We hope everyone is safe and healthy! 

Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a remote panel discussion alongside Molly Otter from Sage Growth Capital (and formerly of Lighter Capital) regarding RBF at the Angel Capital Association’s annual summit. It was a great discussion and we covered a lot of topics including a basic primer, but also why this form of financing is so useful to entrepreneurs. One of the key questions was around the cost of RBF, i.e., why would an entrepreneur take RBF investment. I really enjoyed the discussion as it zeroed in on the cost of capital, and where RBF fits on the continuum in terms of both risk and reward (or cost from the entrepreneur’s point of view). It was also a pleasure to learn from Molly, who has been an RBF investor for a while, having helped Lighter grow substantially in a short period of time. 

Facebook Survey

We conducted a short/small FB survey last month about how you all advise your portfolio CEOs. Based on the FB poll we conducted in April, it looks like most respondents advised portfolio companies to assume 6+ months of revenue slowdown, and there is an even split of folks advising CEOs to manage cash to create 18mos of runway and assume that no new capital will be available to them this year.  A key question I have here is: How do you get 18 months of cash if you were running thin before, or if you didn't just raise a bunch of money?

It also looks like a couple investors have paused their activities until the dust settles, while more are continuing their current pace.  I'm curious to find out what metrics drive comfort with a return to investing in these cases.   

I hope you all have an opportunity to join the FB group and share your thoughts, ask your questions, and help each other in this time of uncertainty and crisis. Speaking of which...

Connect With Us

Join the RBFN Facebook group!

This is a great way to help us all connect more directly and easily. And I know from the conversations I've had with all of you, that connection is what you really want. Yes, I know, some of you don’t like FB. Frankly, I don’t either. But it is the most commonly used platform for connecting and it’s easy to gather there to share questions and insight. If you have questions about how to approach a problem in your work, smart people in that group can help you find solutions. 
We now are over 50 people strong in the group now - head on over and be a part of the conversation!