Entrepreneur of the Day: John Dimmer

This week, we had John Dimmer come to speak to us with extra focus on the financial side of starting or running a company. This is something we really have not touched in class too much thus far and something I think most of us students are definitely not thinking about. I loved the depth of his talk and how he went into details of how exactly funding goes for a startup. Personally, I had little to no idea how I would even start to raise funds for a company if I started one today. For that reason I am thankful he discussed the several different options that exist, some of which seriously surprised me. The one that caught my attention the most, was the SBIR grant, which was basically free money that the government gives to certain young companies in which they believe in the work their company is doing and will continue to do in the future. This idea isn’t that crazy, but when I heard how much money the company he gave as an example received, I was blown away! This was a serious chunk of change for doing very little and trading nothing. This got me thinking to apply for grants like these or just any small business competition in which they might award a sum of money to whoever wins. Not only is this a relatively easy way to earn no-strings-attached money, but also I bet if I were to apply for something like this, it would force me to perfect my business plan and really think harder about the ins and outs of my business.