Sweden - US Entrepreneurial Forum 2009 Update - Get the presentations while available

Here's a quick update, if you would like see the presentations from the Sweden-US Entrepreneurial Forum 2009 event, check out the following link while they are still available.

http://www.esbri.se/sweden-us/2009_presentations.asp

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for select reprensentation and management of business partner and outsourcing services!

Notes from Sweden - US Entrepreneurial Forum 2009, Sep 16 in Stockholm

I attended the first day of this event in Stockholm. Here are some key notes and comments from some of the presenters;

Magnus Aronsson, Managing Director for ESBRI, the institute for entrepreneurs and small business research, http://www.esbri.se and Randy Mitchell, Private Equite Specialist, U.S. Department of Commerce were the co-chairs of this event. Randy talked among other things about the usefulness of the SBIC, Small Business Investment Company. For more info see http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/financing/sbic.html

Jöran Hägglund the State Secretary, Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and COmmunications was also part of the introduction. A panel about the role of government followed. Us view basically "Get the Government out of the way"... where as the Swedish version is more of Government guidance and control...

My two cents out of this is basically, I think Sweden needs to explore the "Chinese" way of developing businesses, "create economical free zones" where you as an entrepreneur can get a number of years of no tax and other benefits to get a chance succeeding building a new business that can become a big enterprise. All the political parties and people are just too focused on getting (re)-elected to their offices and cannot do what it takes. One simple example is, why should I have to pay 100k SEK (about 15k+ USD) to register a corporation in Sweden when it will cost you about 30 USD in Las Vegas and less than 250 pounds in UK... and why should you have to pay about 55% tax on personal company income (salary)??

The next session focused on how to get funded these days in the aftermath of a world-wide financial crisis.

Kimberlie Cerrone, entreprenuer and involved with The Angels Forum in Palo Alto, CA. See http://www.angelsforum.com and kimberlie at gmail.com or +14153782838.

Some points;

• 1M USD in revenue is what investors are looking for
• "Put me as no 1 on your B round of funding"
• Intrapreneurship
• Great crop of companies will evolve in the years 2012-2014 in the valley once liquidity available

As a reference for Kimberlie, see also

http://www.esbri.se/pdf/Panel_4_Kimberlie_Cerrone.pdf

Clare Fairfield, Managing Director Concerto Ventures was next, for more info about Clare see http://www.esbri.se/artikel_visa.asp?id=506

Some points;

• Government programs can be more useful for entrepreneurs these days
• Use service providers
• VC companies with over 50M USD will get new SEC regulatory rules
• Consider cross border alliances
• Break down funding needs into smaller pieces
• Conserve, conserve, conserve your cash needs
• Use milestones whenever possible
• Funding rate 1-2%
• Success rate 10-20%
• Fail rate 20-40%

A conclusion I make of his presentation was basically as before, do not use VC money unless you have no other way of getting funded.

Katarina Bonde, Managing Director of Kubicorp was up next in the funding section. See for e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/katarina-bonde/0/23/78b for her public LinkedIn profile.

Here are her options for getting funded;

• Through revenues
• Regional funds
• If you have got positive sales go to bank
• If you are in the export business go to EKN (Exportkreditnämden), http://www.ekn.se
• Use covertible debt
• Finance through invoices
• Joint projects with customers
• Partner with distributors
• Create a pre pay business model
• Barter of trade your products or services
• In Sweden check out the SVCA list of VCs, http://www.svca.se
• Look in different regions of the country and start there
• Partner with customers in a coop, example given, in state of Washington, a wine development company started by inviting interested customers to buy shares of the company to get started

Mikael Karlsson, Managing Director and Fund Manager presented the newly created ALMI Invest.

ALMI has been around for quite some time but this spring they have launched the new investment part of the company. See http://www.almi.se

• Regional offices owned by Swedish counties to 49%
• They do equity investments
• 1-10 MSEK put up by them
• Mission is to bridge gap to get started
• They have 7 regional funds, 1B SEK, launched in spring 09, 50% EU funding
• Max 50% co-funding is the rule
• They are looking for 5-15 MSEK investments, companies with good potential and within 7 yrs an exit

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for select reprensentation and management of business partner and outsourcing services!

SIME2008 - Trends you can take to the bank, views from GP Bullhound

Per Roman presented "Trends you can take to the bank". Per is CEO for the investment bank, GP Bullhound.

Per outlined his opinions and views about the present market conditions. We have got a 38% on average down on any market index you can follow. It is tough for any company that needs funding right now.

If you meet investors, be direct, in many cases, investment companies do not want to say no, they say let's schedule another meeting. Be direct, ask for term sheets, either you get them or if not move on.

The IPO market is practically dead. But, the M&A market is still alive even if the market for acquisitions on VC backed companies is down to 2001-2002 levels. About 140 deals this year.

The overall advice;

• Be in a niche market that is an expanding market
• Have strong distribution and sales capacity
• Be in a business that scales internationally
• Have domain expertise

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services' needs.

PlugandPlayEXPO 2008 - Get Exposed for funding

This is an excellent opportunity for startups in or who can be present in Silicon Valley next Thursday. The Sunnyvale based PlugandPlayTechcenter For those of you who do not know who these people are; PlugandPlayTechcenter is a Silicon Valley business incubator company with buildings in Sunnyvale and Redwood City. The building in Sunnyvale where this event will take place next Thursday, September 25th, 2008 is housing about 120 startups.

According to PnP staff, an average 4 of the EXPO presenting companies have received term sheets after getting “EXPOsed” at each of our events.

