Northwest FundingUniverse LivePitch - Recently Updated Pages

Feedback

fundinguniverse — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:32:41 CDT

1. What do you need (as an entrepreneur, as an investor, or as a geek), that is currently not available?

2. What frustrates you about investment forums or pitching events that currently exist?

3. How can we best help you prepare to give a compelling pitch at this kind of event? (Webinar, coaching session, workshop, YouTube video, etc.?)

4. Who should pay to attend or sponsor these events and how much should they pay? (Or, should the events be free-- and why?)

5. How can this event be structured in a way that motivates serious, active investors to attend this event?

6. What kind of screening process should be in place to make sure that presenters are qualified?

7. Which local individuals/organizations should be brought on board to expand the effectiveness and reach of these events?

#1

The amount of time spent looking for and finding angels that fit your deal is ridiculous. I could spend that time running the company instead of searching online, on LinkedIn and going to countless coffee meetings.

As an entrepreneur, I’d love different venues for:

1. Connecting with other entrepreneurs
2. Connecting with angel investors
3. Connecting with VCs
4. connecting with potential business partners (not service providers) and people interested in joining startups. I think these need to be separate venues.

#2

Amount of money to be paid, recutting the business plan 20 times to fit different criteria (like 200 words on the Marketing strategy), changing Power Point 20 times for the same reason. Again, I have better things to do.

Too many service providers, not enough active investors, not focused on early stage funding, irrelevant and detached from reality

# 3

Coaching one-on-one sessions work best.

I'm not so concerned about that

#4

I would say service providers should pay, it should be free to investors to get them to come, free to entrepreneurs to get them to come.

Investors should pay, or they should be free if it’s feasible. For venues 1-3, everyone needs to be vetted in some way.

#5

Stories - you need to tell them credible stories from other angels investors - so do video interview on real angels talking about their experiences, and have it available on the website, plus stats - I have invested this much, have gotten back 3x rerun, or something like this.

I think a small, possibly invite only group of serious entrepreneurs that grows over time. If there are quality entrepreneurs, quality investors will be attracted.

#6

Start with one page executive summary, then I believe the best screening is from personal meetings. The summary is enough to rule out complete fakes, but personally I would say pitching in an elevator is the best screener - pitching in 1-2 minutes. Or, in one sentence - if it is not clear what you - next. Then you can come back and try again.

Not sure who you mean by presenters. If attendees, they should probably be screened by one of the current members

#7

Keiretsu Forum, Alliance of Angels

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What Do Entrepreneurs Need?

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:19:32 CDT

Entrepreneurs

Don't skew presenter preferences away from certain types of startups
Help startups get visibility.
Provide a catalyst to get entrepreneurs above the noise.
Create an event that helps entrepreneurs cast a wide net and share their story throughout the community.
Help entrepreneurs get into the referral conversations.

Brainstorming Session Discussion Topics

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:18:36 CDT

Suggest a topic, and we'll address them at the meeting:

Roundtable Brainstorming Sessions

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:17:49 CDT

We are determined to make these events what you actually need, not necessarily what's been done before, or, what *we* think would be the best.

If you are interested in helping shape the direction of these events, we invite you to attend one of our roundtable brainstorming sessions:

Please feel free to attend one or both-- RSVP below to let us know you're coming.

Northwest FundingUniverse LivePitch Home

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:01:49 CDT

FundingUniverse will begin offering LivePitch and SpeedPitch events in Seattle and Portland, every month on a recurring basis.

Seattle

Saturday, May 31st-- informal "open Mic" LivePitch at the Six Hour Startup Conference
Friday, June 20th-- first official LivePitch in Seattle

RSVP here: Upcoming.org

Portland

Friday, July 11th--first official LivePitch in Portland

To prepare for these events, we are meeting with members of the community to ensure that our events are planned in order to meet your needs. Please join us for RoundTable discussions to share your ideas:

Seattle:
Portland:

LivePitch Goals

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:58:24 CDT

1. Fill in the gaps to provide value to the entrepreneurial community in Seattle that existing local investment forums are not currently serving.

