Montana Small Business Administration Seeking Comments & Applicants for their New Early Stage Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Initiative

As part of President Obama’s "Start-Up America Initiative" SBA is proposing a new program that intends to commit up to $1 billion in SBA guaranteed leverage over a five year period to selected early stage venture funds. This initiative is intended to promote American innovation and job creation by encouraging private sector investment in job-creating early stage small businesses.

Early stage small businesses face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding.

The SBIC Program is one of many financial assistance programs available through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The structure of the program is unique in that SBICs are privately owned and managed investment funds, licensed and regulated by SBA, that use their own capital plus funds borrowed with an SBA guarantee to make equity and debt investments in qualifying small businesses.

Some of the country’s most successful corporations received financing from SBICs during their early stages of growth. The program’s "success stories" include thousands of small businesses, but here are a few of the more recognizable names:

* Costco

* Staples

* Callaway

* AOL

* FedEx

* Apple

* Intel

* Build-a-Bear Workshop

* Outback Steakhouse

Proposed regulations for the Early Stage SBIC Initiative were posted on December 09, 2011 and SBA is seeking comments on these regulations. The comment period will close February 7, 2012, any individual or organization can submit a comment by visiting http://www.sba.gov/inv/earlystage.

In order to familiarize the public with the content of the proposed Early Stage SBIC rule, SBA will host several webinars on the proposed rule. The webinar schedule is as follows:

Webinar Participant Focus

Webinar Date & Time

Registration Closing Date

Participants Already Familiar with the SBIC Program

January 6, 2012, 11:59 pm EST

January 11, 2012, 1:00 pm EST

Participants Not Familiar with the SBIC Program

January 10, 2012, 11:59 pm EST

January 13, 2012, 1:00 pm EST

Participants Not Familiar with the SBIC Program

January 13, 2012, 11:59 pm EST

January 19, 2012, 2:00 pm EST

If you are interested in attending any webinar, you must pre-register by the registration closing date by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. You must include in the SUBJECT line the date of the webinar you wish to participate, and in the body of the e-mail, please provide the following: Participant’s Name, Title, Organization Affiliation, Address, and Fax Number. Please also note if you need accommodation because of a disability. SBA will accommodate all reasonable requests made at least one week in advance of the requested webinar.

You can also call the Montana District Office at 406.441.1081 or visit http://www.sba.gov/inv/earlystage to find out more.