Everyone Funding Startups

If you work in the startup space, not particularly as an entrepreneur, but amongst them, how can you utilize this knowledge in founding your own startup? How about, can you learn from their mistakes and failures? We were joined by Jay Gibb, who’s done exactly this. Worked with startups for many years and joined a super angel group, which he utilized when he jumped into founding CloudSponge. In his own words; “A journey of being in the binary trenches to being a founder”. We talked about the journey behind CloudSponge, what stages they have gone through and the process in general. Jay highlighted the importance of the team, the necessity of an advisory board and feedback in general. Promotional offer for our audience in Talks! Listen to the podcast in the player below. Here are some quotes from the episode: Turned out that I was one of the developers who was able to speak well with management and entrepreneurs.. I was able to first of all learn from their successes, but more importantly learn from their mistakes. And the fact that the process and the method of creating a startup is becoming more academic, it’s something that, people talk about it more and it’s a little bit less magic, so to speak

Roozz makes your software run in the browser. The startup has a fascinating background and it completed the Startupbootcamp program in Denmark this year. In this episode, Jesper Thomsen shared some insights to how the startup has been formed, what they’ve valued along the way and where they are in today’s setting. Further, he talks about some great learning points for entrepreneurs, what they should not underestimate. You can get more details on Roozz in our funding community.

Paul Papadimitriou has definitely seen different corners of the world. In this episode, we explore some large trends in the world, how Asia differentiates itself from other continents and his passion for Japan. We also talked about how culture impacts technology and vice versa. Paul also promised to speak fluent Japanese in ten years, so we will try to hold him to that promise. Expect a very one-sided podcast in ten years! Member Highlight: Rollinglobe An experience-based booking engine bridging the gap between youth travelers and local tour operators worldwide. Here’s some quotes from the episode: [On LeWeb] : It almost sounds like you said ‘European Conference’? I would mostly say it’s a US conference that happens to be in Europe, which explains its success.. People are going to still engage online, but what I’m most interested in is how companies should react to that, because up to now it was a lot of shotgun policy.. So I ended up creating my own business, because I said ‘Ok, let’s shape Tokyo the way I want it to be. Let’s shape my world how I want it to be’.

In this episode of the Startup Stories series, we talked with Jesse Sommer from CabCorner, the world’s favorite ride-sharing website. Jesse shared his experiences from their journey, as well as some great insights and learning points for any entrepreneur. You can read up on CabCorner on their website. “Use CabCorner to reduce travel costs, street traffic, and urban pollution.” Listen to the episode in the player below.

[UPDATE JULY 2011: THIS MODEL IS OUT OF DATE AND HAS BEEN REPLACED] In this episode, we touched on a topic of practical relevance, the community fund with Pejman, a new team member in the GrowVC family. As we just updated the dashboard in our service to include the community fund budget, this episode elaborates on what “the big deal” is. How does the community fund work? What is the purpose of the community fund? What is the “big picture” behind empowering a community of entrepreneurial individuals? This episode highlights the functionality on a high level, you can listen to other episodes for the technical and regulatory aspects. Listen to the podcast in the player below.

The Startup Stories series is a continuing series where Grow VC startups present themselves and their experience. In this particular episode, entrepreneur Milan Pintar of Holiday Nova talks about his journey of several years, how it has developed and what he’s learned in the process. Milan actually solved a problem his parents had been experiencing with traveling abroad, listen to where the project developed from that initial spark and how it evolved along the way. You can follow Holiday Nova on holidaynova.com, as well as gain more details on them in our funding community.

In this episode we took a look at our changing world, what challenges we are facing and how to deal with these. Further we discussed the vast importance of strong messages and marketing for any company, also taking the startup perspective. In practical terms, Grow VC will also provide a marketing 101 for startups before Christmas and Alan also encourages the crowd to engage him on “Talks” with marketing related questions. Member Highlight: Yoghies The self-serve “Do-It-Yourself” frozen yogurt and healthy dessert bar Listen to the podcast in the player below. Here are some quotes from the episode: People are starting to understand that it’s not business as usual. I kind of like to remind people that it’s only in five years that we’ve gone from not talking about really social media, particularly in say the UK and Europe.. I think many companies are starting maybe from the wrong perspective in terms of what their innovation, what their role is in this world. The point is to get people to notice, that something new, big is happening. But if you cannot market it and if you cannot sell it to the world, in a good and convincing way, then unfortunately the second rate competitor who has an ability to market and sell in a far more professional way will beat you. The Grow VC Story

What's most appealing about Grow VC, what is it that gets us out of bed in the mornings and how does the future look from our point of view? In this episode, our new team member from NY, Marc shares his take on what's going on in the world and what potential is waiting to be unlocked with the Grow VC model.

