b5media

October 18th,2006

Big Thanks to Sean Wise, for Helping with Funding

By Jeremy Wright

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while. It takes a whole team to raise funding (see my personal blog for some examples). But some people stand above the rest because they continually stepped up and you just know that without their help you wouldn’t have landed the round.

For us, one of those people is Sean Wise from Wise Mentor Capital. Very early on in the process, b5 hired Sean to help guide us through the whole funding dance. We recognized very early that while we were confident we could build a great business, we hadn’t the foggiest idea how to truly raise funds. And while we could read and study and talk to friends who’d done it, that was only scratching the surface of the knowledge we were sure was required to raise a round.

Rick Segal, referred us to Sean early on.

There are several steps to funding. Broadly speaking, they are: finding the right partner, getting them to talk to you, getting them to say yes, checking up on their background, them checking up on yours, negotiating the deal, doing all the legal paperwork and actually sealing the puppy. A lot of folk say it’s a bit like dating. And while I’ve only gone through the process once, there are a lot of similarities. Namely that, until you actually say “I do”, the relationship can end at any time, and often for reasons that might seem silly to the one who’s been dumped.

Through each of these steps, Sean was absolutely invaluable. While he wasn’t cheap, we told him at least 4 times during the process that he’d “earned his fee”. And looking back, I am extremely glad we hired Sean.

So for companies who have never raised a round before, and are looking for guidance and experience in the industry to do so, someone like Sean can be absolutely invaluable. And if you’re thinking of going with someone like Sean, talk to Sean first. There are a lot of people out there who say they’ll broker a deal, but Sean has the track record. And he has b5media’s vote of confidence.