Coming together in large numbers and participating to “bring out the best”. Isn’t that what Web 2.0 and democratization of the web has done for so many things in recent years? It’s allowed a much larger number of people to collaborate and participate while the people within each community bring up the ones that stand out.

Look at Flickr! One of the forerunners in bringing Web 2.0 to the world of photography. In more ways than one, it brought out the photographer in each one of us, created a place where we could develop our skills brought millions together to participate and constantly helped bring to the spotlight the very best photographs and talent which could have gone unnoticed.

Look at Youtube! Think about how many new directors and video producers it’s created by providing a community and support infrastructure to share and broadcast video clips. Television has always looked to support talent but the sheer scale and number of gripping videos on Youtube which would have otherwise missed out on was a result of people being able to participate in what we watch. It’s the contributors to this community who have voted, thumbs-upped and made videos like “Charlie Bit Me” as popular as global sporting events.

Democratization works to have a community select what they like and bring the very best out into the forefront and now we can use it to bring out the best of startups. I may not be the most experienced of photographers but I know when I’ve got an exceptionally good shot because when they are discovered on Flickr, they gather momentum within the community and I can measure how good it was by peoples reaction, acceptance, feedback and votes.

In a community like Grow VC which comprises of other entrepreneurs, experts and investors, it’s good to have your startup listed so that you can measure where it stands if for no other reason. Just as a website can be tested on a sandbox server, a startup idea can be tested within a community that understands where you’re trying to run with it. Through the feedback, comments, votes or even silence of others within the community, one can rethink some things, re-write the pitch, work on standing out or at least know how their idea will be received by others once it’s out there. The chances are: if you can gather interest within a smaller community, you can gather interest within the larger market. If your plan isn’t attracting any attention within a close knit community, it may just need some adjustments. Then, there is the benefit of having your startup “talked about” within the circle of entrepreneurs, investors and experts since that’s an audience that could be very valuable in future.

As the Grow VC community grows and more members as well as more startups are vying for the support they require, rest assured, democratization will help bring out some great startup ventures right to the top!

Read the full press release here.

Yesterday, we launched an additional cornerstone to the community venture capital model. We see this step as one of many, toward creating a global funding community, with the proper tools to manage and cultivate innovations from all around the world. As several layers of funding institutions already exist, the idea has always been to utilize them together with prominent partners around the world, in creating a value-adding and more efficient operating way, to provide early phase companies with the right tools for success.

Keeping in line with the concept of creating a “Virtual Silicon Valley” and developing new models for more efficient early phase funding Grow VC rolls out the Virtual VC Co-investment Fund to enable VC’s to participate in Grow VC’s seed investments.

The first on board in this Virtual VC Co-Investment Fund is IndiaCo Ventures Limited, a profitable investment management firm listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“The early stage startups space in India is an extremely exciting one and the virtual fund would open doors for VC’s to be a part of this promising market which has tremendous talent and potential given they get access to better funding options” states Rahul Patwardhan Vice Chairman and Managing Director at IndiaCo.

The development of our community has been at a great pace, yet we eagerly await the future where entrepreneurs have more equal opportunities in a global setting. Working with the actors that are passionate about building a better future, with a focus on entrepreneurship, we are confident we can unlock the tremendous potential in global startups.

Today’s educational system seems to be a learning pipeline that ends once you have a piece of paper in your hand and a silly hat. Even as it may cater to the masses, individuals are not alike and there are some fundamental differences in how people learn. For instance, how do entrepreneurs learn and how much do most of them actually benefit from memorizing trivial facts on the school bench?

Where does learning begin for an entrepreneur? I would argue that it begins post the silly hat, in real life when faced with real challenges and opportunities. Entrepreneurs tend to see a puzzle and learn to play that puzzle, in some cases even solve the puzzle. This information or knowledge is tacit afterward, you just know. However, even as the real learning may only start when faced with the appropriate (and often fascinating) challenges, entrepreneurs also need to know a little about everything. Unless you are planning to fix that same puzzle over and over, throughout your whole life – then again, how many entrepreneurs would do that?

Do you remember primary school? When you were taught to memorize states, presidents, historical dates and so on? I sure do. The educational pipeline can span for two decades of an individuals life, a quarter of a long lifetime. Are we making the most of those two decades? In today’s world, where one could argue that printed books often contain outdated information and a whole lot of what we “learn” in school is really only repetition – where is the value of this pipeline for an entrepreneur and furthermore, could there be more value?

