We have just launched Grow VC India and we thought it would be appropriate to elaborate on our vision for the local networks in general and how they connect to our global vision. I was joined by Jouko and Valto we discussed our local networks, what’s next and how they will come together globally. Don’t let the word local fool you, it’s only a smokescreen.

Local partners will have a central role in developing the platform and we are constantly looking for more partners to join building our global community. If you share our vision and want to develop early phase funding, get in touch to explore possibilities of working together with us (partner@growvc.com)

Listen to the Podcast below or on iTunes.

Member highlight: MusikPitch

Some quotes from the episode:

.. build a social network of the startup and investment world.

.. this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon..

.. it’s important that they live the startup culture, that they understand the startup mentality..

Listen to Valto’s and Jouko’s messages to the community

Coming together in large numbers and participating to “bring out the best”. Isn’t that what Web 2.0 and democratization of the web has done for so many things in recent years? It’s allowed a much larger number of people to collaborate and participate while the people within each community bring up the ones that stand out.

Look at Flickr! One of the forerunners in bringing Web 2.0 to the world of photography. In more ways than one, it brought out the photographer in each one of us, created a place where we could develop our skills brought millions together to participate and constantly helped bring to the spotlight the very best photographs and talent which could have gone unnoticed.

Look at Youtube! Think about how many new directors and video producers it’s created by providing a community and support infrastructure to share and broadcast video clips. Television has always looked to support talent but the sheer scale and number of gripping videos on Youtube which would have otherwise missed out on was a result of people being able to participate in what we watch. It’s the contributors to this community who have voted, thumbs-upped and made videos like “Charlie Bit Me” as popular as global sporting events.

Democratization works to have a community select what they like and bring the very best out into the forefront and now we can use it to bring out the best of startups. I may not be the most experienced of photographers but I know when I’ve got an exceptionally good shot because when they are discovered on Flickr, they gather momentum within the community and I can measure how good it was by peoples reaction, acceptance, feedback and votes.

In a community like Grow VC which comprises of other entrepreneurs, experts and investors, it’s good to have your startup listed so that you can measure where it stands if for no other reason. Just as a website can be tested on a sandbox server, a startup idea can be tested within a community that understands where you’re trying to run with it. Through the feedback, comments, votes or even silence of others within the community, one can rethink some things, re-write the pitch, work on standing out or at least know how their idea will be received by others once it’s out there. The chances are: if you can gather interest within a smaller community, you can gather interest within the larger market. If your plan isn’t attracting any attention within a close knit community, it may just need some adjustments. Then, there is the benefit of having your startup “talked about” within the circle of entrepreneurs, investors and experts since that’s an audience that could be very valuable in future.

As the Grow VC community grows and more members as well as more startups are vying for the support they require, rest assured, democratization will help bring out some great startup ventures right to the top!

It being summer and all, we thought it appropriate to talk about summer and startups. As a matter of fact, today’s guest, Ramine Darabiha, an active entrepreneur, founder & CEO of MySites, is the head coach for a student formed entrepreneurship summer bootcamp, called Summer of Startups. Sharing many of our values, we are glad to be supporting this program, that aims to empower and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs and affect a change in culture, regarding entrepreneurial aspirations.

Ramine and I talked about the program, the teams, challenges and opportunities and so on. At the end of the discussion, it was apparent how invested the mentor gets in each and every team.

Check out the ten teams in the Summer of Startups program

Listen to the episode in the player below or on iTunes.

Some quotes from the episode:

“If we can spend some of the government money, not necessarily super helpful in the past, to create new startups..”

“.. you have three chief everything officers..”

“.. in the beginning, you know, we criticize their baby..”

“..learning to listen and learning to fail is something that they need to do very, very early..”

“..failure is necessary, it is a necessary part of learning..”

“..does it mean that people don’t like to work or that they like to play Pacman? I think it’s mostly that people like to play Pacman.”

