Be Like Mike!

What a day! I spent the vast majority of the AM and early PM preparing for a meeting with my friend, Mike, who works at a top investment bank that focuses on media. Mike's already been a HUGE help to us by introducing me to an executive at Comcast; that introduction led to Comcast's request for a Jan. '09 meeting to discuss a potential VOD partnership. Yowsers! Okay, focus...back to Mike. So, I presented him the revised investor presentation, which reflected our modified strategy. Over the course of the past year or so, we recognized we had to rethink some of the revenue streams. It turns out NOT doing that kind of evaluation is a classic entrepreneurial mistake. Mike mentioned many entrepreneurs get so fixated on their ideas and so mired in the day-to-day details of trying to get the business off the ground, they don't take the time to step back and consider the big picture, i.e., evaluate progress, viability of the original strategies, new opportunities, industry research, etc. Go us! Anyhoo, I was a bit nervous to show Mike the proposal b/c I have a huge amount of respect for him and, as I mentioned, he's been immensely helpful; I just wanted to validate his efforts by showing we know what we're doing and can articulate why and how we're going to make Cinedulce a success. And, guess what?? He said it was great! More importantly, he thinks we totally made the right decisions in terms of the refined approach and thinks we're right on target. I mean, talk to me! Next steps: he's going to make a few more key introductions and, in the meantime, we're going to keep trucking along. We need to keep building and, hopefully, by the time we reach potential investors in Q1 '09, we'll have an even stronger story with even stronger proofs of concept. When that time comes, he may even have some investor intros for us. Here's the thing. Although Mike is amazingly generous and supportive, there is a potential business upside for him: when the time comes to sell this baby in 5 +/- years (our 'exit strategy' as the investment biz likes to call it), Mike's firm will hopefully handle the sale. Nothing like looking towards the future, huh? ;) So, all in all, we pretty much love Mike. As the old Gatorade ad went, everyone should "Be Like Mike". And, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're either too young or too oblivious to pop culture since that Mike is arguably the most famous athlete of our generation (and, no, it's not Michael Phelps..jeez!). ;)
Lator gators,
Liz
(P.L.H.H.)