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| Jun 26, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Quotes, Venture Capital |  0 |
"Build a company for the long term. Control your own destiny."
In his presentation Term Sheets 101 below.
The Liquidity Event Proceeds Calculator, developed as a joint project between the Atlanta Technology Development Center and Siavage Law Group, is a nice tool to figure out the affect a funding round might have on your particular situation.
| Apr 14, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Presentations, Venture Capital | 0 |
I bet a spend somewhere between 5 to 10% of my time listening to entrepreneurs give pitches, helping entrepreneurs create pitches, or providing suggestions for improvements to pitches. More often then not I point entrepreneurs to online resources such as the ATDC presentation template or a presentation that I gave at CapVenure on "Communicating With Investors" that made its way onto the Peachseedz Library. And of course Guy's infamous 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint is a mainstay as well. But yesterday Paul Freet pointed to this fantastic presentation by Canaan Partners called the "Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook" that instantly became a favorite.
The structure of the pitch section on slides 5 through 11 is a most excellent explanation of the key elements needed in any pitch. Very specifically follow slide 7. By the time you are finished with the intro slide everyone in the room should know the basic idea and the value proposition of what your company is doing. And at the end, the presentation has a nice summary slide of the structure before closing with a billboard slide with contact information. If you are pitching you want such a billboard up on the screen during Q&A.
An entrepreneur that follows Guy's simpe rules coupled with the objectives based structure laid out by Canaan will be well prepared for a successful pitch.
| Apr 03, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Startups, Venture Capital | 0 |
"As soon as it's written, every business plan is wrong. Good entrepreneurs recognize this, and tend to build agile teams that can quickly respond to early market information in order to identify a real business model and minimize risk."
Josh Koppleman
In a great Yogi Berra wisdom for startups article. There are really two main points to the article. One, entrepreneurs need to "pivot" or change their initial strategy and vision. Two, you need to know what inning the game you are playing is in so that you can act accordingly.
And don't forget, venture capitalists do not read business plans.
| Mar 05, 2009 in Angels, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Venture Capital | 0 |
Busy time in the ATL. A brief roundup starting with three big happenings on Tuesday alone.
Georgia Technology Summit
Everybody that was anybody showed up for the biggest and best Georgia Technology Summit. The past two years I have written posts about the GTS entitlled "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly." This year I am just going to say good. TAG listens to constructive feedback and is always working to improve. Paul Stamatiou has a great summary. He even put on a suit to go to the show.
Shotput Ventures Open House
While the dichotomy with the Georgia Technology Summit is striking, the Shotput Ventures open house was also a huge success. Much younger, happening crowd. They start accepting applications on Friday. Paul again has a stellar writeup (somebody remind me to throw down some more serious Skribit objectives on him).
TwitPay Moves Money
Twitpay went live on Tuesday. Twitpay is a simple way to send payments in 140 characters or less. The service is powered by Amazon Payments which called the service "innovative". Michael Ivey announced this on twitter and then followed up with a longer blog post. Both Michael and Don Brown are excited. So am I and the rest of the team. The most frequently asked question we received is "when can I use real money." The answer is now. Twitpay is the most secure, trustworthy, and dare I say unlike some others, regulatory compliant social payment platform. Twitpay is an Atlanta Startup Weekend company. I am an advisor. Good to see it out the door. It will be interesting to see where it goes.
Meet The VC
The next version of Meet the VC takes place on March 11 and features John Glushik of Intersouth Partners. If you have any intentions of raising capital this year you need to be on hand to get John's insights. Register to attend.
Southeast Venture Conference
While Meet the VC will be a great show it is just a warm up for SEVC which cranks up a bit later in the day. Produced by TechJournal South SEVC will highlight the most promising emerging tech firms in the South. The opening keynote is by Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Big VC hob nob.
StartupChicks
A bit on the other end of the spectrum is StartupChicks. A StartupChick is a female entrepreneur who is interested in creating, building, growing an innovative business that creates value for its customers, employees, shareholders and ideally, the world-at-large. They are having their launch party on March 18. I am not exactly a qualified member. However, I totally support their aim to connect and inspire entrepreneurial women.
Young Entrepreneurs Society
The Young Entrepreneurs Society is a group of Georgia Tech students focused on providing the resources and access needed to be successful entrepreneurs. I went and spoke to the group on Monday. They have great energy and are attracting some attention. You can find the founder Ajai on twitter and he recently wrote about the backstory on the group. If you are an entrepreneurial student this is a great group to find some like thinking people.
| Feb 23, 2009 in Angels, Startups, Venture Capital | 3 |
The venture capital community was very well represented at Startup Riot last week. Partners from CEO Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, Noro-Moseley Partners, TechOperators and Value Plus Ventures were all in attendance. In addition partners from seed stage investing firms Imlay Investments, Profounder, Seraph Group, and Shotput Ventures were on hand.
Nine firms. Five of which are less then a year old. Too many individual angels to list, including the Atlanta Technology Angels. Who says there is no money in Atlanta? But why are all these investors flocking to a show put on by Sanjay Parekh and a handful of volunteers?
Because companies that presented at Startup Riot last year got funded and or acquired.
Purewire launched at Startup Riot. Raised $2 million. Pre revenue, pre product. Seed stage.
Global Crypto closed a round led by Imlay and included the Atlanta Technology Angels. Pre revenue, pre product. Seed stage.
Skribit took a little money from the Edison Fund. Money that kept Pul Stamatiou from making the trek to the valley when he graduated. Pre revenue. Seed stage.
