Anyone with 200,000 EUR to spare?

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Hello All!

I am the co-founder of a start-up company here in Helsinki, Finland that is building a wireless b2b communications platform with very high revenue potential. We have key partnerships in place (including ones with regional ISP and with HP), technical and management all ready to go and 30% of the product development completed.

We have been attempting to raise money for our venture now for about 5 months and have reached a roadblock.

We are trying to raise 500,000 EUR in seed money and have managed to raise 330,000 EUR from a Finnish/UK group. However, the money is conditional on us raising the additional 170,000 EUR.

We are having a real problem meeting people who are willing to invest that remaining amount. For VCs it is too little money for them to bother with. It would seem that our only hope would be business angels, but so far we just have not been able to meet the right people who are serious about investing in this kind of thing. A few have had just unrealistic expectations as to the ownership they will get for that money (essentially the value of the company is set and that 170,000 EUR will get you 10% of the company--quite a good deal)and have tried to make unsophisticated demands like salary cuts.

Here we are, with some of the money waiting for us but no way to use it until the remaining amount is secured. Anyone have any ideas or know of any contacts that might be interested in this kind of thing? Any advice is welcome.

Cheers to all.

David Winegar david@activeconnection.fi

-- David Winegar (david@activeconnection.fi), October 24, 2000

Answers

I know this may sound non-sensical, but have you knocked on the doors of Nokia. If Microsoft can put money into Corel in America with its giant cash reserves, who has bigger cash reserves in Finland than Nokia?

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), October 24, 2000.

You might already be plugged into this Net Economy and venture capital groups, but check out First Tuesday Helsinki ( http://207.158.247.102/ cgi-local/signup.cgi?city=helsinki ) and Torstai Klubi ( http:// www.torstaiklubi.net/ ). You might also want to touch base with some of the folks I met with when I was in Helsinki this spring. http:// www.fastcompany.com/roadshow/2000/051100.html kicks off the Finnish diaries.

Heath

-- Heath Row (heath@fastcompany.com), October 25, 2000.


Re: First Tuesday Helsinki: I believe that First Tuesday as an organization ceased operations, so the link may be no longer available.

M.

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), October 27, 2000.


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