Month: October 2012

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

• LocalVox, a local, social, and mobile marketing platform, recently obtained $7.4 million Series A funding
• Marinexplore, a big data collaboration platform for searching, analyzing and collaborating with ocean data, has closed seed funding
• Money-Wizards, an offline money and finance education provider, has secured seed funding from Tenshi Peak Ventures
• Bangalore-based online kidswear brand Unamia, who make kidswear for trendy kids and choosy parents, land $1.2 million seed funding
• Ad Hoc Labs, creator of Burner, an app for users to obtain temporary, disposable numbers for voice & SMS communication, gets angel funding
• Cucumbertown, which gives amateur cooks & chefs an easy way to publish recipes in an easy-to-use interface, lands $300K seed funding
• Quarri, security software company that empowers organizations to keep their most sensitive data secure, has raised $1.288 million financing
• Selectable Media, a leader in enabling consumers to unlock digital content, has raised $2M Series A funding from Avalon Ventures
• Musicplayr, a music sharing and discovery platform, lands a €500,000 seed investment
• Goalbook, a platform for schools to manage and collaborate around student Individual Learning Plans, has raised $915,000 seed funding
• Appy Couple, which lets brides create an entirely unique app for their wedding, has raised a $1.2 million seed round
• Commonfloor.com, a real estate and apartment management portal, raises Series B funding from Accel India and Tiger Global Management
• Zagster, a startup that offers a bike-sharing service, has raised $1 million in funding led by LaunchCapital
• CrowdSource, a leader in enterprise-level managed crowdsourcing solutions, raises $12.5 million Series A funding
• Tictail, a start-up which offers a platform to set up e-commerce websites, has just raised €1.2 million in a round of funding
• Prepaid Expense Card Solutions has secured $3.2 million Series B funding to accelerate growth of its PEX Visa® Prepaid Card
• Independa, provider of technology to connect and remotely monitor seniors, to help them live independently longer, gets $1M angel funding

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

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

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

The most prominent brands in the world are defined by their colours. Think of McDonald’s golden arches, the name Jet Blue, and UPS’ slogan, “What can Brown do for you?” These companies, and many others, strategically use colours in their logo, website, and product to appeal to customers. As a B2B marketer, it’s important to think about how you utilize colours and what the colours you choose say about your business.

Research has found that different colours provoke very different reactions in people. Marketo choose to use the colour Purple for branding because at the time Marketo was founded, purple was relatively un-used. Additionally, purple represents wealth, royalty, and richness which also has associations to leadership and revenue. Integrating your brand colours in your logo, landing pages, product, and more will help you achieve the highest impact. This infographic shows how each colour can help you connect with your consumers.

Source: https://blog.marketo.com/blog/2012/06/true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business.html

By CFD trading, you can gain the freedom of investing in companies, currencies, indices and commodities across the nation and internationally by using a single trading account provides a good platform for it.They will let you exchange the variation in the price of the underlying asset between the time at which the trade is opened and when it is closed. The CFDs will help you trade on whether or not the price of the value will rise or fall in the near future. At Ironfx review, you can read all about the difference between the buying price and the selling price will determine the profits that you make o the asset that you’re trading. If you want to know more on CFD and learn the strategies that you should consider while trading, read on the concerns of this article.

• Check if you have an edge: It certainly goes without saying that you need some kind of positive expectancy or an edge on the trading markets if you wish to gain huge profits. There are always professionals who are waiting to strip you off the money and therefore you need to have a huge expertise in the market if you want to boost the returns or the yields. Stay confident and focused in order to trade smartly.
• Control the CFD leverage: The CFD leverage is very powerful when things go well and if you can trade the markets effectively, you can easily keep on increasing the positions. You should keep up your small leverage and always try to keep the total exposure amount lower than the capital base. If you start by 0 leverage, this will multiply 3 times the size of your account.
• Establish a determined goal: When it comes to investment, you should always a pre-determined goal and the case is same with the CFD trading. You should always keep a goal and take the needed steps to move towards it. The CFD trading market is also fraught with risks and therefore you have to measure the steps that you take.

