Startup Sherpa

Channel Conflict? Try Channel Stupidity!

brianacord — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:31:27 +0000

I just tried placing an order with a distributor. His reply was basically to ask me to re-send him the exact same information that I sent him in the order but he wanted it in a text format instead of a .PDF format (I guess he doesn’t want to have to type anything in his order so it is easier to ask me to re-do it myself.) Whatever happened to making it EASIER to make a sale instead of IMPOSSIBLE?

He also asked if I could send him the quote that I got from the manufacturer and also RE-SEND HIM HIS QUOTE THAT HE SENT TO ME ORIGINALLY. Doesn’t he have the stupid thing in his own system or is he now using me as his file cabinet as well as his scribe?

Pucker up. Timing can mean everything.

brianacord — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:48:38 +0000

You’ve got a great idea.

You have made all the right moves.

You’ve invested all of your money into building an awesome prototype.

Potential clients love it! You even have a list of pre-sales and some great leads on manufacturing.

You have the perfect business plan and stellar financials that would withstand the stingiest venture capitalists.

Then along comes the economy and “poof” everything disappears.
VCs throw cold water on portfolio companies
“RIP: Good Times” from Sequioa
Angel investor Ron Conway to portfolio: Cut expenses now

On top of everything else, you have to have timing… P.S. This isn’t it.

FREE Movie Premier – “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” « Young Entrepreneurs of America

brianacord — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:23:28 +0000

FREE Movie Premier – “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” « Young Entrepreneurs of America

Venture Capital List – Utah

brianacord — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:24:14 +0000

Venture Capital

Angel Investor Groups

Olympus Angel Investors
Utah Angels
Top of Utah Angels
Salt Lake Life Science Angels
Dixie Angels
Promontory Angels (Weber/Davis Counties)
Cache Venture Accelerator Club – (Cache Valley)

Other Investors / Resources

UTFC (venture debt)
Funding Universe
MJM Capital (equipment leasing)

Please let us know if we are missing anyone.

Monitor Utah Deal Flow at MountainWest Capital Network

Venture Capital

brianacord — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:04:26 +0000

by Darrell Poole

You have the ambition, the ideas, the “friends,” the name, and the confidence that every entrepreneur needs when starting up a new business. What are you missing still? Perhaps you will need a little funding if not lots of funding in order to get this new business off the ground. Often money can be attained from an array of sources. Some sources include friends and family, a job that you are currently working at, angels, and seed funding firms. There are several ways we can fund a business and at the beginning stages of a business a lot of it will come from outside sources. One type of funding not listed is venture capitalism.

As vconline states, venture capital is money used to purchase equity-based interest in a new or existing company. The investor will give money to a company in order for that company to increase its growth, hire more people, etc. In return for giving this money the company must repay the investor in the form of equity. This usually comes in the form of stock, royalties, or even a piece of the company’s profits. The more risks that a company takes with an investor’s money, the more the company will need to return to the investor. A VC has the ability to invest a lot more than some of the other means of funding.

“There is a very sharp dropoff in performance among VC firms, because in the VC business both success and failure are self-perpetuating. When an investment scores spectacularly, as Google did for Kleiner and Sequoia, it generates a lot of good publicity for the VCs. And many founders prefer to take money from successful VC firms, because of the legitimacy it confers. Hence a vicious (for the losers) cycle: VC firms that have been doing badly will only get the deals the bigger fish have rejected, causing them to continue to do badly.” says Paul Graham, a founder of Viaweb in a 2005 essay titled “How to Fund a Startup.” That is why a VC has to see that there is a great deal of growth potential in the company that it is giving money to. There is a lot at stake on both sides of the deal. But then again another thing to note is that when you take money from a firm that is not as well known as some of the bigger firms, people may get the impression that it is only because the “better” firms rejected you even if that is not the case. However this can be overcome by the great performance of your startup which will boost the image of you and the VC.

Since venture capital is mainly for startup companies that are smaller, Wikipedia states that, “most venture capital funds have a fixed life of 10 years, with the possibility of a few years of extensions to allow for private companies still seeking liquidity. The investing cycle for most funds is generally three to five years, after which the focus is managing and making follow-on investments in an existing portfolio.”

One serious question is when a person should go to a VC about funding for a company. It essentially depends if you are at the stage where you can make the VC believe in the possibilities of your company. In order for an early approach to be successful with a VC, the founders of the company most definitely need to have impressive resumes and the idea of the company must be very easy to understand. Paul Graham continues to say that if you aren’t very well known then it is best for you to launch things off first in order to demonstrate that people like your product. If things go really well there is the possibility that you get multiple VC’s to fund you. In this case it is very beneficial not just in a financial sense but in a knowledge sense. You are being funded by them because they all want you to succeed and believe that you can. Therefore you have their advice at your disposal. The only thing is that you need to pay a bit more equity to get multiple VC’s.

