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AngelCube Is The New Y Combinator For Melbourne-based Start-ups

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:45:39 +0000

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Birt’s AngelCube will begin to accept applications for Melbourne-based start-ups to become the first group of participants for his latest venture AngelCube from 29th July.

AngelCube is looking to back a handful of exceptional Melbourne based web entrepreneurs and help them get to the next level with funding, mentorship, marketing and pathways.

Initially, AngelCube will have about $200,000 to invest in four to five online ventures. It’s believed the group’s first project is Cub.io, which lets users win prizes among their friends.

Successful applicants will be given an average of $25,000 and free office space in StartUP Marketing’s Melbourne office. They will also undertake a three-month mentorship program.

Birt, who founded marketing agency StartUP Marketing in 2009, is also the founder of start-up job board Snowballer and co-founder of small cap investment firm Catvielle Capital.He’s now focused on the early stage investment market, as the lead investor and chief executive of AngelCube.

In addition to Birt, the AngelCube team consists of co-founder Adrian Stone and Nathan Sampimon, founder of web development firm Inspire9.

Eversave (Daily Deals Site Aimed At Women) Acquired For $30 Million In Cash

Thomas Oppong — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:12:52 +0000

Prospectiv Direct, which operates a daily deals site aimed at women and families called Eversave, has been acquired for $30 million. Prospectiv is an online performance marketing company with an expertise in connecting women to brands.

The transaction, which provides for an initial purchase price payment of $30 million, is subject to customary purchase price adjustments at closing and provides for additional earn-out and related compensation arrangements if certain performance targets are achieved over the next two fiscal years.

Prospectiv owns and operates Eversave, which offers deals from local businesses including restaurants, spas, family activities and retailers in 20 markets across US.

Eversave differentiates its offering by building valuable, long-term relationships between merchants and consumers. It offers comprehensive merchant support services and innovative customer retention programs, including Eversave Extras, which rewards consumers for performing certain actions

Majority of the deals acquisitions have included the big players, like Groupon and LivingSocial, expanding internationally, or other players, like BuyWithMe, buying up players to expand into new U.S. cities.

i/o Ventures Unveils 5 New Startups

Thomas Oppong — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:28:50 +0000

i/o ventures has unveiled the second class of companies from its program. i/o ventures is an early stage startup program that focuses heavily on mentorship. They work closely with founders from product launch through the next stage of company development, sharing what has proven to work for product scaling, revenue growth and fund raising.

The following 5 startups made presentations on June 28 to investors, entrepreneurs and friends in the startup space.

CodeEval is a candidate evaluation and discovery platform for the recruiting industry. Specifically tailored to help employers find developers and engineers, CodeEval submits applicants to coding challenges, which are supplied either by the startup or the hiring company. Before founding CodeEval, Jimmy John served as lead developer for enterprise IT company Splunk. The company is seeking a seed round between $750,000 and $1 million.

Pieceable is a mobile development platform for the non-programmer. Without writing a lick of code, developers can piece together the desired style and content of their app all from a library of pre-built components. The company also offers Pieceable Viewer, a service that lets developers run their iOS apps in-browser. Before founding Pieceable, Fred Potter worked on mobile development at Loopt.

PrePay is a mobile marketplace that lets consumers prepay for store credit, in exchange receiving 10 to 20 percent more than what they paid. The credit, redeemable with a smartphone, never expires. The idea is that, while consumers save money, merchants increase customer retention and loyalty, with cash already in pocket. The startup was founded by brothers Brian Schwartz and Eric Schwartz, previously of AppMakr and Castle Harlan, respectively. They’re looking to raise around $750,000.

Cortex wants to be the fastest way to share articles, links, videos, images, music–anything that can be found on the Web–with friends, family and followers on social networks. The free app, currently available in the Chrome App Store, has 16,305 users and sees 2,350 installs weekly. The startup, founded by ex-Googlers and other engineers and designers, is looking for a $750,000 seed.

Mobbles is a casual smartphone game (coming soon!) where you find, collect, train and fight small creatures called “Mobbles.” Sound familiar? Yup. “Think pokemon meets tamagotchi on geolocalized smartphones,” says the company. Mobbles was founded by two CS grads with mobile and design experience.