2. Identify the needs of all 3 main event participants, meet the needs and provide a ROI to each group:

a. Entrepreneurs who are in need of money/resources.
b. Angels & VCs who are looking for great deals to put on their radar.
c. Service providers who look for early stage companies to build business relationships with.

Why We Host LivePitch Events

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:57:34 CDT

Just for transparency's sake, here is our underlying motivation as to why we host LivePitch events:

At FundingUniverse, we are bootstrapping entrepreneurs who seem too young to be credible, too poor to drive anything besides crappy Hondas, and reasonably experienced entrepreneurs who *get* the core principles of what it takes to make a business WORK, because this is what we do, all day long.

Because we come from this perspective, we offer 5 core services to entrepreneurs and investors, in order to be THE place to turn to if you are an entrepreneur looking for startup capital on any level:

1. A "Match.com" website for entrepreneurs and angel investors (Check it out at www.fundinguniverse.com)
2. Entrepreneur education via FundingUniversity
3. Consulting services to help entrepreneurs prepare their pitch/business plan/financials
4. SpeedPitch and LivePitch events to help stir up the entrepreneurial community
5. Assistance securing alternative funding sources such as unsecured line of credit, credit repair, economic development/micro loan funds, and more.

We are not a non-profit organization (and definitely not a "not-quite-for-profit" organization). We are a for-profit business.

It's important to understand that, because it means that we do not stay in business if we don't meet your needs. And trust me, we are determined to stay in business in order to continue providing specific help to entrepreneurs, so PLEASE help us to stay grounded in what you need by participating in the LivePitch events and letting us know what you think.

Seattle Tech Startup Feedback

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:56:40 CDT

Back in mid-March, there was conversation thread on the Seattle Tech Startup mailing list, which sparked some very valuable feedback on the status of investment pitching forums in Seattle. 46 pages of feedback, actually, which we distilled down to 10 pages of bullet points.

Now why would we do a crazy (and time consuming!!) thing like that?

Well, it's simple. Events that facilitate connections between entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers, need to be produced as an intrinsic part of the community, bringing together the requests and ideas of many, and carving out a platform that is unique and effective.

That's where the LivePitch comes in. Sure, we're hosting it-- but guess what Seattle: this is your event. So we want and need to hear what YOU want and need to get out of it.

Providing & Marketing The Value of The Event

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:23:39 CDT

Providing and Marketing The Value

Provide Value

Provide opportunities to get in front of a large group of people who can help you.
Let people make an informed decision about the value of attending
Develop a calendar of events and resources that is more geared towards helping founders get their companies off the ground.
How to manage your board?
How to understand term sheets?
How to know if the goals you set on your angel round will be enough for A round investors?
Have a set of online articles or blog posts.
Provide a mechanism for angels to get leads from referrals.
Provide a mechanism for entrepreneurs to find introductions to angels.
Do more good than harm
Provide leverage in the community above the dollars they consume as an organization.
Get juices flowing.
Help people aspire to give it a shot
Don't be a waste of time and money.
Don't be a waste of time.
Don't charge for an event and not provide enough value for that $ amount.
Don't make people feel like they didn’t get what they paid for.
Don't have people leave the event with good buzz and conversations but nothing very useful.
Don’t disallow entrepreneurs to get in contact with active angels.
Don't waste the entrepreneur's time on individuals who haven't invested before.
Don't charge entrepreneurs for something they could spend a few hours figuring out on their own (LinkedIn, John Cook's blog, etc.)
Don't overpromise and under deliver and charge a lot.
Don’t have the STS mailing list be more educational than the event.

Marketing the Value

Help people understand the value they're getting
Keep integrity in the marketing promise, expectations, and delivered product.
Position the value as visibility
Explain why it is valuable
Let people make an informed decision with the right set of expectations.
Be clear on how you operate:
Type of people in the audience
Whether you're an info event or a pitching to investors event
How much information to disclose about the company.
Whether the pitching will directly affect funding results.
Be clear about where you draw the line with different fee structures.
Be clear about community leaders who participate in the event, as far as their underlying motive.
Clarify what "early stage" means:
"early stage" is a business that has a working prototype and is in need of seed funding.
"start-up" means you are up and running and have customers as well as revenue and need to get over a financial gap.

