February 24, 2026 • 38 mins
In the latest episode of FilmTech and Finance, we sit down with Tim Hoerr, CEO and Managing Partner of Serra Ventures, to explore the intricacies of venture capital and its intersection with the film industry. With decades of experience in helping founders transform their ideas into scalable businesses, Tim shares valuable insights that can benefit both tech entrepreneurs and filmmakers alike.
Understanding the Venture Capital Ecosystem:
Tim Hoerr's journey in venture capital began after a successful career in consulting and technology. He co-founded Serra Ventures to support high-growth startups, particularly those emerging from the University of Illinois tech ecosystem. Tim emphasizes that venture capital is not just about money; it involves providing guidance, encouragement, and entrepreneurial advice to help startups navigate the challenges they face.
His firm looks at around a thousand deals annually, making eight to ten strategic investments, focusing on providing not only capital but also essential coaching to founders. This holistic approach is crucial in an industry where entrepreneurship can often feel isolating.
Challenges in Film Funding:
Tim's insights extend to the film industry, where funding remains a significant hurdle. He notes that raising money for film projects can be as daunting as securing venture capital. Investors often lack familiarity with the film landscape, which complicates the fundraising process. Tim highlights the importance of storytelling in fundraising, stating that both filmmakers and venture capitalists must convey compelling narratives to attract investment.
For instance, Tim recounts his experience working with Aaron Burns on a film project called "Beyond the Mask." Initially skeptical, Tim's perspective shifted when he recognized the passion and vision of the filmmakers, leading him to rally investors for the project. This emphasizes the need for filmmakers to not only present a compelling story but also to build trust and relatability with potential investors.
Building a Strong Team:
One of Tim's key recommendations for filmmakers is to assemble a strong team. Having recognizable talent attached to a project can significantly enhance its appeal to investors. However, it's equally important for the pitching team to exhibit credibility and chemistry. Tim suggests that presenting as a cohesive unit, rather than as a solo pitch, can bolster confidence in the project.
By leveraging the strengths of multiple team members, filmmakers can create a more convincing narrative that resonates with potential investors. This collaborative approach mirrors successful practices in venture capital, where a united front often leads to greater success.
Conclusion: Key Takeaways
Tim Hoerr's insights provide a valuable roadmap for both tech entrepreneurs and filmmakers navigating the complex world of funding. The intersection of storytelling, team dynamics, and investor education plays a pivotal role in securing financial backing. For those in the media field, understanding the unique challenges of film funding and adopting a strategic approach can enhance their chances of success.
As we concluded our conversation, it became clear that whether in tech or film, the journey of entrepreneurship is filled with challenges, but with the right support and understanding, success is achievable.
Venture Capital, Film Funding, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Serra Ventures, Tim Hoerr, Fundraising Strategies, Media Industry Insights, Storytelling in Business.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Film Tech and Finance, where we explore the
cutting edge technology and financial strategies driving the
film industry today. Welcome to Film Tech and
Finance. Today's guest is Tim Hare, CEO
and Managing Partner of Cera Ventures, a firm known for
backing high growth startups andbuilding innovation its
ecosystems. Tim has decades of experience
(00:20):
helping founders turn ideas intoscalable businesses.
We'll dive into how venture capital really works, what
investors look for, and the biggest mistakes founders make.
Let's get started. Hi, Tim.
Hey, how are you doing? Good, good.
Welcome to the show. Thank you.
How is Chicago Right, you're in Chicago.
A little South of Chicago. Champagne.
(00:41):
It's a little wintery here todaythat that means gloomy and coal
now. I spent the month of January in
beautiful San Diego that that was quite different than what
I've got outside here today. Yeah, yeah, here.
I mean, I think today is like it's going to be like almost,
you know, like 80° or 90°, it's like.
(01:05):
Santa Ana winds bringing in thatdry air from the desert.
Yep. Nice.
So let's get to it. Tell us, tell us a little bit
about yourself, your background,your company.
You've been in the business for decades, so.
Yeah, happy to do that. My story actually starts all the
way back in Peoria, IL. My father owned a garden center
(01:26):
landscape operation, pretty sizable, probably one of the
larger ones in the state of Illinois outside of Chicago.
You know, I had about 120 employees and I got put to work
in fifth grade. And so I've, I've been working
for, you know, in, in one definition or another of work
for over 50 years. I went to school and studied
(01:48):
accounting not really knowing what to do.
I think I picked that major on advice from my dad.
He he told me he had three choices, horticulture, landscape
architecture and accounting. So I thought, well, I'd had
enough pulling of weeds and planting of trees.
So I figured accounting. I spent 15 years in public
accounting on the what is known as the management consulting
(02:10):
division of public accounting with a firm called RSM, which
today I think is the fourth, maybe made the 5th largest
accounting consulting firm worldwide.
Most of that tenure was in Champaign, IL.
Built a team of about 10 folks before moving to the West Coast.
I moved to San Diego in 95 to start the Management Consulting
(02:32):
division for RSM San Diego office.
Again, build a team of about 10.Had an opportunity to write a
book called Thank God It's Monday.
And I was shifting some of my consulting emphasis, which for
most of my tenure at RSM was focused on more what I call sort
of the hard sciences of consulting, IT, operations and
(02:55):
so forth, financial management. And the last several years I'd,
I'd shifted more toward executive leadership
development, strategy, change management, some of the softer
sciences, so to speak, and had avision to write a book and to go
on a speaking tour and basicallydo consulting services around
(03:16):
that concept. And ultimately that led to my
departure from the firm. It really wasn't a fit for RSM,
which was fine by me. I thought this was my time to
soar. It was actually my time to
pretty much fall flat for about a two year period of time.
It was kind of a crash and burn and really, really difficult.
(03:37):
I learned a lot during that timeand ultimately, you know, was
forced to take a job. So I I moved back to Illinois,
went into the tech world and that that's kind of important
because that's sort of where I've remained in a sense.
Now these these last, you know, 2525, almost 30 years now.
So began doing a little bit of work with the software company
(03:59):
and then ultimately had a chanceto Co found a tech startup
called Eyesight little letter ICYT.
We were building high speed cytometers for a variety of
uses, both agriculture and humandisease research.
And that company was ultimately acquired by Sony Corporation in
(04:19):
2009. And that was really the genesis
of Sarah Ventures. I took my old consulting firm
that I had started when I left RSM.
It was called Life Vision and I renamed it Sarah Ventures.
And initially Sarah was pretty much just a consultancy working
with high tech companies that were primarily coming out of the
University of Illinois tech ecosystem because that's where I
(04:42):
was located or am located. And I was joined by a venture
capitalist that had put some in my company eyesight.
So Dennis Beard and I had gottengotten to know one another over
over time and he was looking to do something a little bit
different in that 2009 time frame.
So the two of us joined forces. My oldest daughter also came to
(05:04):
work. She had just graduated from the
grad school, you know, the degree in industrial psychology,
and she didn't know what to do with that.
So the three of us were Sarah Ventures and we, we did a lot of
work with tech companies, again,most of them local, but EU of I
was and still is a prolific machine kind of spinning out
tech startups of all kinds, computer engineering, life
(05:27):
sciences and so on. So we had plenty of consulting
business, but the number one need maybe sometimes number 2
was capital, right. So these, these companies needed
capital. And we, we formed a small fund,
Cera Capital One in 2010, which,you know, essentially became a
(05:47):
precursor of now what we've donethese last 16-17 years.
And that is run a series of funds in search of high tech
start-ups. We, you know, look, we look at
maybe 1000 deals a year. And we, we, you know, we do a, a
small number of those eight to 10 investments.
(06:08):
But our idea is to come alongside tech founders, tech
companies and provide capital, but also entrepreneurial advice
and encouragement, coaching because entrepreneurship can be
a bit of a lonely Rd. It can be a very difficult Rd.,
you know, sort of by design. It's there's, there's going to
be a number of challenges. So you know, one of the things
(06:30):
you do in venture capital is provide both if you provide
capital that you are there as anadvisor, coach, encourager, and
ultimately, you know, our companies are on a trajectory to
achieve some type of an exit event.
We've raised a series of funds. We're small by venture
standards. It's just shy of a couple $100
million that we've raised in a series of funds.
