Private lenders rather than banks for raising money
1098_ 10/24/11 - We're here with a guy who does a great deal with money. He's the author of the book, "Where To Go When the Bank Says No" - from the 'Hard Money Series'. This is Steve Replin, CPA, MBA and JD at Replin & Rhoades, [their practice is] a pretty unique boutique walk through, between Chicago and Los Angeles, focusing on entertainment law, representing fashion designers, film makers, authors, publishers, musicians, record labels and the like. Representing them in their business formation issues, a bit in their tax planning, in their business structure, in the contracts they need to go out and grow - dealing with contractors, employees, agents and managers - to kind of just watch their career grow and to make sure they're legally protected.
      For 30 years, Steve was a provider of alternative funding for people that have a very difficult time at a bank or for some reason they are not otherwise institutionally fundable. Steve's niche is: entrepreneurs who had terrific ideas, great dreams, passions, aspirations and nowhere to go to get financing. We got Steve's overview or Reader's Digest version of his book. He explained, "As the economy has become more problematic since 2008, banks have become more restrictive in their willingness to loan money, because loans have increasingly gone into default. So what this book discusses is the rather loose affiliation, across the country, of private lenders who will provide financing for entrepreneurs and small business that are in various stages of their growth strategies; for people that have opportunities but need to take advantage of fairly quickly; sadly sometimes for people who are in need of solving a problem fairly quickly and they don't have a relationship with the bank or they don't have the time to deal with the bank that in all probability is going to tell them no anyway. So it's kind of an overview of what that whole system is. I lead them from loan rejection to a loan approval in really a number of easy steps. Steve's goal is, at the end of this book, that people understand how to get financing in a matter of days without the aggravation of having to go through a bank." Listen for much more...
Related Links: Replin & Rhoades || Amazon || Rockies Venture Club || Entrepreneurs Channel || Mastering Change || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: Steve Replin, Replin & Rhoades, LLC, Where To Go When the Bank Says No, Entrepreneurs, Hard Money Series, Banks, Rockies Venture Club, Private Lenders, Free Newsletter - bytes=6739072
Listen to: Steve Replin, Replin & Rhoades, LLC

Powered by Podbean.com

Feld and Mendelson - How venture capital deals work
1069_ 8/29/11 - When Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson sat down to write their book the goal was to aim it at every entrepreneur, to really help them understand how venture capital deals work. Brad Feld in Tuscany, Italy talks with Larry Nelson via Skype to tell us about his newest book, "Venture Deals...Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist". The inspiration for the book came from the Term Sheet Series that Jason and Brad wrote about five-six years ago. This is a particularly valuable book for entrepreneurs looking for money... You'll get an insider's view of the venture deal process, the different players involved on the deal side including how venture firms are setup. And, they talk about how an entrepreneur should think about the fund raising process. The term sheet is a very complicated document and there are a lot of things that people negotiate. But there are essentially only two things that matter which are economics and control. Here they've spent a lot of time helping the reader understand which terms related to economics and which terms were related to control and how and what that meant. It's meant to be a guide not a text book with material that can be very dry and boring. They've made fun of lawyers, venture capitalists and themselves along the way, but there goal was to write something significant and enduring. Comments from readers include..."For a first time entrepreneur, it's a completely enlightening book." Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO wrote a very nice forward to the book where he talks about how useful it would have been to have this book at the beginning of his career, and throughout his career, to look back and reflect on all the deals he's been involved in. Brad tells us how his blog, Ask the VC works with this book. Number one piece of advice for a new entrepreneur from Brad is, "Pick something that you're incredibly passionate about. The thing you want to create, the business you want to start should be something that you're in love with. It's going to be hard. You're going to have lots of ups and downs, there will be lots of things that don't work. If the thing you're working on 18-20 hours a day isn't something you're incredibly passionate about, what's the point?" Second is surround yourself with mentors." ...don't miss the rest of Brad's advice, listen now!
Related Links: Venture Deals - Amazon || Ask the VC || Feld Thoughts || Mendel'sMusings || Foundry Group || Feld-Weiser One-on-One || VC Channel || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Venture Deals, Venture Capitalist, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Mentors, Dick Costolo, Twitter, Tuscany, Italy, Foundry Group’s Series A Documents - 8/29/11 Bytes: 13588587
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Author, Venture Deals

