Friends, Family, Fools: Accepting Equity Investment from People You Know

Many entrepreneurs fund the early stages of their business with investments from friends, family, and other people in their personal and professional networks.

In this first part of a three-part series on equity investments, you’ll learn about the ins and outs of leveraging your network to raise equity for your business.

During this session, we’ll cover:

• What is equity, and how is it different than debt?
• What does it mean for your business to take on an equity investment? What are the different kinds of investments and their respective pros and cons?
• What should you consider when taking money from family or friends? What’s the impact now and in the future?
• What’s legal and what’s not?
• What can you do on your own, and when do you need professional support from a lawyer, tax advisor, or accountant?

We’ll leave time for Q&A at the end of the session.

If you have specific questions you’d like to make sure we cover, or a scenario you’d like us to generalize and use as an example, please email rachel.rathburn@ceimaine.org.

This workshop will be presented by Robert Liscord, Brittany Michaud, and Doug Ginn of Drummond Woodsum.