1. Mass collaboration is powering the new economy

2. Constant connectivity in an on-demand world

3. Globalization: Making the world a smaller place

4. Pervasive distrust in big corporations

5. A global sense of urgency to fix the problems of a modern world

I would say #1, #3 and #4 are exactly things we thought when we founded Grow VC. 1. Collaboration is needed for funding. 3. New funding models must be global. 4. Startups are important for growth and entrepreneurs don’t feel that large VC’s and banks are always the best source to get funding. I think #2 and #5 are also linked to the funding world.

We can always be sceptical with trends and especially with megatrends. But together with very practical experiences from the startup world, I see these trends are definitely shaping the funding models of the future.

The latest report from European VC market tells that VC’s have done almost none investments in early phase companies. Actually if we think VC investments in Europe in September, almost all companies have been founded 2002 or earlier; only a couple of exceptions. It means in early phase you cannot get VC money. You need private investors. The only way to get a reasonable valuation (for both parties) is a real open market and competition.

What are your experiences from seed and early phase valuations?

Some of the main topics in our presentation today are:

• Developing Global Internet Businesses – Challenges and opportunities
• Web and mobile businesses: new retail business
• Go-to-market
• Challenges of funding market
• Web and mobile services funding
• Grow VC platform for Experts and funding – The first global concept
• Grow VC Local Partner examples
• Investment policy and our market position
• Would you like to manage VC money?

Full presentation below

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Mike Merrill from SmartPhone Technologies had a good comparison. This year for mobile apps is like 1851 in California, two years after the gold rush. Mike wanted to remind that not so many gold miners made big money, but there were many other people like Levi Trauss and Wells Fargon founders that created then a great business. We can also say it was an important time for the development of California. Now we live similar times in mobile.

Only the market can decide, which mobile apps companies are successful. You must make an app, launch it, and improve it. And you must be capital effective. It also makes sense take funding step by step. It is the only way avoid too high dilution.

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Some of the topics include:

• Why Grow VC is interested in Mobile Apps business?
• Mobile Apps Business Segments
• Mobile Apps –new retail business
• Mobile Apps Funding
• and some hints of our upcoming features…

Download presentation

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Sweat equity is nothing new. It has been typical for startups to attract people to do some work and also for board and advisor roles and offer them company shares. - What is new and unique is to have a global place to find the most suitable experts for a company and the best companies for each expert. If I set up a company in the UK, I might need an expert in the US and India. I can now enter my company details to the Grow VC services and indicate that I look for an expert with a specified profile in the US and India, and offer them 1%  ownership. And experts can find globally companies that look for their services.

This is important for early phase companies and especially important in the current economic downturn. It is also important to have an open match-making service for this, otherwise companies and experts know only opportunities from their own networks. And it doesn’t always mean optimal fit, if you just take someone you happen to know. Web and mobile companies are very global nowadays, and they must find the best resources globally.

All you need to do to get started, is to register for free at Grow VC service.

This new feature is one important step for Grow VC to become the leading investment platform for startups globally. We continuously innovate new models for investments and funding. And in near future we can publish more new concepts. We also like to get your feedback and ideas. We are very interested to know, what kind of services could better help you to make investments or find funding.

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New features in www.growvc.com include:

• Open registration for any startup or investor, simply by visiting growvc.com – invitations are no longer needed
• The industry’s first global platform for service investment opportunities – so investors and experts can invest in startups using man-hours instead of dollars, and startups can offer partial ownership for work. Grow VC is the first web service to enable the quid pro quo arrangements companies have been attracted to all over the world, especially during the economic downturn
• ‘Market trends’ including Twitter integration, giving startups and investors the ability to track global market pulse and trending topics against companies and industries
• ‘Talks’ and ‘Following’ capabilities to enhance two-way communication between users, be they startups, entrepreneurs, investors or experts
• Beta promotion: free service during the beta (ending on 31 January 2010)

“We’re a dynamic, feature-rich global marketplace for startups to meet investors, and vice versa, with quality members who have made it through a strict vetting process,” said CEO Valto Loikkanen. “This public beta gives some of the most innovative conversational and community-building tools out there, to redefine web 2.0 funding models by speeding up processes and simplifying communications.”

One example of a startup that can be found in Grow VC is GeeWee.tv, a unique web and mobile advertising and PR platform. The Birmingham, UK-based startup converts business commercials into mobile videos that can be sent to phones. GeeWee.tv is currently seeking $150,000 in funding and has a pre-funding valuation of $1,350,000. The company is a finalist for the O2 X Male Entrepreneur of the Year award.