For most of us entrepreneurs, the desire to setup your very own venture sets in early often in school, high school or college. For some other sit may set in during early working life at the onset of a career. In either case, the very ‘idea’ of building your venture is like an ‘itch’ that won’t go away easily even if you are still pursuing your education or decided to opt for something a little more ’safe’ like a job. You can try and rationalize with yourself saying “I can’t startup now….while I’m still studying or while I have a full time job to work”, but the truth is, if you have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, you can’t fight it! The thought will keep coming back to you, telling you that you have to give it a go and pursue your idea.

Luckily with the emergence of strong support networks for the venture community like Grow VC, there is really no better time than now for first time entrepreneurs to “go for it!” whether they are still in the middle of their college courses or engaged with a job they don’t want to let go off for financial security reasons. The biggest hurdle for student entrepreneurs and employed professionals who would love to take the leap into founding their own companies has been time and support. Building a startup from scratch takes tremendous effort, plenty of time, the right people, sufficient funds and things that just seem so far out of reach for student entrepreneurs. Things that make it seem like you have to pick between being a student or being an entrepreneur. Things that make it seem like you can either be an employee or an entrepreneur at any one time and they can’t be done in parallel.
This is where turning to a community which can offer the support and additional bandwidth required comes to the rescue. Better still, you can access the support of all these people from behind your laptop or PC which is far simpler than networking the traditional way and takes up less time. A student with a startup idea can use the community to:

• A.  Find mentors who would help them get things right the first time, guide them, help fine tune their pitches and business plans extending their experience to a new generation of first-time entrepreneurs

• B. Find the right people to form the startup team from amongst a community of experts be it in legal matters, marketing, sales, technology, development and other areas who are willing to offer their services of for cash or equity through the service investment model. While hiring may not be an immediate option, the service equity model throws open the opportunity to have an ace team without large funds to get the startup going.

• C. Use the crowdfunding model to attract investors and members in the community to acquire funding. This model is not just a cost effective means of seeking angel investments financially, but can be done with less of a fuss. No running around to investor offices, making presentations and other activities which are time consuming.

It’s the ideal environment for the first time entrepreneur who could use the support of others to get their venture up and running. Have you been thinking about a startup idea you would like to execute on but can’t quit your job till things start rolling? Are your education commitments holding you back from getting your dream venture off the drawing board? There’s a community which can support you out there offering solutions and help. Sign up! Use it!

Echoing the last post by Markus on our blog titled “The Power In the Crowd”, history has shown us whenever there is potential for a significant change in the way certain things have been traditionally done, there is bound to be skepticism and a sense of disbelief. The same applies to crowdfunding which has potential to change the way we look at venture funding and promoting startups which is bound to raise at least a few eyebrows among those who believe the current model is unshakable. We don’t have to look too far back to see how disruptive changes are met with a “that will never work!” remark only to change the perspective of people altogether.

Email came long and they said “this will never work! The postal services will never be effected by this!”

They were wrong

- MP3 technology and downloads started catching like wild fire and they said “This will never work! At least, the recording industry and music business is too big to be effected by it.”

They were wrong

Blogs and online publishing started gathering interest and they said “This will never work! The news networks, books and magazine companies can’t be touched by these amateurs.”

- They are wrong

Crowdfunding is now here and they say “This will never work! The venture capital system is the only specialized source for funding startups and how do they expect entrepreneurs to go looking for funding expecting to acquire them in $5, $10s and $20s?”

They cling on to the idea that a community of common folk can’t fund startups through contributions of $5s, $10s and $20s in startup businesses they believe in. Only a specialized large investment firm can raise the funds and cater to the needs of startups.

Here is some food for thought…

How do the largest public enterprises raise their funds or capital?

The answer is …….in $5s, $10s, $20s in the form of shares and stocks purchased by the larger community of common folk who invest a small part of their savings in businesses they believe in. Perhaps in a few years we can look back and say “They were….”

With Jouko and Valto trotting the globe in India, I was joined by our chief experience officer Christoffer Langenskiold on our Podcast. We talked about usability, user experience, design and Chris’s own research on mobile user data and emotions. Make sure you give this episode a listen, to hear from one of the people hands-on involved in the design and development of the Grow VC platform.