In our Podcast a while back with Bjoern Lasse Herrmann, from Supercool School, we talked about learning and how different people learn in different ways. Some entrepreneurs are drop-outs, not because of lacking potential, but lacking the right tools to develop that potential and channel that talent. Shouldn’t our systems cater for those individuals as well? Also, which do you think is worse, dropping out because of ‘not belonging’ and benefiting from the system or being resilient and “surviving” in the system, yet not really getting any value from it?

What we also talked about in the Supercool School approach, was the changing archetypes in teachers and students – both tended to be participating at the self-chosen level and by choice. I would argue that this will have a tremendous impact on learning, from both angles. Imagine listening to someone you wanted to listen to, talk about something you wished to learn – does that sound like your experience from your education? Some of the times maybe, but all of the time?

To be frank, this is quite a selfish post, having sat in the educational pipeline for that two decades, and only in the last years finding subjects I am passionate about. For me, it seems that a lot of that time spent on school benches constituted missed opportunities and untapped talent in many cases.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve chosen to learn in and from the real world – most entrepreneurs do. A big part of that real world constitutes people and often other entrepreneurs. To link this post back to the recent topic of Ecosystems, I believe that the community ecosystem can also foster learning, via new perspectives, initiatives and working together with like-minded people. Learning is crucial, how else will you know you’re making progress?

Learning should always be a top priority, which it also is, in our community. Engaging with people requires so much more that simple wit, and that I believe, is one of the biggest teaching points in our educational system, even today. In global operations and in a global community, you can interact with people whose whole lives are very unlike your own, people who do not share your thoughts, practices and possible perceptions of the world. Talk about a learning opportunity! Not simply about other people and how to interact with them, but a vast learning opportunity to find out about yourself as a person, how you tick and how you make others tick.

In a changing world, we need to be humble enough to accept the gaps in our understanding and courageous enough, to embrace our passion for learning. Growing as an entrepreneur, and as a human being, builds on the premise of constant learning.

Imagine two entrepreneurs both equally talented. With the same brilliant idea but just in two different places in the world starting up their venture. One in a Utopia for innovative startups much like the Silicon Valley and one in a place where innovative startups are not often recognized or even understood.

Every time you attend one of the several technology Barcamps or startup events organized across the globe, you can’t help but realize just how many fantastic, innovative ideas people have to develop great new technologies and web products. Every one of these events and gatherings reveals new ideas, beta versions of applications and new technologies that are game-changing. Yet, how often do so many of these great start up ideas (especially in developing countries) disappear into thin air just months after they look so promising?

Across developing countries which clearly have immense untapped talent the environment to nurture these startups, secure early stage funding and get the inputs required at that stage are lacking. The ideas are plenty. The potential to execute them is abundant. The support framework to help support the idea while it tries to manifest itself into a business…is a missing piece. It may exist but it’s not nearly as abundant as the talent or ideas. In these markets the entrepreneurs seem willing to take a leap but as they do, often find themselves asking “where are the angels???”

Having seen a number of startups with great ideas come and go you notice there have to be some inequalities which may influence how startup-friendly or not a place is. Also having spoken with a number of budding entrepreneurs (often first time) here is what one would find if they dug into the causes of their early disappearing acts:

Lack of Early Stage VCs & Angel Investors – While there can be well established capital markets in these places most of these are geared towards the large investments segment and not towards early stage startups. As a result too many entrepreneurs are vying for the attention of a handful of investors which means many great ideas end without a chance to grow. (The opposite can be seen in areas which have a lot of angel investors and smaller numbers of entrepreneurs where ideas not as robust can also pass through)

Inexperience In Innovative Technologies Investments – In developing places investment activities are more cautious and investments into innovative or new technologies is often considered risky. Investors tend to keep away from this space and those who don’t look for higher returns as a pre-condition for financing. It’s not angel funding or seed funding but loans rather.

Lack of Passion & Focus – Entrepreneurs may “give up” too easily without the approval stamp of investors and this could often be a case of ‘lack of passion and focus’. Instead of focusing on results from the original plan they can be swayed to come up with new ideas trying to become attractive to investors by any means except for showing results and building value.

Difficulty Building A Strong Team – While talent in places can be plenty it doesn’t mean that talent will be accessible for free or even for equity. While entrepreneurs for whom funding is a challenge, securing the talent needed to build his / her core team would be an even bigger challenge as it’s hard to find the right people who have a similar belief in the idea and an entrepreneurial mindset willing to work for equity or future reward.

