RE: [kFW] Company formation and funding...

["Scott Switzer" <scott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Daniel,

I have quite a bit of experience fundraising in the 'money crazed, power
hungry, control freak ' environment, and a very small amount in the
non-profit grant world, and would help however I can.

Because of the nature of Kendra, it seems like while it can be a non
profit entity, some funding can come from the users of the system (who
could be very large corporations).  I imagine that it is relatively
easier to get more £££/$$$ from these companies than it is to extract
cash from the organisations you listed below.

A business plan is pretty much required in order to raise money.  The
days of getting $10M with an executive summary are gone.  Some level of
detail about goals, product, market, growth strategy, success criteria
will be required.

Your idea of building a separate organization is a good one - it seems a
much likelier scenario that money will come to an entity that has
organisation and structure, as well as a team of people willing and
ready to build the organisation.

Perhaps a series of strategy/planning meetings (or conference calls if
not in the UK) could start to take place, with minutes of these meetings
being posted to the newsgroup.  Based on these meetings, a business plan
can be outlined, with specific parts coming from 'volunteers' of the
organisation.  A funding strategy could also be an outcome of these
meetings.  Afterward, we could get volunteers to help with the tactical
side of setting up the organisation.

Let me know how I can help.
Scott



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-k-framework@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-k-framework@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Daniel
Harris
Sent: 24 June 2002 09:52
To: k-framework@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [kFW] Company formation and funding...

Hi All,

So, picking up from before the lists went down... I'm going to set up a 
company, a foundation/structure on which to build Kendra Initiative:
Kendra 
Foundation or KI Foundation or something like that. It'll be non-profit.

I'll hire a small team (preferably <5) to keep things moving on and
provide 
infrastructure to facilitate interested parties to come together as
Kendra 
Initiative to build the Kendra system. So, really, nothing has changed
in 
terms of the intent - we always planned this - see:
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-framework/msg00001.html
In fact that's all I've been trying to do is facilitate the building 
process. My thinking behind having Kendra Foundation a distinct entity
from 
Kendra Initiative is so that people don't get confused about what's
going 
on and how they can fit in.

It's become obvious that one can't sustain a project like this on
favours. 
There's just no consistency. One can't really push volunteers. The core 
administration team has to be employed and the webhosting and support
have 
to be paid for. The boring stuff (like maintaining the email lists and 
providing design tools) has to get done. I know you all saw this and
told 
me many times but, I guess, now I feel the time is right for me to put 
effort into this side of Kendra, or at least, to be ready for Autumn
(can't 
get too busy when the sun is shining, eh?!), which means we've got to
start 
thinking about it now.

I must admit another reason I delayed is that I hoped some kind sole
would 
arrive and take over the boring part of setting up a company and getting
in 
funding or helping out with the organisational side of things in some
way. 
There were germinations here and there but they must have been swayed by

the bright lights of real employment. No worries. I'm quite looking
forward 
to it, actually. Or perhaps that kind sole will come running to my
rescue 
now - I can dream, can't I? ;-)

More and more I'm seeing signs that there is money available from the UK

and EU to push broadband - I'm confident of being able to grab some of
this 
for Kendra Foundation. I'm sure there's money in the US too. So, over
the 
next few months I'm going to be finding out about non-profit companies
and 
talking to potential funders (in UK, EU and US for starters). If anybody

has any understanding of this area then please speak up. Obviously,
we'll 
need to choose which solicitors and bank (first choice: The Co-operative

Bank) to use. Also, if anybody has advice on obtaining funding (even
seed 
stuff) then please yelp. Hopefully, all of this wont turn me into a
money 
crazed, power hungry, control freak - whooops! Too late! ;-)

We need to find out what kind of organisation we need to set up and this

mainly comes down to what the funders require. What kind of proposals / 
business plans do they need to see before they hand over cash? Also, 
looking at other non-profit companies would be a good way to go. So far
my 
hit list looks like:

Apache Software Foundation http://www.apache.org
Nominet http://www.nominet.org.uk
Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF) http://www.bcdforum.org
International Webcasting Association - Europe
http://www.webcasters.org.uk
Free Software Foundation (GNU) http://www.gnu.org
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) http://www.ietf.org
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org

So, that's who I'll hit initially. If you have any other ideas or can
spare 
a bit of time to share the investigation then cool. We have contacts
from 
the DTI but EU and US contacts will also be needed - so cough up.

A good way to go forward? As always, please comment!

Cheers Daniel