Episode 422: Alternative Ways to Fund a Business with George Dubec

When George Dubec and his wife sold the largest singles network in South Florida in the early nineties, the buyer was another matchmaking firm looking to expand into events. What they were actually paying for was the database. "They couldn't replicate me and my wife as the face of the business," George says. Nearly forty years later, that lesson still drives how he advises business owners.

George Dubec is considered one of the top business and social networking experts in the United States. He began his career as an engineer, rising to executive staff at Packard Electric, a division of General Motors, before moving to Florida in 1985 to build companies of his own. He has hosted radio and TV programs including the Internet Business Hour, has judged the Web Awards since 2006, and now serves on the advisory board of America's Real Deal, a business investment television show.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

How business owners can access capital outside the standard fundraising path, including tax credits, tax refunds, and legal settlements that already belong to them. Why a customer database may be the most saleable asset a company owns. How fractional deals, crowdfunding platforms, and crypto-based sweeteners are reshaping who can invest and who can raise. And why a two to five minute pitch video now opens more investor doors than a polished deck.

GEORGE'S JOURNEY:

George grew up in Boardman, Ohio, in a town he compares to Happy Days, where he saw the first television set in the neighborhood and the phones were still party lines. He was the first person in his family to graduate from college, attending Youngstown State University. He spent roughly eighteen years at General Motors as an engineer before buying his job out and relocating to South Florida in 1985.

With his wife he built the largest singles network in South Florida, running it from 1985 until about 1992, before online dating existed. After selling, he moved into the early web with a company called Webstream, hosting sites, then building them, then adding search engine optimization. He launched the Internet Business Hour radio show in 1998 and ran it for about twelve years. He technically retired from the company in 2010 and shifted into alternative funding work with business owners.

KEY INSIGHTS:

Data is the asset owners undervalue. The buyer of George's first company wanted the list, not the events. He now maintains a database of forty thousand clean email addresses and tells owners to build one, bec