The RealEspace Report. Week 1 with RateSpeed

Deal or no deal….thats been the game we’ve been playing for over a week now, post founders banquet in Dallas. Many phone calls, meetings, and additional documentation distributed. Discussions including terms sheets, pro-forma analysis viability, equity dilution, and hard valuations consume the days. It’s the ‘dirty’ but necessary aspects of funding a start-up. Life is what you negotiate, so at times conversations can get uncomfortable as each party jockeys for position on multiple levels. We want to ‘give up’ as little as (fairly) possible while investors want the most bang for their buck. So one week after our presentation we sit with a nice chunk of money committed verbally by a number of ‘Angels’ while continuing to negotiate with more ‘institutional’ players that are in position to fund the rest of our dream.   Like a kid around Christmas time, I find myself doing what’s neces...