About Robert Martyna, CEO of Tradavo, gives a frank assessment of the fund raising process for entrepreneurs in the never-ending search for venture capitalist firms.
Entrepreneurs have to spend quality time choosing firms and partners who might be receptive to a pitch for investment, begins Robert Martyna. Once a list of firms is compiled, the hopeful entrepreneur will have to gauge just how to get in the door to deliver the pitch. Robert Martyna agrees that this is often a guessing game. Multiply all that time by 10 or 20 different firms and it’s possible to get a sense of just how time consuming this process can be.
Some firms, notes Robert Martyna, CEO of Tradavo, make things easy (or more difficult, depending on your perspective) by replying with a quick “No.” This helps many entrepreneurs get a move on to pitch to the next firm, but it also increases the run around and guesswork.
Robert Martyna says that this is the state of things when there is scarcity. There are more entrepreneurs than there are investment firms, in the same way that there are more unpublished authors than publishing houses. Things can be extremely challenging for a person on their first time out. However, once an entrepreneur gets backing or an author gets published, subsequent success becomes easier.
In light of this reality, Robert Martyna, CEO of Tradavo, can’t help you make your first time easier, but he does have food for thought. The system of entrepreneurs pitching to venture capital firms tends to make VCs to be the gatekeepers of innovation, instead of the entrepreneur themselves. Entrepreneurs, like Robert Martyna, have been consequently inspired to search out alternate means of raising the capital to build companies.
Robert Martyna has founded companies with and without raising venture capital. Acquiring venture capital can remove a significant amount of stress from the start up process, but it also adds new stress from the investors. Starting a company without venture capital can be fraught with anxiety, but Robert Martyna says that kind of stress is all positive. Building a company on your own, says Robert Martyna, leads to better cash efficiency, a deeper understanding of the market, and a more gradual, but perhaps solid and substantial growth.
Robert Martyna, CEO of Tradavo
http://tradavo.com
Robert Martyna served as Managing Partner of Bay Area Principal Management Consultants, providing management consulting services to venture backed start-up companies in retail, enterprise and communications software. Robert Martyna also founded Quintessent Communications in 1997, acting as President and CEO through 1999.