Startup – Page 10

YCombinator receives additional funding

TechCrunch reports that Ycombinator, the really-early-seed-capital guys, have received some additional funding ($2 million) from Sequoia. Ycombinator only invests small amounts ($5,000 + $5,000/founder) in exchange for around 6% of equity and has invested in around 118 startups since their foundation in 2005. Some of their startups have been acquired (Reddit, Omnisio, Zenter, ClickPass, Auctomatic) … Continue reading “YCombinator receives additional funding”

TechCrunch reports that Ycombinator, the really-early-seed-capital guys, have received some additional funding ($2 million) from Sequoia.

Ycombinator only invests small amounts ($5,000 + $5,000/founder) in exchange for around 6% of equity and has invested in around 118 startups since their foundation in 2005. Some of their startups have been acquired (Reddit, Omnisio, Zenter, ClickPass, Auctomatic) and others are doing well (Scribd, Loopt, Dropbox).

It’s obviously not just about the money which probably provides a conservative 2-3 months of free development time – they get mentoring and polish from the Ycombinator principals who had previously invested all their own money – and are honed to pitch at later stage VCs and angel investors.

I was saying recently that development time for ideas really depends on the amount of time the creators can dedicate to it and the initial idea that you might get 3 months sold work into something can work wonders. This is one of the funding gaps we have – we have very little in this really early stage where you can make a huge difference with minimal outlay.

This additional funding from Sequoia means that YCombinator will be able to leverage a better cash flow and increase the number of investments from 40 per year to 60 per year – which should see them secure for another couple of years. Spreading the investment like that is the safest way to invest – as it only takes one success to make up for a large number of duds. That’s not to say that startups who don’t make it big through YCombinator are duds – it’s just one more piece of the puzzle.

I spoke with a friend recently about what I’d do if I had Â£100K to invest – I’d pretty much do a YCombinator style investment plan. We have the entrepreneurs, techies and dreamers here in Northern Ireland. We just don’t have the funding.

XCake 1st Meetup

After several months of talking about it, we’ve had our first XCake meetup. We had 20 people turn up, all told. They ranged from the education sector (Belfast Met, The University of Ulster and Queen’s University of Belfast) to the private sector (sole traders, bedroom developers, partnerships and limited companies) including some companies which have … Continue reading “XCake 1st Meetup”

After several months of talking about it, we’ve had our first XCake meetup.

We had 20 people turn up, all told. They ranged from the education sector (Belfast Met, The University of Ulster and Queen’s University of Belfast) to the private sector (sole traders, bedroom developers, partnerships and limited companies) including some companies which have a distinguished history of software development.

Philip Orr’s Home of Serendipity has another XCake writeup.

It’s to be followed next Tuesday (24th) by an XCake meetup in Dublin.

XCake iPhone meetups in Belfast and Dublin [updated]

Mentioned earlier but now gathering a little steam. These meetups are mostly informal and designed to help build a little community around what we have here on the island. XCAKE BELFAST: Thursday 19th Feb, 6 pm. Roast, Lisburn Road, Belfast. I’ve confirmed they have WiFi and will be happy to have a cluster of seats … Continue reading “XCake iPhone meetups in Belfast and Dublin [updated]”

Mentioned earlier but now gathering a little steam. These meetups are mostly informal and designed to help build a little community around what we have here on the island.

XCAKE BELFAST: Thursday 19th Feb, 6 pm. Roast, Lisburn Road, Belfast.
I’ve confirmed they have WiFi and will be happy to have a cluster of seats taken up by coffee-swilling nerds. I’ve been told of ten people who have expressed interest in going to this – let’s make it busy and kick-ass.

XCAKE DUBLIN: Tuesday 24th February, 7 pm. Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Dublin.
This is only an hour after the BizSpark Innovation Accelerator being held by the DigitalMediaForum and in the same hotel so people interested in both might be interested in attending both. There’s folk coming all the way from Belfast and Kerry coming to this so you should consider it too.

Open Source Funding?

Mark Cuban is an American billionaire entrepreneur, ranking 407th on Forbes’ “World’s Richest People” list. He owns the Dallas Mavericks and is chairman of HDNet (a HDTV Cable network). He’s been involved in some of the biggest names in eCommerce – Broadcast.com, Weblogs, Grokster, IceRocket… ..his latest idea is Open Source Funding. “Rather than trying … Continue reading “Open Source Funding?”

..his latest idea is Open Source Funding.

“Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. Im a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help.
…
I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules. Here they are:

1. It can be an existing business or a start up.
2. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days
4. It must be profitable within 90 days.
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
8. You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
13. No multi-level marketing programs”

His blog post has attracted over a thousand comments so far but, nomatter what you think of the scheme, there are some parts of his rules which seem obvious.

