Sick of this terrible economy, former "Dancing WIth The Stars" contestant (and NBA team owner and tech billionaire) Mark Cuban says he wants to "come up with a course of action that I can undertake on my own that possibly, somehow could make a difference."
His plan: "an open source funding environment."
So others can copy ideas that work (the point of it all) Mark wants entrepreneurs to comment on his blog with full-blown business plans. If Mark likes them, he says he'll email the commenter and propose a deal.
"I'm a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess," he says.
He has 12 rules entrepreneurs must follow if they want funding. They are:
- It can be an existing business or a start up.
- It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. That's the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
- It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days
- It must be profitable within 90 days.
- Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
- You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
- Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
- You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
- I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
- I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
- If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
- In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
He writes:
As I find businesses I like, I will use the email address you provide before you post to get in contact with you. There will be a standard agreement, you can take it or leave it. Once I have done the standard agreement, I will post it here for all to see. This will definitely be a work in progress. Maybe it leads to great things, maybe it leads to nothing. We will find out. Im not going to claim a minimum or maximum amount or total I will invest. Im not promising I will definitely invest anything. If nothing comes along that I think is viable, thats the way it goes.
Enter here (and tell us if you do).
See Also:
Mark Cuban Exclusive: Movie Theaters About 'Far More Than Movies'
