Week 8: reading reflection

Okay, I'm not sure if it's because I've never thought about sources of capital, or if I had misconceptions about capital, but there were quite a few things that were new to me this week. Right off the bat, the types of capital, it never would have occurred to me that family and friends were sources of capital, but it's so obvious. Would donors on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites be considered friends/family? They don't fit the criteria of Angels, even though the title sounds like it would fit. 
 
Let's back up a little bit. I have seriously thought about leaving urban life and becoming a farmer. Side note: for anyone who has had similar thoughts I recommend reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. So in this fantasy where I start farming, it's usually subsistence farming, but, on occasion, I think about becoming a nonprofit business that provides food and other products to a whole community. I've been putting aside money already (owner's money), and though I wouldn't ask friends or family for money, I know it is common for farmers to have community help, primarily from other farmers. At that point, I would skip the next few steps and get government help through the USDA. 

Because of the nature of my entrepreneurial (sort of) adventure, the route I would take is different from other entrepreneurs. For example, an IPO made sense for Facebook but wouldn't be status quo for a farm. Going to a commercial bank is plausible for a farm endeavor but not advisable because of the nature of farming and the potential of payback issues. 

The prospect of inviting a venture capitalist on board is frightening despite the myth dispelling. I enjoy watching Shark Tank from time to time, but having to pitch an idea to the sharks...even if I was successful, success would mean sharing my business with someone else. Again, farming is not the kind of idea that would appeal to a venture capitalist anyway; it's the wrong forum completely. For someone with a revolutionary product who needed connection for production and distribution, Shark Tank would be brilliant, and I do appreciate the portrayal of the pitch process. The reading's major category screening criteria fit with the show's model, what the sharks look at and who is ultimately chosen to receive capital. 

On the whole, this week's reading gave me a lot to think about. For anyone who stumbled to the blog from outside the ENT3003 family, we're looking at Kuratko, Chapter 8: Sources of Capital for Entrepreneurial Ventures. There are some ideas here that I want to apply to my fantasy plan, helpful things to look at in composing and evaluating my business plan. In the future, I would like to see clarification about crowdfunding as it pertains to sources of capital. Is crowdfunding a new category? A subset of an existing category? Give me answers!