Hi yan, Good luck and do keep us posted. I'd be very interested to learn how the Coworking movement prospers in Asian communities and what changes and 'customizations' are needed (if at all) to make it work here.
Regards, Mark On Apr 10, 2009, at 9:37 AM, Liu Yan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Mark, > > Starting with the BarCamp events is a brilliant idea. Actually we > have been organizing our 3S ReUnion - an informal gathering for > professinals from different disciplines for almost a year on the > monthly basis. The salons were so interesting so we wanted to keep > the discussion on the daily basis!! That's why we came up with the > coworking idea. > > Thanks for sharing your thoughts on 'deferred convertible loan.' We > are not really dealing with VC right now, but it is definitely > worthwhile to keep it as our backup plan. Actually we don't really > care if we will lost a bit of the share, the most important thing is > that we achieve an agreement asap so that we will move forward. Just > as you said, " the valuation activity is also easier to do since > the venture already has a track record behind it", then we will be > able to move on the next phrase, either to attract more funding or > starting another venture with other parties. > > cheers, Yan > > 2009/4/9 Mark Maglana <[email protected]> > Hi liu, > > The similarities are surprising indeed and quite uncanny. > > Here's what we plan to do: Depending on the findings of our initial > survey, our next steps are to get a better feel of the community's > needs by organizing BarCamp style events. I'll then be responsible > for coming up with financial scenarios which will serve as sanity > checks for our business plan. > > Thanks for sharing that blog post by godin. I think that his might > be a good example to follow. There is another option available that > I learned about during my research. I've forgotten what term they > use to refer to it but the idea is basically a 'deferred convertible > loan.' the arrangement is basically this: an investor will lend > money to a venture and both parties agree to review this loan after > a certain period. At the end of the period, both parties can agree > to either repay the loan or convert it to a proportionate amount of > sales. The advantage to this is that, aside from reducing the risk > to the VC, the valuation activity is also easier to do since the > centure already has a track record behind it. > > Regards, > > Mark > > On Apr 9, 2009, at 8:54 AM, Liu Yan <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Mark, >> >> >> Glad to see the post from Asia, my compliments to your blog. >> Surprisingly we share so much in common, >> >> Firstly, I am starting my coworking space in Shanghai for the >> similar reasons: >> >> 1. Open a space to support the freelance communities and start-up >> SME's, a not-only-for-profit organization which is rooted in >> knowledge sharing and dissemination. >> 2. Test my findings for my PhD study on culture enterpreneurship >> and creative SME's. >> >> Secondly, at the start phrase, I also got a great numbers of >> supports government officials, creative district owners, investors >> and great numbers of friends. However, when we entered into the >> money phase and finally try to close the deal, the hard time came, >> I have been asked for the business models and sales forcast, and >> mostly importantly, the growth plan. On one hand, I am feeling >> weary to cope with all these pushy ROI demands, on the other hand, >> I consider it as a process I need to go through in order to stay >> sustainable while keeping my belief and value well-established. >> >> A problematic issue I am facing is how I split the equity with the >> landlord/investor. It is a JV on the 50/50 basis, at least as we >> wish. The landlord offers space, facilities and website >> construction cost, my team (3 people) contribute our time to manage >> the space. It is quite difficult to define whether we could get 50% >> share because our contribution is not yet visible. Seth Godin has >> suggested something which I find quite useful: >> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/advice-on-equity.html >> We will keep this as our back-up plan if the landlord disagree on >> our 50% share. >> >> >> Let's keep in touch. >> >> >> >> Liu Yan >> >> >> 2009/4/9 Mark <[email protected]> >> Hello! >> >> I've been lurking in this list for a couple of weeks now while I'm >> still trying to understand coworking and whether it would be a good >> fit for me and my city (Davao City, Philippines). After some >> initial research, I've decided to contact people in my own network >> to study this further. We're now about to conduct a survey to find >> out if it's going to be a sustainable venture. I'm not looking at >> starting this as a for-profit business, but I think it helps to >> make sure that it gets enough funding and is self sufficient so >> that it serves the community well. It's been great hearing from >> everyone in the list and I'm glad to be part of a group that's very >> helpful to each member. >> >> A couple reasons why I'm interested in starting a coworking space: >> >> 1) I'd pay for the service if it was already here (I'm working >> remotely. My employer is in California) >> >> 2) This aligns very well with a post-grad research I did back in >> '07 on business incubation. Starting a coworking space would be an >> opportunity to test the findings. I've uploaded my research paper >> for those who are interested >> (http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/web/business-incubation-20070421.doc >> >> ). This is also published this in my blog at >> technopreneurship.wordpress.com which is mostly a collection of >> random musings. WARNING: the paper sounds boringly academic. >> >> So far what I've done is pitch the idea to a number of people to at >> least see if I'd get a positive response. To my pleasant surprise, >> I got a lot of people interested enough to not only say that they'd >> avail of such a service, but also, I got a number who said they >> want to contribute! >> >> Looking forward to interacting with and learning from you guys some >> more! >> >> Regards, >> >> Mark >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Liu Yan刘妍 >> (+86) 135 2429 5509 >> (+31) 65 160 1788 >> 三术沙龙：http://www.we-need-money-not-art.com/activist >> twitter：www.twitter.com/theliuyan >> >> >> >> >> > > twitter：www.twitter.com/theliuyan > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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