At FundingUniverse we pride ourselves on doing everything we can to help entrepreneurs in any way that we can. This is a rather broad statement, but it’s true. We work with thousands of businesses a month, all around the USA and sometimes beyond, to help them with the variety of needs their ideas and businesses face on the way to financing.

Equity and debt are the two ways to get outside financing, and I dare say we offer more options, and a higher success rate, then any other option available to entrepreneurs today. So far this year, we have helped our entrepreneurs received over $30MM in financing, and we expect that number to grow strongly between now and year-end. In 2010, this number will increase dramatically as we open physical offices in Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boise, Phoenix, Austin, Boulder/Denver, Chicago, Boston, Miami and probably a few more yet to come. The model we have for helping entrepreneurs find the right path to the financing they need is one we spend countless years/hours on. Our team is here everyday thinking of ways to help entrepreneurs be more successful.

One of the great things (and we would humbly submit that there are many) of what we do in regards to our relationships with entrepreneurs is the hosting of events designed to help them get the funding they seek. CrowdPitch is a ‘Shark Tank / American Idol’ style pitch featuring 5 great companies in front of a live audience and a live panel giving real time feedback. The winner of the event (announced at the event) can go home with as much as $5K in prizes. Audience members ask questions, write down feedback, and vote along side the panelists by placing FundingUniverse money in the hands of the presenting companies at the end of all presentations. The winner is the one with the most investment dollars.

Our panel of experts provides real time feedback as well – and in combination with their additional written feedback and the summarized written feedback gathered from our audience, we provide a detailed summary of all thoughts to our 5 companies within 48 hours of the event. Our presenting companies get tremendous value from the panel, the audience and the practice. Some would say the experience has been “invaluable”. In fact, we will agree.

Along those lines, and in partnership with our friends at TechStars David Cohen and Brad Feld, the fee for the 5 companies selected to be at CrowdPitch will now be $0. That’s right, zero. Nothing. Nada.

We want to help lead the charge that Brad and David have started and really live up to our mission of helping entrepreneurs. This is one way we know that we can. We will still charge a fair fee for other services that many find valuable (business plan writing, coaching, financing help, etc.), but we will not charge our entrepreneurs to present at CrowdPitch. We hope this is something that will bring us even more talented entrepreneurs to help and evaluate.

Spread the word, CrowdPitch is coming to a city near you! Let us help you and your business get the funding you need – equity or debt. If you aren’t selected to pitch, come watch. It’s free as well! And did we mention free food and drinks too? It’s become a free-for-all it appears. Again, we look forward to seeing all of you at our upcoming events. In the meantime, we again thank Brad and Dave for leading the charge here and we hope others will follow.

It was recently announced that Kai-Fu Lee, President of Google China, would be leaving this position to seek other opportunities.  Lee left Microsoft in 2005 and joined Google in an effort to increase its reach and overall popularity against popular Chinese competitor Baidu.

The biggest opportunity Lee is working on is setting up an investment fund called Innovation Works, which will invest in Chinese start-ups.  The goal of Innovation Works is to give entrepreneurs financial and other necessary support so that they can concentrate on developing cutting-edge technologies and services.  Lee says that his goal is to get companies up and running quickly so that within 9-12 months they can attract later stage investments.

Photo Courtesy NY Times

My Obsessions
Is it Enough?

The big dirty secret. Clearly, no one wants to talk about this. When we do a sales forecast, no matter how confident we are, we’re usually sensitive enough to our audience to make the picture look pretty reasonable. That also includes the supposedly brilliant fed finance guys who keep mis-forecasting the ongoing U.S economic bailout. However, if we were living in a totally transparent world, guys that do these forecasts (the feds) would pay more attention to whether we have allocated Enough money and get it right the first time. Problem is, investors or in this case, the public, would never agree with it. So forecasters are forced to make their case incrementally, over time, which makes the situation get progressively worse.

