If you're spending money to raise money for a private business, you're betting on a long shot. The odds are against you. There are two reasons that investors prefer public company speculation. 1. If they see your business plan in trouble, they can sell their stock and recover their risk capital. 2. The odds that your share price will outperform your balance sheet are overwhelming. Consider Amazon.com share price against its audit. As a public company, Amazon.com has been a winner for many investors. As a private business, would you have invested in it?

When you are serious about raising risk capital, you are talking about taking your company public. It's cost of going public that financial professionals consider as Cost of Money.

In April 1999, it cost about $1.23 million to do an IPO (Initial Public Offering). I did a cost and alternatives study for "American Venture" Magazine. I sent you a copy of my Report, last year.

In April 1999, you had two lower cost alternatives to going public, without doing an IPO. You could buy a trading shell or you could arrange to do a spinoff. The costs ranged between $125,000 and $200,000 for shells or spinoffs.

The following data is taken from "Going Public" by James B. Arkebauer (1994) and IPO cost website at: http://www.intranet.ca/~tgil/p2.html You should keep in mind that costs vary based upon complexity, size of underwriting and history of private company. The following IPO costs would be reasonable for a company with over $2 million in gross revenues and a 3-5 year operating history. A startup company would pay less than half this estimate to do an IPO. In some cases one or both sources acknowledge a cost listed below, but fail to offer an estimate. In those cases, I've supplied an estimate based upon my IPO experience.