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.

Social networks are definitely not just for individuals. You can connect to our company through a variety of mediums to get networking opportunities, fundraising advice and the inside scoop on the going-ons at FundingUniverse.com.

You may have already noticed the social network icons on the top, right-hand side of our blog. If you’re a member of Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, we’d love to connect! Access is open to all. Follow the icons on the top-right or keep reading for more info.

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FundingUniversecom/36103342879?ref=ts

Network with other entrepreneurs on Facebook and stay tuned for upcoming event notices. FundingUniverse regularly holds online pitching events and in-person events you don’t want to miss out on.

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=140071

Discuss business ideas, fundraising methodology and connect with FundingUniverse staff and potential partners.

Twitter
http://twitter.com/fundingtips

The FundingUniverse team delivers baked-fresh-daily fundraising advice over the Twitter network in bite-sized portions of 140 characters or less.

Name: Matt Pernichele

Title: Venture Consultant

Matt Pernichele brings a wealth of personal entrepreneurial experience to the FundingUniverse consulting department. He helps clients prepare for and approach investors for capital and works to refine many different aspects of their businesses in the very important foundational stages (pre-funding)

Matt is our longest-employed consultant and is usually talked about in glowing terms by the entrepreneurs he consults with.

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What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in business? I was given a “management” position and equity share equal to that of the founders in a software startup. I agreed because I really liked the product and the market. With each principal having an equal share and no other arrangements, no one was in charge and no one was accountable. Ever. I recognized this from day one but stuck with it for two years while the company spun its wheels in the hope that I could get my partners to impose some organization on the business or that it would, magically, succeed without it. Needless to say, it did not.

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? After the above example, I was told by a friend about the idea of “fast fail” that is, when you enter an endeavor make sure you will be able to tell pretty quickly if it will be a failure or a success so you don’t waste too much time on it.

Where did you work before FundingUniverse? Most recently I was doing some accounting work for Consonus.

What drew you to FundingUniverse? I found the idea of working with startup entrepreneurs exciting. It’s a great job where I learn useful new things every day and meet a lot of committed, creative people.

How will you help FundingUniverse grow? Hopefully by getting people in a position where their plans can get funded and by directing investors to real, quality deals I will help FundingUniverse become the place where good deals can get good exposure.

What’s your favorite things about FundingUniverse? Learning about my clients businesses.

What do you do when you’re not working?
Hike and take care of my high maintenance children.

How has FundingUniverse helped you grow professionally? Working at FundingUniverse has exposed me to a lot of different business models and personalities that I would not have otherwise encountered. I have also learned a great deal about my clients industries; from aircraft manufacture to SaaS to men’s hair care products.

The tables could barely hold the number of investors that attended our Speed Pitch event on November 4th in Salt Lake City. Traditionally we have 10 tables with about 2-3 investors per table, but at this event we had at least four per table and some had more than that.  We truely had investors spilling into the aisles!

The flood of investors attending was telling for two reasons.  1.  We are in a downturn economy which typically means that investors are more tight fisted with their resources.  To have so many of them at our event was intriguing and 2.  The strength of investor turnout is a tribute to FundingUniverse and their ability to bring quality and certified companies to the table.  It takes a Hurclean effort to put these events together but the results for both the Investor and the Entreprenuer are immeasurable.

I am excited to report that EVERY company that pitched was offered invitations for follow up meetings, were given referrals to other investors or in most cases were given both.  Shortly after the event, we asked all entreprenuers to share some of their thoughts on the event.  Here are just a few of the we received.

Fantastic!  Great experience, great opportunity.
- Jason Izatt, CEO, Izatt International

Do what you can to get into this event.
- Shane Willard, CampusBook

Pony up the [dough] and attend.
- Alan Martin, CEO, CampusBook

It really helps to hone the pitch.
- C. Lunceford, Miralinx

Must do. If not for the money then for the experience
- Cary Snowden, CEO, ListPipe

Our next speed pitching event will be on December 12th and we are excited to end this incredible year on a high note.  If you are interested in learning more about how your company can present at one of our events or if you are an investor looking for qualified, certified deals contact one of our representatives at 877-638-3616 option 1 to learn how you can attend our next event.