This is different from the normal world, where if you have a willing investor, you should make sure to get enough money the first time, since you may not get another trip to the buffet line.

P.S. Newsflash… I just heard I am going to get a billion dollar bailout. Hooray! I didn’t want it, but the government said I had to take it, to help insure the public wouldn’t worry. (Now see how silly that sounds!)

Advice to Entrepreneurs
Accordion to me…This week’s advice to entrepreneurs

Surviving in 2009. Whatever you do, you must last to survive. No matter what your company does, make ‘lasting’ your New Year’s Resolution. Chances are, this year you’ll have less money to achieve your goals than you originally planned. Right now, put pen to paper to figure out HOW you can last. Change your focus from achieving greatness to… surviving long enough to have sufficient opportunity to evolve your plan, so you can ultimately achieve greatness. Confusing? It is for me, and I wrote it.

Another dirty secret. Wherever I go, people are still asking what’s changed with the recent big shift in the economy. Two big phenomena occur to me. First, those investors who still have lots of cash, are now looking for deals at 30% of what they were six months ago. A necessary part of that reduction is to cover the possibility that the economy may continue to take a further dive. Second, with things being so radically impaired, those less well-blessed investors are looking at previous deals with a new goal of return OF investment, not return ON investment. (I’m hoping you understood this the first time you read it.)

As compared to what? Get ready for that question. Your market is big, compared to what? Your product is better, compared to what? Your team has more experience? Now…you get it.

Other ideas to help keep you tense….Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. And, when you ask a question, you better know the answer.

Got an idea or something you need help on? Email me at rick@hotventures.com

The Economy & News Angles

My contribution to GM, Ford and Chrysler

Every now and then, something occurs to me that I believe has been swept under the rug. In the past few weeks, we’ve all heard plenty of shouting and screaming about best how to save the Big 3 Auto Makers. However, I’ve not heard anyone talk about saving particular Car Models. For example, who ever picks a movie based on which Studio made it? (Like, hey man, there’s this great MGM flick coming out this weekend.) That’s my point! Why doesn’t GM just make the cars (the models) that people like? Why do we hear all this talk about which Divisions that GM wants to keep? If I was running GM, we’d keep the Corvette, Camaro, Cadillac, Solstice (Pontiac) and some GM Trucks. If it was Ford, it’d be Mustang (of course), Lincoln and for some diehards, the Explorer. And hey Big 3… no more making the same car under four different brands. Most of us figured out that trick about twenty years ago. Duh.

My Obsessions

Gas-price WATCH

Back to the Future is here again. Today, we saw a Costco here in Tucson selling regular gas at $1.57. Wow, if it goes below a buck, we’re thinking of picking up one of those big Hummers we see abandoned on the side of the road!

My Travels

Entrepreneurs Conference in Sedona, Arizona

Last Thursday, along with four other investors, I was on a panel that reviewed about thirty entrepreneurs pitching their companies to us. There were plenty of good ideas, but most of all, I’ve not seen such a motivated and energetic group of start-ups. There seemed to be no slowdown in these companies. And, right after their presentations, they got in long lines to confront us investors, and some waited half an hour for just a few minutes of face-time with us.

Advice to Entrepreneurs

Accordion to me…This week’s advice to entrepreneurs

At some point, I’ll give you my full list of the Do’s and Don’ts for raising funds for your company. For now, please take these three quick Don’ts to get you through the holidays. Please… 1) Don’t tell investors you expect to get your exit via an IPO. I wouldn’t bet on being one of seven IPO’s that’ll happen in 2009, and who knows whether it’ll be any different in 2010 and 2011? 2) Don’t describe some big deal you have in the works, and then tell investors you can’t tell them who the customer is, and 3) Don’t put a large budget item amount for marketing in your forecast and not take the time to figure out what you’re actually going to do with it, and how you can prove it’ll actually work. Got an idea or something you need help on? Email me at rick@hotventures.com

The Economy & News Angles

$700 billion rounding error?