(06:53):
We've invested in I think 150 companies over that time.
And that's that's sort of a highlevel view of who we are, what
we do. There's about 10 of us, so three
partners and a number of associates and team members
staff. We also tap a network of what we
call venture partners. They have day jobs elsewhere,
(07:14):
but they give us a little bit oftime because they have an area
of expertise that relates to thestartup ecosystem.
And we have venture advisors which they're somewhat
distinguished from venture partners.
They're very, very part time with us.
They're they're typically technical experts in various
domains. And so we tap them when we're
looking at a particular deal to make sure that we understand it,
(07:36):
we understand the market. So we, our team is mean and
lean, but we tap the expertise of a of a much larger pool.
And that's, you know, really keyin our businesses because we
don't know what we don't know sometimes.
So tapping the expertise of these other folks is an
extension none of our team. So do you usually?
(07:57):
You said you usually work with talent coming out of Chicago,
right? But can you work with other
companies all over the US? Yeah, yeah, No, I, I didn't mean
to imply I the, the first fund was fairly focused on Illinois
based companies, but Fund 2 which was launched in 2014, the
(08:17):
subsequent funds have looked much farther afield.
So we, we look throughout the USand even internationally to some
extent. So, and most of what we've done
is US based, but I think we're, you know, as of the latest
count, we're, we have companies in 25 different States and a few
different countries. So yes, we we look far afield to
(08:38):
find the best opportunities. OK.
That sounds interesting, very nice.
Anything in the media field? Have you seen anything like that
or is it pure? Tech, it's mostly tech unless it
is it that we've we've done sometech as it applies to media and
we've had a couple of start-ups.11 you know, just an
(08:59):
illustration that sort of pops into my mind.
I think it was a fun too companycalled Clearstream and they were
basically in the Internet advertising, you know, at the
early days, they helped advertisers understand the
context in which their video adswould be running and they
matched ads in media to the appropriate context, which is
(09:22):
kind of an interesting play. They were ultimately acquired
and, and rolled up into a much larger Media Group of about 8 or
9 companies. So we have, we have done media
from that perspective, particularly as it relates to
film. I, I first and foremost sort of
consider myself a coach and a consultant and, and then
secondarily an evil venture capitalist.
(09:43):
So, and, and by virtue of that, you know, we, we still do
consulting projects, we still doadvisory.
And I got involved with a, a young guy when he was young back
in the day about 01314 years ago, Aaron Burns, who is in the
film industry and was at the time and continued to be.
And so our firm has been involved from a fundraising
(10:07):
standpoint for media. But yeah, in terms of investing,
it typically has to have kind ofa tech angle to it.
So you said you got involved a little bit in the media and
that's what interests us a lot because that's that's the main
problem that everybody's facing right now.
I mean, it's kind of easy to find a script.
I mean, if you know the people, it's easy to find talent right
(10:28):
now. There's a lot, it's easy to find
tech technicians to work like camera crew and stuff like that
where most productions get halted or don't become a
project, a real life project. There's funding, right?
So you are in that field and yougot involved with media.
What's your take? What did you see in the in the
industry? Yeah.
So my initial sort of toe in thewater in the film, in media and
(10:52):
in fundraising for it started back in 2012.
And I became, you know, effectively the primary
fundraiser on Aaron's project back in that time frame.
And not number one, I saw that raising money in film is every
bit as difficult, if not more difficult than it is in venture
capital. You know, raising venture is
(11:14):
hard and it it kind of fits in the same category as film from
the perspective of, you know, these are considered alternative
investments, right? There are mainstream investments
a la stocks and bonds and, you know, money market funds and
mutual funds and that that you know, most people have some
conception of how those work. And that's that's where they're
(11:35):
investing dollars go. That's where they're in chase
are invested. But there's this universe of
alternative assets and ventures in that universe.
Film funding is in that universeand it's more complex.
It's it's it's harder to understand for lay people.
So when you go to the market to raise money in film, you're
(11:55):
you're dealing with a lot of say, ignorance in the market,
right? You have to mine for Nuggets of
and what I mean by that, you've got to find parties that either
have some familiarity with with media and film or willing to
hear the story of how media and film can fit into their
investment portfolio. But you're always going to be
challenged with the fact that, you know, most investors
(12:17):
alternatives, you know they, they typically comprise only 5
to 10% of a given investors portfolio, if that right?
So whether they're an institution like a pension fund
or an individual, they're going to deploy most of their money
into those more well known assets and then they're going to
have a smaller amount. So a, you have to understand the
(12:38):
dynamic that people are dealing with a, a certain amount of
ignorance and not understanding.So you have to educate.
You know, I, I think one of the things I love about the fit of
film and media with the fundraising aspect is that
fundraising is about telling a story.
I mean that that's what you're doing, whether you're raising
money for whatever. So film makers arguably are
(13:01):
storytellers. I mean, that's the business
they're in. And so you need to adaptive
version of your storytelling to the fundraising process and
create a compelling set of material, you know, sort of
table stakes or, you know, beingable to tell the story in an in
a nice pitch deck, maybe a demo reel of some kind.
(13:21):
And then the thing I, you know, ultimately found out, as in any
kind of fundraising, ultimately people are investing in you for
the people behind the project, right?
You can have a fantastic and compelling story or product, but
that's not really ultimately what moves the needle because
investing ultimately is an emotional decision.
(13:42):
It's it's often not completely rational.
So you, you've got to tell the story well.
And then you as a person doing the fundraising must be
believable and relatable and trustworthy, right?
So that's what I discovered early on.
And you know. How was, how was your experience
with that project you worked on?Like give us a little fast.
(14:05):
Yeah. Track.
Yeah. Well, it's, it was kind of
curious that, you know, I, I initially got pitched by there
were two members of the team, Chad and Aaron Burns, first
cousins. And they, they had made this
original a movie in their backyard effectively that went
direct to, to this is before I got involved that, you know,
went direct to whatever. But I don't think, I don't know
(14:27):
if they were DVDs back then or whatever.
But and you know, they, they actually had sold several
$1,000,000 worth of this on Internet sites.
So it's kind of interesting. They, they came and told me this
story. They pitched this idea of a
historical action adventure called Beyond the Mask.
And you know, I saw their littlepitch deck and Chad at the end
(14:50):
of that little pitch said, now Tim, you know, is there any
reason as an investor you wouldn't put $100,000 into this
deal? And I said, Chad, I can think of
at least 10 reasons why I wouldn't put $100,000 into this
deal, right, 'cause I, I mean, I, at that point, the only thing
I knew about movies is, you know, hey, there's, there's
(15:10):
Hollywood and, you know, some movies really make it big and
most movies don't. That, that was kind of the, you
know, the thing that I sort of, that was my naive or, you know,
my understanding at the time. Interestingly, you know, over
the next three weeks that you can call it, you know, you know,
karma or, you know, divine intervention.
But I had sort of three counterswith people that mentioned this
(15:36):
Chad and Aaron and their project.
And I thought the universe is telling me I need to be more
open minded, right? And that that was that was sort
of irrational. It was the more rational thing
was sort of say no and move on. But I had those guys come back
in and I said, look, you know, I, I, I like what you're doing.
I don't really understand it, but I'm willing to pull together
(15:58):
a group of our investors and people I know, let's do a lunch.
And instead of just doing your PowerPoint pitch, why don't you
guys come and pitch yourself, this group, see your passion,
your vision. So we did that.
I got a couple of hits, you know, guys that were willing to
write 25 or $50,000 checks. The total budget we were trying
(16:18):
to raise was, you know, it was about 2 1/2 or three million.
It was, you know, it was tiny byfilm standards, but, you know,
not like 0. And after that lunch, you know,
something kind of flipped in me that I thought, you know what?
I actually believe in these guys.
I'm going to write a substantialcheck and I'm going to help them
actually go out on the fundraising trail.
