VentureStart » VentureStart

Agreement Comes Back to Haunt Facebook — Hire an Attorney Early

VStart — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:24:43 +0000

We always advise serious entrepreneurs, especially those with big ideas, to make sure an attorney is part of their team from the very start. Not only can they set the company up correctly, they can put standard agreements in place (e.g., stock option, non-disclosure, founder buy-sell, independent contractor, and more). Having such documents can help prevent a multitude of legal issues as the business grows.

Read this article at BusinessWeek to see potential problems for Facebook when a probably “bad” agreement comes back to haunt them when they are really worth something.

Saving money as a startup is usually ingrained in entrepreneurs and spending money on attorneys is not uppermost in their mind (and many have a poor impression of them anyway). But the right attorney is one person on your side to help with the above mentioned items, as well as company valuation and structuring the right deal for investors. They are your best protectors of value and assets, and one business “friend” you can count on.

You will find that many attorneys may strike a deal with you to ease the cash flow burden as you startup with a variety of offers so long as they believe in your potential as a company. Deals can include taking a small stock option in return for delayed fees, and/or delaying fees until you have raised money. Once part of VentureStart we can sometimes recommend regional attorneys to you.

SacMix — An Example of How a Startup Should Communicate

VStart — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:16:22 +0000

SacMix joined our VentureStart program a while ago and are making rapid progress in becoming a known brand in the Sacramento market — if you are hungry for breakfast, brunch, lunch, happy hour, dinner or late night eats, you can always find a great deal at a restaurant close to you at www.sacmix.com.

All startups need to communicate their progress with potential customers, investors, supporters, etc. on a regular basis to keep mind share and accelerate interest. We got such a note from Tim White at SacMix today, and you can read it on Facebook. It is a good example all startups should follow.

UC Davis — Workshop: Gates Foundation Grand Challenges, April 23, 2010

VStart — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:40:34 +0000

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Grand Challenges Explorations Workshop
Friday, April 23, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
UC Davis Conference Center
2nd Floor Conference Room

The Office of Research, Office of University Development, and the Foods for Health Institute are hosting a workshop on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Explorations Round 5.

Grand Challenges Explorations awards of $100,000 support early-stage research projects designed to overcome persistent bottlenecks in creating new tools that can radically improve health in the developing world. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a Phase II grant of $1 million.
Topics for Round 5 of the Grand Challenges Explorations include:

Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applications for Priority Global Health Conditions
Create New Technologies to Improve the Health of Mothers and Newborns
Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease
Create New Technologies for Contraception

Two-page applications for the awards are due online to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by noon on May 19th.
The workshop will be held on Friday, April 23rd at 3:00 p.m. in University Development’s large conference room on the second floor of the UC Davis Conference Center (across from the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts).

For more information, please contact Vivian Carmichael, Director of Foundation Relations, (530) 754-4138, vlcarmichael@ucdavis.edu.

Sacramento Startup Micromidas Raises Series A Round

VStart — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:16:40 +0000

Micromidas has just completed its first major round of funding, having raised $3.6 million. The funds will be used to deploy their technology at the pilot scale.

Micromidas, based in West Sacramento, develops and scales environmentally benign biological and chemical processes that produce valuable chemical and material commodities from waste biomass. The first Micromidas application for their technology is scaling a process that converts the carbon in organic wastewater into PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), a family of bio-degradable plastics that can be used in lieu of conventional petroleum plastics. Their process generates highly functional bio-plastic while simultaneously reducing the quantity of bio-solids that municipal utilities must pay to treat. Micromidas is led by CEO and founder, John Bissell, who received his degree in chemical engineering from UC Davis; his entire team are also UC Davis graduates.

If you’ve ever met John you will understand that his passion, focus, determination, and hard work, as well as Micromidas’ huge business potential, were the key factors in launching the company, and raising the money, initially from family, friends and angels, and then from a group of sophisticated investors.

There are some lessons here for aspiring entrepreneurs. John used every resource available to learn about the process of financing a high growth company, including many regional ones. He was inspired by the UC Davis Green TEA Academy which he attended in 2008 at Incline Village (UCD offers multiple versions of its Entrepreneurship Academy). Following the Academy, he found mentors among the Sierra Angels and others and then entered the 2009 California Cleantech Open, where Micromidas won in the Air, Water and Waste group. This created substantial publicity for the company and provided more mentors, and a network of interested supporters, something many entrepreneurs neglect and fail to build.

Along the way, he sought and received advice from VentureStart and local startup CEO’s, and was invited to and attended angel group dinners to get further insight into the ins and outs of raising money. In the entire process, we are sure that, while much of the advice was valid, it varied considerably from mentor to mentor and source to source. That’s the nature of getting a startup going; there is no absolutely right or wrong process; the entrepreneur listens, distills and then decides the best path for his or her company. And in the process they build and communicate with their network, never really knowing the path any lead will take. For Micromidas, that network worked out very well.

Congratulations to Micromidas and John!

Sacramento Web Startup Chrometa Figures Out Customer Support

VStart — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:27:05 +0000

Brett Owens of Chrometa was one of the first entrepreneurs mentored by VentureStart. We recommended “go get customers” rather than trying to raise money from organized investors. He did that and has been growing ever since with an ever-increasing customer base.

Chrometa maintains an excellent blog and today we saw an interesting post on customer support for software companies and its challenges. Take a look and I think you’ll find that Chrometa have met the challenge well with some good thinking. The very fact their blog talks about this is also great marketing. Go Chrometa!

