green-organic boot-strap v.c funding in south park l.a: hope RIZE

Friday, May 15, 2009

 

the hopeRIZE fund:finding and boot strap funding GREEN-ORGANIC entreprenenuers

today, brett and I will be filing the securities and exchange paperwork for the hopeRIZE fund: moving toward solution-first round financing for young, dynamic, highly innovative future GREEN ORGANIC entrepreneurs: core component attribute: the startup(s) must be HQ downtown southpark l.a. within the four block LUNA-EVO-EVO SOUTH-FLOWER STREE LOFT schema.

we look forward to working with South Park stake holders to advance this goal.

-martin cavanaugh porter III and brett h tomich.

questions? you can email: info@southparkbusinessincubator.biz 

50-for-500 club

we cannot remain locked in a disparate darkness of financial road blocks to innovation. 

the best time to innovate, invest, and grow is through a recession by supporting groundbreaking start up-entrepreneurs who often lack the ‘get in the door’ credentials to accelerate their product to market and reach the payback period to investors. 

the los angeles business war room round table must assist start-ups and on-going businesses receive a degree of credit from suppliers, obtain second rounds of financing, and have access to state-of-the art technology to leverage their innovation and bring their product or service to market. 

let us look at the present value, beta, efficiency frontier modelling through the lens: degree to which we can support an innovator succeed.

credit scores: one part of a whole- many individuals credit scores have taken a hit these last years and/or young men and women don’t have enough credit history to have an adequate score.

Let us move beyond the obvious in our collective thinking “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein.

 lets also talk about: innovation scores (can product or service be brought to market or improved and be re-branded in short order with a reasonable expectation of success) and credibility scores (what is the individual’s relationship with his freinds and family like-this is a prime new way of balancing a potentially low credit score). full due-diligence adding criteria that allows for a more balanced view of the potential investment. 

 

brett and I propose the  50 for 500 club to begin to provide direct, technical,branding, ongoing strategic advice and limited financial ‘boot strap’ assistance to one potential innovative, entrepreneurial  graduate from the USC Marshall School of Business through the South Park Business Incubator (a private business incubator, a business  unit of the South Park Development Group). much more to come about the 50 for 500 club in the days ahead.

 south park biz incubator (also called la biz incubator) would provide legal, technical, office, branding and marketing assistance (unlimited email marketing campaign blasts, free, best of breed website-on line ecommerce presence, viral-SEO marketing, business planning, and assistance in 2nd and third round financing) for the life of the start-up company, taking a 10% interest.

members of the 50 for 500 club in return for each member putting up a $500.00 stake in the venture, collectively own 10% interest.

it’s a new model: double down on the angel  investor model and drive innovation and the hopes of start-up businessmen and women.

the 50 for 500 club will be on the agenda  at the first war room round table.

questions? ideas? email: btomich@southparkbusinessincubator.biz or mcporter@southparkbusinessincubator.biz

entreprenuer magazine blog posting on forbes legacy ventures llc-l.a biz incubator inc

flvllc.com

entrepreneur magazine’s blog has said of forbes legacy ventures llc’s model is that it is a hybrid v.c, branding, ecommerce organization both % -equity based and or fee based that is the first organization that seems to be flexible enough to provide concrete, universal solutions to small-medium businesses. they have integrated business consulting with v.c allowing small business access to technologically complex solutions and focused growth strategies at a very reasonable rate….”

forbes legacy ventures llc is so pleased to announce that they are being closely watched by business week , whole foods blog, and the real estate industry report: they are humbled-they feel it is thier duty to  live up to the accolades…..forbes legacy ventures llc- the south park development group-l.a biz incubator will endeavor every day, in every way to provide maximum value to its clients

is downtown south park l.a ready for an organic farmer’s market?

a farmers market for the downtown los angeles south park community

posted by: martin cavanaugh porter III & brett h tomich (respectively ceo and cdo of flvllc and the south park development group)

full disclosure first posted on our corporate blog: http://revanchistgroup.blogspot.com/ (www.flvllc.com)

flv llc/south park development group is a micro-vc, biz dev company headquartered in south park los angeles.

almost all of it’s principal members also live in south park los angeles.

first state the obvious: we are intent on being a central player regarding the mix of businesses that land in south park through our v.c and through our growing efforts to promote south park.

ergo, we want to do everything we can to increase the value of south park in terms of our investments (be that directly in real estate or, as a vc-biz dev, in the companies’ we locate to south park-and to downtown in general) and the quality of life for the residents, stake holders, and current businesses in south park.

we are passionate about south park l.a -we are in the arena:

“….the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly….” – T.R

we are moving forward with preliminary studies of an organic farmer’s market for south park l.a. it is in first stages-we have strong contacts with current farmer’s mkts but we need to develop our analytics on this and come to some reasonable conclusions regarding feasibility.

