选择慢成长的五家创业公司

面对贪得无厌的投资者

公司名称：“我的婚礼工作簿”公司

地点：科罗拉多州，丹佛

年销售额：“六位数出头”

    2011年4月，当地一位天使投资人表示有兴趣为基于网络的项目管理软件Planning Pod提供资金支持，商业合伙人杰夫•基尔和共同创始人史蒂芬•费恩格茨非常激动。当时他们正在与Basecamp等等已经形成气候的竞争者进行较量，真好用得上外部投资。但他们后来发现，这些投资者其实只愿意投资20,000美元，但却希望获得公司20%的股权，外加年收益的20%。此外，这些投资者还想拥有4次额外的机会，每次以5,000美元换取5%的股权。这两位合伙人的直觉告诉他们，不能接受这个交易。基尔说：“它肯定会搞垮我们。”

    这两位企业家将他们的首个成功产品“我的婚礼工作簿”所获得的收益投入到了新产品的开发当中。他说：“我还是宁愿利用自身力量，用我们已经获得的收益来继续发展。”他们也是这么做的，为其技术承包商提供股权，而不是支付开发费用。基尔说：“我们的开发商现在已经跟公司坐在一条船上，因此他们非常积极主动。”此外，这家四人小企业已经将一部分资金预留出来以作市场营销之用。

When investors get greedy

Company: My Wedding Workbook

Location: Denver, Colo.

Annual sales: "Low six figures."

    When a local angel investor expressed interest in funding the development of their web-based project management software called Planning Pod in April 2011, business partners Jeff Kear and his co-founder Steven Feingertz got excited. They were taking on well-established competitors like Basecamp and could have used the money. But it turned out that the investors, who were going to pony up $20,000, wanted a 20% the company in exchange, plus 20% of annual revenues; the investor would have four additional opportunities to buy 5% of the firm for about $5,000. Their instincts told them to back away. "It would really cripple us," says Kear.

    The two entrepreneurs had been investing revenues from their first successful product, My Wedding Workbook, into building the new one. "I would rather bootstrap it and use the revenue we're already bringing in to bump it along," he says. And that's what they did, offering their tech contractors equity instead of paying development fees. "Our developers now have a vested interest in the success of the company and have shown great initiative," says Kear. Plus, the four-employee firm has freed up cash for marketing.