You’d have to be a desert island not to hear about the current financial bailouts. No matter whether you’re for or against em, the numbers are astounding. Word on the street is that the original $700 billion number was not derived from what was needed, but instead by a calculation on what wouldn’t upset the apple cart. In other words, what could be absorbed, sort of like a rounding error? Ummm…$700 billion, that’s it! Sure, who could blame us for spending 5-7% of our GNP? Well we’re not alone, most other big nations have recently followed suit. China $586 billion (16% of their GNP), Japan $68 billion (1%), S. Korea $80 billion (9%), Russia $209 billion (12%), Britain $450 billion (21%), Germany $151 billion (7%), Spain $111 billion (8%) and Switzerland $66 billion (15%). And this just in… the U.S. is up to $850 billion, plus another $300 billion more for mortgage guarantees (about 6% of our GDP). I just hope it’s going to be enough. [Numbers from Businessweek, December 1, 2008]

When should we start paying President Obama?

Watching CNN or Fox News, you can’t help but see that President-elect Barack Obama is already working ‘round the clock, and he’s not even been sworn in yet. Makes you hope he’s getting some kind of salary for being President-elect. Wouldn’t it be weird if he’s doing all this without pay for the next two months? What kind of welcome would that be? I am sure we are paying for secret service and T&E for all those big meetings, so why not pay the Prez salary upon election, and not simply stand on ceremony?

My Obsessions

Gas-price WATCH

Since gas prices represent the clearest icon of our ‘emotional economy’ we need a reminder how large the swings have been. Since 2007, the price of crude oil per barrel rose from the $50’s and $60’s up to $145 on this July 4, 2008. This month, on November 21, it was $49.93 and on November 29 it was $54.43. Wheeee!

While the lowest I’ve seen recently is $1.83, I decided to check out http://www.gasbuddy.com/ I found there I could buy gas in Tucson for $1.73! Remember, it was $4.00 in July 2008 (regular gas in today’s dollars)? Don’t forget it was up to $3.32 in March 1981, during the Iraq-Iran war. [Prices per zFacts.com]

Advice to Entrepreneurs

Accordion to me…This week’s advice to entrepreneurs

What do angel investors look for? Ideally: A really big market with a big problem, your big solution, your big capabilities, and all it needs is money. Problem is it’s really hard to prove, and contrary to what you may think, even wealthy people don’t want to lose money. Here are two tips on finding your first investors. First, look to people who will give you the benefit-of-the-doubt. These are people who already like you, your friends and family, and already know how great you are, and very much want to help you succeed. Second, while I’m active with several angel groups, including Desert Angels and Northern Arizona Angels, I urge you to spend just as much time looking for specific investors who are likely to find instant ‘relevancy’ with what you’re doing. Like, if you’re working on cure for Alzheimer’s, try talking to local neurologists. No doubt, they’ll be a tough audience, but if you’re on the right track, they’ll know it. Better to find out now. Got an idea or something you need help on? Email me at rick@hotventures.com

First, talk about the Economy….Let’s call it a ‘fortune of reversals’

First it was housing, banking, and insurance. Now, retail and automotive. Not a good time to have big stores, big shelves and lots of goods from manufacturers who want to get paid. With the credit crunch, big ticket item sales are near impossible, everyone clobbered but the category leaders… i.e. Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things have been slammed. If smart, Walmart, Target and Costco will find ways to get by. Next, it’s clogging auto dealers who sit with big inventories. No one’s buying a car that doesn’t need one right away. I hear 2009 autos are sitting in the ports waiting for 2008 autos on the lots to clear out. Not going to happen this year. And it’s no solution to throw money at them, the big-3 need to change big-time. They need some kind of structured re-organization. If we as citizens must invest in them to keep the entire Midwest economy from crashing, the big-3 must find a way to make better cars, have fewer dealers, and dump their legacy obligations. Sorry, I think big unions (more mouths to feed), big stores and big inventories should be jettisoned. And I say, down with expensive marketing plans, good products should sell themselves!