we want feed back from the community and have started putting out feelers. brett and i will keep you posted and also provide you with the feed back we get: why stake holders were or were not interested and what their reasons were.

we will also share with you our #’s-our feasibility study.

thoughts? email us at: mcporter@flvllc.com

flash post:a business incubator you need

posted by martin cavanaugh porter III and brett h tomich with forbes legacy ventures llc & the south park development group (inquiries@flvllc.com)

brett and I are going to be posting on downtownlabiz.com about something unique and important that is being developed in south park l.a for businesses in downtown los angeles: a private business incubator for start-ups, offering new businesses, businesses in distress, or ongoing businesses an opportunity to gain valuable advice and take their businesses back to stability and profitability.

stay posted, more to come…..

josh gray-emmer: building on success

http://www.loftseven.com

posted by brett tomich & martin cavanaugh porter III- forbes legacy ventures llc & the south park development group (www.flvllc.com)

i (martin) have tracked Josh’s career from afar for awhile-he’s a marketing visionary (and a genuinely nice guy to boot).

as biz-dev guy and, to a degree, a brander, the model that josh gray-emmer came up with three years ago (see link below) at the end of post) was sheer mastery: low fixed costs, maximum monetizing, to a degree verifiable by all the publicity that resulted from his campaigns.

http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2004/09/06/news/news04.txt

josh gray-emmer has taken that experience and leveraged it at the HAAS Building/LoftSEVEN (links below), turning the property and its event’s rooftop into work of branding-marketing-business art-just phenomenal.

http://www.LOFTSEVEN.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haas_Building

basically, emmer has gone from software (marketing that is difficult, often to verify result-all though in his case, the models our company, forbes legacy ventures llc ran four years ago when studying his methodology showed you could argue verification through amount of free p.r that resulted from his model-which then resulted in overall increase in the business emmer was repping sale’s: we even put an approx (very approx) dollar figure to it-it was very high) to hardware (investing time, energy, and dollars in a bricks-and-mortar project).

more than that josh gray-emmer has made a stand in downtown los angeles-and we, at forbes legacy ventures llc – the south park development group, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

how much do we appreciate josh gray-emmer’s stand in the middle of a downturn? enough to put into this post one of the author’s (martin) favorite quotes:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”- Teddy Roosevelt

SouthPark L.A: Lets get to brass tacks-how to thrive as a business in South park (excerpt from www.southparkla.com)

Doing Business In South Park L.A: A road map to thrive and build (posted by Martin Cavanaugh Porter III, CEO Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC, TomichPorter Inc-Revanchist)

Our focus as a micro-vc, biz-dev firm in partnership with an internationally renowned ecommerce/web development firm (think Puma’s website and ecommerce solution, Hewlett Packard’s website and ecommerce solution, Sprint’s website and ecommerce solution, SBC website and ecommerce solution etc…think best-of-breed) is to bring a solid, hip mix of businesses to South Park L.A. and back them with strong financing and a powerful, blended mix of marketing tools, strategies and tactics.

We’ve said it before: in three (four?) years, South Park will be stabilized. In five to six years, The Manhattan of Los Angeles.

Our goal is to be pioneering amongst affluence. Though the lease rates are low, and many spaces are left vacant, and many developers are in deep trouble, the average income of residents and their education levels, are very high. The actual client mix is very good.

In order to for existing businesses to reach stabilization (reach the point at which their burn-rate=income) or new businesses that want to open in South Park, catering to its residents, they must engage in the following: A Targeted, niched, core focused, intense, and continued multi-tiered marketing campaign backed by the finances to do so.

What does that look like?

Concretely: Bricks and Mortar, Service, Retailers, Developers, Brokers, Realtors, Lawyers, Business Centers, Consultants, the list is endless: Businesses of all types must build into their budgeting and forecasting three years of meaningful capital outlays for marketing and action the following:

• Powerful best-of-breed website
• Highly monestizable, On Line eCommerce presence (online store-whatever it is you are selling-services or products-whatever it is)
• Supported by…..
• Targeted DMC: Direct Mail Campaigns (once monthly).
• Targeted Email Mkt Campaigns: (bi-monthly).
• Google AD Sense Campaigns (ongoing).
• Multiple Feeder Blogs: Tagging and meta-tagging your business onto Google with daily postings (daily-twice, three times daily).
• Social Networking: One coffee a day, three outreach events per week, walk the blocks, shake hands, be present= the potential tipping point that is word of mouth
• Find Three Local Stake-Holder Mentors-engage them, learn from them, give them as much as you ask for-give them value as you get advice and as they act as your calling card in the community (if you don’t give value on some level-emotional, actual, some kind of deliverable, your out of the game when it comes to mentors).