Powered by Podbean.com

Brad Feld reveals his true beginning while getting Unplugged
1000_ 4/18/11 - Brad Feld was corralled and interviewed by Jill Van Matre, Associate Director of Atlas and co-moderates this last Entrepreneurs Unplugged event for Spring 2011 with Brad Bernthal (BB) who is Clinical Law Professor at the CU Law School and Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center Entrepreneurship Initiative. BB asked Feld, "In terms of getting things started, give us a little background. You have family here, grew up in Texas and some of the more interesting things I've seen in those interviews you've done is a list of influential business people including your grandfather. What did your grandfather do and what kind of influence did he have on you growing up?" (SPECIAL NOTE: Brad is his usual entertaining self - we have a two minute video - please watch. We're sure you'll enjoy!) Brad Feld said, "My grandfather was an immigrant, came here from Austria, (so my father is first generation American). He was an entrepreneur; he had his own clothing factory. The type of clothing that he made is the stuff that has rhinestones on it. The people who carried his clothing were like the knock-off of Marshalls. He had a factory in Florida, this bad, bad, kind of burnt out warehouse in the middle of the worst part of Miami. He was this salt of the earth kind of guy and he didn't believe in anything made after 1950. So every piece of machinery was pre 1950. When machines broke down he'd have to figure out what to do. When friends died, he'd go and buy their machinery for parts and replacements. So I think sort of growing up and watching him sort of make his own way in the world, be completely entrepreneurial was an early inspiration. My dad (Stanley Feld) had his own medical practice that was about a $10 million/year business at the peak. He had four partners and 30 or 40 employees. I remember also watching that grow from one person; he started out in private practice, to a real business. I never really thought hard about not doing my own thing from very early on." Feld shares so much more including in 1978 when he turned 13. "Gold was about $400/oz and Krugerrands were all the rage and when you got Bar Mitzvahed you took your Bar Mitzvah money and bought Krugerrands, that's what all my friends were doing. I thought that was stupid, I wanted a computer. I had about $1,600. a fortune, so I took my dad to a computer store." Part 2 is coming with Professor Bernthal‘s next query: Take us from the community college to MIT and the start of Feld Technologies. Tune in next week!
Related Links: Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and ITP || Brad Feld Blog || Brad Feld Video || Foundry Group || Do More Faster Book || Economy Builders || Entrepreneurs Unplugged Photos || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jill Van Matre, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, Entrepreneurship Initiative, Atlas, Foundry Group, Do More Faster Book, Stanley Feld - 4/18/2011
Listen to: Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged - Watch Two Minute Video

Powered by Podbean.com
Part 4 of 5 - Brad Feld, Foundry Group - Entrepreneurs Unplugged
Part 3 of 5 - YouTube Video - Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged
Part 2 of 5 - LISTEN to Brad 8 min. - Audio
Part 2, short video: Watch Short Video 'The MIT Experience'
Part 1 Audio Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged LISTEN - Audio
Part 1, short video: WATCH VIDEO

Brad Feld: Community college to MIT
1004_ 4/25/11 - This is part 2 of Brad Feld's Interrogation. Jill Van Matre, Associate Director of Atlas and co-moderates this last Entrepreneurs Unplugged event for Spring 2011 with Brad Bernthal (BB) who is a clinical law professor at the law school and Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center Entrepreneurship Initiative interviewed Brad panel style. Part 2 begins with Professor Bernthal’s query: "Take us from the community college to MIT and the start of Feld Technologies." Brad replied, "I was your typical high school kid in Dallas, I did well in school, ran track. I was moderately social when I wasn't reading or playing with my computer. I was a pretty good tennis player until, I discovered computers and girls. And those two things ruined my tennis career when I was about age 14. I never really thought about where to go to college." (Here we have the two-and-a-half minute video, View Video- the MIT experience.) It was the girlfriend... in 8th grade - she was fascinated with MIT. and that stuck in Brad's head so he applied. He got in early and threw away all his other college applications. So, he went to MIT and MIT was a fascinating place. Brad says he's glad he went there. It was the right place for him. "Because," he said, "MIT is a daily assault on your self-esteem. You realize there is no such thing as being the smartest guy in the room... forget it, there's just no way that's going to happen. So that dynamic plays forward in your life when you realize you don't have to be the smartest person in the room to be successful and accomplished. But, you have to work hard, you have to be focused, you have to go after something you really care about. and that's how I got to that place where I started what became Feld Technologies. Next week, Jill Van Matre asks Brad to talk about the beginning of Feld Technologies.
Related Links: Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and ITP || Brad Feld Blog || Brad Feld Video || Foundry Group || Do More Faster Book || Entrepreneurs Unplugged Photos || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jill Van Matre, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, MIT, Entrepreneurship Initiative, Atlas, Foundry Group, Do More Faster Book, Stanley Feld
4/25/11 Bytes: 5442981
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged Part 2 of 5

