by Mike Goodrich | Jan 12, 2023 | 2022, 2023, Alabama, Birmingham, Birmingham Funded Start-Ups List, Economic Development, Entrepreneurial Assessment, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Founders, Start-Ups
I have said this before, and I will probably say this again, but to grow our entrepreneurial economy, we need to directly invest in companies. We do not need to blindly invest in them, but we do not need to commission another study on the ecosystem. We need to be...
by Mike Goodrich | Apr 7, 2022 | 2022, Business Lessons, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Founders, Start-Ups
Because we want to stay true to our mission – to help in creating and building Birmingham businesses — we don’t want to say no too often, put in place strict rules, or create hard-and-fast criteria. Early-stage businesses, by definition, are typically works in...
by Mike Goodrich | Feb 26, 2021 | 2021, Business Lessons, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Start-Ups, Valuation
Part One of Three: Valuation[1] The question of how one should value an early-stage company is often asked, but usually has no good answers. If the opportunity is large enough (which is the goal with venture capital), a thorough valuation is perceived as irrelevant....
by Mike Goodrich | Dec 11, 2020 | 2020, Advising, Birmingham, Business Lessons, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Start-Ups
I came across an article recently that described the “entrepreneurial advisor complex.” While I unfortunately cannot find the article, it rightly bemoaned advisors who promise the moon but cannot deliver. Particularly egregious, according to the article, are...
by Mike Goodrich | Nov 27, 2020 | 2020, Books and Resources, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Social Capital and Social Entrepreneurialism, Social Capital Series, Start-Ups
For some of you close to me, SOCAP is a way-too-familiar refrain. SOCAP Global is an annual conference devoted to social capital or impact investing held in San Francisco. I love it and I talk about it often. When I first attended SOCAP in 2018, it was an eye-opening...
by Mike Goodrich | Aug 27, 2020 | 2020, COVID-19, Entrepreneurialism, Financing, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Social Capital and Social Entrepreneurialism, Start-Ups
In his essay released on April 18, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 Crisis, Marc Andreessen — famed venture capitalist and founder of Netscape — implored businesses, business people, and society to build great new things – in healthcare, in education, in...
