Quote: (12-29-2014 09:17 PM)BasketBounce Wrote:
That being said, "fishes" is just a term. Have you read the book? He uses fishes in contrast to sharks and dolphins. Fishes conveys a sense of goodwill and togetherness and essentially harmlessness. Venture capitalists and bankers that give out loans in return for ownership of your company are referred to as dolphins and sharks respectfully because they ultimately end up tearing you down to keep you afloat. Fish are friends, dolphins and sharks aren't.
Ah, I haven't read the book. In that sense of the word then I completely agree with him. Personally I wouldn't take a loan before I had a solid plan for generating cash flow in the near future. I would make repayment of the loan contingent on generating the expected cash flow. If friends and family want to fund my ventures I'll tell them exactly what their money is going towards but make no promises to pay it back if things don't go well. The last time I did this I setup a blog so people could see how I was spending their money. In that case the venture didn't go anywhere so I paid them in trade by giving them whatever products I'd made up to the point I decided to close up shop. I also explained very clearly why things weren't going to work. Everybody had a positive experience and I doubt they'd had problems funding me again if it I was doing something they saw promise in.