What Do Investors Need?

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:21:56 CDT

Investors

Have enough investors there
Don't hold an entrepreneur education meeting trying to entice angels ("How to raise money 101).
Match the right kind of investor attendees to the right kind of event (angels and seed stage, VCs and early stage)
Hold events where there is a high percentage of investors.
Let the ratio of companies to investors to amount of time make the event very worthwhile.
Invite the VCs who are really looking for the early stage business.
Have an invite-only forum with higher quality and quantity of investors.
Target the individual investor: they are the source of funding for most start-ups and seed stage companies.
Create a demo/pitch/entrepreneur groveling that gets angels to come out and spend two hours of their time.
Target the investor who is interested in hearing about new startups but doesn't attend current forums or angel groups.
Give angels more than a weeknight event based on what entrepreneurs want.
Ask angels what they want.
Help angels with the steep learning curve
Help angels avoid losing their capital

Some Tips Re: Angels

Reality: 3-6 solid leads out of an angel is average.
Reality: angel deals come together because 2-3 angels connect on their diligence & interest in roughly the same time, momentum builds, and others who have worked with the 2-3 individuals get on board the train.
Angels invest because someone they trust is investing.
Even the most active angels (who aren't named Ron Conway) will do maybe 2-3, deals a year.
That's about all a serious angel can deal with in terms of involvement.
Investment is not a quantity type of game -a couple of quality experienced angels trumps a dozen "I really liked what I heard - I've never made an investment in a startup before but I'd like to learn more".
The age old VC metric is "one deal per GP per year".
Very few angels in this geography have as many as 5 total investments. Very few.
It is better to get a referral to an angel than to pitch at an event; it means someone has vetted the deal and is willing to exert some personal cred fronting it to others.
Find a way to stand out from the noise.
Truth be told, not many angels are making investments right now.
Look towards VCs that claim to do early stage for the funding I

Angel Database

Something that STS should consider facilitating is the creation of an UberAngel database - who is involved with what deals.
Unlike VCs, angels don't tend to be very vocal about what they're involved with (no websites, no desire for "deal flow", etc.)
Someone would have to moderate access, use, privacy and such but it seems like a list of "50 active angels in Seattle" would be a benefit to the community, so long as those 50 saw some benefit in being "outed".
An angel database is a good idea.
The Angel Oregon event used the AngelSoft.net program. It acts as an exchange mechanism. and it creates a database of deals. Perhaps that is a tool that is worth exploring. http://www.angelsoft.net

Building a Community-Owned Event

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:21:03 CDT

A Community-Owned Event

Involve the Community

Reach out to the community
Get feedback from their target constituency
Define new goals to help the startup community in Seattle as a whole be more successful
Leverage standing in the community, organizational infrastructure, revenue, sponsor base, leadership, and right vision to double value to the community.
Internalize the feedback from the community

Advisors

Have a rotating group of actual start-up founders act in some sort of advisory committee so that NWEN doesn't skew completely towards service providers

Create a Founder’s Forum

Have an environment for founders to get together with other founders who are going through, or have gone through, similar challenges to myself.
Have an event where everyone gets to sit down with angels and VCs alike.
Get more VCs next time around.
Let Alliance of Angels sponsor

Create An Alternative Event

Have members of the community who are actual entrepreneurs create an alternative to ESIF and NWEN.
Get a few sponsors and run our own event (by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs) and do this without charging the start-ups.

What Do Service Providers Need?

fundinguniverse — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:19:38 CDT

Service Providers

Let service providers sponsor the presenters
Differentiate between presenting entrepreneurs (with services) versus "Service Providers" looking for new clients
Monitor ratio of service providers
Openly disclose the breakdown of service providers, banks, lawyers, and investors who attend.
Realize that funding will buy you resources later, including:
Resources are legal assistance, bankers, accountants, hosting providers, hardware vendors, software engineers, graphics artists, and development companies, etc.
If your business model is good enough and illustrates a strong revenue model, those "service-provider" resources will invest "in-kind" with out any hesitation.
Let the companies who want access to the start-ups pay the bulk of the costs, not the starving entrepreneur.
Charge the service providers advertising to pay for the online resources.