My travels

This week, I hit Flagstaff (think Grand Canyon) and Tempe (mainstreet for ASU). First, we dedicated the new Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies and AZ Governor Janet Napolitano cut the ribbon of this new 10,000 square foot incubator, which by the way, is already filled with ten awesome technology companies (more about these companies next time). Later that day, the new Northern Arizona Angels group met at the ultra beautiful Pine Canyon Golf Club. Investor presentations were made by Protein Genomics (they make skin), Norchem Drug Testing (like they say, drug testing), Density Investments (new age green building), Ambature (super conductor material) and Visible Energy (making sense of energy).

Spressions

“Be careful what you wish for”… remember when we longed to get rid of our biggest problems: high gas prices and the Iraq war? Don’t you wish we were back there now?

Accordion to me…This week’s advice to entrepreneurs

Looking to fund your company? Wherever you are, there are probably angel investor groups in your region. While November and December may be shot, if you have a killer company, you should apply to the angel group(s) in your area and then, others nearby too. [ look at their directory at http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/ ] Get some professional advice, know your domain, make sure your company can exploit its unfair competitive advantage, and know your true valuation boundaries. Concentrate on proving the details on how your sales will be brought in. Very few companies know enough how they will get their sales. And…don’t talk about fast exits or IPO’s. Of course you are open to the right liquidity event, but right now, no one knows when, how and where. Ah, but you must be ready and wise. Got an idea or something you need help on? rick@hotventures.com

Hey everyone, here’s the maiden launch of my blog for FundingUniverse. This is my chance to rant and rave on the subject of Angel Investing: Trends, Deals, Happenings, Phenomena and Kooky Stories.

Where am I coming from?
You can check out my Web site at but please allow me to get this background stuff out of the way. I’ve put in 34 years of hard labor in start-ups, turnarounds and fast-growth technology companies. I work mostly with IT and BioSciences companies, investing in them, helping them find money and sometimes as a board member or advisor. I’m on the board of several angel groups, technology incubators and have advised almost 100 companies, and have co-founded several successful tech companies, and I am most proud of Knowledge Adventure, which we sold for $100 million in 1996. Soon after I was an early shareholder in Bill Gross’ Idealab, which quickly became the most famous tech incubator in the world, and recently has morphed into one of the most notable tech operating companies in the U.S. Idealab created Overture.com and sold it to Yahoo for $1.6 billion, and now runs a few dozen companies, among them the hottest solar company, eSolar, new automotive company, Aptera Motors, and robotics company, Evolution Robotics.

What me worry?
Okay, I won’t dodge the question. Worried? Well, just a little. How’s this economic disruption affecting angel investing and entrepreneurial companies? Well things are going to be more difficult… plenty. Right away, any borderline investor deals are probably going to get killed, and the deals that do get done will be at terms a lot more investor favorable. However, for those companies that have an oh-my-gosh, true competitive advantage in a large market that’s screaming for a solution, don’t worry, you’re still good. While many angels have pulled back or are waiting, there still are investors who need to keep their capital employed. I mean, even if billions of dollars of capital has been withdrawn, there still are tens of billions remaining that must be employed, right? In any event, I suggest you make plans to keep yourself busy now though mid-January, cause once we hit Thanksgiving, deal closings will be few and far between.

I like “Recession-Resistant”
There is no recession-proof. But no matter whether you’re entrepreneuring or investing, make sure your company does something truly important. No…wait, you better make sure it provides something that’s absolutely essential to the buying public. If it isn’t, go find a way. The next year or two may not be your best years, but they can be years that you survive and build. I call that recession-resistant, but you may want to look for satisfaction in simply getting by.

Question: What’s a word for high gas prices and the war in Iraq? Answer: Nostalgia
What I’m saying is if you look back six months, it looked like high gas prices and the war in Iraq were making our lives unbearable. Now… I betcha you wish those were still our big problems!