New Seminar & Networking Event: Financing Your Consumer/Natural Products Company - Coming this May to the Bay Area

Finding capital for your business is frustrating, confusing, time consuming and difficult. Last November in Boston, I co-led a seminar with my good friend Bob Burke on How to Finance Your Consumer/Natural Product Company. It was a first-time seminar, but we had tremendously positive feedback from the attendees (see some comments below). We also had a lot of people request that we do the next one on the west coast, so we are happy to announce that we are holding the next all-day seminar/networking event in May 2010 (exact date to be announced soon) in San Mateo, CA, conveniently close to the San Francisco International Airport.

I'll blog more on the seminar soon, but the initial flyer can be seen here. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, let me know. You can email m to sign up for the sponsor, or just follow the directions on the flyer at the bottom of this post.

We'll also have an all-start cast of guest speakers, including:

• Janica Lane, Principal, Partnership Capital Growth Advisors

• Apu Mody, CEO, The Brand Accelerator (new fund looking for deals…)

• Wayne Wu with VMG Partners (funded Mighty Leaf Tea, Kind Snacks, Pirate Brands & more)

• Andrew Whitman, Managing Partner, 2x CONSUMER PRODUCTS GROWTH PARTNERS

• Meredith Lincoln, Co-President, NutraBella (funded by Generation Equity Investors)

Topics to be covered include:

• How do I determine my financing needs?
• What is the best source of capital to align with my needs?
• What’s the game plan for my business and my time horizon?
• Finding early-stage capital (Friends & Family; Banks/Loan; Angel Investors/Groups; What terms should I expect?)
• Demystifying valuation (Methodologies; Understanding equity; What matters/what doesn’t?
• VC Financing (Who do I approach? And how?; Anatomy of a term sheet; What to expect when working with a VC; Control, veto rights, dilution
• Other Private Equity…
• Do I go alone or get professional help?
• Role of the investment banker (Terms, fees; Materials (business plan, sample presentation, financials)
• Creating value (Distribution; Brand Building; Building out the team; Positioning for exit; Strategic buyer or financial buyer)

I'd also like to thank our sponsors:

- Silverwood Partners (Investment bank with whom I work on consumer deals)

- Nutrition Capital Network (great events for companies looking or capital)

- Volkman Group LLC (headhunter in the natural space)

- Merritt & Merritt & Moulton (law firm with strong consumer experience)

- Brand Engine (strategic branding and design for consumer products)

Please contact me at mike@royalriverassociates.com if you'd like to become a sponsor for this or future seminars.