There are two kinds of people (and thusly entrepreneurs) in the world.

1) Those who learn solely from their own experiences, and 2) those that are smart.

FundingUniverse.com does all we can to give you access to the experience and lessons already learned by successful entrepreneurs and investors. Our Podcast Series is one of major tools in helping us accomplish this mission.

Scott Frazier has joined the ranks of angel investor Bill Payne and LoveSac entrepreneur Shawn Nelson for the fourth episode in FundingUniverse.com’s Business and Investing Podcast Series. Frazier, angel investor and founder of the UtahAngels, has invested time and money into several companies including TruVision, Omniture, and MyFamily.com.
Scott was kind enough to share a few tips he learned from his acquisition experiences. His vantage point, as CEO and entrepreneur of early to middle stage companies, seems remarkably similar to the view of many FundingUniverse.com entrepreneurs. He capitalized on these opportunities and turned multi-million dollar profits. Now he’s offering his game plan to FundingUniverse.com Podcast listeners.

Frazier gives five note-worthy pointers to anyone considering selling their business—in the near future or in the long-run. They are:

1. Sell something other than net income.
2. Build unique skills, resources.
3. Add an earn-out on top of the sells price.
4. Learn the needs, desires, and motivations of the opposite party, without revealing your own.
5. Hire a good attorney with experience in mergers/acquisitions.

May we suggest that you take ten minutes out of your day and put yourself in the second (and more successful) category of entrepreneurs. The ability to learn from others can give you the extra foot hole you need to boost yourself to the top. Otherwise, it’s a long and lonely climb to the summit. Happy listening!

You’ve been waiting since “The Lock-down” … Investors have been begging for it for ages …

Today we launched VideoPitch technology on our FundingUtah.com website.

VideoPitch allows entrepreneurs to post a short video of their pitch on FundingUtah.com for investors to view.

Why VideoPitch?

Investors invest in entrepreneurs first, business plans second.  Craig Bott, President of Grow Utah Ventures, said that investors think this way because a company’s business plan and financial projections will always change, but the entrepreneur will remain.  The VideoPitch allows entrepreneurs to pitch themselves as well as their business model.

In the coming months, we’ll launch VidoPitching in other states throughout the U.S., so stay tuned for the release date for VideoPitching in your state.

Being a man with no specific trade, I have a variety of tasks with FundingUniverse that help the company, or our service, run more smoothly. One of my least favorite tasks, although I now swear by its importance, is following up with every investor that registers on one of our state-sites.

We make the calls for two reasons: One, we’d like to let our investors know we care about them and would like to help streamline their use of our services. Second, we like to keep our quality investors in good company and our entrepreneurs safe, so we try to screen out fraudulent investors and third parties that are after your money.

After listening to investors’ complaints and suggestions, here’s a few of the things I’ve learned.

Put your self in their shoes. Try to understand where investors are coming from. An investor is usually managing several different things at one time.This makes them extremely busy, and time becomes worth a lot of money.They also take extremely high risks, losing and gaining thousands every day. This makes them extremely critical people, and they’ll tell you what they think.

Make it short and sweet. Because their time is valuable, don’t waste it with unimportant details. The bottom line is, how will giving you a large amount of money increase their assets? If you have a well researched, realistic (ahem, is it wrong to say realistic twice for emphasis) answer to this question, you should be on your way to funding.

Be careful! Your desperation to find funding makes you an easy target for scammers. I get calls from entrepreneurs way too often saying, “Watch out for this guy, I just got scammed.” Angel Investment deals can definitely vary, but they will never ask for money up front, they usually trade it for equity. Although you don’t want to scare away investors by being too pessimistic, have a way to screen the investors (a resume or an outside source).

Isaiah Thomas is a terrible general manager. This may seem random, but not if you consider that Thomas was a creative genius on the court. One of the most important tangibles that investors consider is who is running your company. Running a business is tough, and just because you have a great idea, doesn’t necessarily mean you are the best one to implement it. A well-known, solid management team will go along way when dealing with angel investors.

To conclude, our VP of Marketing Jeff Jordan put the whole idea in very good perspective for me. He said, “If some guy walked up to you and told you he had a great idea, but needed $250,000, how hard would it be for you not to laugh?” How much would you expect from a guy asking for your retirement plan? A good business plan? A thorough back ground check? Ask your self these questions, make the adjustments that you would require, then go out and look for funding. Good luck!

I just found a great blog called What Would You …? on VIPbloggers.com that consists of nothing more than a bunch of seasoned, successful entrepreneurs writing about what they would have done differently if they could do it all over again.

Here are a few highlights:

Greg Warnock, Managing Director of VSpring –   I would have been more abundant with my ideas and business strategies. I have since learned the value of being more open with personal networks in order to vet and diligence ideas.

Shawn Nelson, Founder of LoveSac — I wouldn’t have skimped on money, under-paying, only to get some people who are learning on the job—ultimately, that is more expensive than a pro’s high salary.

