One of the potential investors was Richard Gwinn. Gwinn's
company, Radnor, Pennsylvania-based The Abbotts Organization, has
been buying, selling and investing in companies for more than 20
years. Gwinn's approach to early-stage investing is hands-on;
he not only invests in companies but also offers strategic
management services.
The other potential investor was a much larger competitor from
Powell's home-building days. This investor had enjoyed
substantial success but, in Powell's opinion, didn't have
as much knowledge of or connections with the capital markets Powell
felt would be critical to Cooperative Images' long-term
success.
While Gwinn concedes that value-added investors are not right
for every entrepreneur, in most cases, he says, they can play an
important role in shaping a company's destiny. "The reason
an early-stage company should seek a value-adding investor rather
than simply a source of funds," says Gwinn, "is that
management, financing, cash management and marketing hazards are
absolutely critical to overcome, and an experienced value-adding
investor, if he or she is the right one, will spot costly problems
early on."
Content Continues Below
In the case of Cooperative Images, Gwinn brought big guns to the
offering table in the form of other experts and professionals who
would invest along with him. These included a former partner from a
Big Six accounting firm, a corporate attorney, and a successful
entrepreneur who had done well in the telemarketing industry.
The expertise in telemarketing was more than a little relevant
since a good part of Cooperative Images' success relied on
effective telemarketing operations. In Powell's mind, these
investors possessed not only a deep well of related experience but
also the contacts in investment banking that would help him attain
his ultimate goal of setting up an initial public offering or
selling the company.
Page
1 | 2 |
3 |
4 