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December 7, 2007
The “Anti-Victoria’s Secret”
Posted by Sarah Goldstein at 4:49 PM
It’s easy to walk past retail stores these days, especially in New York City, especially on a blustery December night when it would be so much easier to shop online. But Journelle, which celebrated its opening last night, is striking for its display of both comfort and elegance, two things that rarely come together in lingerie. The store sells what founder Claire Chambers, 27, calls “the thinking woman’s lingerie.” From the lingerie framed like art on white linen canvases to the glass bowls that hold colored lace underwear in place of candy, to the copies of the New Yorker and Portfolio perfectly arranged on an antique coffee table, the store is meticulously high-brow. A copy of Albert William Levi’s Philosophy and the Modern World shows just how far you are from Heidi Klum’s polyester diamond-encrusted cleavage.
Lingerie, an industry that grew 10 percent to $10.6 billion over a 12-month period ending in July, is one of those items that is seemingly available everywhere. You can buy it pretty much any place that sells clothing, not to mention Victoria’s Secret, the chain that has practically become synonymous with intimate apparel. So though the the market may be booming, it’s not clear that there’s demand for another option.
Continue reading "The “Anti-Victoria’s Secret”"
September 9, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Onward and Upward
Posted by Dan Chilton at 6:08 AM
This last week at the Moxie has been an amazing one, and by amazing I mean incredibly stressful. We've finished all but the very last building details (we still need to install glass in the concession area and the projection room), our final inspections have been rolling in (two down, two to go), our 35mm projector was installed and calibrated, we received our first 35mm print for next week's test screenings, we've ordered all the hardware for our point of sale systems, and on and on and on. If I sat here and listed off everything we've done this week, your head would probably explode... literally. Likewise if I listed all the stuff we have LEFT to do.
I'd be lying if I told you Nicole and I weren't pulling our hair from all the stress, but I'd also be fibbing if I told you we weren't as excited and giddy as Tom Cruise on his wedding night. If we can successfully prioritize our final steps, we'll be primed and ready for our grand opening. However, if we devote too much time and effort to any one task... we'll be hurting. It's like my uncle says, “It's hard to soar with the eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys.”
If we can step away from my family's folksy adages for a moment, I'd like to say a word about marketing, or our lack thereof. We've been incredibly lucky when it comes to garnering good, free press. Every press release we've sent has resulted in no less than three to four quality news pieces. The community's awareness of our financial struggles and delays has helped us create an invaluable buzz surrounding our grand opening. However, I doubt the news-worthiness of our business will extend much beyond the first few months of operation. When that time comes, it will be up to us to extend our market presence beyond our niche audience.
The Moxie's advertising campaign will begin with a monthly calendar that will be distributed far and wide. There's no better advertising than a calendar stuck to someone's refrigerator telling them exactly what we're showing each and every day of the month... unless, of course, you consider Moxie-branded collateral toilet paper, but that's another story altogether. Beyond the calendar, we'll also be participating in strategic ad bartering with a couple local magazines that distribute to our demographic all across the city. Will we ever consider radio or TV ads? Perhaps. I guess it all depends on whether I can license the rights to that old intermission staple:
Let's all go to The Moxie.
Let's all go to The Moxie.
Let's all go to The Moxie,
and have ourselves a blast!
Dorky, I know, but once it's in your head... it's impossible to get out.
I wish I could keep writing in with more posts from The Moxie, but our tour of duty has come to an end. It's been a blast, but I guess it's all for the best... I mean, we've got a new business to run!
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year atThe Moxie Blog.
September 2, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: The Competition
Posted by Nicole Chilton at 10:18 AM
Competition is good, right? It keeps you on your toes and makes you think more creatively. Let’s hope so! Because just as we’re about to open our own movie theater, it looks like the movie-showing business in Springfield, Missouri has just expanded to 15 or more screens.
Earlier this week, a new commercial development broke ground about 500 feet from our theater. The plans call for fine dining, boutique shopping, a parking garage, and a 14-screen multiplex theater with plush, high-backed love seats.
Luckily for us, we’ve known about this incoming theater since we started, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But after not hearing any news on the development for the last six months, and after finding out the developer had an “accident” involving a leg wound caused by a gunshot and a lead pipe to the head (we promise it wasn’t us!), we thought plans might have been put on the back burner.