Bill Aho, CEO of ClearPlay — I wouldn’t have worked so hard. I know that sounds crazy, but after two years of working around-the-clock almost without noticing I lost sight of some of the things that were most important in my life—relationships, service, health, balance.
 

When I was in college, I roomed with one of the best point guards in the history of BYU basketball. The guy had insane –and I mean insane — handles. He was the singular reason that no team ever tried to run a full-court press on BYU from 1999-2002.

Sometimes he would try to teach me a few of his tricks and it would amaze me how many small details went into every ankle-breaking crossover, or an inside-outside fake. After a while I came to see that the biggest difference between him and I was the attention he paid to detail. Every detail of every step had been carefully studied and tweaked one at a time until the entire motion was perfect.

His attention to detail brought his game to the elusive “next level”.

I thnk the difference between good internet companies and great internet companies is attention to detail. These days every company knows the basics — consistant emails, simple interface, reinforced value, permission marketing principles, blah, blah, blah. Great internet companies do these things as a rule and they measure and test every little element of each tactic.

For instance, a good internet company is happy with an email newsletter with a large subscription base. A great internet company has an email newsletter with a large subscription base, a great click-through rate, a huge open rate, an effective viral element, news that customers care about, etc. Great internet companies don’t get that way by accident. They get that way because they measure and track like it’s going out of style.

We’re trying our best to measure our way to greatness at FundingUniverse.com. You should be too.

Each morning I drive to the FundingUniverse office via the same route down a street called Canyon Road. The speed limit on Canyon Road is 35 mph. The residential roads that lead from my house to Canyon Road all have a 25 mph speed limit. I leave my driveway from an initial speed of 0 mph.

My trip to the office therefore, increases progressively from an initial velocity of 0, to 25, and then finally to 35 mph. By the time I reach Canyon Road, 35 mph feels relatively fast when compared to the velocities experienced on the residential roads and my driveway. I’ve been driving Canyon Road for years and can usually pin my speed at about 35 mph on gut-instinct without looking at the speedometer.

Last week I left my home state of Utah to visit some relatives in Arizona, an approximately ten hour drive. I drove out of town on the same Canyon Road at the usual pace and 35 mph felt normal.

I had a good visit in Arizona. On the return trip, freeway speeds in the vicinity of 75 mph felt fast-paced to me at first, but I adjusted up to meet the higher demands. Once adjusted, freeway speeds felt normal.

Returning home, I pulled onto Canyon Road again after ten consistent hours at 60-80 mph. I went with my gut-instinct once again and figured I was doing the usual 35, but as I looked down at the speedometer I was doing closer to 50 or 55. My gut-instinct was way off and any residents I blew by must have questioned my torrid pace. From their perspective, I might as well have been flying a MiG (to any of Provo City’s Finest reading this, I disavow any and/or all knowledge of said incident).

From my perspective, I might as well have been saddled up on a yak. The same road that felt relatively fast to me only a few days earlier now felt unbelievably, almost unbearably, slow. I instinctively wanted to maintain the 75 mph pace I had grown accustom to, and it was a burden to have to slow down.

What had changed? – Certainly not the road. The speedometer wasn’t broken, and I’m also pretty confident it wasn’t the fundamental physics of driving 35 miles in one hour. Somehow I had changed. My perspective had changed.

As I leave for work, my frame of reference before reaching Canyon Road is from a dead stop in my driveway. My frame of reference before reaching the same road on my return trip from Arizona was ten hours of 60-80 mph.

This experience may seem insignificant, and a leading candidate for the common sense of the month club. It may even be the winner. For me, however, it was a great physical example and confirmation of a principle I already believed: Humans have an amazing ability to adjust and adapt to different circumstances, changing conditions, and increasing demands.

Ralph Waldo Emerson stated, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier- not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased”.

I had adapted. For ten hours before reaching home, my mind, body, and reflexes had adjusted to the higher demands and challenges presented by freeway speeds and curvy highways. The skill set needed to drive at the low speeds and zero curves of Canyon Road seemed elementary when revisited. The nature of the activity had not changed, but my capacity and ability had increased briefly from performing at a sustained higher level.

Life and Business, like driving I suppose, seem to vary at times in velocity. They present uncertainties and have curves. However, that which seems relatively difficult or impossible now may become not only doable, but easy as we look back on it down the road (look no further than world history or your own personal experiences for numerous examples).

Never, I would guess, has the business world been more dynamic than the present. The ability of entrepreneurs, employees, and companies to adapt to change is essential for success and long-run survival.

We all face intimidating challenges associated with changing conditions, environments, and circumstances- it’s just part of the game. While this isn’t revelatory news to anyone I’m sure, this little experience did serve as a reminder to me that when these changes do come, the ability is in each of us to adapt and rise to the level required for success.

And if we fail, the experience we gained can make us stronger for the next round (take this blog entry for example).

A few days ago FundingUniverse experienced some major office drama. A woman who works in our same building and with whom we share a kitchen had her HotPockets stolen from the freezer. And no one knows who did it! This woman is hypoglycemic and if she doesn’t eat she can die. This office caper was escalated when the victim went around from office to office trying to fish out the guilty party. It would be in the best interest of FundingUniverse to conduct a sting operation to nab the thief and restore peace to our office.