Keynote speakers will be Scott McNealy, Chairman and Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems and Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Agenda Fall 2008
11:30am – 12:45pm Registration, Networking and Lunch
12:45pm – 1:00pm Welcome / Introductions
1:00pm – 1:15pm First Keynote Speech - Scott McNealy (Sun Microsystems)
1:15pm – 2:00pm "Extreme Pitching" 20 companies
2:00pm – 3:30pm Exhibition
3:30pm – 4:15pm "Extreme Pitching" 20 companies
4:15pm – 5:00pm 3 Power Point Presentations + Awards
5:00pm – 5:15pm Second Keynote Speech - Tim Draper (DFJ)
5:30pm – 8:00pm Reception / Cocktail

Please feel free to contact Ryan Stevenson (email to ryan at plugandplaytechcenter.com) or visit website to register. Last day to register is September 19th, 2008.

http://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/events/expo.php

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your business services needs.

Start Me Up or Not? Notes from a Garage Technology Ventures event

A lot of people are asking me about start up company information. I found while doing computer maintenance my old notes from a Garage Technology Ventures event in Mountain View, California, USA.

After having quickly read through the notes, I think (what do you think?) most of the information is still valid. So here's a summary;

Guy Kawasaki presenting;

Get Started

1. Make meaning

a. Increase quality of life

b. Prevent end of something good

c. Provide quality product & service

2. Make mantra

a. Everybody writes a mission statement - don't go there, make a simple statement with a meaning

b. Starbucks - "Rewarding Moments"

c. Nike - "Authentic, athletic experiences"

3. Get going

a. Start making product or service

b. Think big, 10x better, create the next curve

c. Find soul mates as working buddies

d. Think love/hate design

e. Design differently (I want it)

f. Previous employee does not see it; Start your own company

g. What the hell, let's build it

h. There must be a better way

4. Define a Business Model

a. Who has your money in their pockets?

i. Who is your customer?

ii. What do they want?

iii. How much will they pay?

b. Keep it simple

c. Copy somebody's already working business model

d. Ask women about your business model

5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks)

a. Milestones

i. MS1 - Proof of concept

ii. MS2 - Complete design spec

iii. MS3 - Finish prototype

iv. MS4 - Raise capital

v. MS5 - Ship prototype

vi. MS6 - Ship final

vii. MS7 - Break even

b. Assumptions (list and test real assumptions)

i. Test product

ii. Test market

iii. Test gross margin

iv. Test sales calls

v. Test sales cycle

vi. Test conversion rate

vii. Test payment cycle

viii. Test payments

ix. Test receivables

x. Test pricing

c. Tasks

i. List tasks for milestones

Bill Reichert presenting;

Raising VC funding

Key VC interests;

· Rapid sustainable growth

· Size & scale

· Disproportional profitability

1. Start smart

a. Corporation and stock issues, buyback agreement for founders stock

b. Employee considerations

c. IPR value, NDA

d. Seed investments including loans

e. Corporate governance practices

2. Tell a good story

a. Team

b. Problem & opportunity

c. Technology & solution

d. Sustainable advantages

e. Business model

f. Partnerships & leverage

3. Make the numbers add up - Demo solid grasp for your business

a. Long term financial projection (vision)

b. Near term operating plan (tactical)

c. Capital requirements

d. Capital structure over multiple rounds

e. Levers of profitability & key metrics

4. Find the right investors

a. Generate momentum

b. Target your venture contacts

c. Nurture syndicates (lead and others)

d. Manage selling process

5. Build your credibility

a. Customers

b. Strategic partners

c. Investors (seed)

d. Advisory and board members

e. Gurus and experts

f. Milestones

g. No lies

Bootstrapping

Four basic models
· Garage

· University (research grant, technology or government grant)

· Services to product

· Core customer & Partner (make sure you keep licensing rights to sell to other non-competitors)

Sustainable models
· Low capital requirements

· Low cost of customer acquisitions

· Rapid cash flow/Cash up front

· Recurring revenue

Nine alternatives to find bootstrapping sources
1) Day job (contract or employment)

2) Credit cards & mortgages

3) The 3Fs (friends, fools and family)

4) Founding angel (seed)

5) Government grants

6) Incubator

7) License rights (exclusive rights for 1 market)

8) Core Customer

9) Version 1.0 - Real customers buying your product

Bootstrap Economies - It's about payback, not ROI, therefore model payback on each expense
1) Product features

2) Marketing & Promotion

3) Sales expenses

4) Overhead

Bootstrap Product Development - Get to your product fast
1) Work nights & weekends

2) Use PhD students, dissertation projects

3) Tap offshore resources

4) Productize a consulting project as NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) income

5) License a finished product

6) Import a finished product

Bootstrap Selling - Design in repeat sales
1) Rifleshot selling

2) Community (viral marketing)

3) Channel sales

4) OEM partnership/private label

5) Internet

6) Consulting

Bootstrap Marketing - Leverage the leader's marketing
1) Press releases

2) Events, seminars, webinars

3) Directories

4) Analysts

5) Affiliate marketing programs

6) Adwords

Bootstrap Recruiting - Focus on raw talent

1) Networking

2) University

3) Competitors

4) Contract recruiters

5) Not Monster

6) Nurture "talent in working"

Bootstrap Operations - Leverage ecosystem
1) Core: Product development, Sales, Customer support

2) Not Core: Coding, marketing, overhead, manufacturing

When do you stop Bootstrapping?

1) The VCs start to call

2) Product & market becomes hot

3) You can validate revenue projections

4) You can validate payback models

5) You can operate indefinitely at break even

6) You are profitable

7) Never