Over the Moon

Dear Readers,

My last post - on how I am managing the milestone of talking to investors - drove a lot of emails and comments. All very positive, supportive and helpful. So thank you. I've since gotten better educated, more interest from potential investors, and a greater sense of confidence around the whole milestone.

In the meantime, I still struggle as a female entrepreneur in a male-analytical dominated world.

My friend, Patricia Handschiegel, a woman entrepreneur who never seems to sleep, is doing a series in the Huffington Post, where she is a regular contributor, on The New Power Girls. She recently asked me to weigh in on how "instinct" plays a role in my company. Naturally, there is often a difference between how men and women start and manage their entrepreneurial ventures. Women, by nature, are often more instinctual (and less analytical) than men.

And we live in a Man's business world.

It's no surprise that the original computer spreadsheet, upon which the ubiquitous Microsoft Excel is based, was developed by men. It's no surprise that the golf course is the cliche networking activity. Most CEOs are men. Most investors are men. Most people in technology - the industry in which my business is based - are men. There are fewer women entrepreneurs than men entrepreneurs.

And that's because, in my humble opinion, the cost/benefit analysis of an entrepreneurial venture is often calculated within a spreadsheet. And most women don't live in spreadsheets.

Innovation was never born out of a spreadsheet. You simply can't calculate the risk of innovation because by definition, it's never been done before. So we look at market size, growth potential, and then throw in ebitdas and three ways to 'project' the future and take the one in the middle. And we expect major success based on calculated projections.

When looking at a valuation for my company, I asked a male friend helping me flesh some things out this (fair) question: "How can I possibly responsibly project what will happen? Aren't projections basically a guessing game?" Yes," he texted back immediately, "But no one can guess as well as you."

I don't like guessing. I like envisioning. I like setting tough goals and meeting them. For example, my plan was to look for a literary agent for my children's book two months after I launched SavvyAuntie.com. Thanks to Chris Webb, a Twitter friend, I found my agents two weeks after I followed up on my plan.

When I worked in the non-profit world 12 years ago, I planned to increase participation in a program that I believed - with a some major re-branding - could increase 1000x fold. Sure, I had a plan. And I set a budget. And I hired help. Still, no one believed we would make it. No one was as determined as I. But I had envisioned the success. For me it was no longer a business goal; it was reality. I don't shoot for the moon. I live on the moon and wait for everything to catch up. And we increased participation by 998%.

My boy-genius friend, Eric Kuhn, said recently: "I start at the top and work my way up." That's why he's a genius.

The truth is, business plans worry me. Not a day goes by that something doesn't change everything. Some of those things I control. Some I don't. What never waivers is the end-goal. Not matter how rocky the waters - I know what I am sailing towards.

But I know that I can't fight it. As a business owner seeking investor support, I need to speak in analytics. My new and incredibly helpful friend, Rich Caccappolo, sent me the "10 Slides every entrepreneur should have." I am going to do that now.

In the end, I live in Man's world. But that's okay because there are lots of Power Girls shooting for the moon.

See you there, girls. And yes, there will be martinis. Savvy Auntinies to be precise.

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

Investing in Me

Dear Readers,

A couple of days ago, a Follower of mine on Twitter asked me if I qualified to be nominated for the Tech Crunch Crunchies for Best-Bootstrapped Startup: For a company that has raised less than $100,000 cumulatively from individuals, angels or others. Well I certainly qualify.

Last week, someone approached me at a networking event and said that he knew about SavvyAuntie.com - and that he had heard that the founder (me) had used some inheritance money to fund SavvyAuntie.com. I had never heard my business narrative put quite that way, but yes. That qualifies.

I'm a bootstrapper - an entrepreneur who believes in her idea so much that she's willing to invest her time and her life savings to make it happen. And I have.

But now it's time to expand. I need people. People means space. Space means hardware and software. Etc etc...

And yes, there's revenue, but it's far from what I've invested in the company, and far from enough to hire anyone to help me.

So I'm in the process of finding investors.

Fund-raising and writing plans is not my specialty nor within my comfort zone. I didn't start a business because I have a passion for spreadsheets and plans. I started it because I saw a huge opportunity to fill a market gap. Sure - I have a plan. And a clear vision for how to get there. But every day - no joke - every day I learn something new that can really change the paradigm. Plans work really well to sell widgets. But online media is such a moving target, it's hard to keep up - let alone plan around it. For example, I had no idea even 6 months ago what an effect Twitter would have on the success of my company.

Thankfully, I have a number of friends and angel investors who are interested in investing in SavvyAuntie.com Inc. They understand that the potential for this company is huge - and is much larger than the website alone. Plus - the fact that within the first couple of months after launch I was already getting revenue is really impressive - even to me.

But in order to get the funding - you have to give something back in return - a piece of the company I built with some funds my late mother left me 20 years ago when she passed away, and the sweat equity of 1 1/2 years of working every possible minute of every possible day on this site.

And in order to know what is fair to offer in return for an investment, you need to know how much the company is worth today - and how much it might be worth in a few years. That's called a 'valuation.'