Powered by Podbean.com

Checks for $5,000 to $10,000 a month in college
1016_ 5/16/11 - This is part 3 of Brad Feld's saga,
Jill Van Matre, Associate Director of ATLAS, co-moderates this last Entrepreneurs Unplugged event for Spring 2011 with Brad Bernthal who is a clinical law professor at the law school and Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center Entrepreneurship Initiative, interviewed Brad Feld panel style. Brad started out, "When I was in school, remember I had been tutoring... as a freshman, MIT had this program called UROP, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, and basically you can get jobs in research labs. I was in computer science and got a job in Seymour Papert's lab, the guy who created the Logo programming language. I spent a semester helping to put the logo language on a new computer coming out. When I say that, I was kind of the junior grunt on the team that was making sure that things kind of worked. And it was alright, but it paid $6/hr, not quite like my tutoring job. So, somehow, I started doing some consulting, spread sheet stuff... The path to starting my own business was, my senior year in high school I got a job, after tutoring, I got a job working for TechCom. This was an oil and gas software company in Dallas Texas in 1982, husband and wife team. I was their first employee. They grew in 83-84 to about 30 people. I wrote two of their products and got paid $10/hr and I got 5% of gross revenue. While I was a freshman in college, I was regularly getting checks for $5,000 to $10,000 a month." I bet Brad has some other on how to 'Do More Faster'...For more, watch and listen to the video...Next week, "What did you take from Martindale to Feld Technologies?"
Related Links: Brad Feld Blog || Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and ITP || Brad Feld Video || Foundry Group || Do More Faster Book || Entrepreneurs Unplugged Photos || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jill Van Matre, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, MIT, Seymour Papert, Entrepreneurship Initiative, Atlas, Foundry Group, Do More Faster Book, 5/16/11
Part 3 of 5 - YouTube Video - Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged
Part 2 of 5 - LISTEN to Brad 8 min. - Audio
Part 2, short video: Watch Short Video 'The MIT Experience'
Part 1 of 5 Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged LISTEN - Audio
Part 1, short video: WATCH VIDEO

Brad Feld before there was wireless networking
1024_ 5/31/11 - In this 4th Video segment, we get the 'great story teller' and his best friend/partner selling their business. Again Brad Feld is hilarious, we're sure you will enjoy this segment as much if not more than the first three. We will publish the entire two hour audio as we wrap up the five video segments...Brad says, "We never thought about an exit strategy. So we have this business; we're making pretty good money, we were paying ourselves $100,000, so it was pretty high margin for a consulting business. We knew to go from $2 Million to $4 Million we'd still make half-million dollars in profit. So we figured out we hit this inflection scale point that by doubling the business, I couldn't do all the selling - so we'd have to bring in some non-revenue selling people. He couldn't do all the management. We didn't have people in the business that could actually manage upper level... so we're in this kind of what should we do state. One of the companies we did some work with was a cable company. This was back before there was wireless networking. Like coaxial cabling, I mean it was really funny. There might be a problem and you'd tear down the walls in these first class office buildings to figure out where the cable had been chewed threw by a rat that wasn't supposed to be in a first-class office building. We ended up being approached by the people that had bought this cable company. This again not cable TV but cable wiring company. Here's another guy, Len Fassler, he's been an incredible mentor and partner of mine. I remember one day he came to Boston...watch and listen for more...
Related Links: Brad Feld Blog || Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and ITP || Brad Feld Video || Foundry Group || Do More Faster Book || Entrepreneurs Unplugged Photos || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jill Van Matre, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, AmeriData, Len Fassler, Entrepreneurship Initiative, Atlas, Foundry Group, Do More Faster Book, 5/31/11 Bytes: 5365658
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Foundry Group - Entrepreneurs Unplugged Part 4

Powered by Podbean.com
Part 3 of 5 - YouTube Video - Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged
Part 2 of 5 - LISTEN to Brad 8 min. - Audio
Part 2, short video: Watch Short Video 'The MIT Experience'
Part 1 Audio Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs Unplugged LISTEN - Audio
Part 1, short video: WATCH VIDEO

