progress.
