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visionarypursuits · 7 years ago

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Turn Pitch Mode: OFF

In my experience as an entrepreneur, I can not stress enough, the importance of networking.

Getting out there, attending events, and meeting people is an incredible way to get invaluable feedback on your product, to grow your business, and most importantly to form meaningful relationships and make friends.

As the saying goes...People love to do business with people they like.

Making friends that are also in the same industry or on the same journey can also provide a necessary support network as you build a business that often first starts in isolation.

Understanding that you are not alone and that everyone faces similar highs and lows as they build their business can help put things in perspective and keep you focused on your journey.

So with all of that in mind, I definitely think there is a right and wrong way to network - so let me share what has worked for me.

1) A Support Network

"These are our People" - Sam Altman (Y-Combinator on Startup Grind)

Surrounding yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs is essential to your success.

Some people will be further ahead and be able to provide guidance, and some will be a little behind you and that's where you can help. You have a lot in common and that allows you can make a genuine connection pretty quickly.

Let me highlight the two key takeaways in what I just mentioned - give value and a genuine connection.

This cannot be accomplished by immediately meeting someone with your business card in hand, pitching them, and asking them for something you need!

Feel free to talk to about what you are working on, but start by asking who they are and what they are up to. Offer your advice, if they ask, and provide constructive feedback but that should happen all after introductions and a thoughtful 'what brings you here?' If you met someone at the bus stop or a party you wouldn't turn to them, hand them a business card and proceed to pitch your business and end the conversation with your current fundraising status. It's crazy. As an event host, my first job is just to welcome people and to try and make them feel comfortable. Understand that they are probably feeling awkward in this new setting and this is amplified if they are alone. So just keep the context in mind. Don not have your team jump on people and ask them to download your app. Be genuine and think about making lasting relationships. Once you have got to know them a little or if they ask feel free to talk about your startup.

A way to talk about and improve your business

Do not be afraid to talk openly about your project, particularly if you have not started. Ideas are nothing without execution. The guy or girl that had the idea for Facebook before Zuckerberg had exactly that - just an idea. Talking about your product, demonstrating its features, can provide you with invaluable feedback. Its a mechanism for improvement not for people to steal IP, nor do you have to take anyone's advice to heart. As a rule of thumb, consider that people are generally trying to help you improve your offer, not trying to put you down - don't take it personally. As entrepreneurs, we often fall in love with our startup and have an intimate knowledge of each of its features, and how it should operate. So it should be enlightening that if and when people use it and have issues navigating the product. You want to know these issues and make improvements before you launch publicly. The fault is on your side not theirs so Remain objective!

Meet potential clients / partners

The world certainly becomes smaller and your chances of serendipity will definitely increase as you network. Events bring a lot of people together, those looking for co-founders, venture capitalists looking for investment opportunities, and service providers that are usually looking to sell you something but could also become customers. Your next client or business opportunity can literally land in your lap as a result, for a very little cost. That can also come indirectly, by making a genuine impression on someone that then, in turn, recommends you to a friend.

Staying top of mind and relevant

When someone says 'I need help with social media', unless you have good friend that has a small agency, or does that for a living - your mind naturally gravitates to the last person that you met - usually from an event! Networking helps you to stay relevant. "Oh I wish I could get someone to sit my dog". "Oh wow I just met the founder of a dog sitting platform - let me connect you". What are the chances? :) The beauty is that the referral also comes from a trusted source. So stay active, particularly in your early days.

Say hello to the organiser

This is an underrated piece advice that is tremendously powerful. At the end of an event people often clamour around the speaker and for obvious reasons, and this is absolutely something you should do, but, it is also incredibly powerful to introduce yourself to the organiser, to say thank you and congratulate them on a great event.

These people are not only connected to the speaker but probably know a lot of people in the room, what they do for a living, and how they could help you. Further, their introduction to these people gives you a top-level referral.

Just meet people, be human!

The advice is simple, genuinely listen and try to help. It may very well be the case that the chance to introduce your own business may never arise, and if that is the case - never force it. Authenticity is never forced in fact it looks awkward. Just be human, its not a rcae to hand out business cards!:) Hopefully this helped give you a few helpful tactics for networking at your next event - and see you around the traps!:)

#Networking #Startup Tips

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visionarypursuits · 7 years ago

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Marketing Your Equity Crowdfunding Campaign Pt.1

Ensuring your campaign is successful has a lot to do with the marketing you both prior to and during your campaign. You may have an incredible business, that is capable of global success but if no one knows about it - you will likely fail. At least from a campaign perspective.

