9thX.com: Early Stage Financing

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John Bonaccorso, founder of 9thX.com, discusses the different financing options they considered when founding the business. They chose to pursue financing from friends and family, one of the hardest things he had ever done.

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John Bonaccorso, founder of 9thX.com, has a long history raising money for ventures. Twelve years ago he raised $1 MM from Apple computer, and in 2000, he raised $4 MM in venture capital financing for another entity. However, for 9thX.com, he and his partners decided to go the friends and family route. He put up his house and asked his family members if they had any extra cash to invest, one of the hardest things he has ever done. He offers the following observations:

  • As mentioned by Charlie Penner of SBTDC in a previous segment, you must put your own money in the business, so others will take you seriously.
  • The main value in attending meetings of angel investor groups is to make contact with individual angels who might invest. The groups themselves do so much more rarely.

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2 Comments

Denise Dublin-Green on November 17, 2008 12:34 AM
9thX.com: The Internet Is Not for Free by Bud John this was a new idea to me. I found your interview quite informative. Immediately I thought of the many educators and small business people who could make use of this system along with digital rights management. You worked through a potential threat for you business by not trying to reinvent the digital rights management programs but actually licensing them and allowing them to interface in your own systems. I thought of advertising with school districts not just universities. There are so many teachers that come up with lesson plans and web sites that they can not control the use of the content so they are just resigned to the idea that if they post the information it will be used for free or even duplicated. Your solution would be helpful to small businesses that offer lessons such as sewing, knitting, quilting and other crafting lessons. The point you made about helping students to see that everything posted on the internet should not be free of charge. The example of them being able to make some profit off their own digital mixes was a good illustration. I think that those who do infomercials or lectures on medical conditions would be a big seller. Many people want the information but do not want to wait for the delivery of CD/DVDs or want to take hours to read a long report to find out the information they purchased. The fact that you don’t own the content makes it more user friendly. Knowing that the person who developed the material still stays in control of the content is a bonus factor. I say that because I have had experience in having a website designed and there was some dispute over who actually owned the content. So your up front approach is great for the tech non-savvy people and those who do not have mega funding to invest in such a project. As an aspiring small business owner I would definitely consider using your service. Denise Dublin-Green
Jack Robertson on November 22, 2009 6:37 PM
This looks like a great idea if it would stick. I went to the www.9thx.com website only to discover that the domain is for sale. This idea is what the digital age that we currently live in needs. In the near future, all media will start to be replaced with digital versions. For example, we first had music on 8 tracks and LPs, and then came along tapes and then CDs. Well, the next step is all digital, that’s right – no more physical media except for the platters in your hard drive!! It will take a long time for this transformation, but it will happen. Right now we can sell our albums that we do not use anymore on E-bay or Amazon. In the future, consumers will need a way to transfer this digital media. Otherwise, ownership of media as a whole will become much more expensive, because you could not sell it once you are done with it. Of course, you could find a way to do it illegally. Mr. Bonnaccorso talks about raising money for a start-up company. This was good insight for today’s entrepreneur and what they can expect when trying to raise start-up capital. He gives good insight as for what to expect when speaking with angels in Michigan. A new entrepreneur with a technological business idea will have to get start-up capital from personal funds and friends and family. Hopefully, 9thx.com was liquid when it went off of the net. Otherwise, it looks as though Mr. Bonnaccorso’s relatives may not be too happy with him! I do hope that John or someone else can finally make a digital media rights program stick to the market place soon. This is what the future needs!! Like John said, if everyone could trade digital media for free without the originators of said media getting paid, the content would disappear! Jack Robertson

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