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Pitching winners: Degreeart.com and Balineum.com
Congratulations to the winners of The NextWomen’ s Funding & Pitching event:
Elinor and Isobel of DegreeArt
Degreeart was chosen by the panel to enter into the Astia Doing it Right Program. Read more
The NextWomen stay Optimistic in Difficult Funding Times
Judy Gibbons, VC Accel
“We are raising money in difficult times, therefore your investors need to bring something more to the table than just money”, Shaa Wasmund, CEO of Smarta, told the audience at the – sold out – TheNextWomen pitching and funding event.
Shaa opened a series of four talks yesterday evening including Anna Sofat, Angel Investor for Addidi, who explained the ins and outs of angel funding, Judy Gibbons of Accel, who talked about obtaining VC capital and Andrea Cockerton, pitch and martial arts expert who advised the companies that had joined on how to get your pitch right.
All of the speakers pointed to the changing times but also the number of opportunities that it created. Anna Sofat advised companies to stay focused, to be bold, and to look after existing customers, while seizing those opportunities that the credit crunch is throwing their way, such as highly skilled people coming down the ladder seeking new employment.
While companies may find it difficult to raise a second round of investment, Judy said, a survival plan will get you a long way. She pointed out: “People who survive this downturn will emerge to dominate their sector”. Good news for entrepreneurs with big ambitions. Both investors urged start-ups to give thought to their unique selling point, which becomes ever more important in times that there is less money to go around.
Even in buyont times, to compete effectively, “you need to punch above your weight” was Shaa’s advice. But, Andrea, the pitch expert noted, just punching without any training, just relying on brute strength, will get you nowhere.
Two companies got their pitches just right: Degreeart.com, an online gallery for art graduates, was chosen by the panel to enter into the Astia ‘Doing it Right’ programme to develop their ambitious plan and eventually to get ready to pitch to investors, while the audience voted for and nominated Balineum, an online shopping portal for designer bath accesories, to pitch immediately at a cmypitch live event to 30 investors.
Video: Fundamentals of a Business Plan that will Seduce Investors
Tim Dempsey of Epiphany Capital on the fundamental information needed in a business plan to convince investors to invest in your startup. What do you need to address, and which things are often forgotten in a plan.
Tim Dempsey is a director of Epiphany Capital, a Manchester-based corporate finance and investment house focused on start-ups.
Epiphany works with start-ups to develop their business model, prepare them for investment (‘investor readiness’) and procure the necessary funding on their behalf. They also invest their own funds in the most promising of opportunities that they come across.
Round-up of Funding: Skimlinks, Spreadshirt, welikefashion
As six promising start-ups are getting ready to pitch tonight at thenextwomen event, three others don’t have to pitch for a while; Skimbit, Life on a Shirt, welikefashion..they all defied the recession by ensuring the financial survival of their companies.
Skimlinks:
Skimlinks has announced its first round funding. The company, run by founder and CEO Alicia Navarro (picture) has attracted investment led by Sussex Place Ventures with participation from UK government body NESTA, The Accelerator Group, and Angels Duncan Jennings (eConversions) and Alex Hoye (Latitude Group). The amount of funding was undisclosed but Techcrunch reports it to be in the region of £700,000. Read more
Bill Morrow favours serious, passionate entrepreneurs
Bill Morrow of Angelsden will join tomorrow’s pitching panel at our Funding & Pitching event with five other panel members, Judy Gibbons, Julie Meyer, Anna Sofat and Andrea Cockerton. He will give feedback and judge the TRY OUT pitches of six entrepreneurs. In this video he shortly explains what an investor looks for in a pitch: a passionate, serious entrepreneur.
Four General Principles on Pitching for Funding
Lucy Paulson, Director of the European Leadership Programme, an organisation dedicated to supporting the success of entrepreneurs with high-growth companies, sets out the four general principles of pitching for funding:
“Although starting your own business can be the most liberating, exciting and challenging pinnacle in a business person’s career, the race to secure venture capital funding in an increasingly competitive and economically cautious world can prove a daunting experience to many entrepreneurs, whatever their level of business experience and acumen.
Despite first round funding being increasingly hard to come by these days, this is by no means a permanent slowdown. Through my work with the ELP, I have discovered some general principles that can really help make pitching for funding the exciting and rewarding process it should be.
1. Do your research
As any aficionado of Dragon’s Den will know, there is no quicker route to a taxi home than a shaky business model. Before taking your business to pitch it is vital that you understand and can articulate what the market wants to buy or, in some cases, where the pain points are. If you have passion and conviction for a product or service but no one else ‘gets’ it, you should ask yourself some serious questions. Great entrepreneurs often have exceptional vision, but this has to be articulated in a logical sequence for others to buy into it and for it to stand a chance of getting funded.
Anyone thinking of investing in your company has a right to do some serious digging, and if you haven’t got your facts straight regarding the opportunity, the competition or the market you will quickly come unstuck. Practice defending your proposition against the most aggressive questioning and back your assertions up with facts, stats and real-life examples wherever possible.
