Month: October 2011

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Twitter Roundup

Angel Investment News:

  • The Number Of All-Female Angel Investment Groups Is Exploding: https://ow.ly/76034
  • Indian investors turn to early-stage VC funds for higher returns: https://ow.ly/76Clb. Do you think this is a wise strategy?
  • Israel venture funding rose 53% in 3rd quarter: https://ow.ly/77XwV
  • Leonardo DiCaprio has joined the growing list of celebrities who are also startup investors: https://ow.ly/78Du9

Business Plans & Pitching:

Fund Raising:

  • Resources for Startup Investment Opportunities: https://ow.ly/7aq6o. Can you think of any others?
  • City of London Corporation to generate over £10 million a year of angel investment to propel growth of Tech City: https://ow.ly/7aqxb
  • €10m fund to target Irish tech start-ups: https://ow.ly/7bFVw
  • EU bank to launch €50m social investment fund next year: https://ow.ly/76C00

Marketing & Social Media:

  • Businesses with tight advertising budgets should turn to social media to get the word out: https://ow.ly/78BD5. How do you use social media?
  • 17 Twitter Marketing Tips From the Pros: https://ow.ly/7arCx. This is a really great article with some top advice
  • Social Media — 4 Trends To Watch in 2012: https://ow.ly/7dRzm

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network.

Read anything interesting? Feel free to add links to any articles or resources you’d like to share with the angel community.

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Funding Roundup

Here’s a roundup of some of the recent seed-stage and angel deals from around the world:  

•           Liftopia, the largest online retailer of lift tickets and mountain resort activities, raises $1.3 million funding led by First Round Capital

•           Gagein, a business information content platform, has raised a second round of angel funding to expand marketing, sales and R&D

•           Pose, a mobile platform for real-time discovery and sharing of fashion, shopping and style, has raised $3 million in Series A financing

•           bLife, the stealth-mode, wellness-related startup headed by Hamet Watt, has raised $1.25M in a seed funding round

•           Zoove, a registry of vanity numbers that lets brands connect with consumers – anytime, anywhere, on any mobile phone, secures $5 million

•           SmarTots, who has developed a mobile apps recommendation & analytics platform specifically for kids aged 2-7, raises $750,000 seed funding

•           Chartboost, which offers a direct-deal advertising marketplace for game app publishers, lands $2 million in its initial round of funding

•           Bar Refaeli’s e-commerce lingerie co Undeez raises $1m from angel investor Yuval Tal, ex 888 Holding CEO Gigi Levy & Fox-Weizel Ltd

•           Brain-in-Hand, who develops technology to help people with impaired executive brain function to live more independently, lands angel funding

•           PlayJam, the world’s leading TV games platform, has closed $5 million Series A financing. Backers included Adobe Ventures & Venture Partners

•           Navigating Cancer, an online resource for patients dealing with cancer, raises $3m financing from Rustic Canyon Partners & an angel investor

•           Ryan McGann, an inventor who has built a portable solar-powered cooler that can refrigerate, has raised an $800,000 angel investment

•           Anderson Aerospace, who design & manufacture advanced technology satellite antenna systems for aircraft, raises $250k funding from JumpStart

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network.

Have you managed to raise capital for your company?  We always love to hear from entrepreneurs who manage to get funded.

Six things you can say to mess up your investor pitch

1) “Unfortunately I can’t reveal too many details here as my idea is so simple that anyone could steal it.”  

Problem:  If you don’t give the investors any information, they’re not going to be interested.  In a lot of cases, the idea is nothing and execution is everything.

2) “I want to build a new social media platform that will be like Facebook but with better features and functionality.

Problem:  If you’re taking an existing business model and putting a twist on it, you need to give clear description of what will make you different and (most importantly) better.  We already have Facebook, so you have to convince them why on earth we need yet another social network (or whatever your product / service may be).

3) “All my friends think this is a great idea”

Problem:  Your friends are probably just being polite.  Get out there and get some proper feedback from retailers, distributors or potential customers.

4) “We have no competition”

Problem: Every company has competition, even if it isn’t a direct competitor.

5) “The market for this product is $50 billion a year.  So all we need to do is just get 1% of that market and we are all rich.”

Problem:  Business plans promising to get a small percentage of a large market are lazy and useless.  Yes, 1 percent of $50 billion is $500 million, but it probably won’t happen.

This is lazy and it is impossible to predict what market share you will achieve.

6) “According to my conservative assumptions…”

Problem: I have lost count of how many times I’ve come across the word “conservative” in a business plan or elevator pitch.  Investors know that backing a start-up is a very risky business, and conservative isn’t what they are interested in, nor is it what they expect.

Any other suggestions?  What else could someone else say to make investors run a mile?

Infographic: The Startup Gamble

Startup companies can be lots of fun, or a lot of pain. Making it big as one of the first employees of a rapidly growing company obviously has its benefits, but there’s never any guarantees when working in a small, newer company. This infographic highlights some of the reasons these companies go down the gutter. I advise anyone thinking about applying to a startup to read this so you can prepare some useful questions in an interview.

I think startups are a great idea for lots of reasons. You get to do what you are truly interested in. You have control over the company’s destiny and how much time and effort is put into its growth. Oftentimes the founders interact with every employee on a regular basis, and this creates a strong sense of family in the workplace. With the expansion of technology and advancement of lifestyle, people have more and more specific needs and markets expand into areas never developed before. Startups are a great way to attack these new areas of lifestyle.

Some of us prefer job security with a long lasting company we trust, so to each his own.

