Just finished listening to this week’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast.  These guys are just killing it.  Hands down, the best entrepreneurial podcast on the web.

This week’s podcast features execs from the largest and/or most innovative social networking plays on the web.

Here’s the description from the site:

Introduced by AlwaysOn founder Tony Perkins, this panel discussion considers the new opportunities related to the social networking space. Panelists include moderator Charlene Li, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research; Travis Katz, SVP, MySpace International; Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Facebook; Rich Rosenblatt, CEO, Demand Media; Gina Bianchini, CEO, Ning; Karl Jacob, CEO, Wallop.

Hey everyone, I just created a group on Facebook for FundingUniverse enthusiasts. It’s called FundingUniverse has a Posse. It’s a little bare right now, but I’ll be adding pictures and posts soon.  It’s an open group, so anyone can join.  I’ll see you there!

We’ve been quietly spending the summer working on a private, invite-only social network for angel investors and VCs — think Linkedin with a focus around deals. One of the things that we pride ourselves on (at FundingUniverse) is the quality of our investor network. Every single investor on our site has gone through both an internet and phone interview to prove her legitimacy as an angel. We’ve now taken that one step further by closing off open registration to angels and making it an invite-only private network.

Now, investors that join our network will be able to connect to other like-minded angels from across the country. They’ll be able to see each other’s investment preferences and boast their personal investment portfolio. Collaboration and syndication on deals has never been easier.

One of the hidden gems of the service is the tool we’ve developed for investment groups. Any investor can create his/her own private investment group online — it doesn’t matter if the group consists of 2 friends casually looking at deals or 80 active members of a large angel group — the tools will work for both.

Let me give you a quick example: let’s say that 2 friends and I want to do some casual investing on the side. By the click of the mouse, I can create and name my own group, invite my 2 friends, and start adding interesting deals to our group watch list. Now, anytime 1 of the 3 of us logs in, the 3 of us will all see the deals that are on our group watch list. We can make private comments to each other regarding the deals and even send out a quick email to the group inviting each other to come & “vote” on the deals.

The service adds deal flow, organization, and easy communication to any investment group.

After a few demos, we already have small and large groups of angels adopting the tools. As the quality and quantity of our investor network grows, so will the quality and quantity of quality deals (and vice versa).

I don’t know a group of individuals that are more “relationship-based” than angels and VCs. Their world is all about who you know and they place a lot of emphasis on their network. At every event, many angels are coming to me asking… “who’s that gentleman that….” or “tell me about what investor x has done…” With our new service — that will all come very easy.

(If you are an investor and are interested in an invitation, feel free to contact me personally at bblake at fundinguniverse.com.)

Summers are pretty dang slow in the investment world.  It’s weird that almost everything (including new deal introductions) almost come to a stand still during the summer.  Most angel investment groups don’t meet during the summer and personal meetings are few and far between.  As a result, I was anxious for the fall to come around to see some of the deal flow pick back up.

I think that we are off to a great start for the Fall of 2007 because there are already a handful of exciting companies that we have seen here in Utah.  Tomorrow’s our first SpeedPitching luncheon since June 6th and I’m excited to see how things turn out with the companies that are presenting.  We have a nice mix of companies and industries — including technology, telecom, wholesale retail, energy, and food.

I’m about 15 minutes into a smokin’ podcast address by Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, given at Stanford University earlier this month.

Description of the talk from the website:

“Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation, examines the vital role of entrepreneurship in the changing economy. He emphasizes how entrepreneurs have a positive influence on the American economy by creating ways to reinvent and innovate the rules of life. For example, half of the jobs created in 2007 are from firms less than five years old. Entrepreneurs teach us about human needs we did not know existed, create jobs that provide security for people, and generate social welfare, he says.“

I had the chance to see Carl speak at an ACA event in NYC last year and came away well inspired. I think you’ll get the same vibe from this address.

As many of you may know, Skype left millions of people without a phone last week when their service crashed for 36+ hours. Skype is central to a number of critical processes here at FundingUniverse; so when the outage happened, we felt the crunch.

I absolutely love Skype. Unlimited domestic calls for twenty-something dollars/year is the best deal on planet earth, period. (No disrespect to my all-time fave, Diddy Riese in Westwood, CA.) But the outage was enough to test my fidelity to their service, and their response has been less than spectacular, although not a total failure.

I have heard absolutely zero from Skype until today. Everything I have learned about the outage has come through blogs and other news sources. As a customer, I shouldn’t have to search the internet to find out why one of the most crucial tools I use isn’t working. A simple email would have been great — much better than having to dig through their site to find out what was happening. A company like Skype should have a PR plan in place for this.

Well, today I did finally hear from Skype. Here’s the full text of the email I got:

Hello

You may or may not know but last week Skype wasn’t available for a
couple of days. There were a number of reasons for this and I am
delighted to say that the problem is now well and truly sorted and
everything is back to normal. For those of you who tried to use Skype
during that time but couldn’t, we’re very sorry. For those of you who
didn’t try to use Skype – well thankfully you were not affected but we
want to reassure everyone that Skype is now working happily and the
problem is fixed.