Therefore, when you want to trade the CFD market, ensure that you know a lot about the nuances of the market. You may also get help from a professional agent who can help you complete the entire process successfully.

With all the different trading strategies and terms, the futures trading market can become very confusing. But with the increase in the financial issues in the lives of the people, lots of them are looking for ways to boost their monthly income without incurring huge risk. The investment market provides them with such opportunities to earn more and the futures trading platforms are a lucrative option among all the others. The concerns of this article will deal with futures trading options and you can easily know how to become successful with this kind of trading.

The futures market is a place where the speculators and the hedgers try to meet and anticipate the price behavior of a particular product or currency or any market index that will rise or fall in the near future. Like any market, this will also have risks but if you trade in the right manner and by following the best strategies, you can easily earn better profits. Check out some kinds of futures trading options and some strategies that you should adopt in order to boost your profits.

The commodity market

In the commodity market, the prices are entirely determined by the forces of demand and supply as these are physical products. Such products might include grain, precious metals like silver, gold and also energy. This is a centralized market where the speculators will predict if the market prices will rise or fall. The strategy that you can use while trading this market is using straddles. This is constructed or built by holding the same number of puts and calls with the same expiration date and strike. The main idea that will play the key role is that you have to think that the prices will remain volatile and they may move either up or down.

The currency market

Just as you do with the commodity market, here too you will trade predicting that the price may rise or fall in the near future. One of the most common strategies that you can adopt while trading the currency market is scalping. In this process, the traders gain short-term profits from the incremental changes in each kind of currencies. By executing this time and again, you can easily gain huge profits through the currency trading market.

Therefore, when you’re wondering about the ways in which you can trade the futures trading platforms, you can follow the strategies mentioned above.

Angel Investment News:  

• Angel Investors Do Make Money, Data Shows 2.5x Returns Overall: https://ow.ly/evXFw 
• Minnesota startups raise $100M venture capital funding in Q3: https://ow.ly/evWe2 

Business Plans & Pitching:

• Career expert Tory Johnson breaks down what you need to include in a basic business plan: https://ow.ly/evU8W 
• How to write a successful business plan: https://ow.ly/evX3N 
• 10 tips on making a memorable investor pitch: https://ow.ly/exC44 
• Perfecting Your Investor Pitch: https://ow.ly/eBrNi 
• The Benefits and Functions of a Business Plan: https://ow.ly/eBsCT 

Fund Raising:

• 6 Tips To Get Your Startup Off The Ground And Score A Seed Round: https://ow.ly/evYUH 

Marketing & Social Media:

• 5 Marketing Tips for Startups from LinkedIn’s Founding VP: https://ow.ly/evZKJ 
• 8 Presentations to Improve Your Social Media Strategy: https://ow.ly/exG2n 
• How to Maximize Your New Twitter Profile: https://ow.ly/exGIQ 
• 87 More Vital Social Media Marketing Facts and Stats for 2012: https://ow.ly/exH0l 

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

• 10 Forums Every Young Entrepreneur Should Belong To: https://ow.ly/ew0Ik 
• 7 Deadly Roadblocks for Startup Entrepreneurs: https://ow.ly/eBtap 
• 6 Books for the Well-Rounded Entrepreneur: https://ow.ly/eBt0A 

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

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

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

 

Source: https://www.bitrebels.com/social/business-branding-characterization-guide/

If a blog post is written and no one reads it, does it really exist? Rather than ask philosophical questions like this, just ensure people are reading your blog posts! There are a variety of easy ways this can be done, from social media to email.

The people at Launch Grow Joy assembled a number of promotion ideas into a an easy-to-review infographic:

Source: https://launchgrowjoy.com/30-ways-to-promote-your-blog-posts/

So you want to write a business plan, but you’re having a hard time understanding the components of a proper plan? Here is a simple to understand infographic.

Click on the infographic to view the enlarged version.

What are your top business plan tips?

