As mentioned in Jeff’s blog, we just released a pretty sweet video showing the excitement and value of our SpeedPitching luncheons. A lot of people have requested to attend as a spectator to see how it works, so here’s your chance.

Props to Joe Grover and his company Digital Mind Studios for putting together such a sexy video. Joe has been a great Junto Partner for the past 2 years and (as you can see) does amazing work.

We partnered with Sid Mohasseb (founder of Venture Farm and a member of the Tech Coast Angels) a few months back to put on a 2-day workshop on effective business execution. I spent the past 2 days participating in the workshop here in Costa Mesa, CA and here are the highlights:

1. Build Meaning for your customers: Sid talked about how we are in an experienced economy which means people are looking for a valuable and emotional experience through your product or service (and they aren’t necessarily buying features or benefits). When you deliver a positive experience, you are delivering meaning to your customers (good examples of this = Apple, Starbucks). Upon deliverance the following will occur:
   1. You’ll have raving fans: most powerful & economical revenue generator (Apple iPod)
   2. Loyalty: stable revenue from existing customers (Starbucks = 80% of Starbuck’s revenues come from customers who frequent the store 18x per month)
   3. Premium Pricing: customers will gladly pay more for an experience that is emotionally rewarding.
2. Learn how to work on the most important things (execute): To execute means to deliver meaning by spending your time, energy and resources on the most important projects.
3. Effective Fundraising: Sid talked about knowing when and how to effectively raise capital.
   1. Understand the players in the space (angels, VCs, private equity, lenders, etc.) well enough to know exactly where to go to find financing.
   2. Think about the economics from the investor’s point of view (investors want to see a 10x return on their money). With your stated valuation and growth rate, can you reasonably build a company within 5-7 years to provide them with a reasonable return on their investment? TIP: assume that you’ll be able to sell your company for 5x your projected net income and see if their portion of the company will then produce a 10 return.

Every entrepreneur should take the 2 days to go through the Venture Farm Institute workshop. It was a fantastic learning experience for me and everyone else involved.

Next on the list of “10 Signs of a Fundable Company” is 2-part:  1) Identify a target market, and 2) have a strong plan to penetrate that market.

Too often, entrepreneurs make a mistake by saying, “We are entering a $8 Billion market and all we have to do is get 0.1% of the market to make $8 Million in revenue!”  There are 2 problems with this statement:  1)  They are not referring to the Total Addressable Market and 2) they are taking a top-down approach to market penetration (which is very unrealistic).

Total Addressable Market: the precise market and customers that will purchase the product (not the entire market).

Once you have identified a market, the more important piece of the puzzle is to have a plan to penetrate that market.  If you don’t have a solid market penetration strategy, you’ll have a hard time raising capital.

TIP:  instead of selling customers one at a time, think about various channels or partners that already have relationships with many of your customers and sell through them.  Investors love to see such a plan because you can penetrate the market much faster.

You have a great idea. You know it will be successful if you can get it out into the marketplace. But is your opportunity perishable?

Bill Payne, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Kauffman Foundation, explains an idea is perishable if it will “have no value unless commercialized in a limited window of time.” So what if your business idea could be classified as perishable? Bill offers a few suggestions.

1. Make sure the idea is both scaleable and fundable
2. Hurry, with patience
3. Consider shortcuts to the marketplace, such as development and/or marketing partners.

Bill explains, “It is always better to share a perishable idea and take a smaller piece of the pie than to see the window of opportunity disappear.”

Before investing in a company, it is important to know what type of exit strategy an entrepreneur is seeking. Whether through an IPO, a merger or acquisition, an entrepreneur should be able to convince you why and how they will exit.

Bill Payne, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Kauffman Foundation, explains this idea further. “Entrepreneurs must wear two hats, one as founder/employee and a second as an owner of startup companies. The founder/employee hat dominates the activity of the entrepreneur during the startup and operations of the company. But, the ownership hat is, in fact, more important to the entrepreneur, because a successful exit will have a lasting impact on the entrepreneur and his or her family. Successful entrepreneurs create wealth for their families; consequently, adequate attention to their ownership position in their companies is a critical but often overlooked responsibility of entrepreneurs.

Harvesting their ownership position is, in fact, their final and perhaps most important act as entrepreneurs. And executing the exit strategy is vital to the success of the investors. Consequently, a compatible exit strategy and harmonious execution of the harvest is in the best interest of both parties.”

At the 2007 Utah Technology Council Annual Members meeting on March 28, 2007, Brock Blake, CEO of Funding Universe, was recognized as the 2006 Emerging Executive of the Year.
Blake joined other distinguished 2006 Executives of the Year award recipients:

• CEO of the Year: Richard Nelson, Utah Technology Council
• Legislator of the Year: John Valentine, Utah Senate president
• Trustee of the Year: Alan E. Hall, chairman of Grow Utah Ventures
• HR Executive of the Year: Glade Nelson, North America head of HR for Novell.
• CTO of the Year: Ken Knapton of ContentWatch

“I am humbled and honored to join such an elite group of successful executives,” Blake said.

Blake emphasized that while he is honored to receive the award, the recognition does not solely belong to him.

“While my name is recognized, this award is really a tribute to the hard work and efforts of the entire FundingUniverse team,” Blake stated. “I sincerely believe that. Our team is amazing. I am grateful to be a part of such a dynamic and talented group.”For the rest of the article, click here.