We know we have many faithful users out there who give us feedback
(good and bad) on what we’re doing as a company. The Skype community
makes us what we are. Without you, our users, we simply wouldn’t
exist. We’ve helped people stay in touch with their friends and
family over the past four years without any massive hitch and we want
it to stay that way.

When the unexpected happens, it’s important to remember the people who
stuck behind us and whose loyalty humbled us. I want to thank
everyone for their support, patience and being part of the Skype
community. And for those of you who missed out on using Skype last
week – I want to especially thank you as well.

As a goodwill gesture to all you faithful Skype Pro, Skype Unlimited,
SkypeIn or Skype Voicemail customers, we’re adding an additional seven
days to your current subscription, free of charge. And even if you
didn’t miss out on using Skype last week – you can still have a week
free on Skype, on the house!

So please enjoy it, call your loved ones, friends, family and
colleagues and thanks again.

Talk soon,

The people at Skype

The seven days free is a great move on Skype’s part. Nice work, Skypers.

The email should have been from Niklas, not “The people at Skype”. An apology like this should come from the top.

The email’s “thrown together” grammar gave it a real, sincere tone. I like that.

As noted above, the email should have come much sooner.

What does this have to do with entrepreneurship and start-ups? Well, when you are starting a company, glitches are bound to happen. We can all learn from the good and bad things Skype did to respond to this issue.

We can respond to issues like these quickly and transparently, being as up-front with our customers as possible. We can have a simple PR plan put together when big mistakes are made.

That being said, I’m back to using Skype, and I probably always will use it — a killer app goes a long way toward fostering forgiveness from customers. I just hope this never happens again.

Pitching to investors can be incredibly intimidating. However, if you are well prepared there is little to fear. There are a few things you should remember when preparing to pitch to potential investors.

• Be Flexible: Be prepared to give five, ten, and 15-minute presentations if needed. Note that many investors will interrupt your presentation with questions. This is good. The purpose of your presentation is to help investors feel confident in you and your idea.
• Appearance and Presentation skills: You are selling yourself as much as you are selling your idea. Presenting well and looking professional gives investors the feeling that you will be able to execute your plan.
• Follow-up: This may sound ridiculous, but many entrepreneurs never follow up with investors who expressed interest. If investors say they are interested in your idea, do not wait for them to call you. Always leave a business card with each investor and do the best you can to get cards from each investor.
• Don’t Ramble About the Greatness of Your Product: Investors know you love your product and think it is the greatest idea. Show passion, but focus on how you are going to market it and make money.
• Present Your Best Information: When presenting to an investment group you never know how much time you will have. Present any vital information at the beginning.
• Anticipate Questions: Put yourself in the shoes of the investor. Think of what questions they will ask and prepare answers for them. If you truly don’t know the answer to an investor’s question, be honest and admit that you need to do more research.
• Handouts: Generally, distribute any handouts at the end of your presentation. Otherwise, the investors will read the handout instead of listening to what you say.

A new premier social network for investors, launched by FundingUniverse, will connect like-minded investors in an invite-only online community. The exclusive network will be open only to those investors who have been invited to participate.
Some of benefits of the investor network include:

• Connection to Active Investors across the Country: FundingUniverse is a place to collaborate and connect with other like-minded investors. As a member, investors will be able to see each other’s investment preferences, portfolio companies, and network.
• Dealflow Collaboration & Group Tools: Instead of bulky and expensive group software, any member can create their own online investment group by the click of a button. As a group manager, investors can invite (or delete) as many other investor friends as desired. FundingUniverse can even create a personalized website for deal submission!
• Pre-Screened Dealflow: Instead of hiring a personal assistant, FundingUniverse will find and screen the deals that meet an investor’s preferences.
• Dealflow Organization: The FundingUniverse technology allows for easy organization of all deals. Investors can search by industry, state, funding amount, or by name. All of this information will be securely stored in the investor console.
• Private, Secure Network: All investor contact information is kept secure and private. Because our network is permission-based, no member (or entrepreneur) will see the investor’s personal information unless the investor allows access.
• Personalized Alerts: When a deal meeting an investor’s preference is posted, the plan will be emailed to the investor immediately.

You probably understand how important a business plan is. Obviously, investors are interested in looking at your business plan. However, that is not the only value. Your plan will often guide and direct your overall business goals and objectives.There are a few issues that are  important to include:

• What problem are you trying to solve? Be specific.
• How will your business solve that problem?
• How will you generate revenue?
• Who are your target customers?
• Who are your competitors?

In addition, there are a few key sections you should include in your business plan:

1. Introduction
2. Business Description
3. The Market Opportunity
4. Development and Production
5. Sales & Marketing Section
6. Expenses and Capital Requirements
7. Management Team
8. Financials
9. Appendices