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Tag: invest locally

The Commonalities Between Squirrels and Investors

by Joshua Rollins on October 21, 2020.

Here in the Upstate, tis the season for countless Eastern Gray Squirrels to busily bury, unbury, rebury and even lose track of diligently harvested acorns. While this peculiar behavior can stump even the most astute sciuriologist (trivia nugget #1), there’s a perfect (used loosely) connection to investor goals and outcomes. Nuturally, I expect you’ll want an explanation. Don’t worry; it’s not too tough a nut to crack.

How Community Involvement Changes Your Life

by Kasen Wysong on October 13, 2020.

Have you ever seen a group of young men singing Disney songs while swinging a sledgehammer at a cement parking lot? It’s quite a paradoxical spectacle. During college, I spent a blazing hot summer in Israel helping renovate a community building. Our first mission was to break up a parking lot, but the catch was that we only had one sledgehammer.

The Move to Microinvesting

by Joshua Rollins on October 7, 2020.

Apps like Acorns have brought the phrase “micro investing” on the scene with their approach of rounding up to the next dollar whenever you spend money to invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). So your $3.78 latte would trigger $0.22 moving from your checking account to your Acorns account. While this function fits the connotation of...

Tips for reviewing the campaign page

by Malcolm McDonald on September 30, 2020.

Just in case you’re new to all this, (“this” meaning dropping angel investments like a boss) we thought we’d give a few tips on what to look for when reviewing a campaign page. You may have watched a video at the top of the page and, in your excitement, jumped down to read all about...

How to raise money for your non-sexy business

by Malcolm McDonald on September 23, 2020.

Asking someone for money is rarely fun and almost never easy. But if you’re trying to grow your business then you’ll almost always reach a point where you need to bring in capital from outside investors. Turns out, going and getting money from strangers isn’t so different from asking your parents for cash.  So here...

How to tell an investing expert from a non-expert

by Joshua Rollins on September 23, 2020.

Investing can be complex. Building a smart investment strategy and risk management discipline takes work. But an investor is only deemed an expert based on one thing: track record; when someone can turn around and say, “Hey, look! It worked!”  This is the funny thing about tying “expertise” to the practice of risking capital into...

Social Capital – What is it and why should you care?

by John Crawford on September 15, 2020.

Around here, we often say Vicinity is where financial capital meets social capital. Well, if you say something often enough, you should probably stop and make sure people know what you mean. What is social capital anyway? Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone has pointed out that the term was actually “independently invented” at least...

An Adrenaline Junkie’s Guide To Analyzing Risk

by Malcolm McDonald on September 15, 2020.

Welcome to an adrenaline junkie’s guide to analyzing risk. I wouldn’t blame you if you closed your laptop immediately and walked away. But thanks to years of poor, risk-ignoring, endorphin-driven choices, I’ve learned valuable decision-making skills around separating thrill-seeking motivations from money-seeking endeavors. Thrill-seeking desires are great for a few afternoons of cliff diving. Not...

What do Angel investors look for in small businesses?

by Kasen Wysong on September 9, 2020.

Angel investor. Probably the coolest title in the investing world. This moniker belongs to high net worth individuals who financially back a business, usually in return for equity in the company. With the cool name comes a pretty high level of risk.  That’s why there have been laws allowing only individuals with large disposable income...