All of the above must be built on the following five foundations

1. Doable, monthly, year in, year out marketing budgets (supported by analytics and actual $ deliverables)
2. Low (really low) fixed costs:-drive tough bargains that still create win-wins
3. Multiple Stakeholders who want you to succeed.
4. Consistency in Marketing- systematized, creative, calendered.

Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC/TomichPorter Inc (Revanchist) is a massive South Park L.A booster.

I live here-work here-and see phenomenal benefits in businesses relocating to SouthPark or staying and in engaging in a formalized, process-driven turn-around strategy.

BOTTOM LINE:

UNLESS YOU DO ALL OF THE ABOVE WELL, YOUR CHANCES OF TURNING THE SHORT TERM NEGATIVES OF DOING BUSINESS IN SOUTH PARK LOS ANGELES INTO HUGE LONG TERM UPSIDES ARE SLIM TO NIL. ALL OF IT, EVERY COMPONENT MUST BE ACTIONED AND EXECUTED AT THE HIGHEST STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL LEVEL.

“Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.” -Charles De Gaulle

downtownlabiz.com: ‘Eco Freindly Growth’-redacted, excerpt Business Week, May 4, 2009

Posted by Martin Cavanaugh Porter III, CEO and by Brett H Tomich, CIO FLV LLC,TomichPorter Inc-Revanchist

“Green proucts sure aren’t withering away in the recession. Sales at US natural-food stores jumped 10.9% in 2008 to $4.2 billion and whilst growth started to slacked in the fourth quarter is still surpassed 7% in December, which beats results at some of the best performing grocery retailers like Costco and Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, packaged-good companies have launched 458 green products such as cleaners, toilet paper, and diapers so far this year – despite the premium prices.”

This was our first post in our blog: www.southparkla.com- vigor, action, and intent-the way forward

Authored by: Martin Cavanaugh Porter II, CEO Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC & Tomich Porter Inc-Revanchist

Full Disclosure: Martin, Brett and the FLV-TomichPorter Inc-Revanchist team author and manage http://www.downtownlabiz.com and http://www.recessionkillerblog.com

I live and work in our SouthPark L.A neighborhood. I am the CEO of a  micro v.c and an ecommerce-branding business development firm and we’ve just headquartered our offices in SouthPark in the last three months at The Hope Business Center. Nick Van Parys, proprietor of The Hope Business Center, is an exemplar of customer service and willingness to do what it takes to help business-in this case, ours. We look forward to future, fruitful activities with him. He has our respect and sincere thanks.

I’ve been wondering  what http://www.southparkla.com’s first post subject should focus on and I’ve decided that this, our first post, should be a clear statement of intent: My team and I (all the members of Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC/Tomich Porter Inc are partners-we have no employees and so are fully committed and invested with passion and commitment to build the best organization we can for ourselves and for the community).

Declaration of Intent: Forbes-TomichPorter Inc will be a powerful, centralizing force in the South Park Los Angeles District-actively developing business in the neighborhood and bringing positive mix of  businesses and merchants to our community.

We’re putting our money (literally) where our mouth is:  Two of our clients will be relocating to South Park Los Angeles as a direct result of our efforts (business planning, financing, branding et al…). Both are absolutely positive additions:

A full scale health and wellness center (A Revitalization Center) complete with yoga, massage, acupuncture, and a multitude of other wellness programs.

A true green-organic ‘human-safe’ organic contemporary furniture store: How true? We will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with Micheal Van Parys, renowned Green LEED Consultant (and also a resident and stake holder in South Park)to insure that when the product goes live on the web, via an on line store and when the  bricks and mortar retail store opens both the furniture and the process of creating the furniture is human-safe and fundamentally green in nature. It’s about building confidence and being a  pioneer in South Park Los Angeles.

We’ve only just begun and we would like you to join us: Residents, Realtors, developers, merchants, landlords, Home Owner Associations, all the stake holders in South-Park,  join us, talk to us, email us, call us, let’s discuss projects, and with vigor and grace build a tremendous community.

As for us: Our focus is  South Park and developing business in South Park. Period. Look forward to hearing from you- to connecting, engaging, and growing together.

Final Note: Are the posts at our various blogs (downtownlabiz.com, recessionkillerblog.com, southparkla.com, and our corporate blog, revanchistgroup.com) wordy?  Yes. Why? We assume our audience is sophisticated, educated, and engaged. We’ve got lots to say-hope you stay in touch and read on, and, importantly respond.

Email: MCPorter@FLVLLC.COM/ MCPorter@RevanchistGroup.Com

Our Phone #: 001 213 550 4460

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.” – Napolean Bonaparte