I heard rumours that My Creative was a venture capitalist company with 200 million ringgit worth of funds to invest in creative projects. For equity share and the IP as collateral, you get funds to do your creative projects.
However, after a meeting with them yesterday, I don't think I will be taking any MyCreative funds. It might be great for some people, but it's not for me.
They're working more as a bank to give out loans to creative projects rather than an out-and-out VC company. While I understand their motivations - profit - and I do not disagree with it, I always refuse to take any offer that has changed from its initial rumours/details.
Hearing MyCreative as a magic VC company had my expectations up, but I also have to deal with the harsh realities and real possibilities of businesses failing. As I'm not in this alone, I also refuse to drag one of my best friends and his entire family down a financial hellhole, should the business fail to turn a profit or even recover the money in 3 years' time.
Considering the fact that the interest rates and loan repayment scheme will only be made visible AFTER the pitch, I have no way of knowing whether or not it would be feasible and whether any of my intended failsafes should we run into problems would be viable. Too many fuzzy details and too many variablesI am not sure of, so it's a no-go.
I will be contacting them during office hours this morning to tell them I won't be taking the project further with them.
The good thing that has come out of this is - I now have a 75% completed business plan to set up a comic book company. In my rudimentary calculations, I believe the business can be made profitable after 3-5 years, IF comics gets good reception in Malaysia and/or I manage to take the content beyond these shores and beyond the initial platform of print.
I'll be looking for some angel or even demon investors, maybe have a look at Kickstarter or Mystartr for crowd-sourcing the funds I would need. There is also the BSN loan.
One thing's for sure - I won't take unnecessary risks and endanger the financial well-being of people I know. Not even to further my dreams of doing something for comics.
