Ali G pitching his idea to Donald Trump and VC's

Positives:
Closure "Are you in?"
Stats to back up claim
Confidence
Prototype
Engaged the investor
Problem in hand

Negatives:
Inapproriate picture (naked woman on a horse)
Be open to feedback, listen
Read the investor

Perfect the Pitch

I attended a workshop today hosted by The Launch Pad and Miami Chamber of Commerce about how to perfect your pitch to investors. I learned a great deal and I am always looking to engage with other entrepreneurs and business leaders. The informative speaker was Melissa Krinzman of Venture Architects LLC (www.venturearchitects.com) with 20+ years of experience. I've outlined a few notes and I also included the funny video that was shown, featuring Ali G (good for a laugh).

The Pitch - Some Tips:

Clearly identify the Problem and Solution
Have Confidence
What's the product?
Who's the customer?
What stage are you at? Prototype, Traction, Product...
The Market (bottom-up)
Talk about the Team
Memorable Follow-up
Listen Carefully
If not You, then Who? - other investors they may know


Also met some cool entrepreneurs with online start-ups:
miamistyleme.com, playfarer.com, YouCeleb.com

Learning Curve

Finally! We have made a decision and are moving ahead. It is like a light bulb goes on, Ding!! I am grateful for the patience and grace we have been given. Blessings from above keep filtering in. Big thanks to Rick Brotherton. We've been learning so much about Open Source, PHP, ASP.NET, tech nerds, Joomla, Drupal, and all these cool content management systems (CMS). It makes me realize, when we started this business way back when, when it was just an idea... We knew nothing! And really we still don't know much, but we know a lot more then we did then and we keep moving! And that is being an entrepreneur in a nut shell, growing, learning, try, try, try, again. And so as Helen Keller said,

"When one door closes another one opens, but sometimes we look so hard at the one that has closed that we don't see the one that has opened."

For new entrepreneurs out there, I would make sure that you keep your eyes and ears open at all times and be ready to adapt and change quickly.

RB Group

our new mailing address:

RB Group LLC
PO Box 10233
Beverly Hills, CA 90213

office lease ending : moving on

Our six month lease is coming to an end next week. After returning from California a few weeks ago I had such clarity about closing up shop on South Beach. I really felt that our time in familiar was over and that the best interest for the company would be on the West Coast. It's hard to know if you are making the right decision. As an entrepreneur this is a constant battle.

Moody's Forecast for Housing

The analysts at Moody’s Investors Service are downbeat in their outlook for both the U.S. economy and the housing market. In the agency’s ResiLandscape report issued last week, they warn that there’s a stronger chance the country will slide back into a recession, and they are forecasting a “longer and deeper housing correction.”

Chen expects house prices to fall until the third quarter of next year, significantly longer than Moody’s previous projections of a first-quarter 2011 bottom in home prices. According to Chen, the change to a longer correction is primarily fueled by the slow disposition of repossessed homes. She says the flood of 4 million homes either in late-stage delinquency or foreclosure is clogging the foreclosure pipeline from the servicers to the courtrooms, creating delays.

To read this article in it's entirety: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/moodys-forecast-for-housing-and-economy-dim-2010-09-21

Article By: Carrie Bay

Free Yoga in the Park : Downtown Miami

I've been going to Yoga at Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami. It is Great! The class is right outside on the pavillion stage overlooking Biscayne Bay and the city skyline. At 6pm it is cooler out and there is always a breeze. The instructor is really good and the experience is quite amazing. I am not a "yogi" by any means and I can handle this class, so I would definetly recommend it, even to newcomers. Best of all, it's free! You can't beat that. Classes are held Monday & Wednesday at 6pm and Saturday at 9am. The classes are a little over an hour with relaxation at the end. Awesome!

Saturday morning in Miami

I love the mornings in Miami. Walk out the door, sun shining, water glistening, humid but with a cool breeze. There is barely any cars on the road. I love where my building is located because of these reasons and I can conveniently walk to CVS and Starbucks. Oh the joys in life. But seriously, I do appreciate these little things. I was blessed to have an opportunity to help out a very kind man that was asking for food. He asked for, "milk and cake" and CVS provided the milk just fine. But the cake... not so much. So we walk over a few stores down and to Starbucks. What a phenomenon this place is! The lines always amaze me, anytime of day. Howard Schultz what a genius. I grabbed a Cappuccino for myself (such a treat) and some coffee cake, mini donuts and a Kind bar for my new friend. Have you had these Kind bars? They are so healthy and so yummy, nuts and grains. Yum. I take them on the plane with me when I travel. Love them! Back to the man I met. He was so full of HOPE!! Yes, he was. And so grateful I might add. He said to me "God Bless You" and I replied back, "God bless you too" and he said, "God is good to me." He said that the next time I see him I wouldn't recognize him because he is getting his life together. He would recognize me but I wouldn't recognize him. Do you believe in angels? Well I do, but I most certainly believe that our God is a god of miracles. As I walked back to my condo in the sky I had a heart full of gratitude and I said to my creator, "God, you are Awesome indeed!!"

123 new condos approved by Fannie Mae

Miami has grown tremendously over the last 5 years and Downtown/ Brickell especially have hundreds of new construction condominium towers. Many of these condos have not been approved by Fannie Mae. What this means is that if you are trying to buy condo in one of these buildings - you would have a really hard time. And if you were selling this would be a problem. Now, Fannie Mae has added 123 new condos to the APPROVED List. Once a condo building is approved it makes it that much easier to secure financing. Buyers and sellers rejoice!

some of the Approved Condos include:

Icon Brickell Tower 1
50 Biscayne
500 Brickell
Everglades
900 Biscayne
1800 Club

complete list available at : https://www.efanniemae.com/syndicated/documents/dps/condopud/FL.pdf

Give Back

Check out Boxed Water. They Give Back 10% of their profits and another 10% on top of that. Now that is Solid Ground. They mention on their website that they are a start-up company and have not "given back" yet, still paying down capital. I think they are on the right page though. And it's eco-friendly!

Welcome to Los Angeles : week of Sept. 13th

We made a shift to the west coast. Now I am making frequent trips out here instead of my brother coming back to Miami. Fortunately, the airlines are agreeing with our move and have blessed us with inexpensive flights. So, here I am again. We are meeting with La Visual today and I am really looking forward to getting the marketing proposal back from them soon. New found inspiration up in these hills. Expand our territory indeed.

California

Just returned to Miami from my trip to California. It's always great working with JZ in person. We met with Rick Brotherton and went over new designs and discussed the transition over from Turbo Taco. It was awesome! We also met with Joel from Z & T, our attorney's office. Almost squared away there after a few more revisions to the PN. Oh, and I received my new iPhone 4 in the mail, just a few days before my trip. And yes, "This Changes Everything!"