Dan and I talked early on about what this competition means for The Moxie. Of course it’s competition, and they’ll probably attempt to show some of the same movies that we will specialize in (independent films, documentaries, foreign films, etc). But it will also bring more people to the downtown area who are interested in watching movies, so that’s always a good thing. Plus, we’ve worked hard for the last year and developed a niche audience through Dan’s blog…and we’re not even open yet!
Our next step is to turn that niche audience into regular customers. We have roughly a year to do it before the multiplex opens, so that means we need to open soon and provide creative programming and film series in addition to our regular film fare. Just a few ideas we’ve been tossing around include a Heckler’s Series, where we’ll provide popcorn-holding megaphones, show an unintentionally bad movie, and let the audience go to town with their commentaries. We also will be working with the local colleges and universities to provide film handling and exhibition courses as well as student film series.
The other bit of competition we’ve come across this week was during our attempt to book films. We got a call last night from our booking agent saying he couldn’t get the film we were hoping to open with. Reason being, the 16-screen theater in town has already exclusively booked it. I had a mild panic attack, because this theater is not typically known for showing documentaries, but I got over it pretty quickly. Our booking agent is an extremely creative person and we developed a strong back-up plan.
The first year of business is tough for anyone. We’re lucky we’ve had so much positive buzz about The Moxie, but we can’t let that get to our heads. If we want to stay in the game for many years to come, we have to make sure this first year is one of our most impressive. It will be difficult, but we’re excited and up for the challenge!
Diary of a Start-Up is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year at The Moxie Blog.
August 26, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Launch Delays
Posted by Dan Chilton at 12:39 PM
We've decided to push our official opening date back a couple weeks. As you might remember from our first Diary of a Start-Up post, our goal was to be open on or around September 2nd. We may have missed that deadline, but we're still pretty darn close. I won't announce the official opening date today, since we haven't made it public yet, but I can tell you it's in September and it's NOT on a weekend.
The main reason we've had to postpone our opening is because we've been doing all the work ourselves. Had money not been an issue, we could've afforded to hire a painter to work alongside a floor refinisher to work alongside our projection installer, and on and on and on, but our funding is tight so we've opted to do most of the work ourselves. The obvious downside being that we can only tackle one big job at a time, but by focusing all our efforts on one particular aspect (e.g. painting, installing the chairs, cleaning the restrooms), we can assure the workmanship is up to our standards.
Having said that, I'd also like to recognize all the great help we've received from our families. My parents have been working at the theater nearly every single night for the last three months. It's also not unusual to see numerous aunts, uncles and cousins dropping by during the weekend to lend a hand. We're lucky to have such supportive, and incredibly handy, families. Without their help, both financially and constructionally (that's not a real word, by the way), we'd be pushing our opening date back a lot further than just a couple weeks. Thanks guys!
So, what do we have left to finish? Well, the auditorium is 95% finished. The screen is up, the vintage chairs (all 75 of them) are bolted in, the acoustical drop ceiling has been installed, and the floors are cleaned and sealed. The only thing left is to stain and hang the doors. Elsewhere, the projection booth is completely finished, the 35mm projector is up and running, and the hallways are done (save a few panels of original Walnut woodwork that need to be refinished). Our last big projects are to finish the restrooms (about three days work) and the concession area (about four days work).
Once all the renovation is finished, Nicole and I will need to switch back over to administrative mode and make sure we have all of our legal ducks in a row...which is something we'll have to discuss at a later time. Until then, go Moxie GO!
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year atThe Moxie Blog.
August 21, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Getting By
Posted by Nicole Chilton at 11:40 PM
Today I accepted a 2-day job with a local automotive parts business. Supposedly I'll be spending my day filing, but what I've found with temp jobs is that you never know what you're going to be doing. For example, my first temp job ever I was told I'd be sorting t-shirts for a marketing campaign. Turns out, I was working in a warehouse for 8 hours lifting 60-pound boxes...in business casual attire.
One of the reasons Dan and I decided to open our own business was because the concept of not working for someone else, or for something we didn't enjoy, seemed so ideal. What we didn't really consider was that not working at all is pretty scary.
When we moved from St. Louis to Springfield, MO to pursue our dreams, that meant quitting our well paid, 401K-earning, exceptional health insurance-provided jobs. Though we were both stuck in cubicles, our jobs offered stability and a very comfortable life. Now that we are concentrating all of our efforts on opening the theater, stability and comfort is a thing of the past.
To help make ends meet, we had an agreement that I would work as a temp while Dan worked on everything related to the theater. When I am in between jobs, then I could help out with whatever task needed to be done.
At the beginning this worked out well. My first big assignment was for six weeks, and even though I dreaded the actual job (I was a collection agent for a local hospital), the weekly paycheck was nice. In the eight months we've been working on opening the theater, I've had about 10 different positions, including substitute teaching and freelancing for my former employer in St. Louis.
The problem now is that we are in the stages where we both need to be working full time on the theater, but we also need to pay bills, eat, and feed our dog. Luckily, the temp agency I work for knows my situation, and when they have short-term jobs come in, I'm the first on their list to call. That works out well, but unfortunately, those one-day jobs usually pay the least, and are few and far in between.
By accepting this job for tomorrow, I've had to cancel two appointments and scramble tonight to get my administrative tasks done. Even then, most of those tasks will have to be postponed because they require making phone calls during business hours. I also feel guilty because accepting a temp job means a fairly easy day (unless, of course, it's substitute teaching), but Dan will be spending his time bolting theater chairs to the terrazzo floor of our auditorium.
I guess it's the price we pay to follow our dreams, though!
Diary of a Start-Up is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year at The Moxie Blog.
August 12, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Decisions, Decisions
Posted by Dan Chilton at 3:45 PM
As we move closer and closer to our planned opening, I'm finding that our decisions, from the mundane to the major, are becoming more and more determinate. Previously, when we had more time on our hands, we didn't have to worry about which task came before the next -- painting the restrooms was just as important as tiling the food prep area - but now that we're coming down to the finish line, we really have to examine which tasks come first.
When the projector installer came down last week, he told me that before he could do his job correctly we'd need to have: the drop ceiling installed, the theater chairs bolted down, the sound absorbing curtain in place, and the screen ready. Immediately after meeting with him, I started to see a causal line snake its way through the tasks at hand. The chairs couldn't be installed until the drop ceiling was put into place; the drop ceiling couldn't be installed until the electrical inspection was finished; the electrical inspection couldn't be finished until the last sconces were installed along the curtain wall; the curtain couldn't be installed until the fabric arrived (this weekend).
I immediately went to work trying to rearrange the order of things. I successfully talked our electricians into getting the ceiling inspected before the rest of the building so we could move ahead with the drop ceiling. The electrical ceiling inspection was completed yesterday (Wednesday). With that done, we could have the drop ceiling installed by Friday, the curtain installed this weekend, and the chairs would be installed throughout next week. Unfortunately, the guy who does our drop ceiling is on vacation this week. Damn!
Just like that, we're back to rearranging the order of events. Now it looks like we're going to install the curtain this weekend, the drop ceiling will be finished first thing Monday morning, and we'll start installing the chairs on Tuesday. In the meantime, we're going to spend today and tomorrow entertaining bids from floor refinishers, finishing the last bits of paint trimming, installing our artwork wire hanging system, finishing the food prep area, and hanging doors throughout the building. Luckily for us, those tasks don't have to go in any special order.
Bio: Dan and Nicole Chilton are currently trying to open an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year at The Moxie Blog.
August 8, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Trimming the Fat
Posted by Nicole Chilton at 9:23 AM
Money, as the saying goes, doesn't buy happiness, but for us at The
Moxie, it would certainly buy an earlier opening date. At the moment
we're just a month shy of officially opening the theater, but had
finances not been an issue, we could have seen that opening in June,
possibly earlier.
Though we're not exactly hurting for additional financing, we've had
to cut a lot from our budget. For example, hiring professional
painters. Instead, Dan and I, along with whatever friend or family
member we could recruit, have had the fortune to spend the past two
weeks painting the interior of the building. And it's still not done!
The plus side of this process is that I've gained a new appreciation
for people who paint for a living. The negative side is that it's
eaten up a lot of time that could be spent on administrative tasks,
such as working with vendors, hiring employees, and creating our
monthly calendar, which we plan to hand out around town.
We were hoping to get all the painting done this week because tonight
is our public launch of the Moxie Founding Members, as mentioned in
last week's post. The Founding Membership is a program Dan and I
created to raise additional funds for those final touch-ups and
working capital. For $500, we're offering free movies for a year, free
popcorn, a plaque on one of the theater chairs, and some other fun
perks. We chose to do a membership over a bank loan for a few reasons:
we wouldn't have to pay back anyone; it would give us an automatic
core audience; and we have just enough moxie to do something like
that!
