With complementary assets, we handle tangible and intangible resources that are critical to the establishment and growth of your business.
What complementary assets involve tangible and intangible resources
Tangible assets, such as:
- Money
- Hardware
- Real estate
Intangibles, such as:
- Knowledge
- Relations
- Intellectual property
In addition to patents and trademarks that may fall into some of these two categories, they are things that matter to us as we seek to build complementary assets for our new venture.
Where might your advantages lie?
So I want to think about where our advantages lie. Want to think about what we know? What relationships do we have and what is our financial capital? So all of these are important for the new adventure.
Relationships are something across LinkedIn that is incredibly easier to build now than it used to be. So with my LinkedIn account I was able to maintain and grow some of these relationships through LinkedIn.
What you can also do with LinkedIn is that it gives you a chance to connect with people you may have worked with previously, either in university settings, company settings, high school settings, or other settings and you can reconnect with people.
I think one of the most valuable bits is that you can see who they are attached to, hence this category of linkage.
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| Quarterly report from leading consultancy Price Warehouse Cooper |
We also want to know what we know and what are the exciting industries to have the opportunity to raise capital in. What we see here is a quarterly report from leading consultancy Price Warehouse Cooper.
Where do they go, arrange and evaluate industries that are acquired in the course of financing. And we can see here software, biotechnology, medical devices, all the areas where a lot of funding is being raised.
As we trace to the right, we can see how much increase was collected in a given quarter, what percentage of the total trades were represented, as well as how many trades were acquired within that category.
How many dollars of venture capital has been put behind the number of companies that have received funding. The first way to receive this funding is through your relationships.
See: Entrepreneur: Who is He, Works, Examples, Skills and Types
How to beware of large companies
So we also want you to beware of starting a company in an area where the company with the most money is profiting. What we mean by that is that large companies usually have a lot more money than small companies.
And what we want to stand out as entrepreneurs is our knowledge. What do we know? As well as the relationships we might have.
Knowledge and relationships are a lot easier for you to develop as an entrepreneur than it is to find your way to a lot of money. Inversely, as entrepreneurs, we want to realize that knowledge and relationships are hard to replicate.
While getting money is not easy, it is easier than building knowledge and building relationships.
This way, we want to focus on the business, as entrepreneurs, where knowledge and relationships are more important than just getting some money.
Where does the money come from?
Well, you probably want some money or need some money. We want to realize here that the majority of startups are funded by entrepreneurs.
Some money would then come from family members. There may be other partners involved as well.
The part of venture capital that you hear about a lot is actually a small piece of money that is usually raised by startups.
We find that in this context, relationships play a large role as well. And that personal savings not just for the individual starting the company but for the team is a big part of what it takes to get moving and getting started.
See: 15 Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
Money from CrowdFunding
CrowdFunding is another thing you may have heard of. CrowdFunding is emerging in the US and arguably more advanced in some other areas, including Europe, where people can go online and raise money for their projects.
It is usually geared towards raising funds in a pre-sale context, where you sell a product that is not yet available.
Or maybe there's a gift of some kind, people contribute money and get coffee mugs and T-shirts and things like that. But there is also an emerging equity crowdfunding opportunity taking shape, which is to give money to ownership in the company.
This is something that, again, is developing in different parts of the world, not yet available in the United States. Not yet available everywhere but equity-based financing is something on its way.
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| A picture showing the amount of funding |
In this context, we see some companies doing some great things. From Canada, Pebble Watch raised $10 million via CrowdFunding.
So we see a lot of money being raised in this crowdfunding area. Again, a large part of it depends on the knowledge and relationships of the entrepreneurs, the money came later and it came from a lot of small individuals, the crowd.
Again, there is further evidence that your knowledge really matters and that invention or innovation really matters. You can find funds later from several sources.
Summary
What complementary assets are most important to the industry and to the interest market is something we want you to consider. We want you to really focus on building your knowledge and experience.
And think about the complementary assets of relationship building relationships that you may not have yet. Renew relationships that you may have lost, and maintain your current relationships.
You may need some other people's money but I wouldn't make that a concern for now good ideas can find investment, think complementary assets. Think about building your knowledge and relationships.