Listen to the episode in the player below or on iTunes

Member Highlight: HopeVote

• Free fundraiser for many good causes
• Check it out at www.hopevote.com

Look Chris up on Grow VC

Here’s some quotes from the episode:

“visual design obviously sells a product, and sometimes it even makes people forgive a product even if usability is not where it should be”

“you can’t also focus on the whole gray mass..”

“Markus: ..is it possible to create uniform solutions that please everyone?
Chris: Well… Yes, it’s possible (laughs)”

Crowdfunding has been gaining a lot of attention in the medias space during the past few years, but the true power of the crowd in the finance sector still remains undercover for a large part. As the July’s Issue of the Venture Capital Journal debates crowdfunding (in the story “Meet Your New Competition“), it is clear that the recognition of this immense power is gaining a foothold, even in the traditional actors eyes.

And that’s just what we want, the recognition of this hidden power in the crowd, that could turn inefficient operations in many parts into a real win-win for stakeholders of the funding pyramid. This is not an exclusionary change, this is an empowering change for the better.

Yesterday, Alan Moore wrote on the many aspects of the crowd:

The power of the network means this, yesterday, an entrepreneur from Australia and a member of GrowVC reached out and I was happily advising his company to connect with others somewhere else in the world as I could see the benefit in the connection. I did not ask what is in it for me – I was just very happy to help.

The sense of community, in an empowered and self-serving pool of people, can lead to amazing things. None of which should be interpreted as charity, but rather a quid pro quo -sense of doing your part in the community. In a way the whole network of individuals can be seen as a driven force, working toward a larger vision. Maybe that’s of a fairer funding market or for entrepreneurs to be able to blossom – you should ask the community.

Another great point made by Alan, relating to the trust issue in communities and modern solutions such as Kiva.org and our own.

..which ever way you look at this however, I have to ask the question, what exactly are we protecting? The biggest culprits of economic mis-management exist inside corporations, not on the pavement (sidewalk) asking for some spare change, or trying to make ends meet by doing 3 jobs, or having a dream that requires the type of funding some might leave as a ’small tip’ at a swanky restaurant.

What exactly are we protecting? That’s a good question. To continue that trail of thought, one might ask, “And from whom or what?” Obviously there is no answer to these questions, but one might be inclined to think that the villains in question are change and progress. There is mounting evidence that the current models in the finance sector are unable to provide the results that more modern tools could, the inefficiency in the models is vast and unexplainable. Shouldn’t the transactions create added value, rather than simple transaction costs?

Can the crowd solve this? We simply don’t know yet, but isn’t it worth finding out?

The whole post by Alan Moore “‘Crowdfunding will never catch on’ – investment trainee age 46″

Here’s something new for our listeners! Our guest for today, Randy Mitchell, Senior Advisor for Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship and Chairman of the OECD Working Party for Entrepreneurship in the US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, was glad to take our questions and give us solid answers. Once we got to talking, the discussion could have continued and continued. Luckily for us, Randy offered to join us again, at a future date to build on our discussion.

If you want a good insight into our future, we strongly urge you to listen to the Podcast!

More on Randy on his LinkedIn

Listen to the episode in the player below or on iTunes.

Here’s some great quotes from the episode:

“.. there is an old model that has worked extremely well, in the tune of a billion plus dollars. That’s billion with a B..”

“let us keep in mind that it is startups, it is new companies that are creating new jobs. The vast number of jobs created in United States are coming from these startup companies. So, if were doing anything to harm or impede startups getting going, then it is a very big issue.”

Here are the questions we posed:

1. How do you see startup funding globally, what are the most important growth areas, and where are the biggest issues?
2. Do you see any trends in global VC operations?
3. What could the new models be to improve startup funding?
4. How do institutional investors (e.g. LP’s) see the VC asset class nowadays?
5. What role do you see institutions playing in supporting early phase startups?
6. How recognized in the public/institutional sector, are these challenges in startup funding?