Source: https://dailyinfographic.com/the-startup-gamble-infographic

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Twitter Roundup

Angel Investment News:  

  • Lei Jun and Dave McClure Share Secrets of Angel Investing: https://ow.ly/6ZmGM
  • Bay State now 3rd in angel investing. NY has topped Massachusetts in the venture capital game for the first time ever: https://ow.ly/6Zn9v
  • Punjab government sets up venture capital fund for IT sector: https://ow.ly/74kPC
  • A great interview with Ron Conway, who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley: https://ow.ly/74lN0

Business Plans & Pitching:

  • Pitching perfection to investors: A 10-step guide: https://ow.ly/71R7W. A really nicely written article.
  • According to the Angel Capital Education Foundation, all angel investor business plans should include these 4 elements: https://ow.ly/74moj

Fund Raising:

Marketing & Social Media:

  • 5 Steps To Creating A Social Media Strategy For Your Business: https://ow.ly/6Zmlu. Can you think of any other important strategies?
  • 10 Things You Should Include in a Social Media Plan: https://ow.ly/6Zmty
  • A Beginner’s 5-Step Solution to Email Marketing Success: https://ow.ly/71VDu
  • Social Media for Small Businesses – A Modern Day Essential: https://ow.ly/6ZmUc. What does your business use social media for?
  • How Top Brands Measure Social Media Success: https://ow.ly/72y3c.

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network.

Read anything interesting? Feel free to add links to any articles or resources you’d like to share with the angel community.

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Funding Roundup

Here’s a roundup of some of the recent seed-stage and angel deals from around the world:  

  • Onepager, a simple website building tool, lands $350k seed funding. Angel investors Daniel Eskapa & Mark Birch have invested in the startup
  • Snapette, a mobile fashion app, raises $1.3M in seed funding from several unnamed VC firms and angel investors
  • Crashlytics, a startup which provides a crash reporting solution for mobile developers, has raised $1m in funding from VCs & angel investors
  • Mobile software startup Maide raised seed funding from Extreme Venture Partners and the Ted Livingston funded Velocity Venture Fund
  • Pinkdingo, a young startup looking to breathe new life into the charity space, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding from a host of angels
  • Capricorn Gifting Solutions, a corporate gifts and promotional products company, lands seed funding from Seeders Venture Capital
  • Tagstand raises a $1.1 million funding round that includes many notable angel investors to help take Near Field Communication mainstream
  • Carmine, a subscription service for users looking to discover and test cosmetic products, lands Series A funding from Accel Partners
  • Ginger.io, which turns mobile phone data into health insights, raises $1.7m financing from venture capital firms and angel investors
  • Ordr.in, which brings the power of food to any app, service or website that wants to integrate it, raises seed funding from Google Ventures
  • WebEngage, a company that offers online feedback and survey tools to websites, has raised seed funding from the Indian Angel Network
  • Enflick, a developer and provider of mobile services, has closed a seed round of financing led by Freestyle Capital Fund
  • GroSocial, which provides powerful social media marketing tools that are easy to use, closes $450,000 seed funding led by Kickstart Seed Fund
  • Chesson Labs, which sells a synthetic skin product called Nuvaderm, has raised $1.5 million from angel investors
  • OwnLocal, who provide software to help newspapers increase advertising revenue, nabs funding from Automattic, 500 Startups & angel investors
  • HipWay Ltd., an innovator within the Russian online travel industry, lands $2 million funding from angel investors

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network.

Have you managed to raise capital for your company?  We always love to hear from entrepreneurs who manage to get funded.

Infographic – US Startup Funding by the Numbers

In many cases, money is a key fertilizer for startup growth. Many startups, and many more small businesses, fund themselves through traditional bank loans. Others exchange portions of their companies for an influx of cash.

This type of startup funding, known for its high-risk, high-reward nature, is an interesting game to keep track of — and there are entire publications dedicated solely to doing just that. But it can also be hard for outsiders to put it into perspective or understand the insider jargon. The infographic below takes a broad look at the numbers and lingo behind startup funding.

Source: https://mashable.com/2011/10/20/startup-funding-infographic/

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Twitter Roundup

Angel Investment Network’s Weekly Twitter Roundup: News, Business Plans, Pitching, Fund Raising, Social Media, Entrepreneurship.  

Angel Investment News:

  • Cleantech Investments Grow 12 Percent in Q3, U.S. Leads the World: https://ow.ly/6SfIc
  • PepsiCo Invests in 10 European Startups that will make up PepsiCo10 – a programme to support emerging tech companies: https://ow.ly/6UMNO
  • Angel investing up in 2011, narrowing startup financing gap: https://ow.ly/6UNYx
  • Tech startups blossoming in Singapore, but lack of funding a major obstacle: https://ow.ly/6Wz0u
  • Venture capital on pace for biggest year since dot-com era: https://ow.ly/6X97i
  • Business Insider: The Complete 2011 Silicon Alley 100 List: Ranked! https://ow.ly/6X9t4

Business Plans & Pitching:

Fund Raising:

  • Use these 10 metrics to estimate your start-up’s funding value: https://ow.ly/6VSE9
  • What things should an entrepreneur have noted, ready to present an investment opportunity to an Angel Investor? https://ow.ly/6VSML

Marketing & Social Media:

  • Get Optimized & Start Engaging: Essential Social Media Marketing Tips: https://ow.ly/6UNtx
  • Marketing chiefs feel overwhelmed by the growing volume of customer data on websites like Facebook and Twitter: https://ow.ly/6UNzq
  • Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value: https://ow.ly/6VTkq
  • Five Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer: https://ow.ly/6VTte
  • 5 Thought Provoking TED Videos About Social Media: https://ow.ly/6WAcH
  • Brafton’s infographic explores how content is key to SEO and search engine visibility: https://ow.ly/6WB7B

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network.

Read anything interesting? Feel free to add links to any articles or resources you’d like to share with the angel community.