Entrepreneur FAQ

• Are you an investment brokerage service? 

  No. We provide a direct investment service that connects green entrepreneurs and investors. We do not charge sales commissions based on the amount you are requesting. Entrepreneurs are expected to perform their own due diligence on interested investors.

• How do you differ from other carbon offsetting sites? 

  Other carbon offsetting sites ask individual or institutional investors to invest it in carbon offsets that the intermediary decides to invest in. The Green Investment Network advocates that any offset supplier, small or large, should be able to advertise an offset for individual or institutional investors to consider. We are not a gatekeeper preventing you from registering a green house gas offset, however, you should expect investors to perform a thorough due diligence on any offsets you advertise on this site.

• How do I register an offset? 

  You may include as much detail about your offset as you think is necessary to generate the type of investor interest you are looking for. You can, for example, simply provide a basic description of the offset and the amount of green house gas that you are able to capture. If you opt for our premium service offering, then you can upload attachments that could include a detailed accounting of the offset, photographs, maps, legal contracts and other documents that might expedite the due diligence process.

• Why does this site specialize in green investing? 

  The green economy is taking off like the internet economy was in the 90's. It is estimated (World Economic Forum) that the total investment into clean energy was $30 billion in 2004, more than doubling to $60 billion by 2006. We see similiar trends in 5 other green economy sectors: carbon offsets, environmental technology, energy efficiency, reducing emissions, and green projects.

• I just submitted my info as an Entrepreneur but am I registered? 

  Once you submit your registration data, you can immediately log into the entrepreneur area of the site. We also send an email to the email address you submitted to confirm that emails sent from the site will reach you. If you do not receive this email then interested investors may not be able to reach you by email. You can monitor activity online in such cases or register with a different email account that is more reliable.

  If you are registration problems you can also send an email through the CONTACT US online form to let us know. Clearly identify your full name and explain that you are having an "Entrepreneur Registration Problems".

• Can I change a submitted investment proposal?  If you set your proposal to "active" and the site administrator submits it to investors, you can click an "edit" link to change your proposal after it has been submitted. If you edit a submitted proposal it will be removed from circulation until the edit has been approved again by the site administrator. It is generally not a good idea to edit a newly released proposal as interested investors may come to the site looking for it (based on an email notification) and not find it when they log in.
• How does the Standard Service work?  Entrepreneurs register on the site and enter an investment proposal summary. There is no charge to submit the summary. Once the information is entered, our proprietary system will identify and forward this to all potential investors with matching investment criteria. The investors will then decide whether they wish to review your entire business plan and possibly invest in your business. If so, you will then be notified that we have identified an interested investor. To access the investor contact details, and all future investor contact details for your proposal), you are required to pay (on-line) a one time fee of $199 by major credit card. Once payment is received and verified on-line, you will receive the initial contact information specified by the investor. Entrepreneurs must perform their own due diligence on each investor. After satisfactory due diligence is performed by both entrepreneur and investor, both parties will work together to negotiate an investment deal. The Green Investment Network does not charge any other fees for this service and is strictly a matching service bringing together green investors and serious entrepreneurs.
• How does the Premium Service work? 

  We encourage entrepreneurs to purchase our "Premium Service" upfront for $249 in order to enhance your investment proposal listing and ultimately the number of potential investor contacts. The "Premium Service" offers immediate access to investor contact details like the "Standard Service". You also gain access to "Attachments", "Banner", and "Proposal Statistics" functionality to help you improve your proposal listing and track views and clicks. Premium proposals are identified as such to investors.

• Why should I trust this website ? 

  This site is run by completely independent management. We are incorporated under a corporate charter.

  We fervently believe in the objectives of this service and are focused on ensuring credibility and commitment to our customers at all times.

  The website is the result of a significant financial and intellectual investment by its management over a long period of time. It is continually being upgraded and improved.The modest fees that are charged for our service represent only a small fraction of the total investment that has been made and in no way could be considered a "quick buck" operation.

• What makes this service unique? 

  The reason why this service is unique is:

  1. We are the only dealflow service focused specifically on connecting green entrepreneurs with investors.
  2. Although we do review your investment summaries, the investors determine for themselves what they would like to invest in. Many other services "pre-screen" deals. What is not right for one is not necessarily not right for another
  3. Our Investor Referral Fee is only $199 resulting in contact with many potentially serious buyers.
  4. The service operates in "real-time". Like any entrepreneur, you need your investment capital yesterday and the service was developed to satisfy your needs for fast and efficient investor prospecting.
• How can I pay if I don't want to use a credit card? If you are unable to or uncomfortable with using a credit card, you can pay via cheque, bank transfer, or money order. All that you would need to do is email us to inform us of your intention using the "contact us" page on this website.
• How will I attract the attention of potential investors? 

  When dealing with an investor, at the very least your proposal should address the following:

  • How much money do you need?
  • Why do you need it?
  • When do you need it?
  • What are you willing to give up to get it?
  • When and how can you pay it back?

  Investors need your answers to these questions before they will even consider helping you. They are not looking for "pipe dreams" or unprofessional sounding proposals. They expect a reasonably sound business plan as well as an understanding from entrepreneurs that an investor is not going to just blindly hand over significant sums of money with no strings attached whatsoever.

• My proposal was just submitted and I received a match(s) almost right away. Will I also get further Investor interest over time? It is normal to receive immediate interest after it has been checked, processed and sent directly to Investors in real time according to their investment criteria. Also, matches occur even over long periods on the system as Investors constantly search the database to seek out business proposals.
• I paid the one time fee and received just Investors names and generic email. Was I supposed to get more info? 

  Each Investor specifies to the network what initial contact information is to provided to Entrepreneurs. This is done for confidentiality reasons. It is also normal that individual Investors make use of temporary email accounts for first contact.

  Entrepreneurs should make proper brief introduction and then request full Investor contact information before proceeding. If the investor is not forthcoming with contact details or information for performing due diligence then please contact our administration with feedback emails.

• I have other questions, who do I contact? You may contact us by send email to admin@greeninvestmentnetwork.com or by using our Contact Us form.