Colby Deitz
ENT 655 – Week 7
Week 7 brings us two steps closer to finishing up “Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It” by Amy Cortese. (Cortese, 2011) This week gallops along with two more chapters, covering Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.
Chapter 11 dives into deeper detail on the concept of Co-ops. This is an interesting idea, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to see into the inner workings a bit closer. But I’m a little torn on the whole idea. I can easily see the benefit for farmers. They can partner with other farmers to get better pricing on supplies and share their products among members. I suppose that as long as you have some sort of goods worth trading, this particular type of system works out well. I just have a hard time seeing how this architecture scales to other industries. I’m not sure how well this concept would apply to say digital content creators. I guess it could work, but the scalability of the services seems disproportionate. It is definitely an idea worth exploring further.
In Chapter 12, we get our first look at Direct Public Offerings, or DPOs. Similar to IPOs in many respects, DPOs work on a much smaller scale and are targeted at businesses looking to raise a few thousand dollars up to a couple of million. I can easily see the appeal of this strategy. If a company isn’t quite big enough to tackle a full-on IPO, instead they can opt for the Do-It-Yourself version of the DPO. These are not nearly as lucrative, as they tend to lack that mass appeal that is so common in the IPO world. But, if you have a good sense of marketing and a good handle on where to find your direct investors, this is a pretty solid plan. To be honest, I think it just lacks the prestige of the coveted IPO. Less people know about the DPOs, and you hear a lot less about them on financial channels. But if you are looking for a small infusion of cash, this could be a great alternative.
Works Cited
Cortese, A. (2011). Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Colby,
The reading for Cortese has been an excellent read to provide a better understanding with the importance of using the local community primarily before transitioning to a larger opportunity.
Colby,
I agree with your point about DPOs being a great alternative to gathering a small infusion of cash. This is the part of the book that I had been waiting for since about chapter three. after reading about how farms in food resources were able to work together, I had been wondering how could a small business without commodities could gather that boost to grow. I have enjoyed reading your post about the book Locavesting.