I'm speaking on the topic "The Industry of Entrepreneurship - Why it Matters at the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce Women in Business conference with Pat Richards & Gail Miller

Join us for a great morning!

The Utah Fund of Funds, along with their co-sponsors, GOED, USTAR and the MBRC, has created a 6 part training series about fundraising from angel and venture investors. This series of classes is designed to be your "On-Ramp to Entrepreneurial Success". If you plan to raise money from either angel or institutional investors, this is the best $75 you'll spend!<< MORE >>

TheFunded.com has partnered with WSGR to create a template of VC documents. This is a great website that aims to help entrepreneurs have more successful relationships with the venture capital community. They are a great peer to peer resource of other entrepreneurs who are or who have raised money. They just sent out an announcement, offering free Founder-friendly legal documents. I have excerpted the email below to give full credit to the team at TheFunded.com. This is a HUGE service to entrepreneurs.<< MORE >>

I Liked "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" by Sarah Lacy, so I decided to read her latest, "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the stop 1% of entrepreneurs profit from global chaos."<< MORE >>

I also finished Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and really enjoyed it and found it insightful. The brothers tackle here the reasons that some ideas "stick" and some, usually important ideas, die an ignominious death. << MORE >>

I really enjoyed the book, "Switch – How to Change Things when Change is Hard" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Switch is a great book for entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs want customers to change! It is good for organizational change, personal change, and customer change. << MORE >>

I had the privilege of taking a class from Jim Collins as an MBA student (and then writing a case with him), as well as being a critical reader for two of his books. If you like real analysis, then you'll love Jim's thinking!<< MORE >>

Great post by Fred Destin at Atlas Venture.  He describes his filtering process for proposals that come in by email - although this post generated a lot of entrepreneurial angst - it is more helpful for entrepreneurs to know how the 'inside" of a venture firm works, than to be frustrated by it.  Forewarned is truly forearmed in this case.  Enjoy!

I just finished reading Trust Agents... a book on how social media is becoming embedded in personal and career progress ... << MORE >>

...Highlights of some of Utah's recent wins in recruiting California companies to expand here in Utah (instead of in California). Published in the Sacramento Bee ... << MORE >>

What is important for Utah is that the author really captured the rise of a new type of Angel in Silicon Valley - those who had made money in Web 1.0 and who became "Friend-Tors" to this next gen of entrepreneurs. ... << MORE >>

Many people don't know where to find venture capital and PE firms and contact information, so I thought I would suggest this as one resource. ... << MORE >>

The Utah Fund of Funds, along with their co-sponsors, GOED, USTAR and the MBRC, has created a 6 part training series about fundraising from angel and venture investors. The sessions can be attended "live" at the Miller Business Resource Center in Sandy (dates below), or they can be viewed online either in real time or after the session is over. Two sessions are complete and can be seen now, and 4 more are upcoming. Please spread the word to entrepreneurs who are not familiar with raising investment funds - the Fund of Funds is one of the best resources in the state. All of the entrepreneurs who have been attending have repeated over and over again how helpful the information is.<< MORE >>

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer  is an interesting organization with interesting content, particularly for those who are working to take university-developed technologies to market.  Their tag line is "NCET2: Creating and Funding Globally Competitive University Startups"...I liken it to a Lamaze class- it doesn't "really" prepare you for the trials of labor, but at least you've got an idea of what's coming! ... << MORE >>

Last week, Utah's chapter of the NACD (nat'l assoc of corp. directors), UTC and MWCN co-sponsored a luncheon on building a great board of Directors called "Boards that Work - How CEO's Find Them and Flourish". ... << MORE >>

Slight signs up an uptick in venture capital in Q4 2009 from Dow Jones VentureSource and Silicon Valley Mercury News<< MORE >>

Another summary of the PWC/NVCA Moneytree report at the Silicon Valley Mercury News focused on the impact on Silicon Valley.

According to their analysis, the flow of venture capital into SiliconValley fell to $6.98 billion in 2009 from an average of more than $10 billion during the previous three years, the lowest since 2003.  However, they pointed out that the national total of $17.7 billion was the lowest since 1997. 

SVMN points out the following brights spots in venture capital

"The venture capital industry had no choice but to slow the investment pace in 2009," NVCAPresident Mark Heesen said in a news release. "Now that the economy has begun to show signs of improvement, we expect to see dollars flow more freely."

and

"VCs placed more bets in the fourth quarter of 2009 than we've seen all year," said Tracy T. Lefteroff, who leads the venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "They're investing fewer dollars in these companies, but the fact remains that there are still entrepreneurs outthere with great ideas who are getting the opportunity to take the next step forward with their businesses."