Joel Nielsen is a Venture Consultant at FundingUniverse.  He can be reached at jnielsen@fundinguniverse.com

Name: Frank Poulsen

Title: Venture Consulting Manager, Investor Liason, Distance employee and king of diatribe.

Frank’s the grand poobah over the venture consulting arm of FundingUniverse. He makes sure our consulting is producing results for clients. He’s also the guy responsible for maintaining good relations with our investor network by catering to their every whim.

Frank currently lives in Idaho and works remotely. When we’re lucky, he occasionally graces the FundingUniverse headquarters in Utah with his presence.

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What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in business? I think the biggest mistake was taking the second job that I did, no offense to anyone in the car industry, but I have never worked in such a crooked and upside down business in my life. Thank goodness I got out of that.

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? “He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool, shun him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a wise man, follow him”

Where did you work before FundingUniverse? I worked as a business analyst with an auto group in Southeast Idaho, previous to that I worked with a joint venture between a Venture Capital firm and a regional entrepreneurial center as an analyst and consultant.

What drew you to FundingUniverse? The excitement of working in the Private Equity industry, i have always been fascinated by it.

How will you help FundingUniverse grow? By ensuring quality consulting and new approaches to our work, this will help to increase our sell-ability as the word get’s out that we are truly the best in the industry.

What’s your favorite things about FundingUniverse? Of course the people. We have a great team of young accomplished professionals that work hard and play hard.

What has been the funniest moment at FundingUniverse? Well I would have to say that Michael Jones is a terminally funny moment, get to know him, you will see.

What has been the weirdest moment at FundingUniverse? I don’t think we should talk about that publicly.

Name: Brian Nielsen

Title: Funding Consultant

Brian points our clients in the right direction for funding. Out of the numerous options available, he consults and recommends the best financing/consulting/credit building/equity capital source based on the individual needs of the client.

If you ever see his face on a celebrity’s body, don’t be alarmed, you’ve just become privy to his amazing Photoshop talents.

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What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration. (Thomas Edison)

Where did you work before FundingUniverse? I worked with a company called XanGo as the sole representative of their Korean language department. XanGo was featured right along-side FundingUniverse in Utah Valley BusinessQ Magazine’s ‘Top 40 Under 40′ and was also named a ‘Best Company to Work For’ by Business Q. (Spoiler-alert: I like working for FundingUniverse more)

What drew you to FundingUniverse? I have always had a passion to learn everything there is to know about entrepreneurship. One day, as I was searching through my BYU’s business school’s alumni job postings, I came across the FundingUniverse sales consultant position. I had to do a little background research but soon came to find that this was precisely what I was looking for.

How will you help FundingUniverse grow? I like to think that my personality is such that those clients who speak with me will want to tell their friends and business acquaintances how professional and helpful Funding Universe is. I want them to have such a good experience that they will want to see us grow too, and therefore help in the process.

What’s your favorite things about FundingUniverse? The team, of course. Everyone that works here is very energetic and fun. Another thing I’ve come to love is our recently organized business learning library. We have several people in the office who have temporarily donated their books to start a library from which we can borrow books to continually add to our knowledge of entrepreneurship and investing. It’s being put to good use.

What has been the funniest moment at FundingUniverse? One day, Trent came out to ask everyone to step into his office; he even threatened to fire about three people if they didn’t come in. After entering the office, he then proceeded to show us a video clip of the comedian Jim Gaffigan talking about bacon. My condolences to anyone that got fired for not watching that video. After showing the clip, he described how our consulting packages should include, not only one-on-one professional consulting, but also a five pound bag of Costco bacon. Here’s a link to the video he showed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxwCy69_YcQ. [Brian later noted that this video prepared for a company meeting should be included as "funniest moment": http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/XQ7LYJO17cmSVLEu featured are CEO Brock Blake, CTO Trent Miskin and Utah Regional Director Rob Sanders]

What has been the weirdest moment at FundingUniverse? A couple weeks ago, I emailed a particular client to confirm an appointment time; I received a response a few hours later. Well… I think this gentleman mistakenly sent his “funny” business spam-mail to the wrong person because what I received was, well…I won’t go into detail. Note that this is my “wierdest” moment and not my “funniest” moment at FundingUniverse.