Intuit Acquires Mobile Money Ventures Platform

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:53:12 +0000

Intuit today announced it has acquired mobile Web banking technology assets from Mobile Money Ventures, or MMV, a leading global provider of next-generation mobile financial solutions.

The transaction is expected to strengthen Intuit Financial Services’ position as a leading online and mobile technology provider to financial institutions. Intuit will be able to directly manage customer support and will have full control over the design of its mobile Web banking solutions. The acquired assets will also help the company bring new innovations to financial institution customers faster.

Customers of more than 320 U.S. banks and credit unions actively use Intuit’s existing mobile Web technology, which was provided by MMV. Intuit also provides text message and downloadable application solutions to enable financial institution customers to conduct their critical banking tasks from virtually any mobile phone.

Mobile Money Ventures, based in San Mateo was formed in 2008 as a joint venture that combined the strengths of Citigroup, a leading, global financial services company, and SK Telecom Americas, an early-stage technology innovator.

As an Intuit partner, MMV provided a proven mobile Web banking solution currently reaching more than 400,000 consumers. MMV’s offering is optimized for all major handsets and screen sizes, making it right for all customers – regardless of their mobile device.

15 Steps To Heaven, Finding A Business Angel

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:54:36 +0000

An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

Here are 10 action steps you can take to find angel investors for your startups.

Don’t start your search looking for any investor, begin by looking for the perfect angel
The best angels you will find are the ones who know you personally, or know a member of your team or advisory board
Identify the people you want to engage and then see if you can get to them via your network using LinkedIn.
Give them a good reason to invest.
Search private equity websites, trade mags, financial papers, and competitors’ sites
Call a professional venture capitalist and ask if he or she is aware of an angel investor group.
Look at the “Principle Shareholders” section of initial public offerings (IPO) prospectuses for companies in your area. This will tell you who has cashed out big.
Get an invitation to present to a local angel group. Most won’t take cold calls, so you’ll need to wrangle a referral.
StartupNation.com offers a soup-to-nuts array of great startup information, including angel investor insights, developing an elevator pitch, and much more
Submit your application to the leading online website national databases of angel investors
Find the right investment advisor, or member of your advisory board, and the “match-making” will happen.
Being referred by someone with whom an angel investor has already worked with, is the easiest way of getting connected to him.
There are better chances of interacting with an Offline angel investor since he is known through some referral or some business association or via some meetings and fairs.
There are some good books out there to help, like “Attracting Capital from Angels”, by Brian Hill and Dee Power.
Raising money is hard, but don’t get discouraged. Take every “no” you get as an opportunity to learn something and refine your idea. If you can’t get someone to say “yes”, figure out what you need to change or just go out and prove them wrong!

30 of The Most Respected Venture Capitalists (Infographic)

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:18:01 +0000

The Top 30 with links to their Twitter Accounts

Brad Feld Foundry Group	James D. Robinson III RRE Ventures	Peter Sinclair Leapfrog Ventures
Mark Suster GRP Partners	Howard Morgan First Round Capital	Fred Destin Atlas Ventures
John Doerr Kleiner Perkins Caufield	Fred Wilson Union Square Ventures	Vinod Khosla Khosla Ventures
Ben Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz	David Skok Matrix Partners	Rory O’Driscoll Scale Ventures
Michael Moritz Sequoia Capital	Phil Black True Ventures	Sharon Wienbar Scale Ventures
Roelof Botha Sequoia Capital	Jeremy Liew Lightspeed Venture	Dave McClure 500 Startups
Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz	Dan Rua Inflexion Partners	Chris Fralic First Round Capital
David Sze Greylock Partners	Jon Callaghan True Ventures	Mike Maples Jr. Floodgate Ventures
Paul Graham Y Combinator	Anthony P. Lee Altos Ventures	Charlie O’Donnell First Round Capital
David Hornik August Capital	Doug Pepper Interwest	Bijan Sabet Spark Capital

Originally posted @ Cloudave

Apply Now: Greenstart-$25,000 In Seed Capital For Cleantech Ideas

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:17:04 +0000

Greenstart is a startup accelerator for cleantech. We help the most promising cleantech startups achieve greater success, faster. The companies we select receive seed funding, three months of mentoring, valuable connections, and the chance to pitch to leading angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program.