Looking at a small uptick in venture activity in Q4 2009, Dow Jones VentureSource, as quoted by Trading Markets, suggests the following:
"... venture deal activity increased in the fourth quarter of 2009.  Venture investors put $6.3 billion to work in 743 deals in the most recent quarter, up slightly from the $6.1 billion invested in 619 deals during the same period in 2008."  DowJones VentureSource further reported that...".. 2009 saw 2,489 deals completed and $21.4billion in venture capital invested in U.S.companies, a 31% drop from2008 when $31 billion was invested in 2,817 deals."

Lipper Current did a nice analysis of PWC/NVCA's latest Moneytree report on Venture capital. In short, Utah got ... << MORE >>

Okay, it takes quite a bit to wow Brad and I....but JVC really did it this year! And we almost missed it!<< MORE >>

These were themes that are somewhat minor in their overall impact, but showed up surprisingly consistently throughout the show. Not necessarily game changers, but interesting to watch.<< MORE >>

After walking over 1 million square feet of tradeshow space at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, the marketing side of me just couldn't resist recounting the "what not to do" of tradeshows - illustrated by real life examples. Here I'll list the tips, and in subsequent posts, I'll tell the stories - some of them even include photos of offending behavior!... << MORE >>

There is a large section of CES called, glamorously, in-vehicle technology.  This is essentially the car and boat guys.  Historically this section featured a large collection of hot cars, and at least a large of collection of "hot booth babes" (no offense intended).  Generally these young women (they are all women) are a) very attractive and b) very shapely and c) are hired locally to add eye candy to the booth.

This year, the number of hot cars was disappointingly low - one gentleman, standing next to a beautiful 1960 Cadillac El Dorado, said that he estimated the number of cars at the show to be 1/3 of previous years. 

However, we did encounter a small number of "booth babes".  On in particular illustrates the point of this post.  This young lady was walking rapidly around the North Hall pulling what looked like a rollaboard suitcase with a screen sticking out of the handle.  She was wearing what looked like (from the front) a short skirt with a bikini top, and a sticker plastered over one shoulder.  We had seen her several times.  One time, however, she came up from our left as we were standing and then turned so that we could see her backside....literally!  Apparently, instead of a skirt she was wearing a thong with a frill around the waste.  Her entire backside was, well, on view. 

I turned to my husband and said "there are only a small number of people who should wear a thong" and He started to laugh and said "and she's NOT one of them".  This young lady, although slender and attractive, really had too many assets on that side to successfully pull off wearing a thong.

We turned then and prepared to go out the door, as we did, this same young lady crossed our path once more.  Just to our left were two thirty something gentlemen and she cross their path, literally, as well.  As we exited the hall, the taller gentleman said, "I had to look, I'm a man, but there was a lot of flesh there!  He then told his friend that he had to stop and smoke because "that made me nervous".

I don't think that this young lady attracted any interest in the company paying for her time - but it certainly made potential customers nervous!

Here are Cool CES items 2 - 7, in mostly descending order of interesting. Again, I'm looking for themes that impact the industry, not "yet another gadget". << MORE >>

CES is the show for TV's. Here are the three biggest trends we saw this year. Note, Brad and I are a little jaded after attending CES for more than a decade, so the fact that there are thousands of versions of TV's - thin TV's, skinny- edge TV's, grouped TV's, TV's with better contrast etc etc, but these are the "big picture" trends that we saw that will impact the entire industry in some way.<< MORE >>

The Big News at CES - how small CES was this year compared to previous years! << MORE >>

If you are an entrepreneur, you are pitching!  If you're raising money, you're pitching! If you're finding partners, you're pitching!  If you're selling (anything) you're pitching!  ...<< MORE >>

A few weeks ago, the Utah Fund of Funds (UtahFoF.com) presented one of their quarterly entrepreneurial mentoring meetings. They invited Todd Jensen of TTKonline Solutions  to present.  Todd did a great job of discussing the current state of SEO marketing.   A couple of highlights that I didn't know (for those of you who aren't already SEO pros) ...<< MORE >>

The team at GoTo Meeting sponsored a fun webinar last week, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Create the Story”. << MORE >>

This is a sobering blog post looking at the current state of Venture
Capital.  The challenges in the public markets, including IPO's and
M&A are hurting liquidity among venture firms.  ...<< MORE >>

Figuring out exactly "what to write, when" when you are launching a
startup that needs to raise money, can be very challenging. Here is what I recommend for the emerging startup ...<< MORE >>

Paul Graham of Y Combinator did an (informal) survey of many of the
founders
he works with, asking them what surprised them about founding a
company. ...<< MORE >>

Paul Graham of Y Combinator did an (informal) survey of many of the
founders he works with, asking them what surprised them about founding a
company. Very worthwhile reading - as he points out, he told them most
of this stuff in advance, but you really don't know what it's like until
you startup....But reading this is pretty handy!

