 Listen live at: http://tinyurl.com/technogrannyshow |
| Time: 09/06/2010 10:00 AM EDT Episode Notes: TechnoGranny is on holiday time this week since our guest Ruth Hedges of FundingRoadmap.com is a Californian and I hated to ask her to get up at 4AM Pacific time to do our normal 7 AM show............................. Periodically we review websites and this one hooks up StartUps with Potential Investors----Geographically! Have you business owners heard, "There's money out there, you've just got to find it?" Well Ruth has put a roadmap online for you to use. ........................ Hear why StartUpsAcrossAmerica and FundingRoadmap will help you think outside the box and "put you on the map."--literally! ...................... P.S. Next week TechnoGranny will be back at that unearthly hour of 7 AM. |
Stand up and be counted.
"Give us your fired, your under-funded start-ups, your huddled masses of innovative entrepreneurs yearning for access to capital. The wretched refuse of your economically broken shores. Send us the Twitters, the LinkedIn and Facebook tempest-tossed pioneers fighting to claim their piece of the American dream and let them stake a claim on the Startups Across America map, so we can all walk through the golden door." -Ruth E. Hedges (with help from Emma Lazarus)
© 2009 Unismart Capital Software Inc. All Rights Reserve
StartupsAcrossAmerica.com is the first entrepreneurial map of the United States, where startups can stand up and be counted. "As it grows it will detail the number of startups in each state and the funding they need to launch. By highlighting the numbers and listing the actual enterprises seeking funds, we intend to help level the playing field for access to capital," said Ruth Hedges, CEO of Unismart Capital Software Inc.
While spotlighting the innovation, imagination and self determination that abounds among this country's entrepreneurs, the Startups Across America map and its listings intend to give investors, community leaders, and other finance-related decision makers a keener understanding of the real dollars needed, state-by-state, for these new enterprises to succeed. "We encourage every startup to register and stake their claim on the map to bring attention to their efforts individually and collectively," says Hedges.
The interactive map is being launched in response to lean times for start-up capital. Although start-ups contribute profoundly to job creation, the economic meltdown and the resulting recession have dried up seed capital for such ventures.
Hedges hopes the map will inspire wealthy Americans who may never have invested in early stage startups to discover the volume and depth of investment opportunities across the country and to invest as way to contribute to economic recovery.
"While Americans currently have 3.7 trillion dollars sitting on the sidelines in money market accounts, countless brilliant ideas, technology, research and innovation have been squandered for lack of investment, with ongoing consequences for our health, our economy and our society” says Hedges, "we need to encourage investment in entrepreneurs and innovation in every way possible and provide a fast track system to launch viable new ventures."
"The Startup America map allows us to see where startups are located, how much capital they need and what they will do with the funding, so investors can find, research and make sound investments. An interactive picture of the entrepreneurial landscape can help to proliferate reality-based economic activity and renewed prosperity for everyone," says Hedges.
It can be argued that the ambition and innovation of our entrepreneurs are keys to rebuilding the nation's economy. With more than 15 million Americans unemployed and vying for a scarce number of jobs, entrepreneurship is the crucial means for growing our economy — locally and nationally.
It's one thing to believe in "the American dream," the challenge is to fund and facilitate it in the real economy. This project is to encourage private investors to power a resurgence of small business development in America by backing the creation of new ventures.
More than one new business is born every minute. In 2009 business startups reached their highest level in 14 years – even exceeding the number of startups created during the peak of the dot-com heyday. Unfortunately the under-funding of too many of these businesses prevents them from getting safely off the ground, resulting in lost innovation, revenue and job creation, a national crisis we are paying for now more than at any other time in our nation's history.
As Pulitzer Prize winning NY times columnist Thomas Friedman said: "We owe our young people something better — and the solution is not that complicated, although it is amazing how little it is discussed in the Washington policy debates. We need three things: start-ups, start-ups and more start-ups."
"We couldn't agree more. So to be able to see who these entrepreneurs are, where they are, and how much capital they need to launch and succeed, we decided to build a digital map showcasing Startups Across America. Now anyone launching a new company in the USA can stake their claim for a piece of the American Dream on the map and broadcast their funding needs to a nation of possible investors," said Hedges.
