Michelle Madhok : How did you find your investors?
We self-funded the business for four years and then we decided to hire a firm to help us find investors because we felt like we were stuck in the adolescent zone. We were too small to hire quality staff members (my husband joked that kept hiring people who were one degree above criminals) and too big for me to keep doing it on my own. We definitely needed a new website (we paid $500 for our site built by some guy in the Ukraine I found on Craigslist). We went through a long and grueling process where we met with many potential investors but nothing happened, we would get neither a yes or no...many investors are like those guys who string you along but are never going to marry you. Ultimately, we just never felt the right fit or the right arrangement and we gave up the search. We were then featured in INC Magazine and some investors in Canada saw it and contacted us. They are a really great firm who are seeking to build a green portfolio and invested $1.3 million for a minority share. We fit into a green portfolio because online shopping is green, we feature many green products and they also want me to trendspot and be on the lookout for exciting and interesting products and ideas to send their way.