Moxie can only get us so far, though. We're hoping to cash in on an
event going on downtown tonight. Each first Friday of the month, our
downtown community does an Art Walk, where galleries stay open late
and offer new exhibits along with live bands, wine and hors d'oeuvres.
Though not an official stop on the Walk, we have advertised that we
will be open to hand out complimentary popcorn and sneak peeks of the
theater. And of course, we'll have fliers with information about the
Founding Memberships.
The people who usually attend these Art Walks are the ones who will
most likely be our regular customers. Tonight is a perfect opportunity
to spread the word about our memberships and the chance to gain that
extra bit of money. Let's just hope the unfinished painting won't
stand in the way.
Diary of a Start-Up is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year at The Moxie Blog.
July 29, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Fundraising Tactics
Posted by Dan Chilton at 11:57 AM
In a recent New York Times article about the founders of CollegeHumor.com, Rufus Griscom, the chief executive of Nerve.com, was asked why he thought the young entrepreneurs had been so successful. "Their age is key to their success not only because they are their demographic, which is always good, but because they are willing to do wacky things. They have a healthy obliviousness to the way everybody else is doing business." After reading the article, I immediately felt a bond with the young businessmen. In many aspects, Nicole and I are in the same boat. We're young, blissfully unaware of the "standard" way to run a business, and willing to try new and innovative ways to fund our venture.
For instance, when The Moxie was initially faced with a financial shortfall back in April, we did what most level-minded entrepreneurs wouldn't - we auctioned off the naming rights to our theater's concession stand, the Cinebar, on eBay, as mentioned in last week's post. After a week's worth of fevered bidding, mostly between my loyal blog readers, the Cinebar's namesake went to a local freelance advertising consultant. Many people viewed the eBay auction as nothing more than a marketing ploy, but the end result was well worth the effort. We came up with the added capital we needed, and a local business received a year's worth of targeted advertising for a fraction of the cost he would've paid elsewhere.
Late last week, The Moxie found itself in a similar financial predicament, so we decided to employ yet another unorthodox fundraising campaign -- giving away FREE MOVIES FOR A FULL CALENDAR YEAR to a select number of Moxie enthusiasts, known collectively as Founding Members. Having made it this far on the road to opening our theater (we're literally only a few thousand dollars away), we had to come up with a way to bridge our financial gap. Giving up has yet to cross our mind, and this recent roadblock was no different. Like the eBay auction, many people think we're literally out of our minds. How can you give away a year worth of movies and expect to make any money? The answer is concessions. Concessions and practical economic modeling.
As with most movie theaters, our main profit center is in concessions. Giving away free movies helps us bring in more customers -- customers who, without the incentive of seeing a free movie, may not have come in as often -- and as long as we hold up our end of providing second-to-none service, that increased foot traffic should equate to even more valuable word-of-mouth advertising.
The membership drive will be going public this week, and, with the help of a few local business-specific mailing lists, I hope it turns out to be a huge success. My non-advanced age may not lend itself to stunning business acumen, but I've learned enough to know that the movie-going public will take a killer deal when they see it. That's why we call it Moxie!
July 22, 2005
Diary of a Start-Up: Moxie
Posted by Dan Chilton at 1:35 PM
For well over the last year, my wife Nicole and I have struggled against many, if not ALL odds to open our very own independent art-house movie theater, Moxie Cinema, in Springfield, Missouri (you know, Brad Pitt's hometown). Our mission is simple: "to create a unique and inviting venue for the exhibition of smaller, lesser-known films that have traditionally been unattainable in the Springfield market. By providing intriguing film series and offering a cinematic experience that differentiates itself from the typical multiplex affair, we hope to create a one-of-a-kind service that will benefit the downtown community along with the rest of the metropolitan area."
We have worked tirelessly to open The Moxie, which only seats about 70 people, in an old bank in the heart of Springfield's historic downtown district. In that span of time we've had to change buildings, downgrade our plans from two screens to one, spend nearly 80% of our budget on unforeseen building renovations, push back our original opening date from March to September, and auction off the naming rights to our concession bar (affectionately known as the Cinebar) on eBay in a desperate attempt to raise more start-up capital. It hasn't been easy, but we quickly learned that if you can't roll with the punches -- or in our case, sledgehammers to the abdomen -- then you shouldn't get into the ring in the first place.
