 your investors will require this commitment from you.
What should I expect the size of my business to be?
I would say that 99%+ of subscription businesses will not grow to be worth hundreds of millions or a billion dollars. And, that’s more than OK – that’s great! Running a subscription business can be both lucrative and fun. Part of the beauty of subscription commerce is that we, as consumers, can choose any sort of thing that is highly personal and relevant to us. Maybe it’s bowties or makeup, or dog treats or specialty cheese, perhaps it’s local tickets for things to do in your hometown or seasonal decorations. While it’s not the size of business that most VC s will invest in, they are still amazing businesses to build.
Know Your Target VC’s Goals: What is the size of the fund? What returns are expected? Target and adjust your pitch appropriately.
Subscription Businesses Who Can “Make the Case” Can Be Funded: Big goals don’t mean subscription businesses can’t raise funding. When your business addresses a large market, shows a positive financial model (with high margins), and provides a unique and demonstrable solution to a real problem, you can make the case for venture capital.
Ask Yourself the Right Questions: Business owners who astutely understand their business model – from Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to Lifetime Value (LTV) to Customer Acquisition Costs (CoCA) – equip themselves with the rhetoric needed to speak fluently with investors. Learn it!
Be Passionate about Your Craft: Venture capitalists want to see true passion in their prospective portfolio companies. If you just want to run a small, sustainable company, worrying about venture capital probably shouldn’t be on your list.
I have a true passion for justice, which is what drew me to the practice of law. I believe everyone should have the ability to navigate the legal process. Throughout my career I have tried to achieve this for my clients through a myriad of ways. Prior to joining McBrayer, I would achieve this belief by helping people get through the litigation process, and now I help people navigate government regulations. The government should work for its people, not against its people, and I help government work for my clients. I chose to practice with McBrayer simply because I think it is an example of an excellent Kentucky firm. Our firm has a very proud history, it is large enough to serve its clients’ interests in every regard, but still small enough that it brings a personal touch and long lasting relationship with each client that we represent.
Immediately after law school, I was hired by the Office of Attorney General, Commonwealth of Kentucky as a special attorney. The duties as special attorney included serving as Assistant Project Director for the eWarrants Rural Implementation Grant, which implemented an electronic criminal warrant database in rural jurisdictions across the state.
In 2012, I was hired as an attorney for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, where I served as attorney for the local government both in litigation and corporate counsel capacities. The duties as corporate counsel included evaluation of legal issues, preparation of legal memoranda, contract interpretation and evaluation, representation of various boards and commissions (including Board of Architectural Review, Infrastructure Hearing Board, and Arboretum Advisory Board), ensuring compliance with state and federal statutory obligations, preparation and approval of legislation, and assistance with open records and open meetings issues.
Immediately preceding my current position at McBrayer, I served as Assistant Attorney General for Office of the Attorney General, Commonwealth of Kentucky. My position was specifically within the Office of Civil and Environmental Law, focusing on litigation. My primary practice areas included automobile negligence/insurance defense, civil rights defense, and Constitutional challenges.
Infill and Adaptive Reuse – Is It Right For My Project?
I practice within the firm’s real estate department, where I focus specifically in the area of planning and zoning law, handling a wide variety of land use matters for clients in the private sector. My responsibilities include attending Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment hearings and working with developers, business owners, and government agencies on land use applications and development proposals.
Land use law is very interesting as it is one of few areas in the law where you can actually see tangible results. I work with clients who want to build things, start businesses, and shape the face of Lexington. I think it’s very interesting to play a role in that and the results that it brings to the community at large. I help our clients navigate a potentially confusing and difficult government process to get appropriate approvals and together we build something, which I think is one of the most rewarding things about planning and zoning law. I have done everything from helping clients amend local law to permit new and unique signage to advertise a coming development to petitioning the city government to designate a street as one way to address traffic safety concerns. I work with clients from ideation to fruition, helping make sure projects stay on track. Because of my past experience serving in government, I know how to navigate sometimes complex regulatory environments and get answers and results for my clients.
One of the most rewarding projects I have had the opportunity to participate in was a mixed-use affordable housing development. There were numerous legal issues, including zoning and development plan approvals, administration of a government-issued grant, property transfer, negotiation of easements, and construction related matters. This important project, which will bring vitally needed affordable housing to Lexington, enabled me to utilize my entire skill set in order to work towards a favorable outcome for my client.
Today, more than ever, businesses and their owners are finding themselves in need of legal counsel that is knowledgeable, experienced and highly skilled in navigating through and around the seemingly endless complexities of state, county and local governments. My legal background at various state and local government agencies has afforded me the opportunity to become well versed in government procedures and operations. This governmental leadership experience allows me to aggressively protect and advance my clients' business and political interests within the various government structures across the Commonwealth.
I have extensive knowledge and experience in advising clients regarding issues surrounding government procurement law and regulation at the state, county and local level. I use this knowledge and experience to assist the firm’s clients in drafting and organizing bid responses to requests for proposals and formulating and drafting contract award protests, and to defend clients cited by a government entity for an alleged failure to comply with existing federal, state or local law, statute or ordinance. I also help our clients acquire disadvantaged business certification from certifying government entities.
Following are more details on my capabilities to help businesses in matters concerning procurement.
My knowledge, experience and expertise as a government facilitator translates into direct savings of time and money to my clients because I am skilled in determining the path of least resistance in resolving issues faced by our clients in the areas of regulatory compliance, permitting, licensure, and the open records/open meetings act. Following are some of the activities as to which we help businesses in this area.
Trying to work with the government can be intimidating. Thanks to my connections to the government which I have gained over the course of my legal career through various past employment positions, interactions while representing my clients and relationship building as a community leader, I provide my clients value by making government work for my clients instead of against. A lot of clients find themselves in need of documents, forms, approvals from the government in order to succeed with their project. However, the bureaucratic process can be complex. I am able to help my clients navigate this complex and often times overwhelming process. When you do not know where to start or need someone to weigh in on your side, I can help.
I apologize in advance for the rambling post to follow. More than a specific feature request this is an invitation to consider the entire writing process for a complex fiction or non-fiction project requiring a lot of research, planning, task management, and associated content and how Granthika best fits in the bigger picture of this process.
I tend to do a lot of research, planning, to-do lists, and notations for my writing projects. How should I keep these separate from manuscript scenes? The alternatives I’ve considered within Granthika are to keep worldbuilding and other planning notes either (a) in a separate project, (b) in the Objects section, and or © in the Notes sections associated with Characters, Locations, Events, and Objects. If in a separate project, the scenes could then serve for planning notes. Ideally, if using this method, Granthika would provide convenient ways to reference and link to content in one project from another project. I suspect this is not a better approach than optimizing the non-manuscript content support within each project.
I like the idea of organizing information more like data in a database and having the software generate ‘reports’ with the desired content, just as a database management system’s reporting tools allow users to choose what data to include in a report and how it is organized. A reporting approach supports organizing content for different ‘management’ purposes. I have in mind getting an overview of my WIP’s plan. A glossary is an example of planning or supporting content that should be distinct from the manuscript and not included in word counts or other manuscript statistics. Another is an outline (of which there are many types–two-tier, scenes and scene elements, etc.).
As is, Granthika is implementing the ‘database’ concept very well by capturing content as discrete chunks that can be related to each other as needed. I think the additional capability I desire can be achieved by going further down the current design path. One specific functionality I would like – to be able to mark specific notes as tasks or to-do items and have a view in Granthika that consolidates all tasks. I can and do manage these now outside of Granthika and that works,