It can’t depend on advertising for revenue
This is obvious. Companies are not making money on advertising – the smaller companies are drying up in the baking heat of the recession and larger companies are only just weathering the situation. Newspapers, wholly dependent on advertising for their revenue (and being vastly outpaced by online models of news distribution) are struggling if not already dead.

It must be cash flow break even in 60 days. It must be profitable within 90 days. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
This effectively mean you have to be selling your product within 30 days and you’ve gotta make some money from that initial sale. Companies are going to want to get NET30 after all. You have to be profit focussed and you have to exceed your business plan sales numbers.

In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
This is the question that will give most entrepreneurs the heebie-jeebies. When you’ve worked your ass off on some project, the idea of giving part of it away it very tough to stomach. But if you don’t then there’s the question of how quickly you can pay him back (and at what return).

There’s nothing new here. This is something that Business Angels and Venture Capitalists have been doing for years. The difference is in the cachet that Mark Cuban may bring and the fact that this offer is being posted on his blog and not just an invitation on a VC web site. This idea isn’t really Open Source – it’s just taking the elevator pitch and putting it into some blog comments.

You can talk to VCs. They’re human. And some of them will be at the Digital Media Forum’s Innovation Accelerator which is an all-day event on the 24th of February in Dublin.

#portfolio

Today I did a guest lecture spot at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. The students were from two course: Interactive Media Arts and Media Studies and Production. I droned on for around an hour on the Digital Circle, entrepreneurship, funding, how they, as final year students, should seriously be considering their portfolio, the addition … Continue reading “#portfolio”

Today I did a guest lecture spot at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. The students were from two course: Interactive Media Arts and Media Studies and Production. I droned on for around an hour on the Digital Circle, entrepreneurship, funding, how they, as final year students, should seriously be considering their portfolio, the addition of extra-curricular work and even the presentation of tangents followed when pursuing curricular assignments.

I then asked this question on Twitter…

Twitter replied…

johngirvin @cimota: significant; shows genuine interest and passion for the subject if they spend free time at it. #portfolio

and

johngirvin @cimota: ex-curricular activities = more experienced, better rounded candidate. #portfolio

and

TaraSimpson @cimota, @johngivin: John nailed it, but I’d go a tad further. I’d say *hugely* significant. Software especially is much more than a day job

I agree. When asked to take on placement students earlier in the academic year, I said that I’d be interested in placing any student who could show me a portfolio outside of their coursework assignments. It stands to reason – if you turn up to a job interview and other candidates can demonstrate a significant portfolio, then you may as well go home. In addition, the creation of portfolio might mean you retain the gem of an idea which could be developed commercially in the future.

While I may have charmed some of the students into somnambulism, some seemed interested in the material and were keen to learn about the moves in the industry, keen to note down sources of funding for their pet ideas and left considering how to get a step ahead – by starting now and not waiting until after graduation.

Creative Industries Innovation Fund Workshop – Thursday 29th Jan

Today I posted a quick note about a workshop being held in the OhYeah building (with special thanks to OhYeah and NoMoreArt for helping pull it together). The event itself was conceived during an OpenCoffeeMorning conversation between myself and Marty Neill of NoMoreArt – as he puts it, democracy without bureaucracy. The workshop is designed … Continue reading “Creative Industries Innovation Fund Workshop – Thursday 29th Jan”

The workshop is designed to help those in the “creative industries” find the time to fill in the forms for the Creative Industries Innovation Fund. I’ve spoken to a lot of people about this Fund and extolled it’s virtues and I hear a lot of the same story – it’s something they’ll get around to.

Well, time is up. The closing date for this first call is Thursday the 5th of February and if you miss this one it’s months until the next. And the best reason in the world to hold a workshop is to help people focus the mind. Ideally we’re aiming for a largish group of people all focussed on filling in their forms and getting the paperwork out of the way.

There will be two sessions: one from 11 am to 1 pm and the second from 4:30 pm to 6 pm. The content for both is the same and it straddles part of lunch and just after work so that people from all walks of life can make some time to come in and at least get the forms.

The workshop itself is not about guidance – it’s not about trying to ensure success – it’s about getting the forms in on time, because if they’re not in then you’ve got no chance. I have invited representatives from the Arts Council (who are managing the fund), NIMIC and NIScreen (who are especially relevant to the digital content industry) and the Digital Circle Steering Group – hopefully an individual might be able to talk to these representatives and maybe get some guidance or inspiration from people who have experience with this sort of thing.

It’s meant to be collaborative, it’s meant to be a learning experience and it’s meant to be a shared social experience. At the most basic level it’s a heap of forms and pens and desks and chairs. What’s more is that it’ll be a collection of people who all have something creative inside them which they feel is deserving of public funding in order to have it realised.

