Venture Capital Archive

In 1998, a new type of game show was aired in the United Kingdom. Rather than a panel of contestants competing to answer rapid-fire questions, the new show involved a single contestant who was often given a seemingly unlimited amount of time to ponder each question. In fact, contestants were even given a chance to call a friend and poll the audience for help. The payout was also unique. Rather than walking away with cheap, garish prizes and a diminutive handful of cash, contestants had a legitimate opportunity to win £1,000,000. Entrepreneurs who experience promising initial success also play a similar game. Would-be suitors often swoop in and make unsolicited offers that would result in the Founders becoming paper “Millionaires.” Although such offers are always flattering and provide meaningful validation that the adVenture is pursuing an exciting opportunity, they bear careful consideration.

In 1899, George Wingfield was a nineteen-year-old cowboy when he attempted to borrow money collateralized by his last worldly possession, a woman’s diamond ring. The banker initially thought George to be “something of a shambler*.” However, after asking him what he intended to use the money for, he became convinced that there was something special about Wingfield, “the kind of square Western gambler that even a Nevada banker could rely upon.” He loaned him a nominal amount of money; the exact amount is lost to history, but is generally agreed to be between $25 and $75. The loan was quickly repaid, and the banker agreed to provide Wingfield with a $1,000 grubstake, in exchange for fifty percent of the future wealth created by the cowboy’s efforts. Within five years of their initial meeting, Wingfield had leveraged his modest grubstake into a mining enterprise worth in excess of $50 million, making the former cowboy and his banker two of the richest men in the Western United States. The factors that led the banker to grant Wingfield his grubstake are the similar to those which drive modern-day, high-tech venture capital investments. What is a grubstake and how did Wingfield convince the banker to grant one to him? Read on.