Posts Tagged ‘Entrepreneur’

What stage should Startup proposal be, to post it to Grow VC?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Google Buzz
337/365: The Big Money
Image by DavidDMuir via Flickr

Now that the long awaited core model is out, we are working on collecting questions and feedback from various blogs, emails etc. and are going to write longer and more detailed post to answer all of the important questions, but just briefly wanted to share this one question I just replied via email.

I’d like to ask you at what level should be a Start up proposal? I mean, an entrepreneur should present a complete business plan or can present just an innovative idea too?

My reply:

It can be at in any stage that you want, but it will need to be web or mobile focused business idea/model. However it’s good to understand that typically very early stage ideas are not so interesting “as investment”, but then again that “typically” comes more from the “old models of investing” and to be honest we have no idea what will become “typical” in our service, because that depends on the users.

Also note that all information you post into your startup profile in our service, is visible to all paid members (and early beta registrants that have their active role/profile), so I suggest you to read this post related on “idea level”

This will be very interesting to see, if entrepreneurs as “investors” will be different than “traditional investors”.

It’s been a big push to get this concept build and thanks to our great team it’s now out. It feels so great to finally have it out in the real markets and get real feedback. Now we can finally start to be fully open about our service and can continue to develop our service openly with you.

There is a lot to do and we are just getting started with all of this, so please share your feedback and questions in comments so we can get the dialog going here :)

BIG thanks for each and every one of you for being part of this exiting journey with us!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Asking for money?

Monday, September 28th, 2009
Google Buzz
Banknotes from all around the World donated by...

Image via Wikipedia

This is a guest post by: Brad Christen from CW Consulting

For startup companies, raising your first dollar is the biggest challenge: everyone is hesitant to place the first bet on a new company. Luckily, there’s a range of people out there willing to help – from investment groups and consultants to well-connected friends and registered broker dealers. But even if you’ve enlisted help in your search for capital, on many level you’re still going to have to be involved in the fundraising process.

And all too often, in spite of an entrepreneur’s passion for their project, they aren’t psychologically prepared to “ask for money”.

That’s quite OK, entrepreneurs should never ask for money. They are selling a stake in a new opportunity. They are inviting people to be part of an exciting venture. And they have to practice their pitch until it’s as familiar and unforgettable to them as a sit-com’s theme song.

There are three psychological tricks that entrepreneurs can employ. First, collect “no’s.” Make it your mission to hear the word “no” as many times as you can. Set a daily goal of how many times you want to hear it. Second, tell everybody what you’re doing. If a bank teller, a UPS delivery person or a pharmacist asks “how are you doing?” don’t say “fine.” Tell them exactly how much money you’re raising for your new venture. Third, build a movement. Replace “How many shares can you buy?” with “How many people can you find who be right for this kind of investment?”

The key is to stop asking and start telling. We’ve seen these tips transform entrepreneurs time and again. And we’ve seen how investors respond positively to entrepreneurs who have overcome any fear of rejection when it comes to financing their startup.

Are you still “asking” for money?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
  • Share/Save/Bookmark

More capital entering the lower level of the startup funding ecosystem

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Google Buzz

Again this post in Funding post continues from the topic of serious bootstrapping trend. More start-ups being capital efficient (good thing for entrepreneurs) etc. This comment below highlights the current trend very well:

“I see a lot more capital entering the lower level of the ecosystem probably because… the opportunities for being capital efficient are actually more available now than they were before,” said Owen Davis, managing director of NYC Seed.”

More about the subject in the video below:

There is a reason why this is also looking more appealing for VC’s. The VC’s problem is well outlined in this post: The Venture Capital Match Problem, by Fred in Ask VC.

Below is my dialog with Fred (in comments):

Me:

I think this just shows that money does not solve problems. The problem here is not too much money, but how it’s now distributed.

VC industry is starting to look like the newspaper industry ;) – better to wake up, the blogs are coming…

Fred:

What are the blogs of the VC business?Things like Y Combinator are great but they are feeding us even more opportunities so I see them as additive, Although I also see blogs as additive for the newspaper business if they’d just see themselves as curators and aggregators instead of content creators

Me:

I guess the closest thing to “blogs of VC industry” today are angel investors. But that’s for today. Also Y-combinator and the likes are great too and could be considered as “blogs of VC industry”. However their “next step” need to change away from just VC’s.

The fundamental change will become, when there are “platforms” for anyone to start a “blog for VC industry” and that’s what we are doing in www.growvc.com.

Overall, we feel that in long term the money will be spread to more potential start-ups and more of them will not go via IPO but just buy back of shares, mergers etc. with lower ROI. But that’s OK if the time for ROI is shorter and cost of management is lower.

So – be more direct, spread wider, lower the management cost, speed up the ROI cycle and you can accept lower ROI.

If you think about the structure of today, from where the VC money really comes from, you start to see the “big picture”. – basically it means that individuals like you and me pay for pensions funds etc. and these funds then invest to VC funds. VC’s then make investment decisions and “manage” the investments, all the way to take it public (hopefully). Basically just to sell it back to us…

When more people will start to understand this cycle because of more info and transparency online (if they are interested), people will not accept this structure. Because in the long run what matter is, if the companies in question sell what matters. And that is not a question of size.

Fred:

Got it

I hope this works

It would scale much better

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Time for some inspirtation…

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Google Buzz

As I’m doing my research on Venture Capital etc. stuff, I came across this great video at BeyondVC, that I also shared via Twitter. However I think this was so good that I also wanted to post in our blog ;)

All entrepreneurs around the globe – enjoy!

Also here’s few more.

The Don’t Quit Poem

Classic by Al Pacino, from a Movie – any given sunday (could well be a VC talking to team of entrepreneurs)

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
  • Share/Save/Bookmark