Don't Lose Your Business

19 Jul 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker recounts two founder cases—a technically skilled AI programmer and an entertainment‑industry expert—both of whom lack experience in business, mergers and acquisitions, and investment negotiations. An investor has approached them with an attractive offer, prompting discussions about how much equity to give away. The speaker cautions them not to rush into equity discussions, emphasizing that bringing on investors or business partners transfers ownership and control, which carries significant risk. The core message is to carefully evaluate equity deals and understand the long‑term implications before accepting investment.

Chapters

So you don't hear this every day. I have 2 founders who approached me saying that they have an investor who reached out to them asking them to invest in their business. One of the founders is a whiz. He knows AI. He's a computer programmer. And the other one, he's in the entertainment industry and he knows his space really well. But both don't have a lot of experience on the business side. They don't know a lot about mergers and acquisitions and investments. So they're talking about equity and how much they want to give of their company to this investor. What I shared with them is, Don't rush into an equity discussion even though the investment might look very, very attractive because when you have investors and you have business partners with you, there's a lot at stake. You're giving part of your business, part of the ownership that you have of your business to someone else.