Posts Tagged ‘Venture Capital’

The situation: You’ve lost your job. And the market to get another one as you well know is dismal. With this as a backdrop, you may be thinking that now is the time to invest in yourself. Perhaps by going to business school and getting an MBA? Or perhaps it is time to start that business you’ve had in the back of your mind for some time?

There are plenty of people advising that now is the perfect time to start a business. But if debating between business school or starting your own business, how should one think about this decision?

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Mix and mingle, be inspired and learn from more than 1,500 rsvp’d entrepreneurs and 100 rsvp’d investors from across the nation at New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) being held November 8th – 12th, 2010 at Scholastic Auditorium in SoHo.

Confirmed investors represent the following industries:

• Biotech
• Business Products & Services
• Consumer Products & Services
• Distribution
• Financial Services
• Green
• Healthcare
• IT

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In the previous post we looked at what seeds funds are and why they are important.

In a recent blog post, Paul Kredowsky voiced his disapproval of the seed funding phenomenon. However, his post is less about the entrepreneur, than the seed funding companies themselves.
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The debate about whether the seed funding phenomenon is a bubble waiting to burst, or whether it’s a viable means of funding pre-revenue/start-up businesses still continues. This is my take on the landscape.

There was a time when if you wanted to fund your company you had four options, approach:

1. A bank
2. An angel investor
3. A venture capitalist

4. OR …… have an asinine risk tolerance and fund the project yourself with your own money.

At a certain threshold of funding, there was a catch twenty-two because banks are notoriously risk averse, and don’t normally fund businesses that have yet to prove themselves. Meanwhile, traditional VC firms couldn’t justify investing less than $3M-$5M in a Series A round, mainly because ROI based on growth trajectory (when investing in small amounts) wasn’t worth their while, especially when holding $700M+ under management.

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If you’ve ever made a pitch for funding from a venture capitalist, you’ll know all about the laundry list of must-have financials and projections that you have to prepare – and if you’re smart, you’ll also know everything you do has to follow the venture capitalists golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules!

Not surprisingly, this should prompt you to want to know more about how VCs make choices about spending their gold. Sure, you’ll read all the well-intentioned advice in the world about how to woo a potential VC with a clear, crisp pitch that shows the brilliance of your business idea and its likelihood of making them millions. Then you watch an episode of Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank, and you soon discover that nine times out of ten, the men behind the money table respond less to the business idea than they do to the person pitching it.

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Almost everyday someone asks me “where can I go to find XYZ.” I figured it would be easier if I wrote down a decent portion of the organizations I normally recommend to folks. Here in New York there are a plethora of events day in and day out. They include conferences, forums, meetups and workshops.

The frequency, quality, size and scale of events in New York for entrepreneurs, from the aspiring or idea-stage entrepreneur all the way up to the growth and acquisition-stage entrepreneur, can vary greatly.

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Groups/Events:

Garysguide.org

NY Tech Meetup

NextNY

New York Entrepreneur Week

Girls in Tech New York

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Social Media Can Generate Revenue For My Business. Really?

Description: Panelists discuss unique strategies they’ve implemented for leveraging social media to generate substantial revenue for their businesses. Long and short-term strategies for generating this important additional revenue source will be explored.

Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Impact at Home

Description: Launching a business can have a significant impact on your family and personal relationships. This panel discusses many of the common challenges, and offers strategies to strike a healthy balance between business and relationships.

I Have No Money, Now What?

Description: Panelists will discuss creative approaches to sustainability and stability as well as how to develop, build and scale a breakthrough company with limited resources, such as:
1) Unique incentive structures for your company
2) Free and low cost resources for entrepreneurs

Success is in the Company You Keep

Description: Seasoned entrepreneurs and CEOs reveal how to diligence partners, suppliers and employees; as well as
1) How to find an attract the right talent and partnerships
2) Understanding the pitfalls of hiring just on resume alone
3) Understanding how and where to find a complimentary partner
4) Hiring, managing, getting the most out of non-full-time employees

My Product isn’t Cool? What in the World Should I Do?

Description: Panelists discuss how to get the word out about your product, even when it isn’t flashy. Topics include:
1) Understanding hype and why it’s a power weapon
2) Clever ways to get publicity for your brand
3) Learn the pros and cons from top-tier “spin doctors”

The $5MM Company: Growing Fast. But Also the Right Way

Description: Panelists will share tactics they’ve leveraged to achieve unprecedented business growth; as well as strategies for mitigating marketshare loss in the face of stagnant growth.