I am the Cheif Financial Officer of Aieon Inc. We have been up and
running for 10 months now and have decided to look for some venture
capital to assist us in expanding. We submitted a  breif overview and
business plan of our company to http://www.hanner.org and within 2
days I had the CEO, Rod Hanner, personally on the phone.
 
Today we recieved notice that we have been choosen, part of a select
few. The company, Hanner Development Company,
Inc.(http://www.hanner.org) is only asking for reimbursement for
mailing fees to interested investors.

We are trying to do our "Due Diligence" and find out a little
background information about this company before I decided to hand
over the funds. I will have to make a decision about this company
within the next 48 hours for better or worse.
 
Is this a realible company? How do they rank amoung other venture
capital firms? ANY information right now would be helpful.
 
This is our second capitialist question, where the first was EXTREMELY
helpful. A quick reply would be greatly appreciated so I can insure my
company's future. Thank You for your time.

---

Clarification of Question by aieoncorp-ga on 23 Feb 2003 17:53 PST

Information on the CEO, Rod Hanner, would also be helpful (i.e.
management experience, how he got his wealth, area of expertise, etc.)
I couldn't find out anything. Thank You.

Hello.  You wanted quick, you got quick.

First, things that AREN'T showing up.  There are no obvious warning
flags on Hanner Development that I could find in a quick search. 
Searching for lawsuits is always a hit or miss activity -- it is
certainly possible that there have been, or currently are, suits filed
against this firm.  But I couldn't find any in a Lexis-Nexis search of
federal and state cases.

The Better Business Bureau of Northeast Florida has a file on Hanner
Development which can be seen here:

http://www.bbbnortheastflorida.org/commonreport.html?compid=9000202

There are no complaints on record.  (By the same token, the company
has not responded to the BBB request for basic information...take that
however you may).  You may want to call the BBB directly to see if
there is any more recent or more detailed information they can offer.

----
Similarly, a search of news articles on Nexis and on the web on Hanner
Development and on Rod Hanner did not turn up anything negative. 
Conversely, there were no ringing endorsements either from
entrepeneurs that are now multi-millionaires as a result of Hanner
Development venture capital.  But Hanner himself does make the rounds
and is described as an above-board venture capitalist.


A recent article in the Herald Sun in Chapel Hill, NC, mentions
Hanner's appearance at a forum on VC for Women:

http://www.springboardenterprises.org/press/default.asp?pid=342

October 7, 2002 
More Women Work to Raise Venture Capitalism at Chapel Hill, N.C.,
Forum
 
...[Ping Fu, president and CEO of Raindrop Geomagic] said a number of
people followed her out of her presentation or approached her booth to
find out more, including Rod Hanner with Hanner Development Corp.
Raindrop was one of two companies that drew Hanner from Ponte Vedra
Beach, Fla., to the forum, which featured 16 female entrepreneurs from
firms throughout the Southeast...Hanner liked what he saw and intended
to present Raindrop's business plan at his firm's next board meeting,
he said. The firm is seeking up to $ 3 million in second-round
financing.  "So many of these technology companies are conceptual --
what she has is reality," he said.

-----

An older article from the 1998 issue of Florida Trend also mentions
Hanner and paints his company in a credible light.  I can only excerpt
the article briefly due to copyright restrictions:

Florida Trend
October, 1998
Vol 41; No 6; pg 30

Chasing capital

...[Al] Sesona's product, called "Flip It," is a stovetop gizmo
designed to make monogrammed pancakes, omelets and crepes without
flipping them by hand...  Recently, Sesona began working with Ponte
Vedra Beach consultant Rodney C. Hanner, whose Hanner Development
Corp. uses a three-pronged approach to help small companies raise $
100,000 to $ 5 million. Hanner pitches his clients' companies to about
275 private investors, about 100 niche venture capital firms
nationwide that make small investments and through ACE-Net, an
Internet listing service sponsored by the Small Business
Administration. Hanner charges $ 3,950 upfront to prepare the small
corporate offering registration (SCOR) form required by ACE-Net and,
if he raises money, receives a success fee of 4.25% of capital raised
directly or indirectly.

----

You asked how this company ranks with respect to other VC firms.  I
found no information to really shed any light on this question, other
than to say that they appear respectable.  I would need much more time
to be able to do any sort of a ranking.  Nor is the much in the way of
a quick history on Hanner himself.

-----

My advice would be to try and track down Sesona and Fu, and/or other
contacts that Hanner can give you, to see what sort of experiences
they had with Hanner Development.

Please use the Request for Clarifications button if there is anything
here you would like me to elaborate on.

Good luck in your (ad)ventures.  



search strategy:  Google searches on "Hanner Development" and on "Rod
Hanner" "Rod * Hanner", as well as Lexis-Nexis searches on news
articles and court cases.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by aieoncorp-ga on 24 Feb 2003 06:19 PST

That was quick.  Unbelieveable.  Are you sure your not in business? 
Well anyway, I have one quick request for clarification.  Did you find
out how he got his money? Industry wise, company wise, or was it a
sucessful stock market uplight? You get the idea.  Is he particularly
savvy in one area? Number of boards or executive committes he serves
on?

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 24 Feb 2003 10:20 PST

Hello again,

I conducted an even "deeper" search for additional info on Rod Hanner,
but -- as was the case the first time around -- came up empty handed. 
Same thing happened with a search on James S. Hanner and Matthew J.
Hanner, who are both officers of Hanner Development.  Whoever they
are, they keep their private information private.

By the way, the info for the BBB in Florida is:

Better Business Bureau - Serving Northeast Florida 
7820 Arlington Expressway, Suite 147 
Jacksonville, FL 32211 / Phone: (904) 721-2288 
Fax: (904) 721-7373 / Email: info@bbbnefla.org


If you haven't already, give them a call.  

I wish I could offer more information to help you in your decision.  I
do  agree with martinjay's advice in the comments below, particularly
the one about not being rushed into a decision.

Goog luck.

The speed of the answer was phenominal.  These guys are great.  Thank
You for all the great answers and promptness that my account required.
 Two thumbs up!!

also to put your mind at ease:
call up the NVCA, National Venture Capital Association
in Virginia, then also check out what other deals 
he has done, and:
1) What were the names of the companies?  Call them
2) Who else was in the deal?  Call them

From what I read above I agree about no warning signs,
but I also would investigage further depending on the risk.
Sounds more like an Angel Broker then a VC, but
he does have money if I read the above right.

Never get put into a situation where you 'have' to make
a decision on this short a deadline.  Good luck.

their fee seems a bit high for small deals, but I think you will not
find much cheaper ones

i happen to be a VC investor.  two things: first, it doesnt seem like
hanner is actually a venture capital firm.  i think they are a private
placement firm, which is very different.  i think they want to raise
money for you from a set of investors they work with, and probably
take a fee for doing this.  second, you should talk to a securities
lawyer about whatever it is they want to do.  because if they start
mailing a securities offering document around to a bunch of people,
it's pretty easy to find yourself in violation of the securities laws,
especially in this climate.