Of course, opening The Moxie hasn't been all dark clouds and poorly chosen analogies. We've had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people and become part of Springfield's growing arts community. The Moxie Blog has also played a crucial role in our progress by allowing us to interact in a variety of ways with our potential customer base, but I'll touch on that issue at a later time...
So where does The Moxie stand today? Well, we're nearly one month away from our tentative opening date on September 2 (extreme emphasis on tentative) and we're completely out of money. We still have a lot of work to finish between then and now, including a crazy plan to raise a sizable chunk of funding to see us through to opening day. Will it work? Will I ever tell you what it is? The answer to both of these questions is "yes." I hope.
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Dan and Nicole Chilton, who are currently starting up an art-house theater in Springfield, Missouri. Dan has been chronicling their progress for more than a year at The Moxie Blog.
May 20, 2005
Diary of a Startup - After the Deal
Posted by at 4:44 PM
We are still waiting for the documentation from our attorneys that would finalize a deal with our Angel Investor. That has not happened yet, but we expect that to happen tomorrow and I am not worried about it. As part of the deal, our investor has also come on almost full-time to help me run the company. He owns a sales training business, so it's complimentary to the services that we provide.
Bringing the two companies together even in an informal sense (this is not an actual merger, but I am using the secretary, bookkeeper, and accountant for his other business, so we are more or less merging documentation and files just for ease) has been a little problematic, but the nice part is that I haven't had to deal with it. My new partner has a team of advisors and administrative people who are handling everything and I just check in each day to ensure that we are progressing.
Even though I am not handling the administrative component of all of the changes I am feeling very overwhelmed by everything going on. It can be difficult to balance everything, and then still have time to run a business. Right now we are looking for new office space to combine our staffs, we are in the process of renegotiating our contract with a major client, and I am pouring our hundreds of pages of legal documentation regarding the our deal with our investor. I am excited for the day (which may be several weeks away still) when I can focus exclusively on bringing in some new clients to Acquirent.
In the next week, we hope to sign the documentation and move forward with a new strategy. Part of the new strategy will surely be to move upstream with our client base. There will be some bumps on the road here because higher-level clients expect a higher level offering and I'm not sure that our infrastructure is yet commensurate with those expectations. I'll be back next week to report on our progress.
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Pete Kadens, founder of Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution company based in Chicago. Click here to read last week's column.
May 13, 2005
Diary of a Startup - On Angel's Wings
Posted by at 2:13 PM
This is the culmination of another insane week. At the end of last week, we had sent a counter offer to our angel investor based on his initial offer. We heard back from his attorney who told us they had accepted almost all of our terms in our counter offer and they were ready to move forward quuckly. So, we cleaned up a few details and our angel investor and I signed a final term sheet.
Obviously, I have been thrilled with this development, but the money still isn't actually in the bank account, so I am going postpone the celebration until that time. The best thing about this angel was that he was not only willing to put in capital, but he also committed to work with our company full-time and help me run the company. There has always been a lack of management talent at our company (frankly we could not afford high level managers so we hired people based on potential), so this is a huge boost to our overall infrastructure.
We spent the rest of the week trying to merge our accounting systems, introduce our new investor to our existing clients, and build out strategic game plans with the "new" company. Our lawyers are working on the final documents and we are supposed to have them in our hands by Monday. Our angel is prepared to transfer the money early nexy week. For the time being, we will continue to press ahead with the plans to grow this business and wait until the official money transfer to begin our "execution" stage.
By next week we should have our money and a more definitive strategic direction.
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Pete Kadens, founder of Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution company based in Chicago. Click here to read last week's column.
May 9, 2005
Diary of a Startup: The First Serious Offer
Posted by at 10:48 AM
The past week has been a roller coaster, to say the least. At the end of last week, we were expecting a response from an angel investor who was very serious about his interest in Acquirent, and we were still busy negotiating a deal to complete a buyout of my former partner's stock. The good news is that both of these big hurdles materialized, but not as well as we had planned.
I spent Monday and Tuesday with our potential angel investor and his team of advisors. We went through the numbers again and built out a projection for the 2005 financials based upon the numbers we mutually agreed upon. By Wednesday morning I had secured a deal with my former partner, and although we are paying him more than I want to pay him (isn't this always the case), I was comfortable with it because frankly it was over, and sometimes just officially ending the partnership and any ties related to the business is worth it even if you have to put up a little more money.
