Plan for Financing the Business The two founders were pleased with the way CII's business plan was taking shape, while the work in the laboratory continued to be productive, as well. They talked to a number of angel and venture investors about possible interest in investing in the new company and also expiored the possibility of raising money through grants and incentive programs that Michigan's Department of Commerce had recentiy made available to encourage the formation of newtechnology companies in the state. While state and federal grant programs had the advantage of being nondilutive {no equity needed to be provided to the issuers of the grants. hence the current shareholders would not be diluted by accepting the grants), writing grant applications is a pretty labor-intensive effort. The two managers wondered how they would be able to nd the time to write the grants necessary to raise the money without taki ng time away from what seemed like more urgent problems. They also worried about the unpredictability of the timing of grant funding. Sometimes the cycle can be over a year from the time of application to the receipt of funding