R&D Capital Summit Takeaways

Capital is the conduit by which small businesses survive.? The small business lending market in the US is estimated at $1.4 trillion with thousands of organizations relying upon outside capital for funding operations.? However, for many innovators in our ecosystem, their time is spent building and developing mission critical technologies, not financial models.??

As the nation’s leader in R&D collaboration management, ATI | Advanced Technology International has partnered with govmates to facilitate a series of discussions featuring financial institutions, investors and advisors on the role of capital and financial tools for the emerging R&D community.

At the annual Defense TechConnect Conference, we hosted a series of educational sessions providing a foundational overview of capital structure and financial products that are most useful to small businesses in the R&D community. ?

The first presentation, delivered by Sharon Heaton of SBLiftOff, provided an overview of capital structure along with financial products across the debt and equity spectrum, including SBA products, conventional banking products (lines of credit), asset-based lending, receivables financing, mezzanine loans, and equity financing (venture, private and angel).???

The second session featured a panel discussion with experts from the financial services industry covering capital solutions for every stage of a business’ lifecycle.? From the start-up phase to growth and mobilization, to eventual maturation, we spoke with Mustafa Nasseh of JP Morgan Chase, Matt Stavish of Republic Capital Access and Glenn Noble of Prudent Capital on financial products that apply in every scenario.

The final session featured industry experts for a discussion on preparing a small business for the capital raising process.? Topics covered included key items for preparation, market timing, financial management, audits, success stories and past examples of mistakes (no attribution, of course!).? Experts included Barry Rieger of Aprio, Ricky White of Cherry Bekaert and Sharon Heaton of SBLiftOff.

Need more capital content? Reach out to Katie Bilek at [email protected] for more information and 2024 programming.?