Michael Gonnerman

Background

About Michael Gonnerman

Michael Gonnerman is a financial guru with 50 years of experience as a Director, Advisor, financial consultant, CFO and auditor. He helps companies deal with issues involving corporate oversight, financial management, financial reporting, forecasting and financing. He is the author of "Ask Mike", a collection of questions and answers about entrepreneurial finance, and he is a frequent speaker on finance and entrepreneurship. His financial tools (available at have been adopted by hundreds of companies.Here is an example from his book "Ask QUESTION -Do business plan awards mean anything?"One of my angel investors has urged me to compete in a business plan competition. If we do well, will this credential help us with larger investors? I'm skeptical."Mike: I don't think the credential by itself will have much impact on investors. But these competitions are a great way to fine tune your presentation and improve your public speaking skills. You'll probably get some good feedback, too, since the judges are usually investors or entrepreneurs themselves. They'll ask the same questions that you'll hear from a venture firm or angel group-is there a big upside opportunity, how solid is the management team, is the market well defined? In fact, I was at a business plan contest recently where the judges picked a winner-a pharmaceutical startup-that fit these criteria so perfectly that investors were coming on board even before the competition was over.Specialties: Financial reportingForecastingEarly stage, high technology companiesSoftwareComputer gamesNanotechnologyManufacturingTelevision film productionWomen's high fashion shoe manufacturing and distrCompanies brewing beer