• Steps to Funding
• The Art of Negotiation
• Young CEO’s
• Managing a Small Business
• Internet Marketing
• Valuation
• Term sheets
• and more…

For more information and to register, go to www.gewutah.com.

In addition to the Summit, we’re hosting another LivePitch event for entrepreneurs, service providers, angels, students etc. and this time we’ll be venturing up north to Logan!

Some of you might be asking… what is Social Media?  I’m no social media expert, but I’m referring to the following platforms:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Company Blog
• iPhone & Facebook Applications

“To keep up the current pace of investment and incubation, and capitalize on current low valuations and low operating costs for funding startups, now is a good time to raise an early stage fund,” says Monster. “In 24 months, many of the companies we back today will be ripe for harvest.”

I agree that now is a great time to raise an early-stage venture capital fund.  However, when I say “early-stage,” I’m not saying investments of $3-$5M, I’m saying investments of $750k-$3M.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. It is widely known that there is a funding gap above the traditional angel investment ($300-$750k) and below the traditional VC investment ($3M+).
2. Most of the current VCs can’t play in that space because their investment fund is just too large.  For example, if they have a $100M fund, it wouldn’t make sense to do 100 investments at $1M each because it would just be too hard for them to manage all of those portfolio companies.
3. Most of the current VCs move up the food chain (into the larger investments) bc their management fee (salary amount) is usually getting a management fee of a certain percentage of the fund size.  So, if their fund size is $100M and their mgt. fee is 2%, then they have $2M for salaries, office space, etc.  But, if their fund size is $200M, then they have $4M for salaries, office space, etc!  Make sense?
4. As Rob has mentioned, with the advancements of technology, it doesn’t require as much capital to start and grow a company as it used it.
5. And finally, there are A LOT of very good opportunities in that investment stage.

I realize that there are a few aspects that detract from investing early-stage — one of them being the fact that the deals are, well, early-stage.  That often means that the deals are higher-risk because the company has yet to attract significant traction and/or revenue.  That being said, I think that the market is under-served and the opportunity is large.

Who’s ready to raise an early-stage fund with me? 

A few years back, Paul was the founder of Provo Labs — a technology incubator in Utah County.  While they had a talented team and a lot of good ideas, ultimately the program didn’t turn out the way they were hoping because they were too scattered with an admitted lack of focus.

As a result of that experience, Paul got back on track and focused his attention on his area of expertise:  internet marketing, families, and geneology and started the World Vital Records/FamilyLink property.   Periodically, I’ve been able to get updates from Paul and I can tell that they are just rocking!  The company is growing quickly and he has attracted a lot of attention.

I was especially encouraged when I saw an article last week that had his facebook app We’re Related on the Top 25 Facebook App list as #33.

Congrats, Paul.  Keep up the good work (and don’t forget about FundingUniverse) during the process!

So far, we’ve talked about:

• www.ma.gnolia.com
• icanhascheezburger, the owners of the FAIL blog (and others)
• Search life meets real life — talking about how our “online” identities/world mix with our real-life identities/world
• Meet Generation Y:  16 yr. old Mark Bao (who has already sold 3 facebook apps) is interviewed by Francine Hardaway (60+ yr. old evangelist)
• Using Social Media for Good Causes
• I’ve also conducted a few interviews (for a new hire that we are looking to make here in the NW) during my breaks — and they have gone well too

Good times.  Fun conference.  I love Seattle — gorgeous town (and I can’t wait to bring my wife back in a few weeks).

1. Paul has recently posted an entry called, “A Fundraising Survival Guide.“  Here are a few key highlights:  a)  fundraising is hard — very hard.  b)  It takes investors a long time to make a decision because of the combination between investing a lot of money and the fact that they are often dealing with topics in which they are not experts.  c)  No matter what, you need to keep the company moving forward.  This works best when there are 3 founders — 2 to keep the company going and 1 to focus on fundraising.  d)  Strive to get to “ramen profitable” as soon as possible — which means that you are making just enough money to eat ramen noodles.  That way, you’re not desparate for an investor’s money.  e) Odds are against you.  According to one VC, only 1 out of 800 deals will receive an investment from their firm.  f) Figure out why investors are rejecting you and improve your pitch.  g)  Key factors in an investor’s opinion about you are the opinions of all the other investors about you.  And finally… h) raising money is hard!
2. Y Combinator to Offer Standard Funding Legal Docs: According to Techcrunch, it appears that the Y combinator (in partnership with the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati) will have links to some standard legal docs for an early-stage (first round) of funding.  Believe me, the legal expenses for a small round can really cost the start-up a lot of money and so I think that this is a great idea.

