Today you are fighting for a hesitant pool of money. The VCs have blinked. Angels have less than before their financial dream popped.
So it is up to one person to lead the core team of the new enterprise to capture an unfair share of that trillion dollar pool of venture capital.
How?
Simple: Be a change agent.
That is the person who changes the minds of reluctant venture investors. And employees. And bloggers. And customers. And strategic partners. All the stakeholders of your new enterprise.
To clarify this, I'll use some tips from this week's Business Week column "The Wellchway" (Thoughts from Jack Welch ex GE CEO).
- True change agents see a future no one else does, and that vision won't let them rest.
- Change agents have the courage to bet their careers.
- Change agents have something about them that galvanizes teams and turns people on.
- In the end, you know a true change agent when you see their people buy into a change effort not to avoid punishment but to reap its great reward.
- In business, change agents with authority don't have to wait. They just have to see the future and have the guts and the followers to go for it.
- Read the full column for details.
Another term for such a person is "a marketable CEO." That is the person who gets the money.
Note how there is much more here than a person who walks on water. Study the essentials until you know who else is going to be involved with the process of getting the money. Then you are ready to work out the details of your plan, updated to fit the current outlook for tight money and a recession.
BOTTOM LINE: There is a special kind of person who gets the money during a money crisis. It has happened a lot in the past. Startups got money then. So you can get cash for your enterprise. Think through what is required of you, the CEO, by studying what change agents do. Then get working on your fresh plan to get your money. When you succeed, your competition will be complaining about your unfair advantage.
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