What do you do when you’re not in the office? I have several hobbies. Right now, I am taking a web development class so I can make web pages–just for fun. I also took several aviation classes in the past and would like to get back into that to finally get my private pilot’s license. Also, I am taking bagpipe lessons every Wednesday night (pretty unique, eh?). Other hobbies of mine include snowboarding in the winters and longboarding in the summers.

Name: Zach Mangum

Title: Senior Funding Consultant

Zach is one of two senior consultants in charge of fitting clients with fundraising solutions that meet their needs. He leads a team of consultants who contact and qualify entrepreneurs who apply for funding.

Zach’s usually the first guy in the office even if he’s been up all night taking care of his infant first-born.

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What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in business? I don’t know what the biggest one was, but a week or two ago I sent a confidential email to a few colleagues here at FundingUniverse and accidentally sent a copy to a client as well. The content in the email was enough to embarrass me more than I’d like to admit!

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? “do or do not, there is no try” – Yoda; “do more than is required”

Where did you work before FundingUniverse? Sage Communities – Finance Intern

What drew you to FundingUniverse? (1) I wanted experience with a startup, (2) I wanted to learn about entrepreneurship and how to effectively start a successful business, (3) I wanted experience in the world of angel investing/VC/entrepreneurship, (4) FundingUniverse had everything I was looking for as well as a great name both locally and nationally.

How will you help FundingUniverse grow? By constantly evaluating and improving our screening process to help us bring on as many entrepreneurs as possible and assist them in getting prepared to raise investment capital.

What’s your favorite things about FundingUniverse? (1) my co-workers, (2) the industry, (3) seeing businesses get funded, (4) Michael Jones

What has been the funniest moment at FundingUniverse? Watching Michael and Kendall play ping pong.

What has been the weirdest moment at FundingUniverse? Seeing broken ping pong paddles every week.

 Last week Funding Universe hosted a “Live” Pitch event on the Novell campus in Provo, Utah.  Five companies were selected to present their products and services to a panel of six investors and business experts.  Approximately 150 spectators attended the two hour event.

Live Pitch was born from another Funding Universe event called “Speed” Pitching.  ”Speed” Pitching is similar to speed dating.  In speed pitching, ten screened businesses meet in a room filled with 30-50 investors.  The goal for business owners is to pique the interest of Angel and Venture Capitalist for future funding.  For the Entrepreneur they get the undivided attention of 30-50 investors and the investors benefit because they can be introduced to 10 vetted businesses through Funding Universe in less than two hours.

Businesses are allowed four uninterupted minutes to present their venture.  They then have three minutes to answer questions and bing bam boom they are done.  Four minutes is not a lot of time to explain an entire business, so the pitches have to be precise, thorough and engaging.  Many businesses who have participated in our “Speed” Pitch event have asked Funding Universe if they could watch a Speed Pitch before participating in one.  Alas, “Live” Pitch was born.

Last week the five qualifying businesses screened to present were 

ListPipe, a new SEO company focused on providing custom content through an online subscription service.

Izatt International, a local development group focusing on iPhone applications.

Gruvie, a social utility that enables you to wrangle all your social networking accounts into a single login.

Lignin Bio Fuels, an alternative fuel company that produces transportation fuel out of non-edible biomass.

Estamar Strategy, a consulting group managing business investment opportunities

After presenting, the audience was allowed to invest $200 in “FU Funny Money” into any of the five companies.  The audience in conjunction with the six panalists produced the top two companies.  The two “Live” Pitch winners were Ian Ellis of Gruvie and Cary Snowden of ListPipe.  (In a bit of unbiased reporting, I would like to point out that I only had one client in the competition and he won)

Our next Speed Pitch event will be on October 24th at the Larry H Miller Campus in Sandy, Utah.  We invite you to come out and see how Funding Universe facilitates the interface of Small Businesses with Angels and VC’s.  