2010 was a pretty vibrant year for entrepreneurship
958_ 1/31/11 - Larry asks Brad Feld, founder and managing partner The Foundry Group to take out his crystal ball, but first a snapshot of 2010. Brad said, "2010 was a pretty vibrant year for entrepreneurship, certainly for software and tech entrepreneurship, around the country, but also especially for Boulder, Colorado. Programs like TechStars have helped on a national basis, they have lots of programs throughout the country now. This has really helped with early stage and first-time entrepreneurs. There's plenty of venture capital activity and plenty investments in young growing companies and there have been some very large investments in new leaders, companies like Twitter and Facebook, GroupOn, Zinga. Those companies have both raised a lot of money and they're very substantial business that are generating a lot of cash. We've had a great time together. David has been awesome to work with. He's living in New York right now, for the first quarter running the TechStars New York program, which is now the fourth city that TechStars is in, also Boulder, Boston, and Seattle. NYC is into week three now, off to a great start and he's having a blast. The premise behind TechStars initially, and the thing that David presented to me, that appealed to me so much was this notion of working with first-time entrepreneurs with a mentor driven approach. These types of companies have come to be knows as accelerators. It's a good word, a good description." Larry asked, "How is raising money, either angel or a larger VC investment, different in 2011 from 2010?" Brad replied, "Well, independent of when, raising money for a startup is hard. It's hard when you're at the very beginning and it's hard for 2nd or 3rd round it's even hard when you're raising expansion capital. The mistake that entrepreneurs make is they assume it's going to be straightforward - they expect it to be less difficult than it is. Then when it turns out to be a real slog, it's very difficult for them. So, I don't know that I have any good sense as to whether it'll be any easier or harder to raise money in 2011 because I think it's always hard." If someone is approaching the Foundry Group what shouldn't they do? Brad has advice for entrepreneurs who are seeking money...Listen now...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Feld Thoughts || Do More Faster || VC Interviews || More VC Interviews || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital, TechStars, David Cohen, Defrag, Glue, Blur, Eric Norlin, Do More Faster 01/31/11 bytes=8910788
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Managing Partner, Foundry Group

Powered by Podbean.com

It's a great time for entrepreneurs; and here's
1019_ 5/23/11 - We're at the Colorado Capital Conference, co-sponsored by Rockies Venture Club and TiE Rockies and we've also cornered the president of TiE Rockies, Vic Ahmed and the keynote speaker, Saad Khan. Vic tells us not to go by Saad's youthful looks; the guy is experienced, brilliant. He's doing some very innovative things with his fund, CMEA Capital, which is over a billion dollars under management. Larry asked Saad, ": “What do you think are the biggest challenges today for entrepreneurs?” He replied, "Which company to start. I mean there are so many options today. I think it's a great time for entrepreneurs - more so than ever before because the means of production have come down so that everyone can be an entrepreneur and do it very cheaply, especially in the area that I look at, the web and software. Actually I'm pretty optimistic about what's going on for entrepreneurs. I think access to capital, is something I've heard here a lot. But there is a lot of stuff you can do without venture capital at all. And by the time you need it, those guys will be knocking at your door because things are going so great! So I'm excited about the prospects right now."
    Larry asked, "What can entrepreneurs capitalize on today?" Saad replied, "So again, I tend to focus on web technology and in that world everything is free, infrastructure, software, data centers - none of those things you have to build anymore, or buy yourself, so really the only cost is you and your team. So if you are willing to eat Ramen and live and work in the same place, it turns out your costs are pretty low. I think that's a lot of leverage for people. I've actually seen companies that literally got profitable with no external dollars whatsoever. So there is a lot to capitalize on." Listen now...
...
Related Links: CMEA Capital || Colorado Capital Conference || RVC Home || TiE Rockies || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: Saad Khan, CMEA Capital, Colorado Capital Conference, Rockies Venture Club, TiE Rockies, Entrepreneurs, Web Software, Technology, Access to Capital - 5/23/11 bytes=271788
LISTEN to Saad Khan, Partner, CMEA Capital

