Comments on: As 3i leave early stage VC, where next for startups?

By: marc

marc — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:51:17 +0000

for fun : the mascot of the group: Shpigler the Shark

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-raise-money-from-VCs-4661

By: marc

marc — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:41:05 +0000

i created recently a group on facebook:

INTERNET ENTREPRENEURS & INVESTORS : The Group
Type: Business – Investing
Description: Dedicated to the Internet Industry this group is:

1- a platform for entrepreneurs and investors interested in the funding of early stage startups.
2- the ultimate place where entrepreneurs and investors are meeting, connecting.

This group is for you if you are:
1- entrepreneur
2- business angel
3- VC

Link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10735256873

By: steven Dotsch

steven Dotsch — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:06:58 +0000

Since the dotcom bust, institutional TMT sector early stage venture capital -sub £1m- has more or less dissappeared in the UK.

Increasingly, sector dedicated individual investors -in the main former TMT entrepreneurs who have successfully exited from their ventures- who in addition to their cash also add real value are now be considered as the ‘new’ venture capitalists. Some operate as single individuals, some build an organisation around them.

At WirelessMatch we connect both parties. We assist companies to become investment ready and match them to our registered investors -both individual sector dedicated investors as well as the few remaining
TMT ‘venture capital’ and development capital funds, UK-based as well as from abroad.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if we can be of any assistance.

Steven Dotsch
Managing director
WirelessMatch Ltd – UK’s Wireless Funding Network
URL: http://www.WirelessMatch.co.uk
Skype: wirelessdotsch
Em: steven(at)WirelessMatch.co.uk

By: The boring perennial post

The boring perennial post — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:50:58 +0000

Here we go again, Zzzzz! Bottom-line Europe has too few successful ex-entrepreneur angels prepared to invest at sensible ratio levels of equity:investment and the incumbent VC’s, – Index, New Media Spark, Accel, Advent, DFJEsprit, Atlas etc – are very risk averse wanting to use their funds for later stage ventures or the new investment buzz market – greentech.

I cannot believe what I am going to write next but Loic Le Meur was right. If you want to be a successful startup then you have to “Go West”. There is no way he would have got $6m for seesmic a simple video chat service in France/Europe.

In Europe you might be lucky to raise £250-500k for 30% but in the Valley it is more likely to be $5m+ for 30%. Michael Birch (bebo), Nick Denton (Gawker Media), Peter Nixey and many more were all smart enough to work that out.

Ask yourself would twitter, youtube, facebook, flickr, mybloglog, etc ever have got the levels of funding if they had started in Europe.

Like Dick Whittington, entrepreneurs need to go to the Valley where the streets are paved with successful entrepreneur angels and risk savvy VC’s. alternatively stay here in europe and be prepared to flagellate yourself by kissing a lot of Angel/VC ego/arse.

Its very sad and it will not change.

By: Bo

Bo — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:48:01 +0000

it would be interesting to have access to rankings of both business angel networks and individual private investors – success rates of business angel networks or incubators seem prone to much obfuscation and general smoke and mirrors

would there be value in a business angel / private investor certification?

By: alanp

alanp — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:38:38 +0000

I think there is a continual cycle – new players come in low, if they survive and prosper the economics dictate going upstream.

Had a fascinating discussion earleir this week with GLE about the Angel world, how teh UK Government is concerneed about eth “Equity Gap” and its policies, and how Angels are increasingly syndicating to reduce individual risk – looks like it is moving to a point where some form of structured aggregation may be possible.

We were also kicking around the idea of DiY incubators, given the low startup costs in Web 2.0

By: Bo

Bo — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:34:43 +0000

thanks for stimulating the conversatioin around the lack of Angel / Early stage funding

Where should potential angel investors go to hook up with startups looking for funding? Although I have been working in the technology sector for some time, the start-up / investor community has always appeared somewhat of a closed circuit with a need for aggressive networking skills in order to gain access or even just peripheral exposure to

the movie industry has for some time been reasonably succesful in raising funds from private investors (supported by tax breaks) – why not technology startups?

By: Jens

Jens — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:46:53 +0000

I think there is a never ending cycle in the UK where VC firms continuously move later stage, eventually leaving early stage behind, just to be replaced by new entrants. It also seems that balanced funds seem to be unable to keep the early-stage part going.

The key to the European investment scene/ start-up scene will be whether there will be more new entrants coming in, than old ones moving one. I am very excited about the number and quality of new entrants right now, plenty of money around.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:49:22 +0000

Paul Fisher – Good point, and there is also the trend of some VC houses hooking up with some Angels for a seed round in a startup, something I forgot to mention in the post.

By: Paul Fisher

Paul Fisher — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:43:17 +0000

The King is dead. Long live the king. Interesting that this one came over the wire, just as I was complaining to our venture capital data provider, Venturesource, how they are missing some of the emerging angel networks that are looking more like VC firms: Samwer bros. Ambient Sound, TAG, Zenstrom’s Atomico.
There’s no doubt that 3i will be a big miss, and given where we are in the cycle there will be less early stage deals from VCs this year, but there’s still a lot of ready and very very smart money there….