(16:39):
So I did and we began going together primarily pitching high
net worth individuals, one-on-one, a couple, a couple
times. We were able to gather, you
know, more like a dinner or a luncheon meeting, which I find
highly effective because you know, you get kind of a group of
fact of people in the room and if the, you know, the product is
good and you're believable, kindof stirs people up and gets them
(17:02):
excited and so forth. Yeah, over about a three month,
4 month period of time, we endedup raising the funds that we
needed and we were able to, you know, do the project and we had
a lot of a lot of in kind contribution beyond just the
cash. Yeah, the actual experience was,
(17:23):
you know, again it was, it was difficult.
We, you know, we put together target lists of, of people in my
domain and people that they knew.
And, you know, we just scroungedaround finding, you know, but
just names of people and just doing direct outs outreach,
right, emails and phone calls and saying, hey, would you be
(17:44):
willing to listen to our story? And so, yeah, it was a lot of
grass roots, you know, hard workand so compared.
To your your textiles, for example, if you try to gather,
gather money there, how would you compare it?
Same. Harder, actually, yeah.
Yeah, I know. It's it's, it's, it's very, very
(18:07):
similar. I'd say film's a little bit
harder just because the outcome of the film is very much an
unknown right now. I mean, it is in tech startup,
but when you go pitch an investor into a tech startup,
you know, they're, they're typically able to see, oh, there
is a very specific problem the tech is solving.
Oh yeah, I can relate to that because I have that problem.
(18:29):
I've seen that problem. And even though you know, a lot
of start-ups fail that you know,the logical connection between
putting my money in and the possibility that it could
actually return something betterthan the amount I put in that
that dynamic in the tech world, tech start up world is probably,
you know, it it a little more tangible.
(18:51):
And so you're dealing with less,you're still dealing with a lot
of skepticism, but maybe a a bitless than you find in film just
because you know, the outcome ofa film.
There's so many factors that go into whether a film is a success
that again, I think you ultimately, like I said, you
know, go back to what I said, you get the investor to believe
in the team doing the project. And you know, really that's the
(19:14):
best you can do because you don't control so your.
Suggestion for someone in the media field would be what?
Set up a nice team? Professionals, right?
Besides the talent, right? Besides, like, who's the actor
of course. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean you, you always, it's great to have talent attached to
a project when you're pitching it, right?
Because I've, I've seen projectspitch without talent attached.
(19:36):
So if you have talent attached, being talent in particular,
that's always a great plus. Any any kind of significant
player attached, you know, on the production side can also be
obviously a + a known producer, director, etcetera.
That's always a a nice plus. Probably as important as
(19:56):
anything is the actual team, youknow, doing the pitching and I
and I think having. More than one, you know, 2, two
or three. There's there's great strength
in that and we see that in the venture business.
I'm the primary fundraiser on pitches, but I bring my wingman
with me. I bring a couple partners that
that's not really their shtick, but the three of us together on
(20:19):
a pitch become more credible than Tim Hare just, you know,
telling his story. If it's Tim and Dennis and Rob
collectively presenting the story and kind of playing off of
each other, that active investorgets to see the dynamic of, oh,
OK, you know, these guys know what they're talking about.
They seem to have good chemistry.
They seem to have a good vision.And that's same dynamic is I
(20:43):
think what works in film. And it's what's worked, you
know, 'cause I've, I've gone on to help Aaron raise money for
additional projects over the last 10-12, thirteen years.
And yeah, that dynamic absolutely works for film as
well. And of course.
A pitch deck, promo video and all that stuff.
(21:03):
Yeah, yeah, those are kind of, like I said, table stakes.
You want a nice pitch deck and the course, there's great tools.
Canva, for instance, is sort of a state-of-the-art on pitch
decks and promo video would be great.
How about distribution? It's nice to have a distribution
rate or potential distribution. Sure it.
(21:23):
It is, but it's often a luxury, right, to have that nailed down,
particularly for folks that maybe don't have as much
experience. It absolutely changes the
dynamic with the investor because it gives that investor
some amount of cognitive recognition.
OK, you got distribution lined up.
OK. Now I think the odds of success
have gone up, right? You don't have distribution
(21:45):
lined up that that is a piece ofrisk that hasn't been dealt with
yet. So if you can get it, great on
this latest project that, you know, I worked with Aaron on, on
the life of Jimmy Stewart was, and I wasn't the, the primary
fundraiser on that. We had a, a gentleman by the
name of Jack Mcclintock that hadcome to the table and, and
(22:08):
brought some nice funding and some contacts and Jack kind of
ran the process. And I was sort of an ancillary
part, but I I did do a, you know, a a bit of work in
bringing it together. And we had distribution offers
while we were raised. Amazing.
We had not yet executed a distribution deal until closer
(22:28):
to the end of our fundraising. And I think that did bring sort
of the last, call it, 20% of themoney in, but, you know,
investors knowing that we had distribution lined up.
So yeah. It is possible, right?
Because a lot of people are frustrated that it's extremely
like, like a dream come true, right?
(22:50):
If you can't find a movie right now, yeah, well, it.
It is possible. And yeah, I would just say the
last three or four years in, in alternative investments,
including film, including venture, it's been a tough
fundraising environment. It's probably been the toughest
environment that I've seen in my, you know, 151617 years.
(23:11):
I think the tide is turning, butit was sort of a unique
combination of factors that led to this difficulty, some
macroeconomic, some geopoliticaland so forth.
But we're now, I think going into 26 at least my sense of
optimism is increased that fundraising is, again, it's not
going to be easy, but I, I thinkthe environment is improving.
(23:34):
So raising money for venture, raising money for film, you
know, it's going to get better. And, you know, I think the
interest rates are going to continue to come down.
I think just the overall economic climate will be
hopefully positive. So yeah, yeah, I would encourage
people. You know, it's like anything in
life. If you work really, really hard
(23:57):
on a well conceived plan, you know, you can make it happen.
It might kill you in the I mean,I've been raising our, you know,
our latest venture fund for a couple.
Yeah, well, you you might, but what's you're still alive,
right? Right.
So, yeah, my, my attitude is you, you got to have to be ready
with some amount of resilience. You're going to get knocked on
(24:19):
your ass. You're going to have to get back
up and go again. Somebody will believe your
story, a collection of somebody's you know, And in
film, it might be a manner of skinning down more grandiose
plans. I've seen Aaron do this on a
couple of projects. He, he and his team got hired
(24:39):
after, you know, he had been a associate producer on a couple
of films for another group and Sony liked what he did and they
actually funded a couple of small budget deals. 1 was a
couple million, one was like 4 million for, you know, release
direct to streaming. He was able to take a a script
and a project that, you know, might have been, you know,
(25:00):
10/15/20 million and skinny it down significantly into those
smaller projects and actually produce a pretty quality piece,
You know, enable the team to raise a much bigger budget for
the Ginny film, You know, which talking mega 10's and 10s of
1,000,000, but it's it's significantly more than 4
million, let's just say that. And yet but the ability to be
(25:23):
flexible on hey, you know, we'regoing to have to just skinny
this down with maybe talent thatdoesn't cost as much better use
of visual effects or you know computer generated effects
etcetera. It can be done on a smaller
budget and then it can be a stair step to a bigger more
robust deal downloads. So right now with.
(25:44):
I've I've seen in the market that you can get good quality
productions with lower cost, right?
Even talent are willing to work because there's not a lot of
work right now and and they're working for more affordable
prices, I would say. But you think it would be easier
for a new producer to try to geta smaller amount?
Or does it sound more risky? Like if I ask for, you know,
(26:06):
let's say as an example, you know, $1 million right to the
project. Esther be interested in
something like that because whatwould he his return be, right?
Or would it be more enticing if I can create a production that's
a little bit higher? I mean, I don't know if you'd
understand my take, right. Yeah, no.
I understand, I understand what you're saying because, you know,
if if it's if you're skimping too much, you know, and you're
(26:29):
too narrow over here on the one side of the the deal and over
here, you know, it's 20 or 25,000,000 is there, you know, a
sweet spot in the middle. Yeah, I I think it makes sense
to, you know, Target say again like, you know, I look at again,
I don't have tons of experience outside working with Aaron, but
(26:50):
you know, the one film you know,with with Sony again was maybe
it was a couple million. The the other was four.
That number seems the, you know,it's big enough to enable a
fairly high quality production. It's not so small a million.
I would be a little bit suspect,right?
Because it's a shame, yes. What?
