"It's very exciting, and it seems too obvious," said David Martin, founding president and chief executive officer of M.CAM. What M.CAM will do is provide the collateral to banks for start-up companies, which historically cannot get financing from banks because financial institutions have not considered intellectual property - like patents, ideas and copyrights - to be collateral.
But M.CAM, which is a spin-off of Martin's 8-year-old Mosaic Technology Industries, has the expertise to do just that. Mosaic is a technology-transfer company, which buys intellectual property from small companies and sells it to others. Through this work, Mosaic developed an expertise that no other company has - the ability to assess the value of intellectual property.
"They will go in and tell the bank, 'We will pay you this much, or guarantee this much if the company doesn't succeed,'" Ackerman said. If that happens, M.CAM will buy the company back based on a depreciation schedule agreed to in the original contract. M.CAM then will turn around and sell it, as Mosaic has done for years - selling technology developed by one company to another company.
M.CAM is in the process of putting together its first deal, which cannot be discussed until it's complete, Martin said.
Ackerman and Martin also are working together to develop a network called Greenlink that will introduce angel investors to entrepreneurs. Greenlink will send a newsletter to about 500 angel investors in Richmond, Hampton Roads and Charlottesville. The newsletter will highlight start-up companies and what they are doing so angels will know which investment opportunities are available.
Greenlink also offers start-up firms the advantage of being a local network - and it can help to have local investors who not only are familiar with the local business community but also can be available to offer expertise to entrepreneurs who may have little formal business background.
