I'm speaking on a panel next week as part of the MIT Enterprise forum here in Seattle. The topice of the talk is Venture Funding - It's a New Game. The game has for sure changed, and I think the success of Founder's Co-op, TechStars and Lighter Capital shows some of the ways entrepreneurs and investors are adjusting.
The panel is a good mix of people across the startup funding landscape, with a wide range of experiences. I think it should be a really interesting talk, so no matter where you sit in the startup funding world (entrepreneur, investor, service provider), I think there will be some juicy nuggets you can catch here. Check it out next week - details below.
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Have you heard about recent exits in which start-ups have been acquired for several million dollars within a couple of years of founding with little or no outside investment? Or clean energy start-ups that can’t raise the millions needed to grow their business? Or a game company that sold for hundreds of millions of dollars with relatively little VC participation? What’s going on?
Join us as Rebecca Lovell, Chief Business Officer at GeekWire, moderates our panel of industry insiders including:
- Frank Artale, Partner, Ignition Partners
- Tom Duterme, Corporate Development Director, Groupon
- Andy Sack, Co-founder of Lighter Capital, Judy's Book and several acquired tech companies
- Dan Shapiro, Kept Entrepreneur at Google
Our panelists will tell us where acquisition and venture money is coming from today, including specific deals. They will explain new venture funding models such as revenue financing and incubators that offer mentors, connections to investors, and significant cash. More importantly, they will provide a framework for understanding how funding in the Northwest has been transformed by increased capital efficiency, technological development, and the global economic malaise, as well as explain the impact on entrepreneurs and funders, such as angels, VCs, and corporations.
Audience Takeaways
Audience members will learn:
- Details of recent Northwest exits and financings
- What has changed in the last two years
- About the explosion in new ventures and trends in capital efficiency
- What acquirers and investors are looking for today
- What is hard to fund and why
- About new venture funding models such as revenue financing and incubators with advisors, connections to investors and cash