Don't be consumed with service provider needs/sponsors and the VC’s
Don’t hold a service provider fest
Don't promote the event as "investment pitch" if it's a "service auction"
Don't let service providers attend for a lower rate.
Don't "pimp" the entrepreneurs.
Don't provide window-dressing events or target galleries for service providers.

FundingUniverse Services

fundinguniverse — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:33:28 CDT

For Transparency's Sake: Who Are We?

FundingUniverse's mission is to connect entrepreneurs with startup capital, whether that is angel/VC, loans, line of credit, grants, SBA loans, etc. We serve two types of customers: entrepreneurs and investors.

We offer 3 primary services to help entrepreneurs:

1. FundingUniverse.com Membership

This is a "Match.com" type service for to connect entrepreneurs and investors. Entrepreneurs post their business plan, access educational information about the funding process, and can contact our investor members directly through the website.

Investors keep tabs on hot deals in a specific geographic area, or based on their investment preferences, discuss deals with fellow investors, and contact entrepreneurs.

2. Live Events

LivePitch

A community-based event: come pitch your idea to a panel of local experts, get feedback on presentation, recruit /hire, build partnerships, and master the art of pitching.

If you do not wish to present, come and be a part of the audience and network with other entrepreneurs and businesses.

SpeedPitch

Speedpitching is an event created to help connect entrepreneurs looking to raise capital with local investors. It is exclusive to those entrepreneurs selected to present, and attendance is limited to investors and sponsors only, no observers.

3. New Venture Consulting

Our new venture consulting is targeted to help early stage entrepreneurs who need help refining the pitch, business plan, financials, etc. This has been very effective in focusing the entrepreneur's attention on the key deliverables necessary to be successful in securing funding.

LivePitch

fundinguniverse — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:00:18 CDT

What: LivePitch & Networking Event
Who: Entrepreneurs that are seeking capital, entrepreneur community, angel investors, & service providers
When: Friday June 13th
Venue: TBA Time: TBA
Cost: TBA

How to Participate:

Come pitch your idea to a panel of local experts, to get feedback on presentation, or recruit /hire, or to build partnerships. If you do not wish to present, come and be a part of the audience and network with other entreprenuers and businesses.

ENTREPRENEURS that are interested in pitching:

Sign-up through the "LivePitch Application" at the top right of this page.
Login (if you already have an account) or create an account.
UPDATE: Please email your executive summary/proposal to members@fundinguniverse.com with the subject line: "Seattle LivePitch Application" or "Portland LivePitch Application".
Application Deadline: Tuesday June 10th @ Midnight (MST)

Don't want to Pitch, but want to network & watch:

RSVP at Upcoming.org: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/660044/?ps=6

How it Works:

Pitching Companies:

FundingUniverse will select several companies to present on-stage at the LivePitch event. The presenting companies must agree to present in front of a panel of experts and a live audience.

Panel of Angel Investors:

Apanel of experts that have agreed to judge the LivePitch presentations: Audience Participation:
Attendees in the audience will receive $100 of play "Monopoly" money that they will use to "invest" in their favorite company pitch. After all of the presentations, the audience will place their monopoly cash into their favorite LivePitch presentation.

Selecting the Winning Presenters:
After all of the presentations, 2 winning presenters will be announced based on the amount of "monopoly cash" that is "invested" (one by the panel of expert investors and the other by the audience).

Difference between Speedpitching Luncheon and Livepitch and Networking event:

FundingUniverse's next Speedpitching Luncheon will be June 4th from 11:00-1:30 pm. Speedpitching is an event created to help connect entrepreneurs looking to raise captial with local investors.It is exculisve to those entrepreneurs selected to present, investors and sponsors only, no observers. This LivePitch and networking event is open to all entrepreneurs, investors and service providers. Those presenting will pitch to a live audience and panel of experts. Followed by a Q and A session and feedback. The audience and expert panel will then vote for the best presentation. It's a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to practice their pitch, get feedback on presentation and network for recruiting, hiring or building partnerships.
This event is not catered to raising capital like the Speedpitching event is designed to do. Even if not interested in presenting, come to network and meet other entrepreneurs, investors and service providers.