CANNAINVESTOR Magazine U.S. Publicly Traded December 2017 | Page 201

201

• Don’t treat your investors like mushrooms. (Best kept in the dark.) Make them part of your corporate family. Tell them what’s going on, confide in them. Who knows? They may make a further investment. Happy investors will also brag about you to family and friends.

• And build your brand. Do it right and you could end up doubling your eventual valuation. (Especially true if you ever go public.)

But wait, there’s more …

Ron Popeil is a legend in TV merchandising, who pioneered those infomercials for kitchen gadgets. But he also discovered something else that was pure genius.

Before closing his pitch for some gizmo, he’d always say, “But wait, there’s more!!!” Then he’d offer something extra … or maybe two for the price of one … or whatever. It didn’t matter what, just “something.”

And this was brilliant because people are always greedy for more, and this never, ever fails. It can even work with speculative investors.

Thus I’ll often throw in my “But wait, there’s more” kicker — about something in the “pipeline,” “under development.” Because even more than most people, speculative investors are greedy dreamers, always looking for a Next Big Thing. (Obviously, or they wouldn’t be investing in startups!)

This NBT? It can be anything, so long as it makes sense and there’s a credible connection to the main business. And finding such a plausible NBT isn’t a problem, because entrepreneurs are always imagining something greater, larger, grander. It’s in their DNA.

WHY SHOULDN’T THIS BE COMING?!! And if it takes another year or two, that’s not the point. The current project gets funded, and that’s all that counts

Remember, speculative investors want to see growth. ACTION! And the more this seems a real possibility, the likelier they’ll want to invest.