(27:11):
What can you really do with a million?
Right. Or why can't?
You find a million, you know, why can't you find like, Yeah,
so small? Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So I think having a little more
substance to the budget, but maybe not completely overdoing
it, The other thing you can do, you know, you can test the
waters on a certain budget and see what feedback you get and
then you make modifications, right?
(27:31):
So you can float some trial balloons and see how a
particular budget plays with an investor or set of investors.
And that might give you, you know, the the feedback you need
to tweak it. You know, maybe you you bump the
budget to six or seven, you know, or 10, you know, or maybe
you screw it down a little bit to three.
You know, the risk with that is you generally don't get a second
(27:53):
chance to make a first impression, right?
So the people that you find those spot words.
With right, right, you got to find the spot that makes sense,
right? It makes sense, Yeah, because
the production also has to make sense, right?
You can't just throw a number, hey, give me 10 million, I'll do
something, right? You have to have a plan, right?
The backs that you do. Exactly.
(28:13):
I mean, and I always made sure, you know, our team, Aaron's team
had, you know, a very well conceived strategy, a plan, a
budget that backed up the prettyPowerPoint, right?
I mean, you, you, you absolutelyneed that because the more
sophisticated investors are going to ask for that.
They're going to want to, you know, dig into it a little bit.
(28:34):
Let me ask you this. You're talking about Aaron and
are you open to working with other people or are you or is
that something that your 5% portfolio is filled with him?
You understand what I'm saying? Because you do other.
Stuff you're not you're not focused on film.
I I understand that, yeah. Yeah, I'd, I'd say potentially
(28:56):
and you know, and personally, I'm kind of getting, you know,
to the spot in my career. I'm, I'm 64 and, you know,
planning on sort of a, a couple more years full bore, you know,
doing what I'm doing here. But the good news is, you know,
I, I intend to continue working beyond those two years in a
reduced capacity and freeing up bandwidth for some other
(29:20):
projects. And so that might be the answer
to your question. You know, in my a little bit
down the road, I'll probably have a little more freedom
because, you know, my day job won't be as intense.
I do love film, film done well, I think is is, you know, can be
an amazing cultural phenomenon. So I, I, I love that part of it,
(29:42):
how it can, you know, move people and bring an aesthetic
quality to the culture. I think it can be very powerful
in that sense. So, so yeah, I'll give you a
qualified yes on that to your question.
Great. So.
One of The thing is you talked alittle bit about your company
and because you said who's part of the company, it's your
daughter, you said also and you have another partner, future
(30:05):
plans, is the daughter taking over?
I mean, that's something personal I won't get in those
details. Yeah.
What it would be the future plans for your company is to
expand to another industry maybeI don't know what what are you
looking at Well, we. Have that.
There are three partners, so Dennis, Rob and myself.
And then we have yeah, Alyssa's still on the team as a marketing
(30:26):
and communication coordinator. We have Eric who runs our
advisory side of the business. We have Jack and Drew that serve
on the investing side of the business.
And then we, you know, we've gotthese venture partners and so
forth. So yeah, we're, we're going to,
you know, Sarah Ventures has a plan to grow and to do
additional venture funds. So we'll be introducing a new
(30:47):
venture fund later this year, bringing that to the market,
probably maybe even 2 possibilities there.
So we're, we're making plans forthat.
We actually launched an officialversion of our advisory business
called Sarah Advisor. It does primarily merger and
acquisition advising, but it also does special consulting
projects. So kind of some of the
(31:08):
consulting we used to do in Serra Ventures, we've moved into
this special consulting entity. So Eric is running that with
John and we're going to be making a new hire there.
So both of these businesses, theinvesting side, the advisory
side are set to grow over the next decade.
And most of the team is much younger than Dennis and myself.
(31:33):
We'll take over, yeah. They're they'll all take over.
I I don't know what combo of allof them will run the shop, but
we'll see how it goes. Definitely keep us.
Keep us posted with whatever youdo.
We're going to have all your information.
What would be an easy way for somebody to contact you?
Is it emails or your website? E-mail is probably.
The easiest Tim at sarahventures.com, that's Serra
(31:57):
ventures.com. So it's I'm sort of a an e-mail
siend I, you know, look at it before I go to bed type of a
thing, which I shouldn't do according to my wife.
But yeah, that's that's probablythe easiest way to, you know,
like if you have an idea, you can send the pitch deck or just,
you know, outline a paragraph ortwo of kind of what you're
thinking about. Yeah, because.
(32:18):
We have a lot of tech people in the media field.
I was talking actually with, I had another show yesterday
actually, and they were doing 3Dimmersive, the 360, 180
immersive and they had some niceideas of new technology and how
to use it. So there's there's people out
there that I'm sure will be interested in the not only the
(32:40):
film, but also in the tech, techaspect of it.
Yeah. So they can communicate with you
guys. OK.
Perfect. Perfect.
So I, I don't know if you want to add anything else.
I mean, I think we've got everything we needed right now.
Your point was very insightful, very promising, because I said
again, a lot of people are trying to gather capital for
film. They struggle, that's for sure.
(33:02):
I mean, I've, I've tried it myself and it was always, I just
said I had to prove not only myself and my team, I had to
prove the story. And, you know, and it is as hard
sometimes. I've done some documentaries
where at least there I found it.With documentaries, people would
resonate with a specific theme, so they would help for that
reason. Yeah, I do.
I do. Think that I mean, that's a good
(33:22):
point Again, yeah, fundraising is hard, but a, you know, it can
be done B you know, just you gotto work hard at it and have
resilience. I think finding one of the thing
that worked well for us raising for Aaron's projects was
connecting the content of the film to a particular or passion
or interest of an investor, which is not easy to do
(33:44):
necessarily because you don't always know.
But sometimes from like LinkedInprofiles, you can see this
person has experience in X or aninterest in Z.
And if you can connect your content and your vision to a
passion or a vision of a prospective investor, well, then
you know, the odds are increasedthat that person will at least
(34:07):
listen to your story. And, and you know, and don't be
afraid to use somebody to help you in the fundraise, right?
Not all of us, and. See.
Yeah. Gifted as.
Fundraisers, right? I mean, that's that's why I'm
out of the 10 people that work here.
I'm kind of the guy that goes out and beats the pavement to
find investors. Now when I find one to pitch, I
bring others in to augment the story and add credibility.
(34:31):
But you know, if you're a filmmaker and you you know, you
don't consider yourself a fundraiser will find somebody
that has a bit of more of a sales biz dev, you know,
business development approach inthe in their bailiwick, I think,
and that's where. Sometimes creators fail is, I
think a person like you, it should be part of a production.
So the same way you're finding adirector and you need also a
(34:54):
producer and you need that guy that does the lights and the
camera guy and everything. They should also include a
person like yourself to help them because that's part of the
production. A lot of people fail there, do
the creation, they create something, they create the
story, and then they try to sell.
Well, I'm not, as you said, I don't have the experience.
I don't have the people. I don't know how the system
works, right. I know how to create.
(35:16):
I know how to get a script. Some people like myself, like,
for example, that you could be aproducer.
Well, you need an editor, right?He he knows how to edit the
video and you can't do everything.
You might know a few things. Yeah.
I mean, I know how the system works.
Yeah. But.
Yeah, No, I'm not. I'm not that guy.
I'm not that guy that can. I mean, you have, I just said
you have that talent to tell somebody during coffee time or,
(35:39):
you know, having dinner, what tosay to get him to sign a check
for me. I can talk about tech all day.
I can talk about media. Yeah, definitely collaboration.
That's how I see it. We definitely people should
incorporate the your job in their production.
I don't know if it makes sense for sure.
Percent, yeah. I mean, know your own strengths
(36:02):
and limitations and augment yourself with a team member that
has complementary, you know, skills and experience and and
one last. Question again, not getting the
details of because I understand every project is different, but
in general how would somebody expect to work with a company
like you? Is it a retainer based
collaboration? Is it a fee based collaboration
(36:25):
after the projects and how how is usually really work?
Yeah, I, I. Like to say it depends because
that that's a good consulting answer.
Yeah, we normally have some combo of retainer and success
kind of depending on the circumstances.
Again, we try to be creative with, you know, the need of the
particulars of the situation, right.
