Hello, I'm an entrepreneur in the entertainment business. I plan to capitalize off my business connections.
I've been searching for a venture capitalist for over a year but I cannot find one investor interested in the music industry. I would like to start a record label, and start a fashion line. No investors are interested in investing in my business. I have a great business plan with exhibits, models, and I am not asking for much. I've even asked the SBA for loans and grants. Tell me, what do I do?

Asked by De'Juhn from Inglewood, CA
Posted: Friday, August 08, 2008  |  Found in Ask Guy Kawasaki


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Answered by Guy Kawasaki
De'Juhn,
To be accurate, you have not found an investor interested in investing in your business--not in the music business. This would be like a man saying, "I can't find one woman interested in dating men" when he couldn't find any women interested in dating him in particular. You want to start a fashion line and a record label? Pick one. Doing both are hard. No venture capitalist wants to fund someone who wants to start companies at once.

Ask yourself this question: What are the odds that a fashion line or record label would grow to $100 million in five years? Because that's the kind of company venture capitalists want to invest in. They are looking for the next Google, Apple, or Oracle. Here's what you should do: pick one and go for it. Assume you'll never get venture capital (did you know that venture capitalists only fund an average of 3,000 companies a year?).

Incidentally, there's no such thing as "great" business plans, exhibits, and models. There's only "funded" business plans, exhibits, and models, and "unfunded" ones. That is, this isn't an exercise in creating great documents. It's an exercise in starting companies.

Guy Kawasaki is the founder of Garage Technology Ventures and the former chief evangelist of Apple Computer, he has founded two software companies and has helped more than 100 companies raise venture capital.