nielsenandcompany.com | the blog

We are writing a report with the working title: “Where were we without advertising?”

The report will among other things raise issues dealing with financial, public, social, psychological as well as philosophical matters. The report will constitute a white-paper for the advertising industry when working with opinion creation.

Before we set the structure, we would like some biased/unbiased input. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Dear John

I have a friend with a really good web 2.0 project that I am seeking finance for. We have received a lot of good feedback on the functionality and the looks of the site, and now I want to go forward seeking finance. How should I go about it? PS. We haven’t really started the project yet.

Dear oh dear,

your friend should first of all ask whether he or she is committed to the project or not. If the person is not so much committed that he/she will start up or continue without finance, the person should quit wasting other people’s time presenting it. Besides business opportunities, investors look for personality and commitment. If your friend is not interested in investing his commitment or personality in the project before seeking financing, it is a dead project.

My best suggestion would be that the person in question commit before seeking finance, for example by starting the project, trying it out, checking customer interest and then get back to me.

—

Previously posted in the Facebook-group Dear John, 24 August. The reason for re-publishing it in our own blog is that we still get wannabe-entrepreneurs telling about their great idea. Their problem is that they haven’t the ambition or the drive to go on or even start up without finance on products and services that doesn’t need an early stage-financing. Think about it: if you were true to your heart, would you as a VC invest in some project or somebody not willing to commit? I wouldn’t.

Yesterday some representatives from our Stockholm-team visited the first European presentation of the new 3D-generation.

Although there were some minor technical issues during the presentation that needed to be resolved and that there may be some minor ethical issues to be sorted out during product launch, we can promise you that there will be some nice 3D going your way during 2008 - wherever you are in the world.

PS. We should consider substituting the concept of 3D with 4D. Most of the time nowadays, we are actually talking about four dimensions: Height; Width; Depth; and Time. DS.