Forbes Magazine Shares Insights from Columnist Peter J. Burns III about Shelf Corporations and Their Utility for Entrepreneurs

Peter J. Burns, III, CEO and founder of Burns Funding - a venture debt lender that helps entrepreneurs and investors obtain funding for their businesses, has authored a provocative piece on shelf corporations and how they can be a powerful new strategic tool for entrepreneurs for Forbes Magazine.

The article can be viewed here: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/01/27/little-known-shelf-corporations-as-a-workaround-to-the-credit-squeeze/

According to Wikipedia, a shelf corporation is "a corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity - metaphorically put on the 'shelf' to 'age.' The company can then be sold to a person or group of persons who wish to start a company without going through all the procedures of creating a new one."

However, it is the benefits that shelf corporations offer entrepreneurs that has attracted Burns' interest and that of Burns Funding. Among the five benefits he outlined in the article (link here) is how they can be used to secure seed or growth capital for a business.

"Importantly, shelf corporations offer entrepreneurs a way to secure capital, absent the use of your personal credit," Burns wrote. In fact, Burns notes that entrepreneurs, with the help of Burns Funding (www.burnsfunding.com), can raise as much as $200,000 for their business.

THE 'NOVEL' NATURE OF THE BURNS CORPORATE CAPITAL PROCESS

To facilitate this novel funding exercise, Burns Funding created the Burns Corporate Capital (BCC) process. As part of the process, Burns Funding helps the entrepreneur purchase a shelf corporation, which costs between $11,000 to $13,000. It does this by cost-effectively accessing capital from the entrepreneur's credit card. The novelty of the approach is that Burns Funding agrees to pay back the loan made through the credit card as long as the entrepreneur participates fully in the BCC process.

"Once they have the corporation in hand and complete the requisite paperwork, they can obtain access to credit lines well into six figures in as little as 50 days," added Burns.

Burns, himself a serial entrepreneur, expects BCC to soar in popularity.

"There are hundreds of thousands of small business owners, who have the credit score, but can't substantiate the income through W-2s," he said. "They simply are not able to obtain significant unsecured funding to pursue their business dreams."

Burns Funding's approach with shelf corporations was also highlighted in the California Business Journal, where the experience of one of its clients, Dr. Cliff Janke, an Emergency Room Physician and owner of dozens of commercial real estate projects throughout the Southwestern United States, was shared.

"There is no shortage of investment opportunities," Dr. Janke told the Journal. "There is just a shortage of funding to take advantage of those opportunities. That was one of the most frustrating aspects of the early part of my career as an entrepreneur."

That entire full article can be viewed here (https://calbizjournal.com/venture-debt-company-gets-creative-in-helping-entrepreneurs-secure-capital/)

ABOUT PETER J. BURNS III

Based in La Jolla, California, Peter J. Burns III grew up in a well-established New England family in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was briefly educated at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School at West Point, the University of Virginia (UVA), and finally, Harvard Business School's Owners and Presidents Management Program. While his two younger brothers went on to have very successful traditional business careers, Burns chose the life of a startup entrepreneur.

Burns started hundreds of businesses over the ensuing decades. In the early 2000s, he moved to Arizona and became a pro bono adjunct faculty member at the highly respected Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. In 2006, Burns took his teaching practice across town to Grand Canyon University and its entrepreneurial founder Brent Richardson, where the two men would launch the nation's first College of Entrepreneurship at GCU.

In recognition of his work, the Arizona chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America named Burns its Businessperson of the Year in 2007.

Shortly thereafter, Burns started Club Entrepreneur to unite entrepreneurs in an "open-source entrepreneurship" platform. The Phoenix chapter attracted 10,000 members.

In 2016, Burns moved to the West Coast and started Burns Funding to help entrepreneurs secure hard-to-get funding for their businesses.

Taken as a whole, Burns says all the businesses have a "common thread."

"Every business I start represents my desire to help existing and would-be entrepreneurs reach their full potential," said Burns. "Too often, they give up because of a lack of capital. I set out to solve that problem and won't rest until every entrepreneur who needs money can secure it."

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