Before there is funding for a company, there must be negotiations with the VC first. As noted in class, the VC has a lot more experience with negotiations than the founder does. So it is wise to hire advisors or whomever it is that can best help you with this situation. Also a potential danger with negotiating with a VC is that they already have lots of money. So if the negotiation is not good enough for them then they won’t sign the deal or delay their signing the deal in an effort to get you to bend to their will. This is because the longer it takes for you to get more funding for this new company, the more money you will lose in trying to maintain it on your own while waiting for the VC. So it is best have great advisors and if the VC takes too long to sign then you should move on to the next VC before you lose too much money.

Other things that a VC will do to further protect their own investment is request a small percentage of ownership in a company as well as a seat on the board of directors. By doing this they are able to know for sure how a company is doing. The VC becomes sort of an opponent and a helper at the same time. They become a helper in the sense that they are there to give you guidance. However if it seems to the VC that you aren’t taking things in the right direction, aren’t well aware of what’s going on, etc. then the VC will not invest.

Sources:

- Paul Graham’s Essay “How to Fund a Startup” http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html

o Used for learning more about the process of venture capital

- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital

o Used for finding out what venture capital is

- vcaonline: http://www.vcaonline.com/resources/glossary/index.asp

o Used to understand the terms used throughout the other sources.

You’ve Been Marketed

brianacord — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:29:23 +0000

No matter who you are, I assume that you fit somebody’s demographics. Somewhere in the world there is a marketing team that is trying to understand you, to reach you, to get you to act or think or believe a certain way.

Does it work?

According to Blackfriars Communication, each year U.S. companies spend roughly $615 Billion in marketing efforts (give or take a Superbowl ad or two.) A good portion of that marketing budget is directed at you.

Now take a second.

When was the last time you were influenced by marketing? Think of the last few purchases you made. How might you have been persuaded? What information did you use in considering your options? Did you have lunch today at a place that had a big sign that drew your attention? Did you see a billboard on the way to work and make up your mind that you had to have seafood today? Were you drawn in by the smell of a great local BBQ and couldn’t get you mind off of beef brisket until after you washed it down with a coke?

Take a few minutes and try to think of the last time marketing influenced your buying decisions? How did it work? Why did it work? Now share with the group.

ConnectBlogs

brianacord — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:23:12 +0000

I was just invited by Jordy at www.connectblogs.com to include a syndicated feed of my blogs in his blogroll. He has a great group of Entrepreneurial Bloggers to check out and a great way to aggregate their content in some one-stop shopping.

Great Quote to Inspire

brianacord — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:01:58 +0000

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Why Startups Fail – Timing: Could The Cause of Our Entrepreneurial Success Also Be the Downfall?

Young Entrepreneurs of America — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:46:42 +0000

Our society has become a very impressive collection of forward thinkers and entrepreneurs. Each day the news highlights an impressive array of creativity employed by entrepreneurs solving problems and leveraging new technologies. We are fortunate to live in a country that promotes entrepreneurism and greatly benefit from its numerous advantages.

Over time we have developed many supporting systems that allow new companies the ability to spring up literally overnight. An entrepreneur who has an idea today can go online and apply for a business license, reserve a URL, design a logo, develop a simple website and have their new website online by tomorrow. With a variety of plug-in tools, their site can have shopping cart capabilities and dozens of inbound links from supporting blogs, google ads, and partner sites driving traffic within 24 hours.

This is also true in the brick and mortar world, where companies can contract with product designers, negotiate with manufacturers, and partner with distribution channels in nearly the same time period. And any great idea can find funding from a variety of sources and close millions of dollars of funding in less time than it takes to complete a pregnancy or harvest a single crop.

However, it requires a certain amount of time for new markets and new products to mature and to grow roots. Too often we have a million flowers that bloom, wilt, and die long before potential customers are even aware of their existence. (Of course, if we wait too long the world is buying flowers from our competitors as well.) Unfortunately, the time frame for return on investment and market/revenue growth is much shorter than the time it takes to entice new customers and build a solid company foundation. Our investment mentality is rapidly approaching our appetite for consumerism…”now, if not sooner.” New companies often move too quickly, peak too early and die on the vine have spent their money and depleted their resources and patience before they are able to generate significant traction.

Could the same entrepreneurial success and supporting infrastructure that created such rapid-growth ventures as Google, eBay, and Amazon also be responsible for limiting long-term nourishment. Could our focus on immediate implementation and rapid results be responsible for denying new business ventures the time and resources necessary to develop a significant root system to sustain long-term growth?

Impact of Entrepreneur’s on Society

andy1979 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:29:09 +0000

by Andrew Snow

Entrepreneur’s throughout the world have always inspired me. In looking at the overall picture of how entrepreneur’s interact with the world and the society we live in, it is interesting to note that to be a true entrepreneur it takes a great deal of risk and opportunities in all of their forms. I remember reading an article from the National Geographic regarding an entrepreneur in the war torn country of Sudan, in the Darfur region, who had created a way to help extract water out of the partched earth to save millions of homeless refugees fleeing from the violence.

People such as this example to very successful (vague term) entrepreneurs here in North America. In a previous blog, I had discussed whether or not Benjamin Franklin was the United States first true entrepreneur. One could argue against or for this, but when we look at his impact, and the imact of other entrepreneurs, on our modern society, it is not to hard to venture into the realm of that these individuals are the cream of the crop in our society.