Gary Kinder the author of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, Random House, NY, 1998 essentially wrote 3 stories in one  – the first one a description of turn off the century California when gold was discovered. Then the story of the travels between the ports of New York and San Francisco with a stop through the Panama Canal, together with the reports of what the hurricane was similar to. The next story is the person who discovers methods and ways to search for the gold – an amazing creative engineering mine of Tommy Thompson who has to make discoveries to work in the deep oceans. The last chapters are what happens when gold or valuables are discovered. Who do they belong to and who should see them?

With every venture there is a need to raise capital, the easiest method is to raise venture capital from people who regularly fund such start-ups. If you watch the TV show Shark’s Den or something like it, the process is similar – you try to sell your story of why your company has the ability to expand or make higher than expected returns for the investors. The aspect of pitching should be the people who are listening have heard many pitches in the past, they expect to hear more in the future, some investments have only worked out of a tax basis, many do not work out, but still they are listening. Tommy Thompson was connected to Ohio State University through a professor; the professor knew the chief fund-raiser in Columbus who knew people who gave money. They loved the story and the first phase out of three was structured – the Seed Phase; The Search Phase and the Recovery Phase. Those who invested in the seed phase were able to take options into the next phases. Tommy was advised to take the process in the stages as well as not to budget for $100,000 if he needed $200,000. The number one reason why start-up companies fail is they went in underfunded. The first phase the investors are looking to see how disciplined the people are with the money.

There is a wonderful passage in the book considering how Tommy was thinking. Working on the bottom of the deep ocean wan not impossible, it was only considered impossible: other people labeled things impossible not because they could not be done, but because no one was doing them. Tommy had revisited the old assumptions, found many of them no longer valid, and saw ways around the others. The two lead people (Bob and Tommy) saw the process as a series of incredibly nonexistent barriers. Then the process shifted to what can we learn along the way.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the companies are generating a profit, but others see things the company does not see because the company is making profits. There are alternatives to everything, we see more and more of it everyday, although that does not mean all of us change everyday. In the book, an example is the difference between Columbus and Prince Henry the Navigator. Columbus explored blindly; Prince Henry pursued something that had been never done before. Columbus’ approach was fraught with much risk and he died not realizing what he had done, Prince Henry had heard of gold off West Africa and made the gold the draw but his purpose was to establish a trade route and shipping network – he had his explorers learn about the countries, the winds, the people, in the long run information of greater value.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.