Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

News just broke that Omniture just agreed to a deal to purchase their largest competitor Visual Sciences for $394 million.

Congrats to Josh, John, and the rest of the Omniture team (including my bro!). 

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we (at FundingUniverse) have a unique perspective in the Utah entrepreneurial community because we often get to see the upcoming deals before they are really known to the public.  For instance, Zinch is one those companies that is now getting a lot of attention (both here in Utah and elsewhere) and we started to work with them back in January of this year.

As I have thought about that, I have decided that I’m probably doing a disservice to the upcoming companies and the Utah entrepreneurial community by not blogging about those deals that are exciting.  So, here goes the first post (of many) highlighting some of the exciting companies that we’ve seen at FundingUniverse.  Here are a couple that are on the top of my mind:

1. Zinch:  Led by 4 young entrepreneurs — Mick Hagen, Sid Krommenhoek, Brad Hagen, and Ryan Caldwell — this company is growing quickly by allowing high school students build their own college admissions recruiting profile.  They say it best… “I am more than a test score.”  Zinch pitched at one of our SpeedPitching events and has successfully raised a seed round of capital.
2. InfoSquire:  InfoSquire is a data “mashup” company that provides a fantastic service for any company that wants to gather information (RSS feeds, website info, internal info, spreadsheets, etc.) and serve it to the consumer in a very useful manner.  We started working with Chris Crabtree and Brett Haskins a few months ago and they are well on their way to success.  They pitched at our SpeedPitching event and we’ve introduced them to Highway 12 Ventures, Brad Feld, Utah Angels, Olympus Angels, and Wasatch Ventures.  They have also garnered interest from vSpring & Flywheel Ventures.  Anxious to see what happens over the next few months.
3. GivePlay:  GivePlay also came to one of our SpeedPitching events.  I believe that they are trying to be somewhat “stealth” with their operations… so I won’t go into much detail about what they do.  Let’s just say that they are entering a huge market (independent gamers) and are building an amazing technology.  They have received strong investor interest also and I believe that they are close to a term sheet (if they haven’t got one yet).
4. There is another company that has already received a term sheet lately too, but I know that they want to stay completely stealth.  I’ll keep you posted as they come out of stealth mode.

These 4 companies are those that are on the top of my mind… there are a lot of other exciting companies too, so I’ll try to write about them more regularly.

Small Disclaimer:  I don’t want people to think that we (FundingUniverse or me) are taking credit for the success of these companies… we’re just happy to play a small part in their fundraising efforts and I thought that I would give them some deserved “props”. 

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It cracks me up to read some of the blogs (both here locally and nationally) that try so hard to be controversial.  Most of these bloggers are so interested in getting readers, pageviews, and comments that they’ll make ridiculous entries/statements that will stir the pot in the community.

This type of blogger will look for anything and everything to criticize because they know that it will attract readers to their blog.  I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be critical in your blog.  In fact, I should probably be a little more candid in my entries, but I guess that my motivations for blogging are different from their motivations.  What I’m saying is that it gets a little old to read a blog that is always cynical and tries so hard to be controversial.

I’m 100% positive that a lot of those same people believe that my blog is boring.  I hardly write about controversial topics.  In fact, I love to write about good news, learning experiences, and topics on entrepreneurship.

This entry brings up a good question — why do you write/read blog entries?

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My wife and I went to the friends and family “grand opening” of the new refreshing and healthy frozen yogurt store name Spoon Me. The store was started by 2 very good friends from my hometown.

The yogurt is different from any other frozen dessert because it is a “healthy” frozen yogurt. The serving boasts only 80 calories per serving and is very light compared to traditional ice cream. I added fresh raspberries and peaches as toppings — and I was very impressed!

It’s amazing how quickly the “Spoon Me” word has spread. This is the first franchise to open, but they have already generated a TON of interest from others that would like to get in as franchise owners. It will be fun to see what comes of it.

This brings up an interesting topic for conversation. Traditionally, professional investors prefer not to invest in restaurants because they don’t scale enough to produce the type of returns that investors are looking for. One way to solve that problem is to create a franchise model and try to scale it quickly.

Anyway, if you are in Salt Lake City, you’ll definitely need to go check it out!

UPDATE: Pictures Below…

Here is “Mr. Spoon Me” himself dishing up their new healthy frozen yogurt.

The Evolution of the Spoon.

I had to make this picture a little bit bigger so that you could see some of the sayings that they have written in their bathrooms.  Quite catchy.

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By recommendation of Brad Feld, I installed the Lijit search tool onto my blog.  I enjoy the tool because it give me an idea of what my readers are interested in learning about.  Over the past few weeks, the #1 phrase that people are looking for has been Term Sheets.

Before I dedicate any time towards the topic, I wanted to know if there was anything in particular that you would like to know?

Here are a few resources to get your started:

• Brad & friends (AskTheVC) post a great series on term sheets here
• There is more here
• We have some great podcasts & webinars on the topic on FundingUniverse.com

(Wow… I just realized that I gave Brad a lot of link love.  What can I say… the guy’s a stud.)

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As I was just sitting here reading the latest entries on my blog reader, I realized that I am Teck Geek.  Not as big as a tech geek as some people out there, but a Tech Geek nonetheless.  Here are a few things that I do (that you might do also) that make me a tech geek:

1.  I joined Twitter
2. I stay up on the newest and latest technology companies via TechCrunch, ValleyWay, VentureBeat, etc. (especially lately)
3. I have a BlackBerry (read “my email comes to my phone and sometimes lures me into addiction”)
4. I actually send “tweets” on twitter so that my friends, family, and other “peeps” know what I’m up to (like anyone really cares)
5. I blog … and I read blogs

I’m sure that the majority of people that read this blog are saying… “those things make you a tech geek?”  If you are thinking that in your head, you are probably a tech geek yourself.

Let’s be honest, most people in this world do not read blogs.  Most people have never even heard of Twitter.  And most people could care less about the latest and greatest technology.

What other things do you do (that I probably do too) that would make us tech geeks?

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