Sources of Capital for Entrepreneurial Ventures - Week 8 Reading Reflection

1)    What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

 What surprised me the most about this reading was the Financing Continuum was that I didn’t thought that there were that many options for startups to obtain finance. In other words, I was not aware of all the investors that actually invest on new ventures. I thought that only the really promising ideas where able to receive a significant investment from investors. I believe that this should be a significant aspect to have in mind for entrepreneurs as they  decide to run a new business because one of the most important characteristics for new ventures is to have the necessary resources as they might face different obstacles throughout the growth of the business.

2)    Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was confused by the Figure 8.2 on page 222 where the author includes a chart describing the Venture Capitalist System of Evaluating Product/Service and Management. I believe that the author could provide a better description of this graph as it could be important for readers to have the information included on this page.

3)    If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

If I could ask the author two questions I would ask him the following:

·         Is there any relationship between the type of financing that an entrepreneur is able to get based on the culture and/or country in which the new venture will take place?

·         Is the Financial Continuum applicable all around the world, or it only works on that structure in the U.S?

4)    Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

It was hard for me to find something that was not explained in the right way or anything that I thought the author was wrong about. However, I believe that in page 212 the author states three disadvantages of debt financing that should be reviewed.

·         Regular (monthly) payments are required.

·         Continual cash-flow problems can be intensified because of payback responsibility

·         Heavy use of debt can inhibit growth and development.

         I believe that the three points above should not be considered as disadvantages of          debt financing, in fact, I believe that they should be considered as obligations                that are required in exchange of the financial assistance.