Social entrepreneurship has been blooming in the recent years to build a better world for tomorrow. We had the pleasure of having a café chat with Christian Busch, one of the founders of the Sandbox Network, a social enterprise and community of 20 to 30 -year olds that are changing the world with their innovations. Sandbox Network is a social enterprise, built on the simple premise that empowering entrepreneurial young talents creates enormous value for society at large. The growing community counts more than 500 young leaders in 44 different countries. Listen to this episode for an insight into the background of this social venture, also what’s going on at the moment and what it is about Sandbox, that makes people buzz with inspiration. Listen to the podcast in the player below. Here’s some quotes from the episode: “.. out of the belief that usually when you have really, really cool, really, really good people in a certain field, they are usually not connected beyond their fields” “.. there is a dire need for people who, not only talk, but actually make ideas happen.. // .. We always look to really identify those people all over the world, who combine thinking and doing..” “.. why it keeps me so fit in a way, even though (I’m) sleeping probably less than my doctor would recommend.”

We’ve been talking about various journeys, but in this episode it’s time to concentrate on our own venture story. We talked with Jouko and Valto about our development, local platforms, opportunities with Grow VC, the open opportunity concept and many other points. Many insights into what’s been happening and what’s down the road for Grow VC in this episode! Jouko and Alan Moore from Grow VC will be speaking at Incubate 2.0 in California on the 17th and 18th of November, make sure you send us a message to get in touch. Also there is a 50% discount in talks for Grow VC members, make sure to utilize that if you’re attending! Listen to the podcast in the player below. Member highlight: HolidayNova “Book well know or unique accommodation & tours, look at photos, videos, compare prices, read reviews, confidently book the best price online”

Startup Weekend, a weekend long intense process to launch projects into high gear. We talked with Clint Nelsen, one of the founders of Startup Weekend in its current form, about the exciting journey so far, with a glimpse into the future and everything that it entails. We touched on many different aspects of the process, differences in contexts and practical examples. The sense of community is strong with Startup Weekend covering over 15 000 entrepreneurs in over 100 cities around the world. If someone still has doubts that the future will be built by communities.. Listen to the podcast in the player below. Some quotes from the episode: “The local team there, got government approval from Israel and Palestine to bus 30 palestinians into Israel for the weekend.. // .. It was amazing. People weren’t talking about politics at all, they were just talking about tech startups.” “I’m working on organizing Startup Weekend Space..” “I’ve learned the world is really flat. People are thinking about a lot of the same problems.” “I would like to see Startup Weekend be the place where someone, that has any value add to a new startup, goes.. // .. where we’re connecting, basically connecting the free agents.”

Growth companies come in all shapes and sizes, and the whole infrastructure is changing around them. In this episode, Kalam Ali, an experienced investment banker and innovation enthusiast, shares his thoughts on what’s going on in the startup space, especially with a focus on digital startups and innovations. We addressed the changes affecting the whole industry, as well as what makes this day and age unique. Member Highlight from the community: Ideabing Ideabing covers the most innovative startups and technologies. Listen to the podcast in the player below. Some quotes from the episode: “I think it’s interesting to see the realism that’s been injected to many startup ideas..” “.. this trend on creating useful things for people isn’t predicated on getting venture capital money, but is built on.. providing value that may not necessarily come from public services..” “.. who are just coming up with some interesting ideas to facilitate something in between that venture side of investment funding and Internet startups, to what’s going on in the real world and trying to use the Internet to basically make things work a little better.” “That’s one of the things about Internet startups, I guess, that you can have a really good idea, but the costs right now are so low that you can have a guy in his bedroom launching something that takes off and also disappears for the very reason.”

Crowdfunding may be novel in its applications online, but the field has existed for decades. In this episode, Steve Cinelli takes us through some case examples of crowdfunding, that is his own companies Primarq and Offroad Capital ten years apart and how the field has developed and grown up in the past decade. Listen to this episode for some great insights and practical examples into the field and what you should expect from the future. Here’s one of Steve’s ventures and a great application of crowdfunding in real estate, Primarq. Listen to the podcast in the player below. Some quotes from the episode: The use of technology really enables you to do some things that you weren’t able to do in the past, whether it’s crowdfunding or just raising money. That’s historically been a very analog effort. Investing in an online fashion, investing on a passive basis, you know has been a behavioral change.

Aside from being a curious profession, venture capital has many different dimensions and perspectives. David Hornik, from August Capital, highlights some of the basics of venture capital, how he sees the field developing in the future and how all of us have to combine our efforts for better outcomes. David also describes what sort of information he values and if he could, what he would like to track more than anything else.

We all know that the core team is important in a startup, but how do you build that core team and attract the best matches? The right fit could very well take your startup to the next level, whereas a wrong fit could prove devastating to your entire operations. How great is the difference between a “world-class hire” and a “fit-for-purpose hire”? In this episode with James Brocket, Managing Partner of CalibreOne, we delved into building the right team for your startup.  Listen to the episode for an insight into recruiting, the implications of the talent in the team and how recruiting has evolved in the recent years, especially with the online field developing. Listen to the episode in the player below. Here’s some quotes from the episode: “Personal chemistry is important. It’s important that they like each other and that.. every Sunday evening they’re not sort of thinking eight o’clock ‘Oh God, I’ve got to go to the office tomorrow..'” “Non verbal communication is enormously powerful, especially in senior level people, where there is very, very subtle differences that make actually an enormous amount of difference in their ability and effectiveness particularly as leaders.” “I think the talent pool, good news is the talent pool for European technology businesses is getting deeper with time.” “Be very aware of the enormous value that you will create through assembling a really world class team.”