Story of Simon Birch
People often ask about my inspirations and how I developed @the14thfactory. This is my story...
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Money. Pt 1.
Since LA, I spent a year in London trying and failing to build a new 14th factory and then NYC, as well as scouting many places around the world. I have probably re-designed the project for over 20 sites in the last few years.
The main hurdle is funding. The previous project was run as a non-profit and we couldn't get any kind of sponsorship and came out with zero in the bank, so I decided to change tactics, going for-profit instead.
I set up an LLC, organized a board of directors, upper management, advisory committee, office address and everything necessary. This went well as, after LA, lots of people wanted to get involved. With this set up I developed a proposal that demonstrated the value of the project, and the market potential, and therefore sell a part of the company to investors who would in return profit from every project in the future as we moved it around the world. This investment would fund the new project.
Sounds simple right?
We initially got seed money from a dozen friends who invested small amounts, this allowed us to function. But anytime we got a site and did the budgets, we would seek out the main funding, and holy moly, what a nightmare it's been. I've taken investors to site visits, gotten huge favours to endorse us, pulled together huge board room events, done endless sparkling presentations and created a hundred tailor-made pitch decks for all kinds of people with the means to invest.
It has been the most depressing process of my life. I've seen much bullshit and met many wealthy people with little vision, who were simply born into money, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
It is humiliating putting yourself in front of people and getting looked down on.
Not all rich are awful, I have some great friends who are wealthy and kind and generous but in my direct experience of fundraising it's been 100 no's at least. worse, some yes's, who then, when it came time to write the cheque.....vanished. Finding rich people to listen to your investment pitch is hard but finding one that gets it is even harder. Imagine being George Lucas in 1977 pitching a film about a golden robot and a man with a laser sword.