There’s a form for registry – just to help us get an idea of how many people will turn up so I’d appreciate it if people could register beforehand. The format will be informal and it will be about completing forms.

What’s happening in Ireland …

We’ve got quite a few things happening over here so this is a little micro-link blog post about the sorts of things you can see if visiting sunny Ireland. On Wednesday the 15th January, the Northern Ireland Science Park are holding a “Seed Capital” event about how to attract early stage funding for your venture. … Continue reading “What’s happening in Ireland …”

We’ve got quite a few things happening over here so this is a little micro-link blog post about the sorts of things you can see if visiting sunny Ireland.

On Wednesday the 15th January, the Northern Ireland Science Park are holding a “Seed Capital” event about how to attract early stage funding for your venture.

On Monday the 19th Jauary, Mobile Monday Belfast will be entertaining us with presentations and discussions about Location Based Services with speakers from Locle, RateMyArea and Anaeko.

On Tuesday the 20th January, OpenCoffeeBelfast opens it’s doors at 9 am in Charlies Coffee Shop in Bradbury Place, Belfast. The opportunity to mix with technologists, entrepreneurs and people with great ideas is too good to miss.

On the 28th January, there’s a ‘free’ Digital Marketing Roadshow in Dublin. This free one-day conference will bring you up to speed on successful digital marketing for your business. From designing a website for the user experience, through building brands online, leveraging search engines, social media, and blogs, to campaigns, online PR and digital marketing. Hear from high-profile, industry leaders during this information packed day.

On the 6th and 7th of February, Unconvention launches in Northern Ireland. Backed by Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Music Industry Commission, it will have an innovative format of participant-led panels, workshops, speed mentoring, open-floor presentations and informal networking, coupled with a showcase of some of our best musical talent, Unconvention will be the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.

We’re also working on an event for collaboration, learning and networking for the Irish iPhone development community. Discussions to be found at the XCake site.

The Creative Industries Innovation Fund

I attended the Creative Industries Innovation Fund breakfast briefing with Kate Keys (Sectoral Business Development Manager at the Arts Council) this morning at The Presidents Club in Belfast. It was hosted by The Creative Entrepreneurs Club, a networking group funded by Belfast City Council. The CIIF provides access to funding for many who would not … Continue reading “The Creative Industries Innovation Fund”

The CIIF provides access to funding for many who would not normally be able to access funding. For one thing, it covers:

services
content
events
originals

– a lot of which cannot be covered by InvestNI’s funding charter due to the type of work (content, services, events) or the expectations (forecasting of Â£100K revenues). The CIIF is therefore an important part of the framework – and for this reason, existing INI clients may not be eligible. This has to be taken with a pinch of reason – someone who attended the Start A Business programme 7 years ago is an INI client but would not be restricted from applying for this grant but someone who is in receipt of an InvestNI grant in the last three years may not be eligible – in all cases, talking to your client executive is important (and even dragging him or her to the discussion with the Arts Council might be useful).

The subject of ‘not being eligible’ drew some fire from the crowd but there are very good reasons for it.

This fund is for people and companies who cannot normally avail of InvestNI funding for whatever reason. InvestNI cannot normally invest in content creation or fund the running of an event highlighting creative work – this attempts to cover that.
EC Regulations regulate the amount of support that a company can receive in three fiscal years to â‚¬200 000. There’s a detailed page at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which explains this fully.
There’s degrees of interpretation here. Again, if you received the Â£400 marketing grant as a startup, you may indeed be eligible. If your company is a new startup based around a “Collaborative Special Purpose Vehicle” then it may be fine even if some of the collaborators were previous recipients.

There are two calls remaining for CIIF applications. One started on the 5th January and ends on the 5th February. The last call starts on the 7th September and ends on the 8th October. Applications will take approximately 8 weeks to process and feedback will be given if your application is unsuccessful – the guidance was to speak to them first, apply in the first call and if unsuccessful, obtain the feedback ad re-apply for the second calls.

The judging panel for these applications will have input from the Arts Council, InvestNI, the Department of Employment and Learning, The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry and the Department of Culture, Arts and Learning.

The CIIF is a part of the funding ecosystem of the Northern Ireland marketplace. It fits around the funding available from InvestNI, NIScreen, the Arts Council and other funding bodies.

I found it incredibly encouraging to be in a room which had run out of seating, where I was sitting beside an award-winning clothes designer and someone from an award-winning design and branding company. There were a few familiar faces as well – all keen to find out how their next great project can be turned into a reality.

60% of the fund will be going to fund 143 individual projects over the next two-and-a-bit years to March 2011. The remaining 40% will be distributed to Sectoral Bodies ( councils, universities, sector leads ) to run projects which will help focus on the themes of innovation, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship. The Arts Council are urging individuals to apply early and apply often. The demand received for this fund will help indicate a further and/or extended funding requirement for the future.

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