At Wealth Circuit, of course, we want you to succeed - so we have compiled a number of marketing tactics that you can experiment with and deploy. The key word is 'experiment'. Try to keep your strategy 'lean' until you figure out what is working, then double down on the channels with the best results.

PRE-CAMPAIGN

Landing page Before you start your campaign you might want to think about an equity crowdfunding focused landing page. You can use this to get your existing database excited about the opportunity to and to market to outsiders about your upcoming offer.

Your existing fanbase will likely be your greatest supporters. The landing page can simply communicate your proposition with a 'register your interest' sign up form. This way you already have a list of pre-registered parties before you start your campaign. To add another layer of interest, you might want to look at products like viral loops that allow's you to build a pre-launch giveaway or referral system into your sign-up process.

Viral Loop's popular programs include; instant rewards, goal-based rewards and giveaways and mimic the actual tactics used by startups that went viral pre-launch.

The leaderboard concept, for example, presents you with your current place in line after sign up (ex. congrats you are currently 123) and encourages you to share the offer in order to move up the ladder fast-tracking your access to the product. If someone is genuinely interested enough to hand you there email address upon sign up then there is a good chance that they have a friend that is probably also interested in your offer so this is the optimal time to make the offer. If they, in turn, think the offer is so great that they also need to pass it on - then congratulations, you have your viral loop. Content Strategy The greatest campaigns are well thought out and well-executed, usually with months of planning and a dense activity calendar that includes posts that go out on social, an outreach program (both to complimentary niche bloggers and to social influencers), and a backlog of content for your own site that goes out in a consistent manner. This strategy should also continue throughout the campaign. Influencer Outreach Each and every market comes with its own set of influencers, and these do not necessarily have to be Instagram stars. Xero, for example, found that accountants influenced the decision of which software their clients would use and consequently focused their marketing efforts on accountants. Find and target the influencers in your niche. In addition to helping you spread the word about your company, these people would also make for great investors as their influence continues to grow. Social Sharing Give your audience a selection of 'ready to share' content. That is, a number of tweets, images, and even a press kit with product shots and branding, that is ready to share with the links included. If you can make it as easy as 'copy and paste' then the uptake will be significantly greater then if they had to assemble the post themselves and lose momentum. Inbound Automation When you start getting traffic - how you handle that traffic is very important! Some research goes as far as to say that 95% of your users will not return! So be ready to convert. Consider a chat window or using the new Facebook Messenger chat widget that can be added quite easily to your site. You want to be able to send them on your desired path, perhaps offering them an ebook in exchange for their email address or automating a message that lets them know you will be with them shortly. With the details secured you are able to follow up or market to them at a later stage. Retargeting Lastly, once visitors have hit your site, make sure you have Google analytics and Facebook pixel integrated into your site. Once they leave you will still have the opportunity to advertise to them at a later stage. If users then see your offer on another site they trust, it jots their memory about your company, their visit to you site, and ultimately gives you another chance at to converting them. After all, only '2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store'. Retargeting brings back the other 98%. In part 2 we will look at Marketing - during the campaign itself, so stay tuned and join our newsletter to receive all of our updates.

#Campaign #Marketing

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visionarypursuits · 7 years ago

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The Australian Funding Landscape

In each startup ecosystem around the world, there is a similar infrastructure that can perhaps best be illustrated (see below). To simplify, it is a set of people and organisations that surround the entrepreneurs or startup companies in order to support them on their journey. If you were to look at the ecosystem through the lens of 'how can I obtain funding' or 'which ways can I raise funding' there are four main avenues. This also becomes important in instances like government grants which can allow you to keep innovating without the need to give away an equity in exchange.

1) Government

Is a great source of funding for innovative businesses, which usually takes the form of grants and major networking opportunities through such programs as 'landing pads' and trade missions designed to give you either funding for creating unique intellectual property or to help you with international expansion through top-level introductions.

2) Investment and Funding

This includes everything from angel investors through to major venture capital firms and just about everything in between. This can include; raising funds from friends and family all the way through to relatively new modes of funding such as equity crowdfunding and ICOs [initial coin offerings (usually reserved for blockchain startups)]. You would also include incubators and accelerator programs in this category.

3) Universities

University funding opportunities are usually reserved for their students or alumni and is usually conducted through accelerator programs.

4) Service Providers / Large Corporates

In this article, I bundle these together because they are often, one and the same and usually result in either corporate accelerator programs or if you are lucky down the track - acquisition offers.