(36:46):
It's not, you know, every project is, is different one
from the other. But yeah, generally we, we try
to have a modest monthly retainer for a certain amount of
time and then most of it is success on actually closing
financing. And I, I think that's pretty
common in the fundraising industry, so to speak.
(37:06):
You'll find, you know, differentcombos of that.
That's everything I. Mean you're going to negotiate,
I guess before you start a projection, negotiate you.
Right. You'll typically want to put
that in a engagement letter where everybody understands
here's what we're trying to do, here's how we're going to do it,
and here's how the payment works, OK?
I think we got everything we needed from you right now.
(37:28):
It's all the information was perfect.
All your information is going tobe on our website under your the
show. It's going to have your e-mail,
you know, your web page, whatever.
People can find you because that's whole purpose.
But we want people to, you know,collaborate with you and
companies like, like yourself, if you can help them.
If not, you can, you know, guidethem wherever you can.
(37:48):
That would be appreciated. Perfect.
Thanks for your time. Great.
Well, thanks for your information.
Nice. Nice.
And then we'll keep you posted on the show and then keep us
updated too. Keep us updated.
It's very interesting. We'll do with your company
everything you do. OK.
Thank you very much. Thanks for your time.
All right. Bye.
Bye. Thanks for joining.
US on film, tech and Finance. Don't forget to follow and
(38:09):
subscribe for more insights and updates.
Welcome to Film Tech and Finance, where we explore the
cutting edge technology and financial strategies driving the
film industry today. Welcome to Film Tech and
Finance. Today's guest is Tim Hare, CEO
and Managing Partner of Cera Ventures, a firm known for
backing high growth startups andbuilding innovation its
ecosystems. Tim has decades of experience
(00:20):
helping founders turn ideas intoscalable businesses.
We'll dive into how venture capital really works, what
investors look for, and the biggest mistakes founders make.
Let's get started. Hi, Tim.
Hey, how are you doing? Good, good.
Welcome to the show. Thank you.
How is Chicago Right, you're in Chicago.
A little South of Chicago. Champagne.
(00:41):
It's a little wintery here todaythat that means gloomy and coal
now. I spent the month of January in
beautiful San Diego that that was quite different than what
I've got outside here today. Yeah, yeah, here.
I mean, I think today is like it's going to be like almost,
you know, like 80° or 90°, it's like.
(01:05):
Santa Ana winds bringing in thatdry air from the desert.
Yep. Nice.
So let's get to it. Tell us, tell us a little bit
about yourself, your background,your company.
You've been in the business for decades, so.
Yeah, happy to do that. My story actually starts all the
way back in Peoria, IL. My father owned a garden center
(01:26):
landscape operation, pretty sizable, probably one of the
larger ones in the state of Illinois outside of Chicago.
You know, I had about 120 employees and I got put to work
in fifth grade. And so I've, I've been working
for, you know, in, in one definition or another of work
for over 50 years. I went to school and studied
(01:48):
accounting not really knowing what to do.
I think I picked that major on advice from my dad.
He he told me he had three choices, horticulture, landscape
architecture and accounting. So I thought, well, I'd had
enough pulling of weeds and planting of trees.
So I figured accounting. I spent 15 years in public
accounting on the what is known as the management consulting
(02:10):
division of public accounting with a firm called RSM, which
today I think is the fourth, maybe made the 5th largest
accounting consulting firm worldwide.
Most of that tenure was in Champaign, IL.
Built a team of about 10 folks before moving to the West Coast.
I moved to San Diego in 95 to start the Management Consulting
(02:32):
division for RSM San Diego office.
Again, build a team of about 10.Had an opportunity to write a
book called Thank God It's Monday.
And I was shifting some of my consulting emphasis, which for
most of my tenure at RSM was focused on more what I call sort
of the hard sciences of consulting, IT, operations and
(02:55):
so forth, financial management. And the last several years I'd,
I'd shifted more toward executive leadership
development, strategy, change management, some of the softer
sciences, so to speak, and had avision to write a book and to go
on a speaking tour and basicallydo consulting services around
(03:16):
that concept. And ultimately that led to my
departure from the firm. It really wasn't a fit for RSM,
which was fine by me. I thought this was my time to
soar. It was actually my time to
pretty much fall flat for about a two year period of time.
It was kind of a crash and burn and really, really difficult.
(03:37):
I learned a lot during that timeand ultimately, you know, was
forced to take a job. So I I moved back to Illinois,
went into the tech world and that that's kind of important
because that's sort of where I've remained in a sense.
Now these these last, you know, 2525, almost 30 years now.
So began doing a little bit of work with the software company
(03:59):
and then ultimately had a chanceto Co found a tech startup
called Eyesight little letter ICYT.
We were building high speed cytometers for a variety of
uses, both agriculture and humandisease research.
And that company was ultimately acquired by Sony Corporation in
(04:19):
2009. And that was really the genesis
of Sarah Ventures. I took my old consulting firm
that I had started when I left RSM.
It was called Life Vision and I renamed it Sarah Ventures.
And initially Sarah was pretty much just a consultancy working
with high tech companies that were primarily coming out of the
University of Illinois tech ecosystem because that's where I
(04:42):
was located or am located. And I was joined by a venture
capitalist that had put some in my company eyesight.
So Dennis Beard and I had gottengotten to know one another over
over time and he was looking to do something a little bit
different in that 2009 time frame.
So the two of us joined forces. My oldest daughter also came to
(05:04):
work. She had just graduated from the
grad school, you know, the degree in industrial psychology,
and she didn't know what to do with that.
So the three of us were Sarah Ventures and we, we did a lot of
work with tech companies, again,most of them local, but EU of I
was and still is a prolific machine kind of spinning out
tech startups of all kinds, computer engineering, life
(05:27):
sciences and so on. So we had plenty of consulting
business, but the number one need maybe sometimes number 2
was capital, right. So these, these companies needed
capital. And we, we formed a small fund,
Cera Capital One in 2010, which,you know, essentially became a
(05:47):
precursor of now what we've donethese last 16-17 years.
And that is run a series of funds in search of high tech
start-ups. We, you know, look, we look at
maybe 1000 deals a year. And we, we, you know, we do a, a
small number of those eight to 10 investments.
(06:08):
But our idea is to come alongside tech founders, tech
companies and provide capital, but also entrepreneurial advice
and encouragement, coaching because entrepreneurship can be
a bit of a lonely Rd. It can be a very difficult Rd.,
you know, sort of by design. It's there's, there's going to
be a number of challenges. So you know, one of the things
(06:30):
you do in venture capital is provide both if you provide
capital that you are there as anadvisor, coach, encourager, and
ultimately, you know, our companies are on a trajectory to
achieve some type of an exit event.
We've raised a series of funds. We're small by venture
standards. It's just shy of a couple $100
million that we've raised in a series of funds.
(06:53):
We've invested in I think 150 companies over that time.
And that's that's sort of a highlevel view of who we are, what
we do. There's about 10 of us, so three
partners and a number of associates and team members
staff. We also tap a network of what we
call venture partners. They have day jobs elsewhere,
(07:14):
but they give us a little bit oftime because they have an area
of expertise that relates to thestartup ecosystem.
And we have venture advisors which they're somewhat
distinguished from venture partners.
They're very, very part time with us.
They're they're typically technical experts in various
domains. And so we tap them when we're
looking at a particular deal to make sure that we understand it,
(07:36):
we understand the market. So we, our team is mean and
lean, but we tap the expertise of a of a much larger pool.
And that's, you know, really keyin our businesses because we
don't know what we don't know sometimes.
So tapping the expertise of these other folks is an
extension none of our team. So do you usually?
(07:57):
You said you usually work with talent coming out of Chicago,
right? But can you work with other
companies all over the US? Yeah, yeah, No, I, I didn't mean
to imply I the, the first fund was fairly focused on Illinois
based companies, but Fund 2 which was launched in 2014, the
(08:17):
subsequent funds have looked much farther afield.
So we, we look throughout the USand even internationally to some
extent. So, and most of what we've done
is US based, but I think we're, you know, as of the latest
count, we're, we have companies in 25 different States and a few
different countries. So yes, we we look far afield to
(08:38):
find the best opportunities. OK.
