Finding a Straight Shooter for Your Investor Hunt

When Italian-based shoe company Due Farina decided to relocate to Brazil in March 2006, it needed extra funding fast. An industry colleague introduced the owners Marina Rosin and Fabiana Rigamonti to U.S. company Wellfleet Partners, a boutique investment, merchant banking and venture capital firm.

Due Farina, valued at around half a million dollars at the time by Rosin's estimate, was having difficulty securing financing, so it paid Wellfleet a $3,000 sign-up fee to find it an investor.

Rosin was unfamiliar with the broker world at the time, but says she "didn't have a good feeling about it all."

Wellfleet, who was not asked about its dealings with Due Farina but declined to speak with TheStreet.com when contacted, did schedule meetings with a few potential investors, but none that were interested in working with a company like theirs, says Rosin. ...