GeeWee.tv founder Joel Graham-Blake said:

“Grow VC is a whole new way of finding funding. As a startup, some of the conventional methods of sourcing funds (attracting VCs, applying for grants or asking our bank for a loan) weren’t in line with our business goals. With our Grow VC membership we are confident we’ll be able to find the right angel investor for us.”

Grow VC’s commitment to remaining the only international matchmaking site for startups and investors has resulted in a global advisory board developed in summer 2009 with industry luminaries Aron Bohlig in the US, Esther Barak Landes in Israel and Rahul Patwardhan in India. Each advisor brings extensive experience in funding technology companies. Their biographies can be found at www.growvc.com/about/us.html.

Grow VC’s beta promotion is projected to end by 31 January 2010, so anyone who joins during the beta can use the service for free until then, when normal fees will range from $150 to $900 USD annually. Grow VC will roll out more innovative features at that time including groundbreaking investment structures.

About Grow VC

Grow VC is Venture Capital 2.0, bringing the first truly transparent, international, community-based approach to early stage funding. Grow VC can help mobile and web 2.0 startup stars secure initial funding for their businesses ranging from $10,000 to 1m USD. Grow VC will not only connect startup entrepreneurs with ‘funders’ (investors) to help them discover their common interests, but also provide tools for the process and new transparent ways of doing things. Grow VC international headquarters is located in Hong Kong.

Press contact:

Emily McDaid

Head of Communications

emily@growvc.com

+44 7748 6333 55

Twitter: @growvc

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Image via Wikipedia

This is a guest post by: Brad Christen from CW Consulting

For startup companies, raising your first dollar is the biggest challenge: everyone is hesitant to place the first bet on a new company. Luckily, there’s a range of people out there willing to help – from investment groups and consultants to well-connected friends and registered broker dealers. But even if you’ve enlisted help in your search for capital, on many level you’re still going to have to be involved in the fundraising process.

And all too often, in spite of an entrepreneur’s passion for their project, they aren’t psychologically prepared to “ask for money”.

That’s quite OK, entrepreneurs should never ask for money. They are selling a stake in a new opportunity. They are inviting people to be part of an exciting venture. And they have to practice their pitch until it’s as familiar and unforgettable to them as a sit-com’s theme song.

There are three psychological tricks that entrepreneurs can employ. First, collect “no’s.” Make it your mission to hear the word “no” as many times as you can. Set a daily goal of how many times you want to hear it. Second, tell everybody what you’re doing. If a bank teller, a UPS delivery person or a pharmacist asks “how are you doing?” don’t say “fine.” Tell them exactly how much money you’re raising for your new venture. Third, build a movement. Replace “How many shares can you buy?” with “How many people can you find who be right for this kind of investment?”

The key is to stop asking and start telling. We’ve seen these tips transform entrepreneurs time and again. And we’ve seen how investors respond positively to entrepreneurs who have overcome any fear of rejection when it comes to financing their startup.

Are you still “asking” for money?

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e27 is an interesting community of Singaporean web and mobile companies. This kind of communities are important, because many companies develop very specific applications and business, but they also need some other components to work with. We are still in the early phase to build social media ecosystem. Twitter has one billion valuation, but only 60 employees and no revenue. This business is not ready yet. And that’s one reason it opens many opportunities for startups.

I heard several interesting comments in the conference, for example: “this is not a time to expect significant revenue from social media, but this is the time to enter that business if you want to be there in the future”, “there is a shift from content to experience that means content, context and conversations”, and “the time of traditional PR is over, the future is a combination of PR, marketing, and social media activities”.

Social media helps startups to make its own marketing in a cost effective way, when startups are normally more creative in social media than corporations’ marketing and PR departments. You must get the first beta up and running by spending less than half million dollar in social media. If you need more for the first step, it is time to think your go-to-market plan. As a guy from Google said “you cannot just plan with white board, now you must do it, launch it and improve it”.

This kind of business parks and incubators are important to develop web and mobile business. They improve companies’ capital efficiency, and really enable a group of 5 talented people to launch a world class service. These incubators are important also for investors. It helps investors work, if a company can get services from an incubator and if the incubator can also offer senior level support and advises to the company. It is also a kind of qualification that a company is selected to an incubator network that also makes investor’s own due diligence work easier.

Local incubators also need a good international network. This is something, where we see interesting new opportunities in the future: get incubators, investors, and companies around the world work together and combine right resources. Internet and mobile business cannot have geographical borders.