That sounds interesting, very nice.
Anything in the media field? Have you seen anything like that
or is it pure? Tech, it's mostly tech unless it
is it that we've we've done sometech as it applies to media and
we've had a couple of start-ups.11 you know, just an
(08:59):
illustration that sort of pops into my mind.
I think it was a fun too companycalled Clearstream and they were
basically in the Internet advertising, you know, at the
early days, they helped advertisers understand the
context in which their video adswould be running and they
matched ads in media to the appropriate context, which is
(09:22):
kind of an interesting play. They were ultimately acquired
and, and rolled up into a much larger Media Group of about 8 or
9 companies. So we have, we have done media
from that perspective, particularly as it relates to
film. I, I first and foremost sort of
consider myself a coach and a consultant and, and then
secondarily an evil venture capitalist.
(09:43):
So, and, and by virtue of that, you know, we, we still do
consulting projects, we still doadvisory.
And I got involved with a, a young guy when he was young back
in the day about 01314 years ago, Aaron Burns, who is in the
film industry and was at the time and continued to be.
And so our firm has been involved from a fundraising
(10:07):
standpoint for media. But yeah, in terms of investing,
it typically has to have kind ofa tech angle to it.
So you said you got involved a little bit in the media and
that's what interests us a lot because that's that's the main
problem that everybody's facing right now.
I mean, it's kind of easy to find a script.
I mean, if you know the people, it's easy to find talent right
(10:28):
now. There's a lot, it's easy to find
tech technicians to work like camera crew and stuff like that
where most productions get halted or don't become a
project, a real life project. There's funding, right?
So you are in that field and yougot involved with media.
What's your take? What did you see in the in the
industry? Yeah.
So my initial sort of toe in thewater in the film, in media and
(10:52):
in fundraising for it started back in 2012.
And I became, you know, effectively the primary
fundraiser on Aaron's project back in that time frame.
And not number one, I saw that raising money in film is every
bit as difficult, if not more difficult than it is in venture
capital. You know, raising venture is
(11:14):
hard and it it kind of fits in the same category as film from
the perspective of, you know, these are considered alternative
investments, right? There are mainstream investments
a la stocks and bonds and, you know, money market funds and
mutual funds and that that you know, most people have some
conception of how those work. And that's that's where they're
(11:35):
investing dollars go. That's where they're in chase
are invested. But there's this universe of
alternative assets and ventures in that universe.
Film funding is in that universeand it's more complex.
It's it's it's harder to understand for lay people.
So when you go to the market to raise money in film, you're
(11:55):
you're dealing with a lot of say, ignorance in the market,
right? You have to mine for Nuggets of
and what I mean by that, you've got to find parties that either
have some familiarity with with media and film or willing to
hear the story of how media and film can fit into their
investment portfolio. But you're always going to be
challenged with the fact that, you know, most investors
(12:17):
alternatives, you know they, they typically comprise only 5
to 10% of a given investors portfolio, if that right?
So whether they're an institution like a pension fund
or an individual, they're going to deploy most of their money
into those more well known assets and then they're going to
have a smaller amount. So a, you have to understand the
(12:38):
dynamic that people are dealing with a, a certain amount of
ignorance and not understanding.So you have to educate.
You know, I, I think one of the things I love about the fit of
film and media with the fundraising aspect is that
fundraising is about telling a story.
I mean that that's what you're doing, whether you're raising
money for whatever. So film makers arguably are
(13:01):
storytellers. I mean, that's the business
they're in. And so you need to adaptive
version of your storytelling to the fundraising process and
create a compelling set of material, you know, sort of
table stakes or, you know, beingable to tell the story in an in
a nice pitch deck, maybe a demo reel of some kind.
(13:21):
And then the thing I, you know, ultimately found out, as in any
kind of fundraising, ultimately people are investing in you for
the people behind the project, right?
You can have a fantastic and compelling story or product, but
that's not really ultimately what moves the needle because
investing ultimately is an emotional decision.
(13:42):
It's it's often not completely rational.
So you, you've got to tell the story well.
And then you as a person doing the fundraising must be
believable and relatable and trustworthy, right?
So that's what I discovered early on.
And you know. How was, how was your experience
with that project you worked on?Like give us a little fast.
(14:05):
Yeah. Track.
Yeah. Well, it's, it was kind of
curious that, you know, I, I initially got pitched by there
were two members of the team, Chad and Aaron Burns, first
cousins. And they, they had made this
original a movie in their backyard effectively that went
direct to, to this is before I got involved that, you know,
went direct to whatever. But I don't think, I don't know
(14:27):
if they were DVDs back then or whatever.
But and you know, they, they actually had sold several
$1,000,000 worth of this on Internet sites.
So it's kind of interesting. They, they came and told me this
story. They pitched this idea of a
historical action adventure called Beyond the Mask.
And you know, I saw their littlepitch deck and Chad at the end
(14:50):
of that little pitch said, now Tim, you know, is there any
reason as an investor you wouldn't put $100,000 into this
deal? And I said, Chad, I can think of
at least 10 reasons why I wouldn't put $100,000 into this
deal, right, 'cause I, I mean, I, at that point, the only thing
I knew about movies is, you know, hey, there's, there's
(15:10):
Hollywood and, you know, some movies really make it big and
most movies don't. That, that was kind of the, you
know, the thing that I sort of, that was my naive or, you know,
my understanding at the time. Interestingly, you know, over
the next three weeks that you can call it, you know, you know,
karma or, you know, divine intervention.
But I had sort of three counterswith people that mentioned this
(15:36):
Chad and Aaron and their project.
And I thought the universe is telling me I need to be more
open minded, right? And that that was that was sort
of irrational. It was the more rational thing
was sort of say no and move on. But I had those guys come back
in and I said, look, you know, I, I, I like what you're doing.
I don't really understand it, but I'm willing to pull together
(15:58):
a group of our investors and people I know, let's do a lunch.
And instead of just doing your PowerPoint pitch, why don't you
guys come and pitch yourself, this group, see your passion,
your vision. So we did that.
I got a couple of hits, you know, guys that were willing to
write 25 or $50,000 checks. The total budget we were trying
(16:18):
to raise was, you know, it was about 2 1/2 or three million.
It was, you know, it was tiny byfilm standards, but, you know,
not like 0. And after that lunch, you know,
something kind of flipped in me that I thought, you know what?
I actually believe in these guys.
I'm going to write a substantialcheck and I'm going to help them
actually go out on the fundraising trail.
(16:39):
So I did and we began going together primarily pitching high
net worth individuals, one-on-one, a couple, a couple
times. We were able to gather, you
know, more like a dinner or a luncheon meeting, which I find
highly effective because you know, you get kind of a group of
fact of people in the room and if the, you know, the product is
good and you're believable, kindof stirs people up and gets them
(17:02):
excited and so forth. Yeah, over about a three month,
4 month period of time, we endedup raising the funds that we
needed and we were able to, you know, do the project and we had
a lot of a lot of in kind contribution beyond just the
cash. Yeah, the actual experience was,
(17:23):
you know, again it was, it was difficult.
We, you know, we put together target lists of, of people in my
domain and people that they knew.
And, you know, we just scroungedaround finding, you know, but
just names of people and just doing direct outs outreach,
right, emails and phone calls and saying, hey, would you be
(17:44):
willing to listen to our story? And so, yeah, it was a lot of
grass roots, you know, hard workand so compared.
To your your textiles, for example, if you try to gather,
gather money there, how would you compare it?
Same. Harder, actually, yeah.
Yeah, I know. It's it's, it's, it's very, very
(18:07):
similar. I'd say film's a little bit
harder just because the outcome of the film is very much an
unknown right now. I mean, it is in tech startup,
but when you go pitch an investor into a tech startup,
you know, they're, they're typically able to see, oh, there
is a very specific problem the tech is solving.
Oh yeah, I can relate to that because I have that problem.
(18:29):
I've seen that problem. And even though you know, a lot
of start-ups fail that you know,the logical connection between
putting my money in and the possibility that it could
actually return something betterthan the amount I put in that
that dynamic in the tech world, tech start up world is probably,
you know, it it a little more tangible.