Powered by Podbean.com

Incubator that's coming here to Colorado
963_ 2/7/11 - We're talking about an incubator that's coming here to Colorado. Vic Ahmed, amongst so many other positions, is CEO of the Colorado Plug & Play Tech Center. We wanted to know what this means, so Larry asked Vic for an overview. Vic is very excited, for himself to be involved personally, but also for what Plug and Play can do for the entrepreneurial system here in Colorado. "So Plug and Play is the most successful, I know for certain, incubator in the U.S. Not just in the U.S., in fact, it's the most successful incubator in the world!," said Vic. A few years ago, as Vic was working on his own virtual incubator, Captain Green, he had incubators researched. He discovered Plug and Play through that research process and discovered this absolutely incredible success. "Now you'll find these numbers amazing, I encourage you to go to the website, plugandplaytechcenter.com. In the last four to five years they've incubated over 600 companies and raised over $700 million for these companies. Right now, we are closing about five new investments a month." Plug and Play has a structured relationship with over 140 VC's, that come regularly to Plug and Play, look at the deal flow, and make various investment decisions. Plug and Play also has its own fund that they co-invest with these VC's. they have relationships with over 15 universities, including Harvard, Cornell, Stanford... They have programs in 15 countries in which they bring the best companies out of those countries to Silicon Valley for a few months and help them get funded. On top of all that they also have strategic relationships with top companies like BestBuy, PayPal. PayPal in fact has a mini incubator within Plug and Play where they're encouraging companies to build products layered on their platform. Very exciting stuff, and Vic says he is most excited to be working on setting up a Plug and Play Tech Center here in Colorado. They're targeting a Q3 timeframe for that. Vic has been working on this now for 6 to 8 months and has made great progress, meeting a lot of the stake holders in Colorado who are very, very supportive of this concept. There's more advice for entrepreneurs...
Related Links: Plug and Play Tech Center || Podcasting Directory || In the News || TiE Rockies || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Vic Ahmed, TiE Rockies, Plug and Play Tech Center, Incubator, VC's, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurs, Technology, PayPal - 2/7/11 bytes=7421181 LISTEN to Vic Ahmed, President & CEO, Colorado Plug and Play Tech Center

Powered by Podbean.com

Last year was a big year for some
961_ 1/31/11 - We're hearing so much about Colorado's venture capital business and the lack of new funds. We contacted Vipanj Patel, managing partner of iSherpa Capital for his take on the situation. A few years back when we talked with Vipanj they were just moving into their offices in Greenwood Village, today they were preparing to move out. That's actually up and out. They're expanding, moving up and taking additional space. Vipanj said, "We're actually going to be housing a couple of companies that we're going to be working with. Actively work in an operating fashion in some of the companies we are investing in and help get them off the ground." Last year was a big year for iSherpa. They expanded beyond wireless into media and entertainment, Internet type of play, a few years ago. There's one company out in San Diego called Taaz, (they do virtual makeovers) that iSherpa invested in about three years ago. Recently hired a new CEO (replacing Vipanj) Harry Lin. "Harry used to run Evite and before that abc.com. He actually was the first one to introduce video to the Internet, well before YouTube and all that. So he's on board full time and running the show day-to-day. He's doing a great job and Taaz is getting a lot of traction. "In the last year we've closed Clinique as a client; rolled out Estée Lauder across 13 countries; In Style magazine, People magazine, Revlon, and we've got quite a few exciting things coming out this year. So that's a company we're excited about." They've grown over 100% each of the last three years. Probably the biggest thing for iSherpa in 2010 was the sale of a company, Sequent, which was in the wireless caller and ID name space, based out of Seattle, WA. iSherpa sold Sequent to a publicly traded company and got a nice exit. Larry asked Vipanj what he saw for VC firms. "It's still an interesting time for the VC industry. The term you'll hear is, 'it's frothy out there right now. There's definitely frothiness in the market, but there are differences too. In other words, back in '99 everyone was chasing everything. The second thing I've seen is a fundamental shift in people's attitude and what it takes to build a business. In the last three years we've been approached by entrepreneurs that have a much more realistic view, in our opinion, of what it takes to build a business. That mind-shift to me has been huge." Vipanj has more to say about wireless...listen now...
Related Links: iSherpa Capital || Taaz || Venture Capital || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: Vipanj Patel, iSherpa Capital, Wireless, Venture Capital, Taaz, Virtual Makeovers, Sequent, Evite > 01/31/11 bytes=11217923
LISTEN to Vipanj Patel, Managing Partner, iSherpa Capital

Powered by Podbean.com

Contents: 2010-07

2011 Venture Capitalists
Vic Ahmed, Plug and Play 2/7/11
Brad Feld, Venture Deals 8/29/11
Brad Feld, Unplugged.. In the Beginning 4/18/11
Brad Feld, Unplugged.. Community College
Brad Feld, Unplugged.. Earning $5-10K in College
Brad Feld, Unplugged.. B/4 Wireless Networks
Brad Feld, 2010 Was Vibrant Year 1/31/11
Saad Khan, Colorado Capital Conf 5/11
Vipanj Patel, iSherpa Capital 1/31/11
Steve Replin, Replin & Rhoades LLC 10/24/11