Morgan Sturdy - a person that I knew absolutely NOTHING about going into the VEF Fireside Chat event today. I'm so so so so glad I went; because Morgan is absolutely a general business genius.
What do I mean by 'general business genius'? Well, there are people who specialize in Finance, Marketing, Operations, etc. From the one hour session I could tell that Morgan knew all the principles of running a business extremely well from every aspect. He's the second person who has given me the chills from a speaker session; the other one being my long-time mentor from the Marketing department of the Sauder School of Business.
He's definitely a person that every aspiring entrepreneur should meet since he has been through the ups and downs of building his own business. Launching 2 failed products before a 3rd one hit their customers' 'sweet spot' and venturing into an industry where he had no experience are just two of the many reasons why I admire this guy. Being an entrepreneur, persistence is key; and the most important thing is getting up each time after you fail and giving it another try.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Valuation Divergence
Attended the "Company Valuation and Term Sheet Workshop" organized by Bob Chaworth-Musters of Angel Forum yesterday.
I found that this workshop was probably the most useful of all the ones that I have attended before. Not kidding. I was impressed by other entrepreneurs in the room and how much everyone has gone through with their businesses. All of the entrepreneurs in the room were actively building their businesses and not just sitting on an idea.
I think the most obvious and interesting concept I picked up was valuation divergence between angel investors and entrepreneurs. How often have you told an investor that "You'll make 20X what you invest!" and they have told you "No I won't!"?
Often times it's because we entrepreneurs forget to factor in shares that are issued for non-capital purposes or neglect to include the $$$ we need to keep in working capital etc. to run the company. This may mean that we are valuating our businesses at a pre-money valuation that's too high (ok. please don't kill me fellow entrepreneurs.)
The workshop also went through a series of calculations that support this idea and it was interesting hearing about the first-hand experiences of angel investors that participated in the discussion panel.
I would recommend this workshop to other entrepreneurs who are looking at raising financing and hopefully Bob will organize another one soon!
I found that this workshop was probably the most useful of all the ones that I have attended before. Not kidding. I was impressed by other entrepreneurs in the room and how much everyone has gone through with their businesses. All of the entrepreneurs in the room were actively building their businesses and not just sitting on an idea.
I think the most obvious and interesting concept I picked up was valuation divergence between angel investors and entrepreneurs. How often have you told an investor that "You'll make 20X what you invest!" and they have told you "No I won't!"?
Often times it's because we entrepreneurs forget to factor in shares that are issued for non-capital purposes or neglect to include the $$$ we need to keep in working capital etc. to run the company. This may mean that we are valuating our businesses at a pre-money valuation that's too high (ok. please don't kill me fellow entrepreneurs.)
The workshop also went through a series of calculations that support this idea and it was interesting hearing about the first-hand experiences of angel investors that participated in the discussion panel.
I would recommend this workshop to other entrepreneurs who are looking at raising financing and hopefully Bob will organize another one soon!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
What's a Start Up?
Apparently Start Ups are automatically clustered into the general category of "Small Businesses" (SB). In the past couple days I attended a couple events tailored for small businesses, and tax reduction, small business education and encouraging cohesion between small business organizations were hot topics.
All this is great...except that Start Ups are in a totally different space from SBs. For one thing, SBs have revenue! (If they're lucky they may have profits!) Start Ups are in a phase where we're developing a product and revenue is somewhere in the future; which means that tax cuts are also a thing that we will benefit from in the future...but not until we get out of the red!
End of the day, my opinion is that there are organizations out there that are looking to help Start Ups but they need to come together! When I first started my business I knew that the Board of Trade was for networking and if you wanted resources on writing a business plan or how to incorporate your business you would go to Small Business BC. I was fortunate enough that my friend told me about IRAP, which provides funds to support Start Up companies with their development and management team growth.
Key point is that these resources are scattered - it's GREAT that everyone is looking to help, but please combine forces and let me find you at ONE location instead of 500 - Gas is expensive nowadays.
All this is great...except that Start Ups are in a totally different space from SBs. For one thing, SBs have revenue! (If they're lucky they may have profits!) Start Ups are in a phase where we're developing a product and revenue is somewhere in the future; which means that tax cuts are also a thing that we will benefit from in the future...but not until we get out of the red!
End of the day, my opinion is that there are organizations out there that are looking to help Start Ups but they need to come together! When I first started my business I knew that the Board of Trade was for networking and if you wanted resources on writing a business plan or how to incorporate your business you would go to Small Business BC. I was fortunate enough that my friend told me about IRAP, which provides funds to support Start Up companies with their development and management team growth.
Key point is that these resources are scattered - it's GREAT that everyone is looking to help, but please combine forces and let me find you at ONE location instead of 500 - Gas is expensive nowadays.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
What's the Rate? Come Again?!
So I use a patent lawyer that's based in the US. They're good. Really good. Except for the fact that of course I have to pay them in USD and our CAD dollar isn't doing especially well right now.
I received an invoice and was going to head over to the a local currency exchange house to do the conversion and get a USD check; I decided it would be a good idea to check the rates online for that currency exchange house before heading over. So the median rate live update showed that 1.21889 for the ask price for USD and I then I looked up the currency exchange's own rates...they sell USD at 1.231!!! So if you converted $10,000 CAD to USD today at 1.231, you would get $8,123. If you got the median rate instead, you would get $8204. Would you like to save $80?
It's at times like this when I wish I could use my own service faster. I'm totally working on turbo to speed up our launch now.
vroom vroom*
I received an invoice and was going to head over to the a local currency exchange house to do the conversion and get a USD check; I decided it would be a good idea to check the rates online for that currency exchange house before heading over. So the median rate live update showed that 1.21889 for the ask price for USD and I then I looked up the currency exchange's own rates...they sell USD at 1.231!!! So if you converted $10,000 CAD to USD today at 1.231, you would get $8,123. If you got the median rate instead, you would get $8204. Would you like to save $80?
It's at times like this when I wish I could use my own service faster. I'm totally working on turbo to speed up our launch now.
vroom vroom*
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