Wednesday afternoon, I received a call from our serious angel investor saying that he and his team had an offer prepared and he would like to meet with me to present it. As such, I went to his office with cautious optimism to assess the offer. The offer was considerable, but a little light on the capital side and perhaps a little too much in terms of the equity he desired in return.
On Thursday, my lawyer and I worked on a counter offer and sent it out that day. The counter offer is out there now, of course, but I guess I worry about the risk of losing the deal and think that I should just take the offer. But then I think, the worst he can say to our counter offer is "no," and then we can simply accept the original offer, which was certainly an acceptable arrangement.
For now, we wait to hear from him.
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Pete Kadens, founder of Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution company based in Chicago. Click here to read last week's column.
April 29, 2005
Diary of a Startup - Presenting to Investors
Posted by at 2:33 PM
It's Thursday evening April 28th and the past week has been stressful. Last week, a potential investor had submitted a due diligence list to us that we had five business days to complete. Rather than completing just what he asked for, I decided that we should be exhaustive and go far above and beyond his expectations as we are attempting to sell him on the notion that we are a quality company to invest in, with hard-working managers. Thus, last Thursday and Friday, we worked through the night and completed a 300-page investor deck for him. He was very pleased with our efforts when I presented it to him Friday morning. The nice thing about this investor deck is that we built a process around it so that it will be easy to replicate in the event that we have to produce it again.
Since then, our very serious potential investor has taken off for Italy for a one-week vacation and we have not wanted to stand idle. As such, I presented to four more groups this week, enduring an inquisition from a team of five venture capitalists in one case. If you have never been in a position to present to VC's and pitch them on your idea, it's quite an experience and I would highly recommend that you wear plenty of deodorant because they certainly make you sweat.
I have found that as an entrepreneur, I constantly need to be traveling down parallel paths and multi-tasking as there is always some dilemma. That being said, one of the issues surrounding our very serious investor's interest in our business is that he will absolutely not invest until I have fully bought out my former partner. My former partner and I had an agreement on a buyout that would take place over the course of twelve months, because we could not afford to pay him everything in one lump sum. But now I need him out of the business immediately. So I have gone back to him to renegotiate and it has not been a pleasant process as it has included a few discussions with raised voices.
Over the next week, we plan to hear a definitive answer from our potential investor as to whether or not he would like to move forward. We also plan to nail down and finalize the renegotiation of the buyout contract with my former partner. I'll be back next week to report.
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Pete Kadens, founder of Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution company based in Chicago. Click here to read last week's column.
April 22, 2005
Diary of a Startup: On the Road
Posted by at 2:35 PM
It's Thursday morning April 21st and we are on the rampage to raise $250,000 to $500,000 in order to keep the business going. At the tail end of last week we received our first letter of interest to acquire stock in the company from a wealthy Chicago entrepreneur. He sent over a laundry list of things for us to complete so that he could do the appropriate due diligence and make a quick decision on whether or not to invest in our business. He had a meeting with his advisors yesterday to discuss all of the information that we aggregated for him and to assess whether ours was the most appropriate investment for him. We expect to hear something more from him today or tomorrow. I am cautiously optimistic because I know that these interested parties often find that reasons not to invest trump the reasons to invest in a small private company, due to the inherent risk.
In addition to that single investor, we have been on a road show this week and presented to about six different parties, mostly angel investors. We seek to steer clear of the venture capital market because we don't want to lose too much control of the business. None of us have ever participated in a capital raise, so we are trying to learn as we go. Getting too much advice from our attorney would result in astronomical legal bills that we cannot afford at the present time. As entrepreneurs, we have learned that its always a balancing act, and right now we are attempting to do everything from servicing our clients to learning about how to engage in a capital raise to assessing who the "right" investors/partners are for Acquirent. I can honestly say that this fundraising thing is a full-time job and I would warn any other entrepreneurs that you should prepare to spend the majority of your weeks focusing on this versus the business itself. Taking your eyes off the existing business can be dangerous though!
We are also facing one more problem, but again this is a problem that can be resolved by successfully raising funds for the company. On the 15th of each month, we usually pay commissions to our salespeople and we still have not received a large commission payment from one of our clients. Since our business is centered around employing salespeople, and salespeople want their commissions when they sell something, it puts us in a little bit of a bind! As such, I fronted some commissions to two salespeople despite our ongoing cash flow issues. This hurt, but I felt that in the long run that this was the right thing to do because without our sales people we would really cease to exist.