Lack Of Guidance & Mentors – Having good guidance is critical especially for relatively less experienced entrepreneurs and no matter how great the idea is, making the right choices and sharpening the business as one goes along is important. It’s nice to have the right set of people to bounce ideas and questions off. It’s not always easy in a number of places. Without a nurturing environment where the business can get regular inputs in the form or knowledge and advice mistakes which have already been made by others in the past can be repeated.

Challenging Eco-system – You can’t grow grapes in the Antarctic. The conditions are just not right. Similarly, startups can often thrive in places where everything and everyone around them creates the right eco-system for them to grow. Investors who understand them, people who understand them, potential talent that understands them and knows what they are doing and how they work. It’s almost as if everyone speaks your language no matter where you are. In an environment where the needs of startups are not understood, the job of building one and growing just becomes that much harder.

Two similar sets of entrepreneurs in two different places around world both with an equally great idea may not have the same journey. One could be a smooth ride and the other could be like driving down Mount Kilimanjaro on a horse-cart loaded with tin cans…going backwards! Wouldn’t it be great if every entrepreneur and investor could just go to Silicon Valley and create the ideal conditions for growth so that every good idea has an equal chance? But they can….and we are building it together right here. With Grow VC, we can create more equal opportunities for entrepreneurs!!!

Grow VC Partners up with Startupbootcamp from Denmark

On our big mission of democratizing early stage funding and empowering startups, we are glad to announce our partnership program with Startupbootcamp in Denmark. Startups participating in Startupbootcamp will receive startup profiles in the global Grow VC community and all the possible tools to add value to their hard work. Grow VC is constantly looking for new partnerships with different organizations around the world, that share our passion for entrepreneurship and pushing the envelope!

Startupbootcamp launches in August and runs during a course of three months, finishing in September with a highlight at Investor Day. The process goes through three phases, 1) developing the idea, 2) creating a prototype and 3) selling the idea. The process builds up to Investor Day, where the teams will present their ideas to hundreds of investors and hopefully find their rocket fuel to make their businesses the best they can get.

Startups will share highlights on their journeys in the Grow Venture Community and their progress will be followed by a vast audience of potential future partners and customers. Grow VC aims to open the Startupbootcamp program as wide as possible, for a global audience of just the right people. We are delighted to be able to follow along the progress, the learning process during three months and the development in the teams.

Applications are still open, until the end of June! Check out more on Startupbootcamp.dk and listen to the Podcast for experiences and insights from Alex!

You can play the episode on the player below or on iTunes.

In this episode of the Podcast, we present the partnership, discuss the program and coaching in general. We are glad to have Alex Farcet from Startupbootcamp on the show. Here’s some highlights:

“We take ten teams, give them a little bit of cash, lots and lots of mentorship, put them in a pressure-cooker environment, work really hard for three months and then showcase them for investors”
“Getting to a point where I can kick the ball really hard, without kicking you”
Alex on Startupbootcamp

Here’s some points from the Podcast:

• Grow VC on Danish Podcast Harddisken - Kudos!
• Startupbootcamp in a nutshell
• Partnership between Startupbootcamp and Grow VC
• Mentoring and coaching startups
• How to apply for Startupbootcamp?

We’re now moving in such pace that some of the new stuff we do, quickly becomes yesterdays news and I almost forgot to share our yesterdays announcement also in here. Hit this link to read the release. In our release we announced our own Service Investment round with some great new members joining our team and also that we are now opening our own first funding round.

In case you didn’t know, Grow VC have been fully self funded for past two years, but now we feel ready and confident that it’s time to add a dose of rocket fuel and kick in another gear to extend our reach and add even more speed to our progress. Based on requests we get all the time, it feels that’s also what the people are expecting from us.

As mentioned in our release, we are planning to follow our own rules here and do our own funding round in the “Grow VC style”. So we are looking to do this as part Angel round and part crowdfunding.

For crowdfunding part, we still have some stuff to figure out, as using the community funding model we now have in our service, would perhaps be unfair for others if we would just jump in – so we are also thinking additional ways to structure it so that it would not be taking anything away from others in our service and ways where everyone can really feel to be part of Grow VC.  – Naturally if we find a good new model, we will release that for everyone else in our community to use as well.

So far, when meeting different people and also talking about us doing crowdfunding to Grow VC we have mostly got; “yes you should” -type of replies and many have even suggested it without us even asking. So we do think it would be only natural for us to do it and also feels it’s what’s expected from us.