Angel Investment News:  

• New Data on Venture Capital Returns: Exits Are Indeed Improving: https://ow.ly/edcJA 
• China’s Economy Is Down, But VCs Remain Upbeat: https://ow.ly/edbMW 
• How Angel investors are making money in India: https://ow.ly/edc0j 

Fund Raising:

• Infographic – Startup Investment in Women: https://ow.ly/edbkz 
• Top Angel Investors of New England: An Innovation Slideshow: https://ow.ly/edbpZ 
• Infographic – Angel Investor Basics: https://ow.ly/ef2nC . Learn: Who are angels investors? Where can you find them? How do you woo them?

Marketing & Social Media:

• How to Avoid the Big 5 Social Media Mistakes Corporations Make: https://ow.ly/e7K7p 
• 5 Fundamentals of a Social-Media Action Plan: https://ow.ly/ebfwN 

Start-Up & Entrepreneurship:

• Infographic – How The Richest 400 Americans Got Rich: https://ow.ly/e7Lmo 
• Shikhar Ghosh, Harvard Business School, explains the finding of an ongoing study that shows 3/4 tech start-ups fail: https://ow.ly/e7KvY 
• Richard Branson on Finding a Work-Life Balance: https://ow.ly/e9ga9 
• 10 Top Reasons For First-time Entrepreneur Failure: https://ow.ly/e9hHv 
• 28 Startup Skills You Can’t Live Without: https://ow.ly/ef3nn 
• 16 Tips for Picking the Perfect Startup Name: https://ow.ly/ef3vm 

To stay updated, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

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

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

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.

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/

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

• Bangalore’s web and search analytics firm Unbxd has received an undisclosed amount of funds from Indian Angel Network
• CANDDi, a digital start-up firm that analyses website traffic to help turn visitors into customers, has secured a £370,000 investment
• Catavolt, a developer of mobile application technology for enterprise customers, has raised $1.5M Series A financing
• Zumper, an apartment rental listing website that matches landlords with prospective tenants, has closed $1 million seed funding
• Charged.fm, a ticketing marketplace which emphasizes social tools to drive sales, has just secured $1M funding
• HubCast, which offers the ability to print and deliver marketing & presentation materials worldwide, has raised $4.3M Series B funding
• Zynstra Limited, a UK-based company in the hybrid cloud space, has raised $2.4M angel funding
• London-based cab price comparison and booking startup Kabbee has raised $3.25 million funding
• Bottlenose, which helps you track news and trends across social networks, pulls in $1M in funding
• Kindling, which develops idea management and innovation collaboration software for organizations, raises $2.3M Series B funding
• Rap Genius, a site that lets people crowdsource explanations to song lyrics and other kinds of text, lands $15 million VC funding
• Libboo, an online publishing and book discovery start-up, has closed a $1.1 million seed funding round
• Zambooki.com, a Tuscaloosa-based internet referral service for homeowners and contractors, has received seed funding
• PrettySecrets, India’s leading online lingerie store, has received an undisclosed amount of angel funding

To get regular updates, come follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/angel__network or register for our blog at https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.netwp-login.php?action=register.

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

Or are you looking to raise funding?  Send me a summary of your project at mike@angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk and we’ll try to help.

This infographic will show you what you need to know about Angel Investor basics.

Learn:

• Who are angel investors
• How to find them
• What do you do to prepare for a meeting with investors
• A minute by minute pitch guide
• What to expect in the follow-up
• And more!

Source: https://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/angel-investor-basics-infographic/

Correlation Ventures, a new analytics-driven venture firm, just came out with some interesting data on US venture capital returns over the past decade.

Instead of taking a “birth” vintage approach to returns, which is the way venture fund vintages and most benchmarking analyses tend to cut the data, Correlation Ventures’ team has chosen to look at all the realized exits and their returns in any given year.  This data is based on financings (e.g., Series A and B rounds in the same company are two data points), and includes all prior financings into companies that went out of business, got sold, or got public (IPO) in that year. They are also dollar-weighted (e.g., for the top decile, or 90^th percentile, 10% of all the dollar’s invested in financings of companies that exited in that year were above the realized multiple). Since 2003, each year represents 500-700 exits and over 2000 financings – so it’s a very robust dataset.

