[PRIVATE]O'Floinn's Conference Room

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On the third floor of The Four Leaf Clover Complex sits a private conference room. Though it boasts a spectacular view of the track, it is an ordinary room, with a large table surrounded by chairs. When meetings are in progress, a large buffet lies on the long table at the back of the room.

 

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O'Floinn sits calmly at the head of the table, waiting for his guests to arrive. As promised, a large buffet lines the back of the room. On the table sits an old copy of NEWSLINK.

 

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Loic de Fourgéres shows up in an unofficial capacity, wearing a polo shirt, blazer, khaki chinos, loafers and red socks, with a pair of binoculars in a case on a strap around his neck. The bulletproof vest is partially visible as the top two buttons of his shirt isn't buttoned. Seeing the owner and GA speaker, he says,
"Thanks for the invitation. It looks like a nice day for some races. What's up?"

 

[Sterkarm]

Wearing a suit and puffing on a cigar, Roger Forbes is doing his best to look the classic capitalist. Now if only he was a bit overweight, he might be able to convince a perfect stranger. However, Mr. Forbes is rather slim. Not skinny as one might think, but rather fit. Walking through the door, Roger tries rather clumsily to greet Mr. O'Floinn while still puffing away on his cigar, fumbling and almost letting it fall to the floor.

"Hehwoah, Miffter--" at this, Forbes gives up and takes the cigar out of his mouth with one hand and holding two briefcases in the other, "Heh, almost wasted a good chunk of tobacco there... anyway, hello Mr. O'Floinn. Interesting place for a business meeting. I'm looking forward to this proposition, and I'd also like to join the EBA, as I own the Cafe Americain. Also curious as to the amount of investment that is required. But, let's get down to business then once everyone else has arrived."

 

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Mr. President, Per Forbes, good to see you both.

There's no set requirement for the amount that needs to be invested, but the more we put in, the more likely it is we'll get the desired result. But I can't lie to you, this is a risk. We may not get we want here, and we will likely never see a truly tangible result, even if we are successful

But all things considered, it could be very worthwhile.

I'm going to wait a bit longer before I unveil the plan. I'm hoping Amric and Michael Lundgren will turn up.

 

[Amric]

Former President and current entrepeneur extradinaire Amric Al'Aeshir walks into the room. Wearing his 5k ducat suit of charcoal grey with a powder blue shirt and a silver tie along with highly polished shoes he is the epitome of economic success.

"John, old friend. Long time no see! Per Forbes, good to meet you. Loic, how's that presidency going for you? You're looking a tad tired, my friend."

Amric sits down and waits to see who else is going to show up.

 

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O'Floinn looks out the window a few seconds, nods to himself, tosses the copy of NEWSLINK onto the table, and stands up.

I'll start now, we can bring anyone else up to speed later. Anyway, here goes.

Gentlemen, I've called you together for a few reasons. But they're all different sides of the same coin. And that coin is the maintenance and promotion of capitalism.

Remember the capitalist tour? I think we should sponsor a similar event...

He taps the bottom NEWSLINK article.

...in St. Espirit. We could also consider making a contribution to the campaign of the strongest anti-socialist candidate.

I'm not saying we can bring down the ruling party by funding a campaign, but we can do our part to make sure our Southern neighbor does not become a breeding place for socialism, and all that that implies.

It's something I think we should consider. Even if we don't fund anything, we should get in touch with some St. Espiritan capitalists, and see if they'd like to do it themselves.

on another note, I'd like to propose we gather some funds together, and open a small venture capital firm. We can encourage some domestic growth with low-interest loans, and make a little money at the same time. We could use the profits to fund our pro-capitalist campaign.

Thoughts?

 

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"As sitting President and running the MTIA, I can't be seen to be favoring one party over another in St. Esprit, but I could participate, modestly, in the venture capital fund. With the Pension Control Board now having a mandate to do some venture capital, a little bit of money will get more projects going now than it would before."

 

[Amric]

"I have no problem with either proposal. In fact, John, Michael Von Struesser and I were speaking of my starting a venture capital firm just a few months ago. I haven't had the opportunity to get going with it, but having others involved would certainly allow me to not have to put quite as much into it as I had originally planned.

What do you think a good initial investment in the venture capital fund should be? A billion ducats? Or more?

As for funding a non socialist candidate in St. Esprit I see no reason why we could not do so, as well as a small capitalist tour of the nation as well. But we had better hurry with it. Elections there should be coming pretty darn soon."

 

[Sterkarm]

I would most certainly like to invest in this venture... however I currently have very little cash. Maybe if all of you would show up to my cafe a little more often I'd have some money, but right now I'm quite broke, gentlemen. Any other way I can contribute besides monetarily?