The program kicks off in San Francisco on September 12, 2011, and ends December 14, 2011. Applications must be received by July 3. Apply now

What you get;
Seed Funding
$25,000 in seed capital for your new venture.

Mentoring
Learn how to jumpstart a successful venture from highly accomplished entrepreneurs, experts and investors.

Connections
Collaborate and connect with fellow visionaries.

Access to Investors
Meet, learn from and pitch the best cleantech angel investors and venture capitalists.

21 Important Tips For The First-time Startup CEO

Thomas Oppong — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:46:10 +0000

Hire the absolute best people you possibly can
Find a couple trusted, experienced advisors/mentors.
Start simply, prioritize, and maintain focus
When fundraising, ask people for advice, not money
Create several financial models and options
Get hold of your financials and legals
Build the team. Focus on key management team hires and assume you’re going to make a few mistakes
Build a Board and focus on on people who a) you can trust, b) have a track record and understand the space(s) you are playing in, c) can bring ideas on talent, financing and growth (sales, product, etc.), and d) understand the venture and growth financing landscape.
Make sure your option and equity agreements are rock solid, and your employment agreement is fair and competitive with what an investor would expect.
Your choice of partners and investors should be thought of as permanent and are therefore the most important two decisions you make.
Don’t be afraid to have tough conversations. Its the best thing for the business, your employees and you
Build a culture you and your employees will be proud of
Take advantage of conferences and events that can expose your product or service to your target audience
Most first time founding CEOs want to do everything and want to be involved in everything
Trust your team but constantly measure them on goals
Nothing matters more than the people and the culture, get it right and you are on the right track
If you are failing, fail fast and move on
Be attentive of opportunities and make the most of them
Be agile and keep your eyes on market trends.
Check out the library by Y Combinator http://ycombinator.com/lib.html
listen to customers and iterate where necessary

200 of The Best Resources To Help You Raise Venture Capital

Thomas Oppong — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:26:20 +0000

Venture Capital firms screen through hundreds–if not thousands–of investment “opportunities” each month. To differentiate yourself from your competitors, it’s important to avoid mistakes and and make the best presentation of documents, pitches and demos. The following resources will be useful as you seek funds for your startup.

Vfinance – A directory of venture capitalists, angel investors, and business plan templates.
Forbes Midas List – A list of the top 100 venture capitalists for the year 2009.
The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint – Before you make a powerpoint that showcases your company and how much money you are raising, you should read this.
How to Raise Venture Capital – An detailed overview on how you can raise money.
Venture Hacks – A blog for entrepreneurs that discusses everything about venture capital.
The Funded – An online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide.-Over 200 articles and guides on everything you need to know about raising venture capital
How To Raise Venture Dollars – Ben Elowitz who has raised over 40 million dollars breaks down the tricks to raising money.
Paul Graham – Awesome essays about venture capital and entrepreneurship.
The Capital Fund -21 tips for SME’s Raising Venture Capital
Entrepreneur’s Guide To Raising Venture Capital – Over 200 articles on everything you need to know about raising venture capital.

9flats.com (4 Months Old Startup) Raises $10 Million In Funding

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:10:18 +0000

9flats.com, the European leader in peer to peer apartment rentals, has announced today that it has completed a major investment round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures. With this recent investment, the total funding for the company amounts to $10 million.

“We have worked closely with Stephan Uhrenbacher over the past year and are impressed with his demonstrated ability in leading groundbreaking new concepts to great success across Europe” said Christian Leybold, Partner with eVenture Capital Partners.

9flats.com aims to change the way people travel by providing an online marketplace where travellers can book individual and exciting private places to stay at their chosen destinations with hosts equally being able to let their own accommodations for a price they choose themselves.

9flats.com is a market place for private accommodation to facilitate smarter and more local travel. Through the site, members can rent private places worldwide or let their own place for some extra income.

9flats launched in February 2011 and currently lists over 8,000 private accommodations in 40 countries, ranging from a place on a couch for €15 a night to a luxury apartment for €500.