Med Tech Entrepreneurs — Don’t Miss This Sacramento Region Event

VStart — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:25:59 +0000

Don’t miss the first annual Sacramento Med Tech Showcase on March 30, 2010 at Sacramento State University. The theme for the 2010 showcase is “Transforming Medicine Through Technology.” Hosted by SARTA’s MedStart Initiative , the event will raise awareness of the medical technology industry and resources in the Sacramento Region and generate excitement about technology developments by companies founded and funded in the region.

The Showcase will feature:

Exhibit Hall Showcasing Med Tech Companies in the Sacramento Region
The Next Wave Med Tech Innovators Challenge, co-hosted by VentureStart
“Telemedicine- New and Exciting Frontiers in Healthcare Delivery” panel discussion
“Emerging Trends In Med Tech Investing” panel discussion

Join with other leaders and innovators in the medical technology field. More than 350 attendees and over 50 exhibitors are expected!

SAVE THE DATE: March 30, 2010 from 1:00 pm – 7:30 pm. (exhibit hall from 5:00-7:30 pm)

LOCATION: Sacramento State University- University Union Grand Ballroom.

REGISTER NOW

ADMISSION: $80 general, $40 SARTA member

For information on sponsoring or exhibiting at the event, please contact Laura Good at lauragood@sarta.org or 916-261-1873.

Web Startups — Even Google has issues!

VStart — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:51:13 +0000

We saw this today when we went to check a Google account; and it has been like this for at least an hour! So don’t feel to bad if you have an issue or two when you start out.

Take heart!

VentureStart Can Help Sacramento Entrepreneurs Succeed

ClareP — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:25:30 +0000

It was an honor and a privledge to speak at Thursday’s first Sacramento Entreprenuership Breakfast. As a new VentureStart company, we have not been part of the program for long, but we are already seeing the benefits.

There are three benefits that I want to specifically point to that have positioned our company for success. The first is clarity of vision. The second is laser focus and the third is brain trust.

The Clarity of Vision for us really started with the application form. We all know that we need a perfect 30 second Elevator Pitch but as passionate entrepreneurs we often find it very hard to be that succinct. But when you are forced to tell your story in 140 characters, not 140 words; 140 characters, it is sort of like TWEETING your business plan. You get an amazing clarity of vision about your business.

In BrandVantage’s case, we reduced our wordy and somewhat squishy value statement:

FROM: We offer a Web-based marketing application that helps small business owners figure out the best way to market their products and services and provides them with effective and affordable solutions for marketing on and off-line.

TO: We offer a Web-based marketing application platform that helps associations attract and retain members and offers a new source of non-dues revenue. That’s 126 characters!

And in the process we realized that we needed to focus our efforts at our leveraged channel — chambers and professional associations — not the end user, the small business owner.

The second benefit that we have realized is laser focus. Being part of VentureStart has given us a real read on what our team needs to be focused on today. That benefit began with our initial presentation to the VentureStart committee and with a comment from Mark during the review. He said that when you are looking for funding, your product is not whatever product or service you are producing, its your company stock. Your company stock is your product. You have to sell that before you can build or sell anything else. WOW! Now I’ve been through several funding rounds with other companies as their VP of Marketing but never has the purpose of funding been put to me that clearly. For me and my team, it has really changed the way we view our roles, our approach to funding opportunities and our near term goals. And that laser focus has continued with the work we are doing with our mentor.

That brings me to the third benefit we have received from the VentureStart program. That benefit is the incredible brain trust, the team of experts, the resources and the mentorship we have already received. We have already established a great working relationship with our mentor and set out a specific plan to achieve key milestones such as putting together a star studded board of advisors, cutting our development costs and finding clever ways to do more with less, something we can all benefit from in this economy.

I would encourage all the entrepreneurs in the Sacramento area to consider taking advantage of the benefits of VentureStart. BrandVantage has already reaped the benefits of clarity of vision, focused purpose and the brain trust. Just imagine the benefits you could receive.

Clare Price, CEO, BrandVantage, Inc.
cprice@yourbrandvantage.com
Twitter @clarestweets

Sacramento Investors, Angels, and Entrepreneurs Compete for Best Tag Line

VStart — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:20:06 +0000

VentureStart needs a GREAT tag line so at yesterday’s breakfast launch we challenged all the Sacramento angels’ groups, investors, entrepreneurs, and business people to compete in providing us with one. It should, in three or four words, be:

easy to remember
imply a path to funding
imply urgency

We recognize that by publishing the tags it could inspire copy cats with small changes in wording, but we’ll take that into consideration when we finally decide. Here are the tag lines submitted:

Mentor your success!
One life, one chance
One life, Make it!
Your Magic Bullet
Dreams realized
Dreams made real
Well begun is half done
Dreams brought to life
Jumpstart to funding
Vent your idea here!
Breeding Success (in business)
Mentoring that matters most
VentureStart….Never Stop
Mentor Approved Certified Business
Certified Entrepreneurial Business
Mentored, coached and ready!
Guidance for Building Success!
Launching great start-ups
Unleashing great start-ups
Jumpstart to financing
Jumpstarting startups
Rapid Path to Financing
Starting the venture right

New Initiatives With Mentors and Entrepreneurs in Austin

VStart — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:15:53 +0000

While SARTA has initiated VentureStart in the last year or so, communities like Boulder, CO, and Austin, TX, have been trying models for many years to build successful technology/high growth based startup communities. This is something for the Sacramento region to aspire too, and we just saw this on a new initiative in Austin. Take a look and listen.