And also, when you actually get investment from
new investors, you have to think about what kind of
mode of investment or investment vehicle you're going to use.
This is a consideration for both the entrepreneurs and the investors.
The simplest and easiest is for the company to issue new shares.
So you expand the share pool
and the investors will come in and subscribe to all the new shares.
Sometimes, the existing investors, like your angel investors,
who might want to offload some of their shares
at the next round of investment
because they probably want to get some exit early.
This is not ideal, but sometimes inevitable.
There are cases where,
because we have invited friends, family or even fools to be our angel investors,
the next round of investor, they could be the more professional ones.
For example, the VCs, which are running like a fund
and they have a lot of professional that looking after your company.
And therefore, sometimes they would like to clean up the investor table.
For the investors who are not actually adding value,
they would rather give them an incentive, give them a return
and ask them to sell their old shares politely.
That is okay.
What is usually not okay is for the founders to get an exit at this stage.
Typically, founders at this stage
should still stick around with the company to show the commitment.
And usually, is a bad sign for the new investors
if the existing founders would like to sell their old shares.
Now, there are other vehicles that we could use.
You could issue a convertible note,
which means technically
the money is not yet converted into shares,
so the investors technically are giving you money as a loan.
But these convertible notes, depending how is written,
it could be a matter of time that it will get converted into shares.
It could be that under certain conditions, that they will be converted into shares.
So eventually, these would become your shareholders.
Now, legally, they would have different rights.
Investors versus a convertible note holder
probably would have a different right in terms of access to information.
And in terms of protection in the case when the company actually is liquidated.
And there are other things too, like a bridge loan, which is purely
a loan where the investor's actually lending us money
and you promise to give a certain interest.
And then the loan has to pay back; that has to be paid back at some point.
So these are the typical ones.
And you should be very, very careful
when you choose which mode of investment that is most suitable for your investor.
But this will be a mutual agreement.
So talk to your investor, see what they are comfortable with.
Because the implication is the legal right and the possibility of ever getting the money
should they need to in the case of a liquidation.
Prof. Dominic ChanAssociate Director, EMBA Program, Associate Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship, Project Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship
