We haven't gone away

Seems it's been a while since I lasted posted but things have been happening.

I was in the UK for a week although I did do some work on the business.

The app looks a lot of better.

We tried to get a third co-founder but they disappeared off the radar.

We've onboarded one business though they actually have to use the app now and so far they haven't. We're not surprised and expect they will need a bit of hand holding.

I was ill with a cold which, in retrospect, was probably a flu like infection and has been going around Munich.

More good advice

Some hours after the meeting with the lady involved in funding startups I met another lady who runs a PR company in Munich (with global reach).

She had some great feedback and advice about our solution and also said she would introduce me to an investor.

Progress

Despite my bloke interrupted post actually I have been making progress:

The app more looks like an app now. Although it did involve a tour around stack overload and github.

At the end of yesterday's pitch night one of the organisers mentioned that they would holding a "clinic" today to see if their startup-assisting-business could help startups with financing. They have an interesting business model for this.

I hope I didn't kill too many people in the room as I rushed to the front to put my name down.

Met the organiser this morning and will send them a pitch deck and have a conference call with them soon.

She too stressed that we need to show some traction. We will.

Take-aways from yesterday's pitch event

Last night I went to another Entrepreneurs Night - pitch event at werk1.

Here are my takeaways:

• European investors are funding European companies which have gone to the US to find funding.
• US valuations are significantly higher than Europeans ones
• Valuations cannot but be disproved - if someone says your company is not worth €8m or whatever ask them why not, how much is it worth and why.
• Better valuations are needed because by series E funding of €50m is not really enough for a company.
• No European angel has been outstandingly successful with a European startup. On average they are losing money.

And Axel's advice:

• 8x20 on forward looking revenues (I really must get the slides for his presentation)
• get revenue as soon as you can
• ideally grow by 1% per day
• have a disruptive business model

For the pitches they were judging on:

• Team
• Idea
• Growth Strategy
• the pitch itself.

At the end he reminded us that entrepreneurs are, at most, 0.1% of society.

Bloke interrupted

Been busy but:

• my Surface Pro died. It was only 11 months old. I went to the shop from where I bought it and they told me that if they sent it back to Microsoft it could take six weeks to replace. When they realised there were no armed police nearby they then calmed me down by telling me that I could also use a special Microsoft service to expedite this. As a result no one died and the shop wasn't horribly destroyed. Microsoft were awesome and a few days I had delivered by courier a brand spanking new Surface. I did, however, have to configure it for my needs.
• On the day of the Venture Wiesn in Munich (an event I had been advised to attend by a VC) I developed my third ever migraine. I took a pill my doctor had prescribed for this eventuality. Instead of feeling "foggy" I now felt "woozy" but not better. I checked the details of the medicine on line and worked out from its half-life that I would be ok to have a beer later on that evening. I ended up having four beers at the Venture Wiesn and felt much better. Made good contacts there.
• A few evenings ago my modem suddenly died. In the morning I had to go to a local DT shop, buy a new one straight away and then set it up. Turns out the modem included a firewall with an email service whitelist which is, apparently, updated by DT on a regular basis. But my email service provider is in the US and so wasn't on the whitelist. After a bit of investigation I manually added it.
• And yesterday I went into town with the alertness of a zombie. I had forgotten to renew my transit ticket and, for the first time ever, was unlucky enough to suddenly be ticket inspected. Not a cheap experience.

Better news:

• A week or just over ago I had a Skype call with an interim manager who knows some angels. Although what we are doing isn't in their space, he reckoned we had a good idea. He also added that we need some traction, at least a couple of customers, even for angels.
• We have a young IT guy volunteering to help us in his spare time. It will take a little while to bring him up to speed on how we do things but once he understands this he will probably be more productive than me - even though he had limited time due to work reasons.
• We're pursuing a third co-founder who has been a bit unlucky recently but hopefully will be able to join us.

Take-aways for Funding for Startups online seminar

 Yesterday I watched an online seminar on this subject - it's focus was doing this in Europe.

Here are my takeaways (with some names remove but - for co-founders - in our samepage site).

• Seedcamp - good way to progress your startup
• It is now easier to find funding in Europe
• Crowd funding here is alive and well - I've heard this elsewhere, it's difficult to do this in the US due to their overbearing regulations. It's also a great way to involve your customer. It is most definitely not Kickstarter which they called a demand generator. Notable platforms include Seders and Crowdcube.
• Angels - seed funding up to €1.5m. They may not, however, be so involved as before. Some names will be in our samepage version of this:
• Keep going to events to meet potential angels.
• Also, get to London and Berlin to get into the startup ecosystem there
• "Timing is important" in terms of product 
• Investors are now spoilt for choice
• Quality of founders has improved.
• Have a comprehensive team
• Make sure you can differentiate against similar ideas from competitors
• Be global - you can no longer build a one-country-only business and expect funding
• "Once Delaware can't go back" - meaning if you register there you are stuck
• UK registration is still recommended - despite all that Brexit nonsense - because of transparency and respect for the rule of law.
• There are several government grants (Honey 2020, Marco Polo 2, London Investment Fund, Enterprise Capital Fund, Angel Co fund) although they may be costly in terms of preparation of the materials (need lawyers etc.)
• "Capital in King" - approach funders before you need the funding
• Investors are looking for:
• Team
• Proper incorporation
• Thorough understanding of the business area you are in
• Traction
• Engagement - understand the value to, and use by, users
• The solution should be
• big
• needed
• and talk about it, get feedback

Take away from the PAN investment seminar

Another excellent seminar, the third and last in this series.

A pitch deck was given out but here are my additional take aways:

• This talk was focused on VCs and seemed to have a slight German edge
• Get financing for 15 to 18 months, not fewer 
• VC ownership can range from 20 to 30%
• The initial pitch deck should be no more than 20 to 30 slides
• It takes six to eight months to close
• You must have questions for the VC
• Lawyer up
• Angel investment ranges from very small to 10m(!)
• Next stage investors will ask them to compare your previous round's pitch deck with what you are now presenting
• So you should allow your seed round to have a decent amount of time to show achievements  and traction 
• Guaranteed catalog is hard to negotiate 
• By series A show there is at least a plan to eventually get a CFO