See www.paulgraham.com/really.html for the original post.

To borrow a phrase, if you, an entrepreneur, are asked to pay a material fee to pitch to group of angel investors, "JUST SAY NO".  ...<< MORE >>

This is the first annual banquet for alumni of BYU's Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department. ...<< MORE >>

TheFunded.com just sent out an announcement, offering free Founder-friendly legal documents. This is a HUGE service to entrepreneurs.<< MORE >>

Utah's Women Tech Council each year honors women who work in technology in Utah. This year 6 awards were given and Nicole Toomey Davis received the Community Builder award. << MORE >>

Did you know the Utah Fund of Funds continues to attract high quality, active venture capital funds to be active and interested in making investments in Utah companies? See the latest list here! << MORE >>

Yep, I know, entrepreneurs can't afford to pay for market research. Did you know that the market research firms "share" some of the research at low or no cost? << MORE >>

It's hard in Utah to get a feel for the national trends just by "talking to people". We're small enough and different enough that this doesn't work. A daily scan of the Wall Street Journal is a quick and cost effective way to get a strong national picture of the trends affecting your business. << MORE >>

The 2009 v|100 Included Nicole Toomey Davis, for the fifth time (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009) ...<< MORE >>

In short, it's not clear to me that there is such a thing as a safe harbor
when it comes to taking non-accredited money.  That's why credible and experienced corporate attorneys will tell you that the time and trouble
it takes to accept non-accredited money is not worth the little bit
that you will get!  ...<< MORE >>

If you feel that one partner in a venture isn't pulling their weight, or there are other issues be up front and say so. Have the conversations, work out various options, but don't just "spring it" on someone - that destroys trust and relationships, not to mention being just plain wrong.<< MORE >>

A few weeks ago, I blogged on the problems of taking non-accredited investors, emphasizing the importance of compliance with securities regulations when raising money for a private firm. 

The Utah Tech Council is sponsoring an event for entrepreneurs that seems very timely.  This event is free for UTC members and invited guests.  If you are an entrepreneur or an emerging entrepreneur, contact the team at UTC and often they often will invite you to an event so you can get to know the organization. 

Utah Tech Council - Feb. 19 2009 Clinic
How Entrepreneurs Stay Out of Jail

Join us at our next clinic where Keith Woodwell, Director of the Division of Securities and Benjamin Johnson, Director of Corporate Finance for the Division of Securities, will speak about what to look out for when seeking funding and avoid compliance pitfalls. He will also address how the division can be a constant resource entrepreneurs.   Details and registration at http://utahtech.org/events/20090219_clinic.htm.

 

...A nearly graduated student who wants to be an entrepreneur asked me how to "get in the loop". << MORE >>

Save yourself time, effort, headache and risk and stick with investors who really are savvy enough with enough resources to survive any potential losses - those who are accredited. << MORE >>

I have been stunned to see how many startups decide that their legal work is a DIY (Do it Yourself) project. NO NO NO!  ...<< MORE >>

To see the latest in technologies developed at Utah's colleges and universities, attend the Sorenson Inventor Showcase which will take place at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The speedpitch presentations begin at 9 AM, the Showcase at 10 AM, followed by the awards luncheon at noon. This year's showcase is co-hosted by MountainWest Capital Network and the Sorenson Discovery and Innovation Center and the Speedpitch presentations were organized by GOED and designed specifically to meet the needs of Utah's business and investment community<< MORE >>

Remember, remember, remember, EVERY interaction, no matter how small, may be with someone that your company needs or wants. Every interaction impacts your brand! Everyone in your team has to have Customer Respect in their DNA.<< MORE >>

I went to Josh's lecture on Marketing: Press, Analysts and the Interweb yesterday and, as always, Josh was insightful and entertaining. If you don't have a chance to take your buddy to lunch and ask them about their experience building and selling their startup, Josh's lectures are the "next best thing"!<< MORE >>

Serial Entrepreneur Josh Coates is doing a no-cost "Tech Venture Startup HOWTO" lecture series
Josh just sold Mozy, see related link from Walt Mossberg's editorial about Mozy ...<< MORE >>