In looking at each of these subsets of the funding component of Australian startup ecosystem, I start to identify each of the main players in each of the subsets, which in turn becomes quite a handy resource. So we decided to share it with you.

Government Funding Options

In each scenario below, please click on the link to find out more about the offer in detail.

Research & Development Tax Incentive

If you've been developing a new product, process, equipment or service you may be entitled to have over 40% of your development expenses refunded. If you are time poor we suggest you look at services like PwC's Nifty Grants that for a flat rate will manage the entire process for you

Austrade - Landing Pads

'Landing Pads help market-ready startups and scaleups take their business global'. The Landing Pads program provides market-ready startups and scaleups the opportunity to land and expand in global innovation hubs.

Some of the perks include: • a 90-day residency in a co-working space • introductions to networks of investors, mentors and strategic partners • access to a community that supports Australian entrepreneurs • business advice to help grow your business.

Landing pads are a brilliant way to test the waters with a new market before you make the commitment to set up an office in that region.

Tax Incentives for Sophisticated Investors

Tax incentives for eligible investors include:

• A 20 per cent non-refundable carry-forward tax offset on investment, capped at $200,000 per investor, per year. • A 10 year capital gains tax exemption for qualifying investments held for at least twelve months.

Accelerating Commercialisation Grant

This grant provides projects up to 50% of the expenditure to a maximum of:

• $250,000 for commercialisation offices and eligible partner entities • $1 million for all other applicants.

Matched funding of up to $1 million to cover eligible commercialisation costs to help them to take novel products, processes and services to market.

If your business is a little further along this is a brilliant funding option.

Early Stage Investment Company (ESIC)

This is a relatively new scheme and it is by far the most under-utilised given its value to sophisticated investors.

It offers a non-refundable carry forward tax offset equal to 20% of the amount paid for their qualifying investments. This is capped at a maximum tax offset amount of $200,000 for the investor and their affiliates combined in each income year modified capital gains tax (CGT) treatment, under which capital gains on qualifying shares that are continuously held for at least 12 months and less than ten years may be disregarded. Capital losses on shares held less than ten years must be disregarded.

Business Growth Grants

Offer matched funding of up to $20,000 for the cost of hiring an expert to help with implementing the advice and strategies recommended through the Business Evaluation, Growth Services, Supply Chain Facilitation or Tourism Partnerships programmes.

Export Market Development Grants (EMDG)

The Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme is a key Australian Government financial assistance program for aspiring and current exporters. Administered by Austrade, the scheme supports a wide range of industries.

The EMDG scheme: • encourages small- and medium-sized Australian businesses to develop export markets • reimburses up to 50 per cent of eligible export promotion expenses above $5,000 provided that the total expenses are at least $15,000 • provides up to eight grants to each eligible applicant.

Hot DesQ (Advance Queensland)

'Hot DesQ is a competitive application process with international and interstate entrepreneurs vying to receive $50,000 - $100,000 in funding to relocate their ideas and business ventures to Queensland'.

Jobs NSW MVP Grant

Offers matched funding grant of up to 50% of approval total development costs is available to eligible NSW startups, to a maximum of $25,000.

Ignite Ideas Fund (Advance Queensland)

Offers grants of up to $250,000 (excluding GST) to support activities that will test and implement commercialisation plans for a product, process or service that is at or beyond minimum viable product or market ready stage.

Angel Investor Groups

Innovation Bay

Angel / Founder Dinners which have raised over $25m for the companies that have attended (currently hosting events across Australia).

Sydney Angels

The Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund (SASF) is an AUD $10 million investment fund that invests 50/50 alongside Sydney Angels’ members in early-stage businesses they have selected.

Melbourne Angels

Angels in the Melbourne Angels group typically invest between $10,000 and $100,000 per transaction individually and from $100,000 to $500,000 collectively as a group.

Crowdfunding Platforms

Traditional crowdfunding platforms are also a great way of raising money for your project without giving up an equity stake. They also allow you to quickly validate the need for your product and whether you have a market. If people are willing to support your project at the idea stage, by putting money down, this gives you a pretty clear indication that there is a market to pursue.

Kickstarter

The World's #1 crowdfunding platform.

Pozible

Australia's leading crowdfunding platform.

Gofundme

Leading crowdfunding platform with a social twist.

Equity Crowdfunding Platforms

Birchal

Is a brand-focused equity crowdfunding platform brought to you by the team that created Pozible.