The number of start-ups and the funding dollars they are trying to raise will be totaled by state and showcased on the map so everyone can see where the opportunities are and the money is needed. We can no longer wait for or depend on conventional forms of capitalization, i.e. small business loans, angel and venture capital to provide access to capital to get us out of the economic crisis. Last year the number of applicants who got venture or angel capital was shockingly low, and too many great ideas, products and inventions never saw the light of day. We must provide another option.
To achieve a more level playing field for access to capital, wealthy individuals need to take a more active role investing in entrepreneurship and innovation to help rebuild the American economy. But they can't do that if they don't know where the need is, where the pioneers are, and how much capital entrepreneurs need to launch and succeed. And we need to remove certain regulatory roadblocks that for too long have limited access to investment.
We hope entrepreneurs everywhere will join our campaign and encourage startups to sign up onto the map as a first step in a new process to create an expanded flow of investment capital and a new way of clearly seeing the promising Startups Across America.
For information contact 877-780-8955
© 2010 Unismart Capital Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
StartupsAcrossAmerica.com is the first entrepreneurial map of the United States, where startups can stand up and be counted. “As it grows it will detail the number of startups in each state and the funding they need to launch. By highlighting the numbers and listing the actual enterprises seeking funds, we intend to help level the playing field for access to capital,” said Ruth Hedges, CEO of Unismart Capital Software Inc.
Startups Across America
While spotlighting the innovation, imagination and self determination that abounds among this country’s entrepreneurs, the Startups Across America map and its listings intend to give investors, community leaders, and other finance-related decision makers a keener understanding of the real dollars needed, state-by-state, for these new enterprises to succeed. ”We encourage every startup to register and stake their claim on the map to bring attention to their efforts individually and collectively,” says Hedges.
The interactive map is being launched in response to lean times for start-up capital. Although start-ups contribute profoundly to job creation, the economic meltdown and the resulting recession have dried up seed capital for such ventures. Hedges hopes the map will inspire wealthy Americans who may never have invested in early stage startups to discover the volume and depth of investment opportunities across the country and to invest as way to contribute to economic recovery
The Funding Roadmap is setting a new industry standard with their reinvention of the business plan.“We realized the limitations of the business planning model, looked at the accelerating social networking environment, and the lights went on!” Now the Funding Roadmap is being promoted by the Intuit Small Business Community, the SBDCNet, Start-up Weekend and PELT100 Pilot Project UnleashPA and to name a few.
“We’ve seen that investors and lenders can’t efficiently process the demand for capital with old paper and template business plans, which reinforces their tendency to go with people they already know. Or more often with no one at all, crippling innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit necessary for an economic recovery.” says Hedges, ”just because we have the steepest drop in lending since 1942 doesn't’ mean we should be using business planning processes like we still live in 1942.”
“ Our SBA and GAAP compliant virtual platform changes everything, now entrepreneurs can build and maintain a live virtual document, they can share it globally, it’s immune to natural or everyday catastrophes like hurricane Katrina or the loss of your laptop, and it’s a green way to conduct the process –no paper.” Funding Roadmap also provides a virtual marketplace where subscribers can post their proposals and stream their passion and excitement in a video elevator pitch, allowing for controlled access, viewable on mobile devices, with the ability to broadcast to (or be discovered by) a global pool of potential investors and partners. Its Due Diligence Report saves many hours of expensive closing time.
“The platform opens up possibilities for funding and collaboration in ways old fashioned business plans could never do and allows us the privilege and honor to bring our technology to organizations across the country and participate in projects like the PELT100’s UnleashPA Pilot Program in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Ruth E Hedges CEO
Unismart Capital Software Inc
877-780-8955
cel: 213-276-6266
RUTH E. HEDGES – CEO & COO
Ms. Hedges is a Co-Founder of the Unismart Capital Software and a Co-Creator of the FundingRoadmap.com and startupsacrossamerica.com
As CEO and COO Ms. Hedges is responsible for overseeing and directing all facets of the Company's development and
operations. Ruth has a proven executive managerial track record spanning over 27 years, driving sales, marketing,publicity
and strategic alliance development. As co-inventor, co-creator and key architect of Funding Roadmap Web 2.0 online
licensable platform, Ms Hedges has been responsible for pioneering a new and innovative virtual system for electronic
Business Plan and Due Diligence Reporting with a video elevator pitch.
