The opening keynote with Addie Schwartz, Founder and CEO of B*tween Productions (what an inspirational presentation!), just let out and my laptop is up and running at one of our first panel sessions of the day, How it Really Happens: Lessons from Accomplished Entrepreneurs. A very appropriate topic for Babson! There are three women on the panel, all who have built successful companies, sometimes more than one.

 

The first question revolves around finding the money and how to do it...what do you do when there's a cash crunch? One of the panelists, Jackie Bassett M'93, CEO, BT industrials Inc; Author, So You Built It and They Didn't Come. Now What?, just explained that for her it's all about cash flow...know who will pay for what and why they will buy it from you! She recommended that if you have a service company, as she does, not to go to a VC before you have customers and are making a good margin on what you are doing. If you have a VC invest in your company she says to shake them down for their contacts! They are bringing more to the table than dollars.