Equitise

A well-known Australian equity crowdfunding platform with some serious partners, including: Investec, AWI Ventures, H2 Ventures, Tank Stream Ventures and Bridgelane Capital.

Venture Crowd

The Artesian backed equity crowdfunding platform that has already raised over $20m for its companies.

Venture Capital

AirTree Ventures (Sydney $250m Fund)

SquarePeg Ventures (Melbourne $234m Fund)

BlueSky Ventures (Brisbane $200m Fund)

Blackbird Ventures (Sydney $200m Fund)

Artesian (Sydney/China $255m Fund)

Rampersand (Melbourne $50m Fund)

If your business already has some serious traction than venture capital is of course, a great option. Having the right investors means access to leading industry expertise and connections.

It might also add that there is a couple of great resources from AirTree Ventures (found on an open source Google Doc), which includes an incredible investor list, featuring the names of all of the prominent Investors across Australia and a tab which covers most of Australia's accelerator programs with all of their terms.

Investment Funding Accelerator Focused

The above list presented by Artesian Venture Partners showcases the most active accelerator programs (including those from universities and large scale corporations) across Australia.

The Rise of Corporate Innovation Labs and Accelerators

Corporate venture arms are becoming more prevalent as corporates test the waters of innovation with everything from hackathons through to branded accelerator programs. These programs are predominately executed using specialist third parties, namely Slingshot and Collective Campus.

Companies that are heavily invested in emerging technologies have their own 'labs' and/or dedicated venture funds to invest in complimentary businesses and possible disruption. They are away that a small competitor with a unique proposition could become a real threat in future, so it is smart to make them partners early on.

The beauty of these types of programs is the strategic investment that can come major customers as a result.

#Australia #Funding Options #Ecosystem

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visionarypursuits · 7 years ago

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What is Equity Crowdfunding?

Have you ever backed a kickstarter campaign?

There is something exhilarating about having the ability to support innovation in such a pure form...in its infancy.

Most campaign's are simply an idea. A well thought out idea, but an idea nonetheless. You are excited to be one of the first to get your hands on this product after you fall in love with the entrepreneur's vision, and you put some money down. For the entrepreneur, the process of crowdfunding is a great way to test the validity of the idea. If the campaign gets funded, that is, customers are willing to pay money for your product, even before it exists - then you now have empirical data that there is indeed a market for your product. Not only that, if the campaign does extremely well, then you also have the added benefit of the marketing engine such a platform can provide, from getting featured on the homepage, to be syndicated across multiple media publications who in turn take note and write about how novel your idea is, significantly increasing the overall exposure of the project. This is Crowdfunding, you pay money to buy an innovative product - it's pre-ordering, and sometimes it takes literally years for you to receive the product depending on how technically challenging it was to produce. If you invest $500 to back the latest electric skateboard, you receive the electric skateboard.

So what is equity Crowdfunding?

In comparison, you can consider Equity Crowdfunding to be the next step, targeted at the company that is a little further along, companies that already have market validation. Continuing with the skateboard example, imagine that your $500 does not get you a skateboard, but a small stake in the Skateboard company...this is equity crowdfunding. Think about that for a second.

In one scenario, you invest $500 in a skateboard, the other, you invest $500 in the Skateboard company.

If they sell a million boards, you get one board or your $500 is now potentially worth thousands or tens of thousands. If you look at risk vs reward, it is most definitely a better scenario for the investor. Now that is critical point, because it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best scenario for the entrepreneur. In one scenario they fulfill orders at a much lower margin and they are up and running with 100% ownership of the company belonging to them, in the other scenario - they have 100% of the funding but they have given up equity.

The greatest difference is in the stage of the company.

When it comes to traditional crowdfunding - these companies are very early. Most campaigns distill their idea into a compelling marketing video that demonstrates the product and gives you a general overview of the companies vision. It is generally not investment ready. For instance no venture capital firms simply back ideas. Investors require that businesses have real 'traction', with real customers. Equity crowdfunding sits at this next stage.

It is beyond the idea. It is working, making money - and certainly less risky than backing the vision alone. They could have already participated in a world-class accelerator program and be earning millions in revenue with a sustainable business model. They are looking at fundraising to take them to the next level and as an alternative to venture capital. Simply put, they have more substance. What you need to do (as the investor) is keep in mind, that both are risky.

While we have a significant due diligence process at Wealth Circuit, the dream of backing the next Facebook is just that, a dream, the odds are slim to none.

Make sure you do your homework, read our general risk warning, and invest cautiously.

If you liked this post, be sure to join us for the latest updates.

#Education

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