Funding a launch

Funding a launch

What type of funding?
There was no funding, no capital, no investments… it was very low -cost, meaning there was a structure that didn’t cost anything, I has no salary as founder, for one… things were moving forward and we did what we could to pay once revenues started coming in from the publication of the guide.

Any funding you would recommend?
I didn’t pinpoint any specific funding. I must say I was at an age where I didn’t really go looking, it didn’t seem right for me to be able to access funding and the context wasn’t like today with so much focus on startups. The term didn’t even exist or wasn’t used. We were just another company getting started. Started by a younger person in a sector… where there weren’t many companies being launched at the time. But I didn’t identify any funding. A few years earlier I had benefited from some funding which was a European grant… which really helped me out when I started out at 18 making some some small magazines, it helped absorb some early mistakes because when you make mistakes starting out you lose money on things you didn’t prepare properly where you got mixed up in your numbers, etc. So it was really great to have some European financial backing at 18 or 19 years old, to take those first steps.

Was it lacking for you?
It may sound strange but pressure to be profitable is very healthy for a company. You shouldn’t get used to having public grants you shouldn’t get used to investors expecting a late return. I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to finances and I like short time-frames, for things to be profitable within fairly short time-frames.

When to invest?
You can make risky investments if you can afford to lose what you injected. If you can’t you shouldn’t do it. You need to use common sense which over the years keeps you from needing external capital.