I think one of the biggest surprises I learned about in this chapter was venture capitalists. I had heard this term before but I thought it was just a fancy name for entrepreneur. Little did I know these people are actually investors. They invest in business ventures and provide capital to these ventures for mostly start-ups, early stage or expansion ventures.
I have to admit that this chapter was definitely in an area that is not my expertise. Capital, lending, crowdfunding and financing are all terms that I would not say I truly understood coming into this chapter. I read this chapter multiple times in order to grasp the concepts that were presented and most of them eventually made sense. The only section I think still generates the most confusion is the private placement section and the rules that are listed within that section.
From watching the television show Shark Tank I have heard of the term crowdfunding before but it isn't defined really well on the show. The book talks about it being a 21st century phenomenon, my question pertains to present day companies. Are there any big companies that are successful today that needed or utilized crowdfunding to finance their business early in their startup?
The other question I have about this chapter in the text book is about Initial Public Offerings (aka an IPO). The text mentions several advantages and disadvantages to making this decision but doesn't really discuss the motivation for companies to go public. For example after the success Facebook was having, why did the owner elect to go public?
I don't think there was information that the author was incorrect about. As I stated in a previous paragraph a lot of this information was new to me and there wasn't a lot of knowledge I had on the subject to compare it to.
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