Joel Nielsen is a Venture Consultant at Funding Universe and can be contacted at jnielsen@fundinguniverse.com

Name: Joel Nielsen

Title: Venture Consultant

Joel consults with FundingUniverse’s entrepreneur clients and helps them plan and execute a fundraising strategy. He has assisted clients all over the country in diverse markets and industries.

Strong business acumen + personable disposition + mad ping pong skills = Joel.

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What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in business?
I have a type A personality which means that I have a tendency to micro manage projects and people.  That all came to an end when I started graduate school.  In that environment it was physically and mentally impossible to control everything that needed to be completed in the time allotted.  Suddenly I had to depend on others to do their fair share and that required a lot of trust from me.  However, the experience was fantastic and through the process I learned that most people have amazing abilities if we give them the power and confidence to complete them.  As I get older, I have found that I have become more of a cheerleader and less a dictator and it has made all the difference

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
1. Trust but verify.  -Ronald Regan
2. Get it in writing.  -Every Lawyer I have ever met.

Where did you work before FundingUniverse?
I am the CEO of Patriot Corporate Enterprises LLC.  Before that I owned a finance firm in Salt Lake City for 15 years.

What drew you to FundingUniverse?
I was immediately impressed with CEO Brock Blake and my boss Frank Poulsen.  Both men are extremely smart, very innovative and trust me to do my thing.  Beyond them are fantastic sales agents, awesome IT talents and an environment where it is fun to come to work every morning.

How will you help FundingUniverse grow?
I believe that a good leader is a better follower so right now my job is to take my cues from Brock and Frank and be prepared to do anything that they ask of me.  In addition to that I am designing some programs that could drive some incredible revenue streams.

What’s your favorite things about FundingUniverse?
The incredible people who work here.  I also have a passion for small business and seriously enjoy watching them grow.  Everyday I wake up and get to help build other peoples dreams.

What has been the funniest moment at FundingUniverse?
There is a ping pong table at the office that gets a lot of use during the day.  Several ping pong balls have been destroyed since I’ve been here.  Someone finally went out and bought a whole bucket of them.  Who knew it could be such a stress reliever to pound a ping pong ball into your opponents face?

What has been the weirdest moment at FundingUniverse?
When I found my brand new $5.53 ping pong paddle destroyed.  I was crushed because it was the last one that Walmart had I was doing really well with it.  I have been on a losing streak ever since and I can’t help but wonder if it was a company conspiracy to destroy it.

Do you have a website or blog?
OK my PERSONAL blog is witandbanter.blogspot.com However, you should know that it is quite flippant as I try to extract the humor out of everyday things that happen to me.  In addition you will see that there are some tongue-in-cheek posts.

. . . so suggests Richard Branson, billionaire entrepreneur behind the Virgin brand of companies including the newest FundingUniverse partner, Virgin Money. No hypocrite, Richard practiced what he preaches in the early days of Virgin Records when he took a loan from his Aunt Joyce to keep the then struggling business alive. Virgin Money helps other entrepreneurs do what Richard did by managing and formalizing loans between individuals—typically people who are already closely affiliated like family members or friends.

This isn’t an uncommon practice. Friends, family and fools (FFF) financing, as it’s typically referred to, constitutes the majority of early-stage investments in the United States according to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report.

FFF is arguably the most flexible and easiest to qualify for type of financing because the terms are very negotiable and the qualification process is personal. And now, with Virgin Money, someone else can handle the awkwardness of collecting payments and the loan can even be recorded on the borrower’s business credit.

Here’s an itemized list of benefits:

• A legally-binding promissory note
• Repayment by electronic funds transfer
• Email statements for both borrower and lender
• Online accounts for both
• Year-end reports for both
• Private loan specialist to help keep your loan convenient and hassle-free
• Optional security agreement and UCC filing*
• Optional credit reporting to Dunn & Bradstreet at no additional charge

Our partnership with Virgin Money means you just need to find someone willing to loan you the money and we can help with the rest. Talk to the “Aunt Joyce”’s in your social circle then give us a call.

For more information, call 877.638.3616 option 1 or click here.