When asked about deal making today, the conversation inevitably comes around to extracting value. Deal making needs to be focused on intuitive structure that allows a latitude for fresher ideas to convince the investor their money has as little risk and as much upside as possible. Long gone are the days of "cookie cutter" deals that permeated the landscape not so long ago.

I’m frequently asked this question from our entrepreneurs, “How do I raise capital given this economy?” There’s a lot of anxiety surrounding it, so I think you want to be aware that it’s true. IPOs were down 85% through the years 2007 and 2008. And now, in 2009, it appears that the well has dried up completely. But don’t despair. There are options.

The financial crisis and the economic downturn…subjects beat to death by every pundit that has access to a computer which pretty much includes everyone. Got “crisis burnout” yet? We all have!

Many entrepreneurs we meet frequently ask about the conundrum of how much to do yourself and how much to outsource. Fair questions, indeed.

Each way of looking at this issue comes with it's own set of thought processes:
Point:
"I'm starting out and simply can't be expected to be an expert on every facet of the business. I'll hire a consultant and try to be fluent on what they tell me."

The financial crisis is not just the trough of an unrelenting cycle, but the end of an era. Over the past ten months we have discovered growing economies of "non-scale." Large firms can't run on cash flow alone, have to place bigger bets and find they have less control over competition in a new, diverse marketplace with lower payoffs.