I currently have a list of suspects, but have yet to find any evidence. Had I been thinking I would have stayed late after work on the day of the altercation and rummaged through the trash for evidence. A Costco 12 pack of HotPockets has been offered for any information that leads to the capture of the thief. Please contact me with any information.

I am in charge of monitoring and optimizing FundingUniverse.com’s Adwords and Adsense accounts, and this is a real-life, factual tale of what my life (or more so the company’s) was like without Google’s marketing tool, Adwords.

I remember the day clearly. It was cold and dreary. The snowy bursts of wind tossed my car from lane to lane as I drove to work, and I knew something must not be right. After shaking the snow off at the door, I made my way to the desk and opened up my laptop.

My first task every day is to check traffic statistics and monitor our Adword’s account. As I made my way through the mind-numbing pile of numbers I came to the Adwords reporting page, and it was blank! I refreshed the page in disbelief, but to no avail. Our Adword’s account was paused. I found out there was financial routing problem, and it would be 3-5 days before it was up and running again. I thought about it, and settled my self down. “Besides,” I assured myself “how much traffic can come from a measly $20 a day.”

The next week would teach me a lesson I wouldn’t soon forget. Each morning, as I came in and checked the statistics, I watched in horror as our traffic numbers plummeted. We averaged 7-8 investor and 30-40 entrepreneur sign-ups before the “Adwords-freeze.” After the “freeze,” 1-2 and 15-20 respectively. Everyday, I wrote letters to Google apologizing, begging them to reactivate our account. After a week, they finally listened. We were back in business! Within two days of reactivating our account, we had made a full recovery, and I resolved, with Adwords, to never leave work without it.

The moral of this story is a lesson to all small businesses trying to market themselves. For efficient marketers, the internet is the place to be. A recent headline from the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) reads “Users spent $2B on Web content in 2005.” In the main article it says that includes only 12% of the population right now. The numbers are climbing rapidly, and the potential is staggering. The best bang for your buck is easily found on search engine giants like Google and Yahoo. So if your company hasn’t already, jump online, setup an Adwords account, and start optimizing your marketing budget.

FundingUniverse.com has gone into a lock-down today as we make the final push to release our new video-pitching service. The new video-pitching subscription will allow entrepreneurs to upload videos of their pitches for investors to view—giving entrepreneurs the ability to convey not just the numbers and analysis of a traditional business plan, but also their passion and personality.

The rush to release this valuable service to entrepreneurs has yielded signs of warning on all our doors: “FundingUniverse.com is locked down!” The occasional sighting of our management team reveals focused brows and a determined hustle. Sounds of intense Lord of the Rings soundtracks float out of our programmers’ areas, only partially masking the constant clicks of keyboards and mice.

Why the lock down? We believe that video-pitching is going to be key in successfully matching more investors and entrepreneurs. It may sound cliché, but we’re going to say it anyway—the future of online investment matching is video-pitching. The better idea angels have not only of the business proposal, but of the entrepreneur themselves, the more likely they are to invest.

So tomorrow we come out of lock down and resume regular operations. Keep your eyes peeled for this invaluable service to be available soon thereafter.

I grew up constantly reading. My mother would ground me from my books. I’d hide in my closet with a flashlight and a Boxcar Children book when I was supposed to be cleaning my room. As I grew up, I found Nancy Drew, and read the entire original series. Probably, Carolyn Keene can be credited with any analytical skills I’ve managed to acquire. In the 6th grade, I discovered fantasy books, and stuck with Susan Cooper, Madeline L’Engle, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkein for a while. Then I graduated into the classics, and fell in love with the writings of Dumas, Dickens, Austen, the Bronte Sisters, and Twain. I still try to keep up on these. In fact, just this morning before work Captain Ahab revealed his quest to the crew on the Quarter Deck to hunt Moby Dick to the ends of the earth.

It wasn’t until my summer employers (two remarkable guys) asked me to read Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen Lundin and co. that I took the time to crack a business book. I thought it was amazing! It changed the way I saw my workplace, my schooling, and my behavior in several facets. I handed it over to my mom, thinking I was doing her a huge favor by recommending this treasure trove of golden wisdom. Her response: “It was good, but pretty typical of this kind of book.”

Okay, so I’m a sucker for motivation. However, this assignment changed my productivity as an employee and my paradigm on reading. Reading material pertinent to our fields helps to keep us grounded (not by my mother anymore) and can provide clarity in situations where there’s too much pressure to execute only in the mundane. Innovation flows as imagination is allowed a little room to reign. Don’t get too caught up in the every day tasks that you forget to learn.

I recently compiled a booklist for FundingUniverse.com. I am fortunate to work everyday with entrepreneurs who’re dedicated to not only growing a successful company, but to building their knowledge base and becoming experts in their fields. They gave me some great titles, and as soon as I can, I’m gonna lock myself in a closet with a flashlight and skip cleaning my room.