Naturally we would like to get your feedback as well, so feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below, so we can get some discussions going

Should Grow VC crowdfund part of it’s funding round or not?

This week in our Everyone Funding Startups - Podcast, we had some fresh new things! Especially prudent when discussing innovations and game changers. This week Valto, Jouko and myself even ended up at politics, apple and Steve Jobs, so you could argue that the subject matter was.. broad. Jouko will be speaking at the NEXT Conference in Berlin the 11th and 12th of May, more on that is available on their website.

Do note the brand new jingle! We’re still working on it, so do let us know what you think at podcast@growvc.com!

Subscribe to the Grow VC Podcasts on iTunes here!

Some main points from this discussion: Innovations and Game Changers.

Harvard Business School study: Angel Backed Companies Less Likely to Kick the Bucket.

• Investors bring competence, in addition to money
• Balance between personal and business
• Read the full Venture Hype article here

Grow Venture Community Highlight: Zonerider

• Comparisons to other solutions
• Future of wifi / mobile services

More on Zonerider in the Grow Venture Community or on their homepage Zonerider.com

Innovations and Game Changers

• Transparency
• Openness
• Global money and talent

New outro jingle as well! Tune in next week for some fresh new topics and insights!

Grow VC has just launched its own Service Investment round. This means that we look for some people to work for Grow VC and we offer options for the company. At the moment we especially look for people that can help us in software development and business development in some regions. We have already now got applications from several very good candidates around the world.

How does it work in practice? We define an hour or week rate for each position. For example, we pay a person $750 a week for his part time work. This means $3,000 a month. And we look for four month work from this person. It means totally $12,000. We also pay an extra interest for this, for example, 10%. In this way the total compensation for the person is $13,200. Then we just divide this by our estimated valuation, we get an ownership percent, and we offer equal amount share options for the person.

Our proposal includes two alternatives:

1. the person can convert the options to share
2. he/she can sell them back the company in the next funding round, and get cash compensation from his work.

This is very straightforward model to get resources.

Why we make it in this way? First, we want to demonstrate this to all our members and startups in the service. Grow VC offers a Service Investment marketplace where all startups can look for resources in the same way. But it is not the main point; the main point is that we see this is now the best way to get right resources.  It is important to see that you don’t need a funding round and money to all resources, you can also get resources directly. This model enables many good people, who have no money to make investments, to invest in your company.

We also believe that in many cases in this way it is possible to get more committed people who also think company’s long term success. This kind of model attracts people who have a real entrepreneur mindset.  This is an effective way to build your team especially in an early phase.  Then after funding rounds you can have another compensation model them.

It is important to have very clear principles for this kind of round: how you calculate the compensation, how you convert it to ownership or money, and what are targets and milestones in the each task and role. We are going to publish tools (for example, Excel and agreement templates) to make this kind of Service Investment round. And we also publish more details about the results of our Service Investment round, when we have closed it.

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• Grow VC model in full detail (growvc.com)
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As we are moving forward, we are inviting new people to join our core team. If you are an entrepreneurial person and share our passion to build the platform for the future of startup funding, tell us why you would like to join us and why you would be a good fit to our team.

We are potentially looking for more than just one developer and the work can also be part time or per project bases. If we like what you have to offer, we’re happy to share more details about this opportunity.

Image via Wikipedia

We try to meet people around the world as a part of our mission to get new startup funding models to work. Now when we have launched three main components,

1. direct investments match-making
2. service “sweat equity” investments
3. community micro-funding

We plan to continue  meeting a lot of people, get feedback and develop services with users. You can always contact us, give feedback and ideas, but we really like to meet face-to-face.

We also like to meet local entrepreneur and business angel communities.

Here’s the cities we have visited so far:

• Singapore, March 1 to 3 (read about it…)
• Hong Kong, March 4 to 7 (read about it…)

Here’s the cities we are visiting this week:

• Las Vegas (CTIA), March 22
• Silicon Valley, March 23 and 25
• Los Angeles , March 24
• New York City, March 26 to 27

Upcoming after this week:

• Paris, April 16
• Berlin 11 to 12 May
• Singapore, 1st to 2nd of June

As you can see we have added few more cities and even more cities will be announced as they are confirmed.

If you want to set up a meeting, or ask us to speak in your event please send email to contact@growvc.com or in Twitter @growvc. We are happy to come to tell more about the concept and get your ideas, how to get the startup funding work better! And you can also propose other dates in your area, and we try to organize a person from our team that is located around the world.

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