Northern Entrepreneurs Become Investor-Ready And Receive Investment

Net Newsledger:

Shannon Bisset and her husband Anthony Cavallin, both from Northern Ontario, had a business dream of filling a niche in the moving industry. They had a plan to develop a customized moving container for homeowners in transition who required secure mobile storage for their valuables. The couple knew they needed others to invest in their enterprise called CubeIT to grow the business. They began making numerous informal pitches to prospective investors over a series of months with no success at all. Their accountant, Bernie Freelandt of Freelandt Caldwell Reilly encouraged the entrepreneurs to participate in the Northern Ontario Enterprise Gateway’s “Becoming an Investor-Ready Entrepreneur TM” program to understand what it takes to become Investor-Ready.

Shannon participated in the FedNor sponsored NOEG program, “Becoming an Investor-Ready Entrepreneur™” held in Sudbury in November 2007. Bisset comments, “I could not believe the amount of useful and timely information I learned about angel investing at the NOEG session.” She indicated that prior to participating in the program, Cubeit’s pitches were very informal, random in nature and missing valuable information the founders hadn’t realized was important to attract angel investors.

Within three months time, Shannon says, “I went back and systematically implemented everything I learned from the NOEG program and workbook and significantly improved our business presentation. In short time, Bisset and Cavallin secured the interest and investment of three highly regarded angel investors; the founder of AMJ Campbell Vanlines and Premier Vanlines, a retired banker and the founder of Premier Executive Suites.

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