Interview with Dave Lavinsky
on Business Startup Funding, Marketing & Exiting a Profitable Business
By Marc Kneepkens

Did Dave Lavinsky make Business Startup Funding easy after $2.5 Billion in results?




Dave Lavinsky graduated in 1999 from UCLA's Anderson School of Management with an MBA. Together with Jay Turo he started Growthink, a company created to help entrepreneurs with business startup funding and marketing.

Business Funding Insider: Dave, why did you start a business like this? What motivated you in 1999 to move ahead in this direction?

Dave Lavinsky: In 1999 we saw lots of young and bright people with great ideas, it was an exciting time, the internet was exploding. Many new ventures were created by bright young people, however, they had no experience when it came down to start  a business, and definitely not with business startup funding. They were the proverbial entrepreneurs, and they needed money,  'know-how', and marketing skills. Our quest was to help them succeed. Entrepreneurship is what the economy needs. Entrepreneurs create new jobs, they re-new the status quo, they come up with incredible new products and services.

"...entrepreneurs is what the economy needs..."

BFI: In your opinion, what is the biggest hurdle for new start ups?

DL: Money. More businesses fail because of lack of funding than for any other reason. Funding is essential for success. Start ups need money to do research, to implement their discoveries and ideas into products, to launch and jump-start their new business, to expand their business, and to take it up to the next level.  When entrepreneurs are successful, they need expansion capital, or they will never make it. Fast growing businesses are doomed if not funded sufficiently. Once you have a business model that works it can be duplicated and leveraged.

BFI: What did you do about that?

DL: At Growthink we created products that help start ups cut the corners, prevent mistakes, go straight to their goals. Products that help them get funded, either by VC companies, angel investors, or through other creative ways and techniques. Crowdfunding for example is an incredible tool, if used right. With the products that we created we show how investors think. We explain what they value most, what they hate, and what will kill a deal. We show how to create the right documents, what to include, in which order, in the right format, using the proper wording and thought processes. We created blueprints that get you straight to your target, whether it is funding, expanding, or exiting a business. Business startup funding can be easy, if you now what you're doing.


"...we created products that help start ups cut the corners, prevent mistakes, go straight to their goals..."


BFI: What are the results?

DL: We helped over 500,000 companies with our products. We helped them raise more than $2,5 Billion worth of business startup funding. It is not limited to that: not only do we teach our clients the most direct and successful way to get funded, we also show them how to grow their companies, through their sales, their marketing, and every aspect of their business. We now have Leadership products, an 'Insider Circle' community to help entrepreneurs grow their ventures into million dollar businesses, which they can either exit at that point, or manage comfortably. We have a whole team of industry experts that supports our clients through our many services and products. Some of our products come with direct access to this support team. All of our experts have a tremendous amount of experience growing and starting their own businesses. They are icons in their own fields or specialties.

"...we also show them how to grow their companies..."

BFI: What are you working on these days?

DL: I am very excited about the concept of Mastermind Groups. Right now I am starting my very own group. There is incredible power in this. Very successful people like President Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, JRR Tolkien, were part of Mastermind Groups. Groups like that offer support, expertise, ideas, connections, inspiration, accountability, and maybe most of all: 'Quick Learning' curves for new skills and tools.

BFI: Isn't that what you intend to offer through all of your products and services?

DL: Absolutely, excellence to jumpstart your own creativity and entrepreneurship. We offer the most direct learning curve to integrate new skills and loads of information. Over the years we have distilled the important aspects of certain actions and experiences, for example in our business startup funding products. Why keep on making the same mistakes for ever, while the right way to reach your goal can be so much more simple? Or look at your own small business: if you have a concept that works, why would you keep on doing the same thing every day, while you could free yourself up and work on new projects, expand your business, automate the parts that can be automated, duplicate yourself, and much more. There are many ways to grow and leverage your business.

BFI: Dave, thanks for your precious time. At business-funding-insider.com we'll provide some more pages for introductions to your services, and especially to business startup funding. Your track record is really unique, the results speak for themselves.

DL: My pleasure.



Growthink products:

  • Free business plan template
  • The Ultimate Business Plan Template
  • The Truth about Funding
  • 'Angel Investor Formula': complete information on how to find and deal with 'Angel Investors'
  • 'VC Pitch Formula': complete information on how to find and deal with Venture Capital firms.
  • 'Crowdfunding Formula': complete information on how to fund your startup with Crowdfunding.
  • 'The Grantguide': How to obtain business grants

And you can receive free regular emails every week with really cool tips on funding, marketing and sales, together with a free copy of "The 10X Blueprint, 10 Steps to Start, Grow and Sell your Business."

Overview of Growthink Products List.

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