(9/12) “We couldn’t believe our luck. It was the happiest thing that had happened to us
(9/12) “We couldn’t believe our luck. It was the happiest thing that had happened to us in a long time. They paid for all our flights. They booked us a room in a fancy hotel. And the night we arrived in Hong Kong, they took us to dinner at a Michelin star restaurant. At the table there was a whole team of advisors, from several different countries. It felt like something big was about to happen. Rahim and I spent the night practicing our pitch, and in the morning we travelled to the father’s office. It was on the top floor of a tower. We made our presentation. An Ivy League analyst questioned us about the financials. The father was clearly the one in charge, but they’d also flown in one of their uncles from Silicon Valley. He was dressed like a yogi. I think he taught billionaires how to meditate, or something. And after our presentation he was the first one to speak. He said: ‘Do you believe in numerology?’ We weren’t sure how to answer. But then he continued: ‘Nine is a very lucky number,’ he said. ‘And 3 + 5 + 1 = 9. So we’d like to offer you $351,000, for one-third of the company.’ It was much less than we’d hoped, but at least we had an offer. Unfortunately he wasn’t finished. He said: ‘If the business fails, we want all our money back. With 9 percent interest.’ Rahim and I looked at each other across the room. We were completely out of money. Our credit cards were maxed out. We were more beaten down than we’d ever been before. But we knew what the answer would be. Rule number one: no decisions out of desperation. After that trip we gave up on finding investors. We knew our only chance was to raise money from people who loved the drink, so we decided to hold an equity crowdfunding campaign. We sent the link to everyone on our contact list. A few of our friends wrote small checks, but most of the investments came from random people. These were people we’d met along the way. Maybe they’d passed our booth at a festival, and met these two brothers, selling this weird drink. And they decided to give it a try. And they loved it. So they followed along with our story. In the end we raised $182,450 from 261 different people. It was just enough to keep us going.” -- source link
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