The next step is for us to solidify our funding and then decide how to best allocate the cash. We are really working hard to get this money in and even if we have to knock on a few hundred doors to get the money, we are going to do it because we have worked too hard and built too much to simply let it all evaporate. Hopefully we'll be back with some good news next week!
Diary of a Startup is a weekly blog written by Pete Kadens, founder of Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution company based in Chicago. Click here to read last week's column.
April 15, 2005
Diary of a Startup: Acquirent
Posted by at 3:38 PM
It's 4:15am on Friday the 15th and the average day in the life of an entrepreneur at Acquirent has begun: For the past eighteen months, we have worked endless days attempting to build a worthy company. It has been a struggle every step of the way, but we knew that would be the case when we started the company.
Acquirent first launched in late 2003 and was completely bootstrapped by the savings of two individuals: me and my former partner. Acquirent is a company that exists to serve a significant purpose (at least we feel this way): We work with lower to middle market companies to produce more sales at a lower cost. We are an outsourced sales execution business and our clients hire us to deploy and manage dedicated sales professionals that work on their behalf to close business with either their end users, or in some case their channel partners.
We started out of an apartment with two guys and one tiny client. As each month progressed, we learned the business and began to move upstream with our client base. Today our client base includes several large companies and we have built a name for ourselves to a certain extent.
But it hasn't been easy. Over the last eighteen months, we have endured the dissolution of a partnership because my partner and I shared different visions on the future of the company; one rounds of layoffs; and several more emotional ups and downs. The good news is that we have endured and persevered to this point. We run a profitable business, but our business is hampered by cash flow issues. Since Acquirent does not process any payments for our clients, we often become the third (sometimes last) party to get paid and that can translate in to a "Days Sales Outstanding" figure of as much as 150 days.
So today we lie at a significant crossroads in the future of Acquirent. On paper we are profitable, but due to our cash flow woes we need capital to sustain the business as a going concern. We have companies all over the world that have expressed interest in working with us (over 300 companies), but we do not have the financial stability or capital infrastructure to engage in a partnership with them at this juncture. An infusion of cash would allow us to hire more quality people (including a chief operating officer); help us purchase better technology to better service our clients; and most importantly, it will help us meet payroll and pay our vendors on time even when our cash flow is struggling.
We also have a team of visionaries who truly believe that we can build a powerful entity with our model. The hurdle is that we are undercapitalized. We are now embarking on our journey to raise $250,000 to $500,000 in a first round of financing. If we do not find this money in the next six weeks we will be in serious danger of failing due to poor cash flow. Wish us luck!
December 1, 2004
Diary of a Start-Up: Refocusing Efforts
Posted by Victoria Keddie at 12:15 PM
This is the fourth in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.
So here our company stands. Our partner in California has left due to geographical limitations and has started her own company sponsoring various designers, including Redwagon. It was definitely a sad parting, but the difficulties of maintaining a company where all but one are in the same city is a lot to manage.
As the holidays are approaching, we are making orders for some of the smaller boutiques and will be bringing out homemade earmuffs for the chilly winter season. Our jewelry line is improving with new quality materials pushing it into a higher-end costume genre. As our aesthetic is still for the fun and fancy free, we are making sure to balance the scales regarding our high quality status with materials that wont break the bank.
For the fall season, we somewhat lost focus, both financially and with our intended market. We chose all metallic leather skins, suede, and silk/satin for linings. Needless to say we were in over our heads, and without an industrial strength sewing machine, we had trouble in that end as well. Moving forward, we decided we like our metallic leather for our day to evening wear belts, but have nixed the pricey materials for bags and other attire, compensating with more animal friendly, pattern-printed materials. After all, we are not ready to invest in manufacturers at present and all have full-time jobs. We've learned to adjust both financially and in time management in effort to meet the demands of our accounts.
As the anniversary of Redwagon is approaching in the New Year, we are looking to do more business online. We are in the process of renewing our domain name and wondering if we should make the site more than an advertisement. Would Pay Pal and Web-based media/advertising be a more conducive way to both promote and stabilize sales revenue? Through using boutiques as way to promote and sell our merchandise, we are losing a significant portion of sales to consignment percentages. I find myself using the Web as a primary means of shopping, sourcing, etc., and would like to see the Redwagon website a more popular site for online shoppers. Afterall, that may be where most of our clientele is looking as well.