2. Demonstrate you know how to pave the way to a top value exit.
Not long ago, if a business owner admitted that their company was for sale, it would be tantamount to a mass betrayal of employees. Today in the high growth sector of angel and venture funded businesses, a business is born to be sold.
From the outset the exit requirement should remain omnipresent. Read more
E-factor event about commercial opportunities in mobile phone entertainment
E.Factor, the international online community for entrepreneurs of Marion Freijsen, organises this Monday 23 February 2009 an evening in London on the commercial opportunities in mobile phone entertainment. Questions that will be answered:
- How much does your company know about this exciting new phase that is engaging advertising as never before.
- Global Trends in Mobile Entertainment & how this brings terrific export opportunities to companies.
- Mobile Phone Applications as a Branding Tool.
- The Future of mobile content delivery including Rich Media, Applications and Video.
Key Note Speakers are:
Andy MacLaren, Co-Founder of Agencymobile Limited and James Pimentel-Pinto, CEO Agencymobile Limited. To attend: Click here and follow the registration instructions. The NextWomen have received a discount code (for $10) which is COMMOPPUK36.
London Fashion Week Online
London Fashion Week and Weekend 2009
The London Fashion Week has started this weekend. Designers from Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood to the fashion students of Saint Martins will showcase their new work, and a host of fashionable events will take place around London to celebrate the occasion.
An exhibition where 200 designer labels will showcase their autumn/winter 2009 collections on the East lawn of the Natural History Museum will take place, and the London fashion weekend where non VIPs can attend a Catwalk Show in the official London Fashion Week catwalk venue, a free Fashion Clinic, makeovers and Stylist Sessions are scheduled.
And here’s the good news for those that can’t be there: Read more
Report: women led businesses and venture capital
Female Community 0+
During the recent years two remarkable trends have occurred in the economic sector: a growth of small entrepreneurs worldwide and an increasing number of women that have started their own business. Women’s share of business ownership is growing. Numerous researchers were triggered to investigate the issue of gender and entrepreneurship.
Marieke de Kort, founder of the Dutch on-line community for businesswomen O+ zakenvrouw van nu, has looked into this trend and is interviewed by The NextWomen about her findings. Part I is about the importance of venture capital for businesses. In part II Marieke identifies the informal venture capital issues that women led businesses face.
What kind of research has been done about venture capital for female businesses?
Major studies conducted in the past have contained discussions about the cause of the increased number of female entrepreneurs, whereas others were primarily focused on researching the differences between female and male entrepreneurs. More recent studies have put more emphasis on the general issues of management in female owned business, in particular with regard to the differences in access to financial resources for female entrepreneurs (note 1). These studies have shown that one of the main issues facing women setting up business has been raising finance for their startups. It turns out women obtain one-third of the funding that men secure when starting up their business (note 2).
These women obtain less financing such as bank loans, but they also acquire less informal venture capital (Note 3).
What could be the reason for this?
Some economic specialists argue that female entrepreneurs are not interested in venture capital because they do not aspire to expand their company. Others state that women are interested in the capital but are not acquainted with the procedures to get access to these financial resources. Read more
Report: importance of (informal) venture capital for businesses
During the recent years two remarkable trends have occurred in the economic sector: a striking growth of small entrepreneurs worldwide and an upcoming number of women participating as employees in the labor market. Indeed, an increasing number of women have started their own business. Thus, women’s share of business ownership is growing and research is done how these business are funded.
Marieke de Kort, founder of the Dutch on-line community for businesswomen O+ zakenvrouw van nu, has investigated the issue of gender, entrepreneurship and venture capital and has agreed to share some of her findings with The NextWomen. Part I is about the importance of venture capital for businesses and Part II why women are getting less of it.
What is venture capital?
Venture capital is finance provided to companies, mostly in exchange for an equity stake of the company or product. These financial resources are vital for an enterprise, since it enables the company to move into the second stage. It may be used for instance as an investment for product innovation or research and development. Venture capital is provided to companies by either specialist financial institutions or by informal venture capitalists.
Financial institutions such as banks offer loans to entrepreneurs. These financial institutions demand the payment of interest on the invested capital. Informal venture capitalists (or informals) on the other hand are mostly wealthy individual investors who are willing to invest in start-ups, early stage businesses or expanding enterprises, in exchange for stocks and bonds of the company.
Why are informal venture capitalists important for a business?
An informal venture capitalist can have two functions for a company: Firstly the informal provides the actual capital injection and secondly, he can offer either his advice or his network. Although this may seem trivial at first sight, such expertise and network connections may be even more important than the actual loan. For some entrepreneurs, it is one of the main reasons to solicit for an investment from an informal investor.
Are there differences between financial institutions and informal investors?
There are several differences between financial institutions and informal investors. Read more
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