And today - the market is rough. Heck, Citi Bank is selling for about $4 a share. And at the same time, Arianna Huffington raised another $15-$20 million for Huffingtonpost.com. So where does my optimistic little company play in all that?

Some say that investor money will be around in February. Others say it will be a much longer wait. Some are ready to invest today.

I have to admit that this part of the process has been the most challenging to-date. There are models and financial plans and a number of things that help an investor decide on his investment. (I say 'his' because so far only men have been interested in investing.)

And there's heart and soul and talent and passion that has to be offered in return.

And no one can really give me a sense of what is really fair to everyone.

And I'm speaking with people who really know about these things - and they say it's really hard to know. Based on his generous valuation, one says not to give much away at all. Another says that one day it will be worth a heck of a lot, but today it's worth much less and to give away a huge chunk in return for cash. Some say the only way to do it is to be one of twenty to present in front of a panel of angel investors, with only two being chosen. Nothing like feeling like a circus monkey. Sorry - too busy running a company to prepare for that kind of humiliation, in my honest opinion. But for some- that's the way it works.

The good news is that I am learning a lot. And I haven't yet made any mistakes.

But I'm skating on thin ice. Good thing it's getting colder out there. Hopefully when I finally do make the decisions they will be solid - for now and for the longer term.

There's a lot I'm planning for this company of mine. And every day that passes is one day closer to fulfilling those dreams.

All this time, I've been investing in me. Now, it's someone else's turn.

Have ideas and thoughts on what I should do? Have you been in this same spot yourself? Please comment here. Or email me at melanie@savvyauntie.com.

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie

PS - I am looking for un-paid interns. Best if in NYC, but there are remote opportunities as well. You'll learn a lot. It's really unavoidable.

This is the Plan.

Dear Readers,

I got a call one Sunday morning at about 8AM. "We're in labor! We're on our way to the hospital!"

So I started planning. Not that I didn't have 9 months to plan. Not that I didn't shower my SIL with a maternity something or other (Ummm, do you have a bag that doesn't say "I Just Bought Something at a Maternity Store" on it? This is awkward. I have to walk around with this bag. I am not pregnant. Ummm hello?), and debate names with the parents-to-be (I did have opinions for better or worse, and I love the name they chose), and stared in awe at the sonogram pics (there's my little lima bean!)

But nothing had truly prepared me.

When you nominate yourself for the SavvyAuntie.com Beta program, you are encouraged to give us 250 characters as to why you are a Savvy Auntie. One 20-something New York City Auntie wrote:

"People always tell mothers that having children will change their lives but nobody tells the aunts that their lives will change too. I would do ANYTHING for my 3 nephews and niece. I love them more than I thought I could love anything or anyone."

Nothing prepared me for walking into the hospital room and seeing my brother, whom I have always loved, but now, at this moment, loved more deeply that I could have imagined, as he held his baby boy. A teeny tiny little boy - who all of a sudden looked exactly like my dear brother - would I have know him at one-hour. I cast my eyes on my baby nephew, my first. My generous SIL let me hold him, actually encouraged me to hold him, just a few minutes later. My emotions were so deep. Our mother had passed away a number of years before, and so I held him for her too. Grandmother and Aunt holding baby boy. "Nobody tells the aunts that their lives will change too." But my life had changed.

From that moment on, I become "Auntie Melanie." I wanted my nephew to know that I was not just a grown-up playmate who came to visit and play. I was his family. I was someone he could always depend on. Someone who would always be there for him. Someone who loved him without ever needing anything from him in return.

Poor kid. I didn't let it go. At too young an age, I explained to him that I was his daddy's sister; I was his family. I tried to make him repeat it, failing every time. And then one day, one random fall day, he turned to me at just 2 years and exclaimed, as if I didn't know myself: "Auntie Melanie! We're family!" That breakthrough moment was followed by a big hug. And the love we have shared from that moment on has been the greatest love of all (along with the love of his sisters.)

That night, I went home and wrote a little book called: "Auntie and Me - We are Family." It will be published one day soon. In the meantime, I was still a beauty executive: editor of a glossy magazine and running internet and intranet sites. I was too busy doing the corporate thing to focus on the children's book.

But when I left the corporate life in the winter of 2006, I refocused on the book. And then I saw a need for more than just a book (plus my potential agent said I needed a 'platform' - I needed to be 'somebody' - in order to get the book published) and I thought about an online community for Aunts. And then I did the research (to come in a later post) and said: "Whoa! I'm not the only one!"

That was June 2007. And here we are, as I am about to give birth to SavvyAuntie.com, and I am now an Auntie many times over - not just to my sibling's kids, but to everyone in my community who knows me as Auntie Melanie. And I am an entrepreneur.

Nothing prepares you to be an Auntie. I'm not sure there isn't much to prepare you to be an entrepreneur. But everything in my life has prepared me for this moment; right here and right now. Everything has prepared me to launch an online community in honor of my nephew and nieces and in celebration of everyone else's. This, right here, right now, is the proudest and happiest time of my life. And I am proud and so very happy, to have you, dear Readers, right here to experience it along with me.

At least that's the plan.

XOXO,
Auntie Melanie