Read past diary entries: Making Sales, On the Road, Introducing Redwagon
November 15, 2004
Diary of a Start-up: Making Sales
Posted by Victoria Keddie at 10:20 AM
This is the third in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.
Now that our lines are fully developed and our prototypes are made, it's time to start making sales! We are currently visiting with prospective boutiques for our holiday merchandise, and have made some relationships with notable stores on both coasts. We're hoping to place ourselves in shops like The Good The Bad & The Ugly, I Heart, and Opening Ceremony (very young urban fashionistas shops). We filed our quarterly tax returns for the first time, which was much easier than we initially thought with help from a hotline, we have new merchandising leads on the West Coast, and a photo shoot in the works. (We have a photographer friend who's dying to work with us for no cost at all. His style goes right in hand with our work: vibrant, cutting edge, etc. So we are looking forward to getting that organized.)
We've also been exploring the option of working with Paypal to enable our website for e-commerce. We may need to wait until we have a manufacturer because it's not easy to keep up with the stores demand--as we learned last season. It seems like a good idea, but placement in well-known stores could be very valuable to building our brand name. We'll see how the shops respond and take it from there.
Read past diary entries: On the Road, Redwagon
October 20, 2004
Diary of a Start-up: On the Road
Posted by Victoria Keddie at 2:42 PM
This is the second in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.
We recently had a fashion show in Philadelphia at a well-known art collective space showcasing our new fall line. The theme was Puss & Boots and consisted of leather belts, skirts, coin purses, and jewelry. It was, to say the least, a memorable experience. It is our first fashion show since our company began and in the city that three of us went to school.
A friend and co-curator at the space put together a show with music and fashion on a Sunday afternoon. The show itself was disorganized, the attendees were questionable, and most of the fashion contributors backed out last minute. Needless to say, we were there, and became the instant highlight of the event.
We had under two weeks to put a complete line together from our initial designs. With one sewing machine, and too little time, we made prototypes for all of our designs--and ran into a few problems. Our member out in LA sent some of her items for the show, and they were lost in the mail (eventually returned to sender), so we had no representation from her at the show. Also, we had major trouble locating models for the event in such short notice. Kelli headed the styling, I took over make up, and Hillary became a model. We had three models in total and all with a few runs. It was a bit tricky timing the girls, but it worked out extremely well. I brought some of our t-shirts on hand to sell, and we quickly sold out of them. We also had cupcakes to share, which the crowd loved.
In the end, it turned out pretty well. It could have been more organized, we could have had a more suitable audience-- but we proved that we could pull off something like that in two weeks with much success and much learned.
October 13, 2004
Diary of a Start-Up: Redwagon
Posted by Victoria Keddie at 11:05 AM
This is the first in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.
This week's entry: Where Do We Go Next?
We are a company made up of four gals, three in NYC and one in LA. We started this company with the idea that a girl doesn't have to get knee deep in debt to have some quality hand-crafted clothing and accessories. So we founded redwagon in January 2004, specializing in accessories, jewelry, and clothing. We ventured from boutique to boutique, offering our line in a fully stuffed vanity suitcase. Luckily both our idea and our products began to take notice.
Hear we are nine months later, with orders, a website, and our line of merchandise in boutiques spanning LA, NYC, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Needless to say, we are a little overwhelmed and in over our heads with the business aspects of the company: Do we incorporate? Do we copyright? Do we enlist manufacturers and investors? We bought Incorporate Your Business for Dummies, and got a vendor's license and retail certificate, and that's as far as we've gotten at the moment.
With the company growing as it has, it seems that now the four of us have slightly--and not so slightly--different views of what the company should be. What began as randomly creating excellent pieces from moderately priced fabrics and scrap leather for appliqus has turned into a highly tailored line of all leather. This has put redwagon in a position of losing lead-time to get the merchandise into the boutiques as well as losing our value prices.
What happened to that idea that we started this company for? Instead we are emulating a high-end fashion house with absolutely no budget or time to make the items we have designed. So now the customers we intended to sell our fashions to cannot afford our line. At this point we need to figure out where we're headed and what steps will be right for our company's success--and what kind of success we're actually looking for!
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