Thanks to Paul & the Y Combinator team for the resources.

Since the story was released, there has been quite the discussion throughout the blogosphere, including the comments of Fred Wilson, a partner in New York’s VC firm Union Square Ventures.  Fred is pretty critical of corporate-backed venture groups… and he makes some good points.  That being said, it doesn’t hurt to have some of that $12.7B back into the hands of entrepreneurs & innovators.

I look forward to see how everything plays out.

Trent

After hearing about the top 5 companies, I think that I could’ve guessed all but the #1 company.  The top 5 were:

1. Agel (www.agel.com):  Agel Enterprises, LLC has created a nutritional supplement in single-serving gel form packaging that is not a burden to consume, is convenient, tastes good, and quickly absorbs into the body.
2. Control4 (www.control4.com):  Control4 is the platform for today’s digital home and makes whole-home automation a practical option for any residence. They believe that home automation is not just for the rich and that fully customizable solutions are not just for luxury homes.
3. SkullCandy (www.skullcandy.com):  Skullcandy was founded in 2003 by CEO Rick Alden.  It is the fastest growing consumer electronics company on earth, specializing in audio & gaming headphones, audio accessories, integrated audio devices & mp3 players.
4. Seastone (www.seastone.com):  Seastone Consumer Products Group is the market leader in specialty gift card packages and gift card promotional programs.
5. Mindshare Technologies (www.mshare.net):  Mindshare’s business monitoring survey tools gather continuous real-time threads of customer feedback that can be immediately transformed into actionable intelligence.

I’m going to be honest, I was a little disappointed to find out that another MLM was at the top of the list. I really would’ve like to see MoveNetworks at the top of yesterday’s list.  From everything that I hear, it sounds like they are the real deal.  They must be, they just raised another $46M that was led by tier 1 VC Benchmark Capital.  It should be fun to see the company grow.

Anyway, congrats to all of the companies that were on the list!

UPDATE:  Because of a few misunderstandings (on the way that my original entry read), I have edited the current entry to better reflect my thoughts on the subject.

• Nathan Kaiser, nPost.com
• Todd Dean, NorthWest Keiretsu Forum
• Tom Ryan, Atlas Recruiting
• Jim Roberts, UW Technology Transfer
• Rebecca Lovell, Alliance of Angels
• Buzz Bruggeman, ActiveWords
• John Kauffman, Stoel Rives

In addition to the event, we are excited to announce that Chris Pirillo, the well-known technologist, will be broadcasting the event live!  For those that want to check things out, go to http://live.pirillo.com at 2 pm PST (3 pm MST) and check things out!

FYI… spent the evening with Chris & his wife, Ponzi.  They are amazing individuals and have built an incredible business together.  I’ll have to write the details of the trip when I get back.  See you tomorrow!

About 6 months ago, we recruited Carolynn to do some of our Venture Consulting (helping entrepreneurs through the fund raising process).  Immediately, she began going above and beyond her role and led efforts to make a complete overhaul of systems, processes, and operations of the Venture Consulting Arm.  Since then, we’ve kept her very busy on several other areas of our company (sales, marketing, geographic expansion, curriculum development, etc.).

Currently, she is leading our geographic expansion and has opened up our Northwest region.  In a short 9 weeks, she’s developed relationships with angel groups, entrepreneurs, universities, networking organizations, business magazines, and VCs in the region.  Let’s just say that the region is on fire right now.

Not only is Carolynn talented, she understands the world of a startup.  She completely understands the fundraising process and has a bootstrapper’s mentality. She’s done a great job adding value to FundingUniverse and the clients that she serves.  We’re stoked to have her on board!