Jungle Disk was acquired by Rackspace. While the amount was undisclosed, based on this report I would venture a guess that Dave Wright is going to put something between $5 million to $10 million in his pocket. Good for him. But this is a deal that at least one of the above named venture firms would have liked to take big.
Investors are going to Startup Riot because it is a source of good deal flow. And rumor is more deals are in the works.
| Feb 05, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital | 6 |
This morning I attended the TAG ATDC Entrepreneurs Society meeting. At the request of Paul Freet I live tweeted the event. That activity created more replies for more information then I could count on both Twitter and Facebook. The presentation used at the meeting is below.
The presentation highlights the results of two research studies regarding the Georgia entrepreneurial community. The first study asked Venture Capitalists around the country why they do or do not invest in Georgia companies. The second research study asked surveyed entrepreneurs in California, Georgia, and Massachusetts. You can find more detail on the TAG blog.
This morning Ashish Bahl, Chairman and CEO of Acculynk, John Bacon, founder and CEO of IP2Biz, LLC, Greg Foster, a venture capitalist with Noro-Moseley Partners, and Charles Ross, director of the ATDC shared their thoughts on the results.
Very interested in hearing your comments.
| Jan 14, 2009 in Venture Capital | 1 |
I cannot tell you how excited I am to hear that Cam Lanier is joining Kinetic Ventures.
Cam was the guy that funded MindSpring. Alan Taetle and I would make the trek to West Point every six months or so to explain to Cam how we were going to achieve 20% quarter to quarter revenue growth that was in MindSpring's plan over the next six months or so. Not sure if we always knew the full answer. But we knew enough to sell it. And then go and make it happen.
As I have said from time to time, I respect Cam a great deal. In some ways he is just like Charlie Croker in A Man in Full. But more then anything else, Cam is a man of values. Those values are not just written on a Web page. Cam lives them.
It's been awhile since I have spoken with Cam. With Kinetic's Atlanta office one floor above mine it will sure be good to see him around again.
| Jan 12, 2009 in ATDC, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Startups, Venture Capital | 0 |
2009 is in full swing with a slate of events and competition that any startup entrepreneur in the Southeast should consider.
CapitalLounge
The next rev of the StartupLounge's entrepreneur/investor mixer takes place on February 25. CapitalLounge's primary goals are to provide an environment where early stage entrepreneurs can make connections with other like-minded entrepreneurs and provide the opportunity for early-stage investors to meet and mingle with early-stage entrepreneurs. Bring and expect a lot of energy.
GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition
The kickoff meeting for the GRA/TAG Business Launch competition took place last week. You can read a bit about that and pick up some tips over on PeachSeedz. This is big.
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) joined forces to support the creation and growth of new startups in Georgia via a competition. The contest winner will receive a $100,000 cash award courtesy of the GRA and a diverse array of services valued at an additional $200,000. This comprehensive $300,000+ prize is one of the largest in the country.
Once again the competition is focused on Internet technologies. This includes companies that are developing products, online services, or backend technologies that are using or extending the reach, flexibility and ease of the internet; with a particular interest in companies within the fields of digital media/technology, cleantech, mobility and information security.
I have the honor of coordinating the effort to pick the semi-finalists. Preliminary applications must be received electronically by February 10. Final entries are due April 7.
Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition
Great business plan competition for entrepreneurs that are students or alumni of Georgia Tech. Real companies have emerged. Lots of learning via workshops. Some cash awarded. Indications of interest were due Friday. I would reach out to Alan Flury pronto to make your case.
TAG Top 40 Innovative Technology Awards
Every year in conjunction with the Georgia Technology Summit, TAG showcases Georgia’s Top 40 innovative technology companies. The first slot in the 2009 TAG Top 40 was captured by Simatra, an ATDC member and VentureLab graduate, that won the special Startup Gauntlet competition in December. TAG is now looking for 39 more companies to honor on March 3rd.
The competitive selection process will focus on the companies' products, services and technologies. The Top 40 companies will participate in a showcase at the Summit, expected to draw over 1,000 leaders from the state's technology community. Ten particularly outstanding companies from the Top 40 will also make short presentations to the Summit attendees, including venture capitalists, angel investors, potential customers and partners. The application deadline is February 1.
SEVC
TechJournal South is bringing the 2009 Southeast Venture Conference to Atlanta on March 11 and 12. This is a venture capital conference and it caters to that audience. The startup company focus is decidedly later stage. Growth stage. The deadline for presenting companies applications has come and gone. But if you got it going on and are looking for venture captial I suggest you reach out to Eric Gregg or me.
Startup Riot
After its winning inaugural last year Startup Riot is back for more. It takes place on February 18. Price to attend ranges from free to $50 for this bash featuring 3 minute presentations from more than 50 early stage companies. Presenting is free and the application is pretty straightforward. Read the rules. Sanjay Parekh may reject you for not following them.
| Jan 09, 2009 in Venture Capital | 0 |
Meet the VC is back. Next Wednesday at 7:30 am.
Featuring Joel Lanik from Frontier Capital out of Charlotte.
You know the drill by now. Register!
| Nov 04, 2008 in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital | 0 |
On Tuesday November 11 at 8:00 am ATDC is hosting the third rev of "Meet the VC." This time around the highly popular program will feature Lon Chow of Apex Venture Partners out of Chicago. Some of Lon's investments include Bellamax, KnowledgeStorm, LifeSnapz, Placeware. Shoebuy, and Tradex. With that mix and recent economic developments it promises to be an interesting session.
We are expecting another sellout crowd. So after you down your free coffee and doughnuts for voting today wander on over and register for this free event. And if you have any questions that you would like Lon to answer let me know in the comments.
Networking starts at 7:30 am.
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