Finland Should Copy This UK Investment Scheme
There’s an interesting instrument being implemented in the UK. It’s called Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).
In the light of the current financial crisis, this kind of tools should definitely be taken into use in Finland as well. It’s not too far-stretched to say that without getting many (really many) start-ups of the ground and really fly, we’re doomed. We should not let Angry Birds fly alone, there space in the sky for the others as well.
This kind of incentives would motivate private investors to invest in early-stage companies which have great difficulties to raise the initial funds to prove their point. Even though there are emerging new funding tools such as venturebonsai.com, it’s not enough. Maybe the best approach would be combining these two approaches: effective deal-flow and process tool together with tax incentives. This would be perfectly doable.
Summary of this proposal is:
- Individuals will benefit from… Continue reading
The First $100K Is Always The Most Difficult
We’re happy to announce that AppGyver Inc. has successfully closed its first crowdfunding investment round, totaling 100,000 USD. As all the investors were from Europe, the burden related to the SEC regulation did not cause any trouble.
As far as we’re aware, this is also world’s first real crowd investing round! This is also a great milestone for Venture Bonsai as it has now been proven that the whole end-to-end process works well.
Lessons Learned
As this was the first of its kind, we learned a few things (in the process) that companies like AppGyver should pay more attention to.
Lesson #1: Get the Papers Ready!
The first thing regards preparing the paperwork. The round was started on February 9th but some of the must-have documents, such as the Shareholders’ Agreement, weren’t actually ready until late April. As one of the requirements for the investors is to sign (electronically)… Continue reading
Press Release: New Crowd Investing Service Venture Bonsai Launched
NEW CROWD INVESTING SERVICE VENTURE BONSAI LAUNCHED
Venture Bonsai is a new tool for startups running Crowd Investing investment rounds. This means raising money from many parties in small chunks instead of a few larger investments. Venture Bonsai enables versatile pre-investment communication between the investor prospects and the entrepreneurs, combined with social media mechanisms. Venture Bonsai is first of its kind in offering a complete tool set for all parties to manage the whole investment process.
Supporting growth companies is largely seen as important for Europe and its future. However political intentions alone do not help, it is positive action that’s required. That is the idea behind Venture Bonsai, founded by experienced serial entrepreneurs with the courage to implement real and useful tools using private funds.
“Venture Bonsai is the first startup funding tool accessible by any private investor. It allows anybody to become an angel investor with investments just… Continue reading
Did Nokia kill the Finnish Startup Ecosystem?
Yesterday 11/2/11 was the day of the big news. Nokia ecosystem in Finland is going to be shut down.
Hey wait, what ecosystem? Well, the one around Nokia and Symbian, based on Nokia buying services from subcontracting companies. It could be defined as a system where one big giant defines the game and the others follow. Too bad if that one horse dies… like happened yesterday.
It of course could have been otherwise. People always keep asking what would be the next Nokia for Finland. It’s a wrong question, based on very old Finnish understanding of military-like chain-of-command. Riding on a one-horse-only strategy is bound to fail.
One of the big problems of the last decade was betting on one horse only. Well, it’s not of course fault of Nokia if everybody wanted to work there instead of being entrepreneur. Working for Nokia was cool, being an entrepreneur was… Continue reading
The Statue of Liberty was Crowdfunded
So you knew crowdfunding is not actually a new idea. It was, after all, used already for years in the music and movie industry.
But did you know that it dates way beyond that. Even The Statue of Liberty in New York was in a way “crowdfunded”. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France. They agreed that the French finance the statue and the Americans provide the pedestal and the site.
But the Americans ran out of money.
Here’s the story…
The price tag for building the pedestal and erecting the Statue topped $300,000. The American Committee raised half this sum between 1877 and 1884. Then a crisis occurred: the Statue was due to arrive, funds had run out, and work on the pedestal stopped. In March 1885, publisher Joseph Pulitzer and his newspaper, The World, came to the rescue with a highly successful… Continue reading
What About the Exit?
So you got your friends, family and even some angels believing in you to invest in your startup. But what if it takes a bit longer than anticipated to make it a success? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mechanism for the early-stage private investors to make a partial exit?
Many people believe that having a possibility to exit a private investment withing 3 years would greatly accelerate the willingness to invest. The effect would probably be much greater than any of those planned tax breaks. Tax breaks are useful, after all, only after making an exit.
Why should you, as an entrepreneur, worry about the exit strategy of your private investors?
Aren’t there already enough challenges of your own?
There are quite a few things that make this important aspect to think about.
Well, at least to think about whether it concerns you or not.
According to the… Continue reading
Looking for an Angel Investor in Europe?
Looking for an Angel Investor in Europe?
Take a look of the following statistics by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) .
The graph shows number of angels groups in each country.
In Europe you’ll have the best chances of finding an angel investor in the following countries:
- France (66 angel investor groups)
- Germany (38 angel investor groups)
- Spain (37 angel investor groups))
- Sweden (22 angel investor groups)
- United Kingdom (18 angel investor groups)
- Italy (11 angel investor groups)
- Portugal (10 angel investor groups)
- Netherlands (9 angel investor groups)
- Switzerland (8 angel investor groups)
- Norway (7 angel investor groups)
Finland, Greece and Slovenia have only one angel investor group.
Silicon Valley Early-Stage VC & Angel Investor Event
Today I had an opportunity to participate a pitching event arranged by FundingPost.com, in Palo Alto, California. The event consisted of group of entrepreneurs pitching for the audience and then the panel of Venture Capitalists giving comments on the state of the industry and the presentations as well.
It was stated that Friends&Family investment rounds can typically be up to half a million dollars (unless you have really rich friends and family) and VC investments typically start at 2 million. So there is a great gap in between, and that has increased the deal flow for angel investors. At the same time “time to liquidity” ie. time from investment to exit has doubled. Today, investors may have to be prepared to stick with the company even more than 10 years.
As always, some companies are more “hot” than others. That influences the interest to invest. In the best position is… Continue reading
Elevator Pitches on the Video!
As part of the Venture Bonsai concept, we shot the first five elevator pitches today in Helsinki.
The idea is to make two videos for start-ups looking for funding: one public 100 seconds video and another 5 minutes non-public video which can be shown to potential investors.
To our knowledge, this is the first time elevator pitches are really made professionally.
Same questions were asked from each entrepreneur and if the answer filmed did not go well enough it was shot again. All the aspects of each answer were fine-tuned towards high quality of the message.
The filming itself was done by a professional as will be done the editing.
Looking forward seeing really cool videos next week!