Under Ms Hedges leadership, of the more then 530 ideas submitted to recovery.gov for new and innovative tools and ideas
(to monitor with transparency the use of recovery funds) the Funding Roadmap made it to the top of the most commented
list. Ms hedges most recently was interviewed on Small Biz America radio and on the front page of the business section of
the Las Vegas Review Journal and Innovations America, where Dr Richard curuso said" I've seen thousands of information technology innovations," said Richard Caruso, "and as an Ernst and Young 'Entrepreneur of the Year,' an annual competition judge, creative finance entrepreneur, and developer of Mentorsphere, I review countless executive summaries and business plans. Through this process I've encountered probably every variation in business plan templates, formats, technologies, and technical service providers. Unismart Capital Software's Funding Roadmap Business Plan and Due Diligence Reporting System is a standardized, focused plan development approach and I see it as having the potential to become the next basis for business planning, due diligence, and collaboration"http://www.innovationamerica.us/index.php/innovation-daily/3595-reinventing-the-business-plan-funding-roadmap-sets-a-new-industry-standard-in-the-clouds
Ms Hedges was featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as well as the New York Times, the LA Times and People
Magazine for her work with Oxfam America and the Hollywood Hunger Banquets. She was featured on ABC's Home
Show, and the Financial News Network did a two-part series on Ms. Hedges for their show entitled “American
Entrepreneur. She was invited to fill a cabinet seat on the Second Century Campaign Board which raised over 16 million
dollars to build the new Union Rescue Mission. She is the recipient of the Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los
Angeles for that work. Ms. Hedges was also honored with an award from the late Mayor Tom Bradley in 1989 for her work
with feeding the homeless of the City of Los Angeles.
In 1989 Ms. Hedges started and developed an incubation company in Pasadena California helping dot com companies
properly structure their operations, write business plans, and raise venture capital. Her lifelong entrepreneurial experience
was a resource many companies needed. Helping those companies, became the inspiration for the idea behind the Funding
Roadmap.
Tell us a little bit about you , the Funding Roadmap and Startups Across America?
Why did you reinvent the Business plan into the Funding Roadmap?
How could banks and other financial institutions benefit from using this platform?
You’ve created Startups Across America the map,which is a kind of marketplace of ideas and the funding they need to launch. How do you see this as helping to restart the economy?
How does Funding Roadmap address the problem of finding startup capital?
60 million dollars are invested by friends and family every year so why would you need a completed plan to get money from friends and family?
What does it mean to say that a Funding Roadmap business plan is “live?”
How could an entrepreneur use Funding Roadmap to attract investors who are unknown to them to begin with?
What’s your best advice to someone starting a new business and looking for capital?
We now have proof as to why we need to put more of a national effort into connecting entrepreneurs to other peoples friends and family.
"According to the Angel Capital Education Foundation angel investors pledge $20 billion to startup businesses; whereas, total venture capital funding is only $300 million and state funding comes in at about $500 million. Friends and family are responsible for approximately $60 billion in small business investment each year."
This also confirms what I have been saying in our Startups Across America campaign, a free state-by-state interactive map of potential investments for friends and family –and other- investors. http://startupsacrossamerica.com)
In 2009 there were approximately 7.8 million millionaires, and 1 million “ultra high net worth individuals” with assets of more than $5 million in the U.S. Certainly it is time for these people to stop sitting on their hands and seek out the investment opportunities in their communities and in their fields of interest to benefit themselves and the economy.
We need to usher in an era of activist investors concerned with the bottom line, yes, but also with the well-being of their communities and the growth and health of the American economy.
We also believe using friends and family money creates perhaps even more of a moral imperative to plan and manage funds responsibly. Whether friendly investors are demanding or not, the entrepreneurs should be fully prepared to succeed through sound planning. Funding Roadmap is the cloud-based business planning tool that takes advantage of the connectivity, collaboration and networking abilities afforded by current technology. Look at and Subscribe to this groundbreaking platform at http://fundingroadmap.com/
When the going gets as weird as it is now, entrepreneurs and friends and family investors need to find each other and get going. Together.
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