(18:51):
And so you're dealing with less,you're still dealing with a lot
of skepticism, but maybe a a bitless than you find in film just
because you know, the outcome ofa film.
There's so many factors that go into whether a film is a success
that again, I think you ultimately, like I said, you
know, go back to what I said, you get the investor to believe
in the team doing the project. And you know, really that's the
(19:14):
best you can do because you don't control so your.
Suggestion for someone in the media field would be what?
Set up a nice team? Professionals, right?
Besides the talent, right? Besides, like, who's the actor
of course. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean you, you always, it's great to have talent attached to
a project when you're pitching it, right?
Because I've, I've seen projectspitch without talent attached.
(19:36):
So if you have talent attached, being talent in particular,
that's always a great plus. Any any kind of significant
player attached, you know, on the production side can also be
obviously a + a known producer, director, etcetera.
That's always a a nice plus. Probably as important as
(19:56):
anything is the actual team, youknow, doing the pitching and I
and I think having. More than one, you know, 2, two
or three. There's there's great strength
in that and we see that in the venture business.
I'm the primary fundraiser on pitches, but I bring my wingman
with me. I bring a couple partners that
that's not really their shtick, but the three of us together on
(20:19):
a pitch become more credible than Tim Hare just, you know,
telling his story. If it's Tim and Dennis and Rob
collectively presenting the story and kind of playing off of
each other, that active investorgets to see the dynamic of, oh,
OK, you know, these guys know what they're talking about.
They seem to have good chemistry.
They seem to have a good vision.And that's same dynamic is I
(20:43):
think what works in film. And it's what's worked, you
know, 'cause I've, I've gone on to help Aaron raise money for
additional projects over the last 10-12, thirteen years.
And yeah, that dynamic absolutely works for film as
well. And of course.
A pitch deck, promo video and all that stuff.
(21:03):
Yeah, yeah, those are kind of, like I said, table stakes.
You want a nice pitch deck and the course, there's great tools.
Canva, for instance, is sort of a state-of-the-art on pitch
decks and promo video would be great.
How about distribution? It's nice to have a distribution
rate or potential distribution. Sure it.
(21:23):
It is, but it's often a luxury, right, to have that nailed down,
particularly for folks that maybe don't have as much
experience. It absolutely changes the
dynamic with the investor because it gives that investor
some amount of cognitive recognition.
OK, you got distribution lined up.
OK. Now I think the odds of success
have gone up, right? You don't have distribution
(21:45):
lined up that that is a piece ofrisk that hasn't been dealt with
yet. So if you can get it, great on
this latest project that, you know, I worked with Aaron on, on
the life of Jimmy Stewart was, and I wasn't the, the primary
fundraiser on that. We had a, a gentleman by the
name of Jack Mcclintock that hadcome to the table and, and
(22:08):
brought some nice funding and some contacts and Jack kind of
ran the process. And I was sort of an ancillary
part, but I I did do a, you know, a a bit of work in
bringing it together. And we had distribution offers
while we were raised. Amazing.
We had not yet executed a distribution deal until closer
(22:28):
to the end of our fundraising. And I think that did bring sort
of the last, call it, 20% of themoney in, but, you know,
investors knowing that we had distribution lined up.
So yeah. It is possible, right?
Because a lot of people are frustrated that it's extremely
like, like a dream come true, right?
(22:50):
If you can't find a movie right now, yeah, well, it.
It is possible. And yeah, I would just say the
last three or four years in, in alternative investments,
including film, including venture, it's been a tough
fundraising environment. It's probably been the toughest
environment that I've seen in my, you know, 151617 years.
(23:11):
I think the tide is turning, butit was sort of a unique
combination of factors that led to this difficulty, some
macroeconomic, some geopoliticaland so forth.
But we're now, I think going into 26 at least my sense of
optimism is increased that fundraising is, again, it's not
going to be easy, but I, I thinkthe environment is improving.
(23:34):
So raising money for venture, raising money for film, you
know, it's going to get better. And, you know, I think the
interest rates are going to continue to come down.
I think just the overall economic climate will be
hopefully positive. So yeah, yeah, I would encourage
people. You know, it's like anything in
life. If you work really, really hard
(23:57):
on a well conceived plan, you know, you can make it happen.
It might kill you in the I mean,I've been raising our, you know,
our latest venture fund for a couple.
Yeah, well, you you might, but what's you're still alive,
right? Right.
So, yeah, my, my attitude is you, you got to have to be ready
with some amount of resilience. You're going to get knocked on
(24:19):
your ass. You're going to have to get back
up and go again. Somebody will believe your
story, a collection of somebody's you know, And in
film, it might be a manner of skinning down more grandiose
plans. I've seen Aaron do this on a
couple of projects. He, he and his team got hired
(24:39):
after, you know, he had been a associate producer on a couple
of films for another group and Sony liked what he did and they
actually funded a couple of small budget deals. 1 was a
couple million, one was like 4 million for, you know, release
direct to streaming. He was able to take a a script
and a project that, you know, might have been, you know,
(25:00):
10/15/20 million and skinny it down significantly into those
smaller projects and actually produce a pretty quality piece,
You know, enable the team to raise a much bigger budget for
the Ginny film, You know, which talking mega 10's and 10s of
1,000,000, but it's it's significantly more than 4
million, let's just say that. And yet but the ability to be
(25:23):
flexible on hey, you know, we'regoing to have to just skinny
this down with maybe talent thatdoesn't cost as much better use
of visual effects or you know computer generated effects
etcetera. It can be done on a smaller
budget and then it can be a stair step to a bigger more
robust deal downloads. So right now with.
(25:44):
I've I've seen in the market that you can get good quality
productions with lower cost, right?
Even talent are willing to work because there's not a lot of
work right now and and they're working for more affordable
prices, I would say. But you think it would be easier
for a new producer to try to geta smaller amount?
Or does it sound more risky? Like if I ask for, you know,
(26:06):
let's say as an example, you know, $1 million right to the
project. Esther be interested in
something like that because whatwould he his return be, right?
Or would it be more enticing if I can create a production that's
a little bit higher? I mean, I don't know if you'd
understand my take, right. Yeah, no.
I understand, I understand what you're saying because, you know,
if if it's if you're skimping too much, you know, and you're
(26:29):
too narrow over here on the one side of the the deal and over
here, you know, it's 20 or 25,000,000 is there, you know, a
sweet spot in the middle. Yeah, I I think it makes sense
to, you know, Target say again like, you know, I look at again,
I don't have tons of experience outside working with Aaron, but
(26:50):
you know, the one film you know,with with Sony again was maybe
it was a couple million. The the other was four.
That number seems the, you know,it's big enough to enable a
fairly high quality production. It's not so small a million.
I would be a little bit suspect,right?
Because it's a shame, yes. What?
(27:11):
What can you really do with a million?
Right. Or why can't?
You find a million, you know, why can't you find like, Yeah,
so small? Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So I think having a little more
substance to the budget, but maybe not completely overdoing
it, The other thing you can do, you know, you can test the
waters on a certain budget and see what feedback you get and
then you make modifications, right?
(27:31):
So you can float some trial balloons and see how a
particular budget plays with an investor or set of investors.
And that might give you, you know, the the feedback you need
to tweak it. You know, maybe you you bump the
budget to six or seven, you know, or 10, you know, or maybe
you screw it down a little bit to three.
You know, the risk with that is you generally don't get a second
(27:53):
chance to make a first impression, right?
So the people that you find those spot words.
With right, right, you got to find the spot that makes sense,
right? It makes sense, Yeah, because
the production also has to make sense, right?
You can't just throw a number, hey, give me 10 million, I'll do
something, right? You have to have a plan, right?
The backs that you do. Exactly.
(28:13):
I mean, and I always made sure, you know, our team, Aaron's team
had, you know, a very well conceived strategy, a plan, a
budget that backed up the prettyPowerPoint, right?
I mean, you, you, you absolutelyneed that because the more
sophisticated investors are going to ask for that.
They're going to want to, you know, dig into it a little bit.
(28:34):
Let me ask you this. You're talking about Aaron and
are you open to working with other people or are you or is
that something that your 5% portfolio is filled with him?
