I’ve been sneaking a few Truck #2 posts in here lately. Soon that truck will have its own Blog. For now they will show up here.

I met this week with the folks over at the City of Boston business development office. They are doing a ton to help us with the new truck. Not least of which is providing us with a loan. That’s right, the City of Boston is loaning us money to grow, $25,000. Of course we’re excited to pay it back with interest, but just as excited to report new jobs we’ll be creating, and most importantly, the number of Bostonians we’ll be feeding.

We suspect a few Boston residents have snuck over Cambridge side to eat with us, but soon Clover will be in Boston proper. We can’t wait. There’s still a ton to get ready (truck, staff, site location), but we’re working hard on it and things are moving forward.

Those stories on the radio and in the papers have new meaning. I have some news from the front lines of small businesses looking for loans.

Bank of America told me flatly absolutely no lending to any business less than 2 years old. Of course this seems ridiculous. I mean, any new company, any entrepreneur trying to hire folks and build out of this mess we’re in is going to be running a company less than 2 years old. To be clear, this is regardless of the loan type, amount, credit history of applicant, level of collateral. It just doesn’t matter, they will not consider you for any type of loan. I’m not up to date on the latest, but I think I recall Bank of America took more than a few dollars out of my pocket with that whole bail-out thing. And if I recall I think we’re offering them near zero Fed rates right now…

Cambridge Trust on the other hand is an entirely different story. First and most important they are eager to see us succeed and grow and very happy to sit down and talk about how our relationship might develop. Second, Cambridge Trust is actually willing to lend us money. We’re going to use it to help outfit the new store. It’s going to be a modest loan assuming we can work out all of the details, we’ll offer collateral, etc. But they actually want to help. Night and day.

Some of you may have seen me wandering around Davis, Harvard, Kenmore, Coolidge in recent weeks. We’ve been scoping real estate for our restaurant. We’re funded now (raised money the other week), and one of the next steps involves prototyping Clover in a restaurant setting. We’re really excited and are looking to building new Clover communities.

We made an offer on a spot in Coolidge Corner two weeks ago, the spot that was Qdoba. The owners want to go with a chain (even though I think our offer was better). Oh well. Working on a few other possible locations right now.

Don’t worry, the truck isn’t going anywhere.

The most important thing I’m working on right now is raising money for Clover’s next stage. Originally I was planning to do this end of summer, but that was before I had the idea of the truck. We were incredibly fortunate to have this idea of a food truck to develop our menu. But it also means I’m at the end of December getting started on a process I had originally thought would happen 3 months ago.

So here I am, smack in the middle of a sick economy and terrified investors with my hat out. It’s a beautiful time to start a new company. Real estate is opening up, rates are getting good, talented employees are eager for work, customers want to be a part of something exciting, something growing. But it’s a difficult time to raise money. Which just means I’ve got to put everything into this effort until it gets done right.

I’m in NYC right now following up with some folks who were interested back in the summer, and meeting some new potential investors. I have a bunch of Starwood points left over from my days as a consultant on the road, so when not staying with friends (no time this trip) I role into bed at Four Points. They are the cheapest (point-wise) and there’s one in So-Ho (sort of) and one in Chelsea (sort of).