The Investment

Sunand came to me and told me that we would need to invest about $1,000,000 together and that he would be willing to give me 20% equity for $200,000. I was thrilled about the idea and also very excited about the prospects.

There were other people that want to invest with us, Sunand's Uncle and other relatives, Dr. Lokanath, a close friend of both of ours. But we turned them all down. We felt that it was going to be successful from the beginning and he we wanted to own the whole business ourselves.

This reminds me of the story of Michael Flatley. Michael was a big success with River Dance, but the show was owned by a company in which Michael had no ownership stake and he wanted to open his own show and invited a lot of big investors to present his idea and to raise money for Lord of the Dance. When all the big investors jumped at the chance to invest in Lord of the Dance, Michael decided that if professional investors were so eager to invest in his show, then he would invest the whole money himself and own the show 100%. Lord of the Dance and Michael Flattley's other shows have gone on to be billion dollars enterprises.

This was Sunand's and my situation, everybody we told about the idea wanted to invest with us. But in the end we both invested cash into the business ourselves.