 

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Amric, Mr. President, good to know you're interested.

Initial investment? I'd say as much as we can come up with.

Per Forbes, I'm sorry to hear about your current situation, but I can't really think of a non-monetary way to contribute.

About the other matter, Amric, should we set up another day like this, with a few St. Espiritan capitalists?

 

[Amric]

John, another day? Or another conference site with such capitalists? I'm unsure of what you mean.

As for how much, I can pony up 1 billion ducats. It was what I was going to do when I was considering the idea of a venture capital firm.

Now Per Forbes, you might be able to give a speech during a capitalist tour of St. Esprit. That is a way to do some kind of contribution.

 

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Most European Socialists have no problem with venture capital in general, although sometimes a particular industry might be closed to new ventures if the state wants state owned firms only in that sector.

It seems to me that the dislocations will be in the larger firms, where they might want to nationalize some companies, although I am not sure how they will be able to afford that these days.

 

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Amric, sorry for the confusion, I meant a conference between us and our potential allies in St. Espirit.

I'm not sure any of us should actually speak in St. Espirit, I don't know how receptive the citizenry there would be to being told how to run their economy by Eutopians. It would be for the best if we could get St. Espiritan capitalists to do the tour, with us providing the funding.

How does this sound: I'll stop by the Embassy and see if there's any kind of St. Espiritan equivalent to our Business Association. Then if there is one, I'll go out there and see if I can get a few of them to come here for a day to hear us out.

Per Forbes, you'd be welcome to attend that meeting, but Per President, as you said, it would be best if you weren't involved with this.

As to investment in the venture capital firm, I should be able to come up with a few hundred thousand.

 

[Amric]

"A few hundred thousand?" Shakes his head at O'Floinn," You can do better than that, John. Fork over a few million. I know you can do it. Squeeze the cash out, ol' buddy!"

 

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"Sorry, little slip of the tongue.

I can get together a few hundred million," He takes a step towards the window and gestures broadly across the extensive grounds. "Thanks to all of this."

 

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John, Amric, while you could invest such substantial sums, you don't want to overwhelm the market. Some ventures fail. The ones that succeed have to offer high returns in order to provide an adequate overall risk adjusted return. It works best in layers. The general partners, that would be this venture capital firm, put up 20% of the capital, but get 40% of the equity. Other investors put up the other 80% of the capital, and get 60% of the return. I expect we could get the Eutopian Pension Control Board to be among those other investors. For a company that has worked through idea phase, would be level at which we would first invest, based on their business plans. At that point it would be all equity, but not much, tyoically five or ten million ducats. If things progressed according to plan, then we would make and additional investment and the start-up would seek some mezzanine financing as well. This should tide them over until the are ready for their IPO about 5 years later. Judging by the size of the Eutopian market, using that model, a fund bigger than one billion ducats would have trouble finding enough good projects to invest in. That means the general partners need to put up only 200 million. Do you see it the same way?

 

[Amric]

Loic, just because that amount of money is available doesn't mean we'd just throw it all out there. I came up with a little something when I was thinking of starting a Venture capital firm. Here is what I came up with. Let me know what you all think.

Eutopia Venture Capital

A firm dedicated to helping entrepeneurs start their own business by supplying beginning cash in exhange for stock in the new corporation. Whether it is for a body shop for automobile repair or a computer retail store to just about anything.

What do you need to get started? A business plan. A prospectus of your company, which is what you company will do. IE, a prospectus is really all about what product or service your company will be provide and how you plan on making a profit. The business plan entails expected expenses and prospective revenues and how your company expects to make money.

Then a cover letter which explains your experience int he field of endeavor that your company will be doing business and how hard you'll be working to make it successful. Weekend 'warriors' will not get the same consideration as those willing to take the full risk gamble. Which is not to say that the weekend 'warrior' can't apply. Just that the initial capital investment from EVC won't be as large.

An interview with an experienced staff member who has successfully started and maintained their own business. T he itnerview will crystalize the willingness of EVC to supply the initial capital to you. EVC isn't going to throw money away. Take risks, sometimes very high risks, but not foolish ones.

Where a common lender or a bank would fear to tread, Eutopia Venture Capital strides confidently to build a better Eutopia.



So what do you all think?

 

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Amric, I guess I thought Per O'Floinn was talking about "Venture Capital", which I what I described. Your version of "venture capital" is more akin to "micro-capital". It is not normally thought economic for outsiders to assist at that level, as it takes too much time to assess the business plan to make the return on that scale worthwhile. Also, there is an effect of "adverse selection". Any really good small deals will be funded by relatives or friends, we would be left looking at deals where the cream has already been skimmed off, a mixture of average and poor deals. John, what did you have in mind?

 

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I was oriented more towards Amric's line of thought.