You understand what I'm saying? Because you do other.
Stuff you're not you're not focused on film.
I I understand that, yeah. Yeah, I'd, I'd say potentially
(28:56):
and you know, and personally, I'm kind of getting, you know,
to the spot in my career. I'm, I'm 64 and, you know,
planning on sort of a, a couple more years full bore, you know,
doing what I'm doing here. But the good news is, you know,
I, I intend to continue working beyond those two years in a
reduced capacity and freeing up bandwidth for some other
(29:20):
projects. And so that might be the answer
to your question. You know, in my a little bit
down the road, I'll probably have a little more freedom
because, you know, my day job won't be as intense.
I do love film, film done well, I think is is, you know, can be
an amazing cultural phenomenon. So I, I, I love that part of it,
(29:42):
how it can, you know, move people and bring an aesthetic
quality to the culture. I think it can be very powerful
in that sense. So, so yeah, I'll give you a
qualified yes on that to your question.
Great. So.
One of The thing is you talked alittle bit about your company
and because you said who's part of the company, it's your
daughter, you said also and you have another partner, future
(30:05):
plans, is the daughter taking over?
I mean, that's something personal I won't get in those
details. Yeah.
What it would be the future plans for your company is to
expand to another industry maybeI don't know what what are you
looking at Well, we. Have that.
There are three partners, so Dennis, Rob and myself.
And then we have yeah, Alyssa's still on the team as a marketing
(30:26):
and communication coordinator. We have Eric who runs our
advisory side of the business. We have Jack and Drew that serve
on the investing side of the business.
And then we, you know, we've gotthese venture partners and so
forth. So yeah, we're, we're going to,
you know, Sarah Ventures has a plan to grow and to do
additional venture funds. So we'll be introducing a new
(30:47):
venture fund later this year, bringing that to the market,
probably maybe even 2 possibilities there.
So we're, we're making plans forthat.
We actually launched an officialversion of our advisory business
called Sarah Advisor. It does primarily merger and
acquisition advising, but it also does special consulting
projects. So kind of some of the
(31:08):
consulting we used to do in Serra Ventures, we've moved into
this special consulting entity. So Eric is running that with
John and we're going to be making a new hire there.
So both of these businesses, theinvesting side, the advisory
side are set to grow over the next decade.
And most of the team is much younger than Dennis and myself.
(31:33):
We'll take over, yeah. They're they'll all take over.
I I don't know what combo of allof them will run the shop, but
we'll see how it goes. Definitely keep us.
Keep us posted with whatever youdo.
We're going to have all your information.
What would be an easy way for somebody to contact you?
Is it emails or your website? E-mail is probably.
The easiest Tim at sarahventures.com, that's Serra
(31:57):
ventures.com. So it's I'm sort of a an e-mail
siend I, you know, look at it before I go to bed type of a
thing, which I shouldn't do according to my wife.
But yeah, that's that's probablythe easiest way to, you know,
like if you have an idea, you can send the pitch deck or just,
you know, outline a paragraph ortwo of kind of what you're
thinking about. Yeah, because.
(32:18):
We have a lot of tech people in the media field.
I was talking actually with, I had another show yesterday
actually, and they were doing 3Dimmersive, the 360, 180
immersive and they had some niceideas of new technology and how
to use it. So there's there's people out
there that I'm sure will be interested in the not only the
(32:40):
film, but also in the tech, techaspect of it.
Yeah. So they can communicate with you
guys. OK.
Perfect. Perfect.
So I, I don't know if you want to add anything else.
I mean, I think we've got everything we needed right now.
Your point was very insightful, very promising, because I said
again, a lot of people are trying to gather capital for
film. They struggle, that's for sure.
(33:02):
I mean, I've, I've tried it myself and it was always, I just
said I had to prove not only myself and my team, I had to
prove the story. And, you know, and it is as hard
sometimes. I've done some documentaries
where at least there I found it.With documentaries, people would
resonate with a specific theme, so they would help for that
reason. Yeah, I do.
I do. Think that I mean, that's a good
(33:22):
point Again, yeah, fundraising is hard, but a, you know, it can
be done B you know, just you gotto work hard at it and have
resilience. I think finding one of the thing
that worked well for us raising for Aaron's projects was
connecting the content of the film to a particular or passion
or interest of an investor, which is not easy to do
(33:44):
necessarily because you don't always know.
But sometimes from like LinkedInprofiles, you can see this
person has experience in X or aninterest in Z.
And if you can connect your content and your vision to a
passion or a vision of a prospective investor, well, then
you know, the odds are increasedthat that person will at least
(34:07):
listen to your story. And, and you know, and don't be
afraid to use somebody to help you in the fundraise, right?
Not all of us, and. See.
Yeah. Gifted as.
Fundraisers, right? I mean, that's that's why I'm
out of the 10 people that work here.
I'm kind of the guy that goes out and beats the pavement to
find investors. Now when I find one to pitch, I
bring others in to augment the story and add credibility.
(34:31):
But you know, if you're a filmmaker and you you know, you
don't consider yourself a fundraiser will find somebody
that has a bit of more of a sales biz dev, you know,
business development approach inthe in their bailiwick, I think,
and that's where. Sometimes creators fail is, I
think a person like you, it should be part of a production.
So the same way you're finding adirector and you need also a
(34:54):
producer and you need that guy that does the lights and the
camera guy and everything. They should also include a
person like yourself to help them because that's part of the
production. A lot of people fail there, do
the creation, they create something, they create the
story, and then they try to sell.
Well, I'm not, as you said, I don't have the experience.
I don't have the people. I don't know how the system
works, right. I know how to create.
(35:16):
I know how to get a script. Some people like myself, like,
for example, that you could be aproducer.
Well, you need an editor, right?He he knows how to edit the
video and you can't do everything.
You might know a few things. Yeah.
I mean, I know how the system works.
Yeah. But.
Yeah, No, I'm not. I'm not that guy.
I'm not that guy that can. I mean, you have, I just said
you have that talent to tell somebody during coffee time or,
(35:39):
you know, having dinner, what tosay to get him to sign a check
for me. I can talk about tech all day.
I can talk about media. Yeah, definitely collaboration.
That's how I see it. We definitely people should
incorporate the your job in their production.
I don't know if it makes sense for sure.
Percent, yeah. I mean, know your own strengths
(36:02):
and limitations and augment yourself with a team member that
has complementary, you know, skills and experience and and
one last. Question again, not getting the
details of because I understand every project is different, but
in general how would somebody expect to work with a company
like you? Is it a retainer based
collaboration? Is it a fee based collaboration
(36:25):
after the projects and how how is usually really work?
Yeah, I, I. Like to say it depends because
that that's a good consulting answer.
Yeah, we normally have some combo of retainer and success
kind of depending on the circumstances.
Again, we try to be creative with, you know, the need of the
particulars of the situation, right.
(36:46):
It's not, you know, every project is, is different one
from the other. But yeah, generally we, we try
to have a modest monthly retainer for a certain amount of
time and then most of it is success on actually closing
financing. And I, I think that's pretty
common in the fundraising industry, so to speak.
(37:06):
You'll find, you know, differentcombos of that.
That's everything I. Mean you're going to negotiate,
I guess before you start a projection, negotiate you.
Right. You'll typically want to put
that in a engagement letter where everybody understands
here's what we're trying to do, here's how we're going to do it,
and here's how the payment works, OK?
I think we got everything we needed from you right now.
(37:28):
It's all the information was perfect.
All your information is going tobe on our website under your the
show. It's going to have your e-mail,
you know, your web page, whatever.
People can find you because that's whole purpose.
But we want people to, you know,collaborate with you and
companies like, like yourself, if you can help them.
If not, you can, you know, guidethem wherever you can.
(37:48):
That would be appreciated. Perfect.
Thanks for your time. Great.
Well, thanks for your information.
Nice. Nice.
And then we'll keep you posted on the show and then keep us
updated too. Keep us updated.
It's very interesting. We'll do with your company
everything you do. OK.
Thank you very much. Thanks for your time.
All right. Bye.
Bye. Thanks for joining.
US on film, tech and Finance. Don't forget to follow and
(38:09):
subscribe for more insights and updates.
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