A question recently came up regarding whether a founder can re-pay themselves for some of their initial investments in their business once an outside investment is achieved.

Recently I attended an iBreakfast event in New York City. The featured speaker was Roger Aguinaldo, an M&A expert from M&A Advisors. Roger posed a question to the audience regarding the best sources of capital for a startup.

People shouted out their answers. Venture capitalists. Friends and Family. Angel investors. Banks. Etc. Etc.

While Roger wrote all of these answers on the board, he said that each of these answers weren't in his top three places to get initial investments.

I recently read an excellent blog entry called Failing Cheaper, which discussed, among other things, the flexibility required by new ventures and the decreased amount of capital it now takes to launch a venture.

The entry begins by pointing out that some prominent recent ventures started out doing very different things. For instance, PayPal started out as a service to beam money through Palm Pilots. Likewise YouTube was originally a video dating site.

Flat Daddies is undoubtedly a cool new company.

Flat Daddies are full-size printed posters of parents who are serving overseas in the military. Flat Daddies (or Flat Mommies) are free to children who are directly affected by the military deployment of a parent. Others can purchase them for $49.50.

The free Flat Daddies are supported by donations from individuals, companies and organizations, and anyone can donate money on their website at http://www.flatdaddies.com/.