Three observations worth calling out from this – though all are obvious from the chart:

First, top decile venture financings yield attractive return multiples.  A top 10% outcome has delivered above ~4x over the last 5 years, aggregating all sectors of venture capital. For a sense of proportion, this represents the top 200 or so financings into companies that exited that year (ranging between 50-100 exited companies per year). This is very much in line with data Bijan Salehizadeh and I published in Nature Biotech last year: top decile outcome was roughly 4x for exited companies first invested in during the last decade (with a slight edge to Life Science vs Technology top decile deals). Although not in the chart above, Correlation’s database estimates Top 1% of financings (5-10 top exits per year) have been in the 15x range for the past five years; these are much more likely to be Technology deals. This also implies that the ‘halo’ lottery-ticket deals in the 100x+ range are in the Top 0.25% or less (top 1-2 deals out of 700+ exits in any given year). Its hard to base an investing strategy on being in the top 0.25% of anything. This is similar to data flying around Twitter earlier this month (here).

Second, venture-backed exits have been getting better over the decade.  This is obviously good news for those of us in venture and in the startup ecosystem.  Returns have rather steadily moved upward across the 2000s, with a minor correction in the 2008-2009 timeframe.  Top decile returns nearly reached 5x in 2011, and the average exit is now above 2x.  This trend clearly bodes well for venture capital.

Third, the big albatross on returns has been the post-bubble crisis.  The horrific average and top decile returns in the exit vintages of 2001-2003 represent lots of the companies that got flushed out when the bubble burst.  Many of these raised capital at the high equity valuations and when the lofty markets collapsed, they fell to the ground hard.  But lots of companies from that vintage survived, albeit wounded, and many entrepreneurs and their venture backers spent much of the decade trying to recoup their equity values for their LP’s.  Part of the positive trend in the chart above is that companies born in those challenging bubble years have been exiting and now represent a smaller proportion of the exit universe.

Given how little transparency there is on venture capital returns, its nice to see some additional data on the topic – so thanks to Correlation Ventures for letting me share this material.

For those that don’t know them, Correlation has a unique data-rich investment approach: applying predictive analytics to the likelihood of a deal being successful, and using that knowledge to inform rapid co-investment decisions around new financings.  They’ve built a robust database to support these analytics, and have made ~30 investments to date across a range of sectors.  Definitely worth checking them out.  I’m working with them on some additional analyses that should shed more light on sector return profiles and other topics.  More to come.

This article by Bruce Booth was originally published at https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucebooth/2012/10/03/new-data-on-venture-capital-returns-exits-are-indeed-improving/

In the past, online forex trading was only restrained to the big banks and the large financial institutions. But now with the widespread use of the internet and the birth of the brokerage firms, online brokers and government agencies, we the laymen can also get access to the online trading options. The internet has blessed everyone and has given them chances to reap the multiple benefits of forex trading online.

If you’re someone who is new to the forex market and you want to gain information on online forex trading you can visit website and also go through the concerns of this article. Check out the benefits of online forex trading.

• The ease of trading online: Someone who is new to the forex trading market needs to understand the details of the trade so that he can take the best decisions while trading. If he starts off with online forex trading, it is most likely that you can learn the details and also start trading currencies with ease. With easy and immediate access to information, learning will become easier.
• Accessible from anywhere: Unlike the stock market and the mutual funds market, you can access the stock market from anywhere. With the internet, you can sit in any place in the world and carry on trading with the currencies. This means that you can even trade the market when you’re in a vacation to some other place.
• Opening a demo account will be easier: If you opt for online forex trading, opening a demo account to start off with the trade will be much easier. You just have to select a website of a broker who offers demo account opening services. Everything that is needed to complete this process, starting from filling out the registration form to receiving the user details can be done online. This makes the entire process simpler for a novice.
• No bulls and bears: The market often falls and rises and making profits through such market fluctuations is also a big challenge. Anyone who is trading the forex market online is certainly lucky because this is the only market that eliminates bulls and bears. You can make profits in almost all market conditions.
• No advertising costs needed: If you plan to make forex trading your regular source of revenue, you can be thankful because you won’t need any kind of advertising costs to promote your business. You just need a bit of cash to hold an account and be able to trade the market through it.

So, when you’re interested in investing your dollars, ensure choosing the forex market. Trade online and reap the above mentioned benefits.