Read the full press release here.

Yesterday, we launched an additional cornerstone to the community venture capital model. We see this step as one of many, toward creating a global funding community, with the proper tools to manage and cultivate innovations from all around the world. As several layers of funding institutions already exist, the idea has always been to utilize them together with prominent partners around the world, in creating a value-adding and more efficient operating way, to provide early phase companies with the right tools for success.

Keeping in line with the concept of creating a “Virtual Silicon Valley” and developing new models for more efficient early phase funding Grow VC rolls out the Virtual VC Co-investment Fund to enable VC’s to participate in Grow VC’s seed investments.

The first on board in this Virtual VC Co-Investment Fund is IndiaCo Ventures Limited, a profitable investment management firm listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“The early stage startups space in India is an extremely exciting one and the virtual fund would open doors for VC’s to be a part of this promising market which has tremendous talent and potential given they get access to better funding options” states Rahul Patwardhan Vice Chairman and Managing Director at IndiaCo.

The development of our community has been at a great pace, yet we eagerly await the future where entrepreneurs have more equal opportunities in a global setting. Working with the actors that are passionate about building a better future, with a focus on entrepreneurship, we are confident we can unlock the tremendous potential in global startups.

Giving something a shot, failing and then trying again through another route is a part of start-ups and entrepreneurial work ethics. You take risks in order to strike the BIG time and that can hold true for finding the right people and expertise for your venture too. Start-ups often go through several hires and partnership changes before the right talent is found. While most people would blame themselves for the wrong choices, the great thing about entrepreneurs is they can turn failure into lessons, laugh it off and move forward. On the topic of finding the expertise required by a venture and seeing the lighter side of start-ups, here is some entrepreneur humor which highlights what we’re talking about perfectly!

An entrepreneur attended an auction at which he won the bid on an old safe. With dreams of a large fortune inside, he was told that the business from which the safe originated was so long defunct, that no one had the combination. Undaunted, he called a locksmith to try to get the safe open.

The first locksmith told the entrepreneur that it would cost forty dollars to open the safe intact. However, tried as he might, he couldn’t open it, and told the wealthy man that he had lost his money in buying the safe.

The entrepreneur then contacted another locksmith, a crusty, bent old man with three days’ growth of white whiskers, who took a long look at the safe, noted its manufacturer and retired to his truck. Shortly, he returned with a power drill, a ruler, and a small, bent piece of metal.

The locksmith measured a few inches from the dial and marked an “x” at the “2 o’clock” mark. It took more than half an hour for the old man to drill through the safe’s door. He then took the bent metal, hooked it through the hole and fished around a few moments until a loud “CLICK” was heard. Turning the handle the door swung open slowly.

The safe was empty.

Disappointed, the entrepreneur turned to the locksmith and asked the charge for opening the safe.

“A hundred and twenty dollars,” replied the locksmith.

“A hundred and twenty dollars?!” shouted the businessman, “That’s outrageous! The other man only wanted forty! I want an itemized bill for it!”

“Okay.” The locksmith turned on his heel and returned to his truck. A few minutes later, the entrepreneur was presented with a dirty piece of paper upon which the locksmith had written:

Charge for drilling hole: $20

Charge for knowing WHERE to drill hole: $100.

(source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Entrepreneur)

A premium for acquiring the very best talent and top notch expertise which could prove invaluable for your start-up is often worth it! Sure…in this case the safe was empty but it if it wasn’t (the idea was fundamentally a runaway success), then the locksmith who knew WHERE to drill would get you to your goal far quicker. With startups, speed of execution is of the essence and that can mean finding the expertise required whether in marketing, legal, technical areas or other areas where it can provide a boost.

The Grow VC community features experts from across functions with specialized skills and experience which could be just what an entrepreneur needs. Whether it’s looking for partners, advisors or service providers, the community is a one stop place where the right expertise can be found. If you’re looking for the guys who knows WHERE to drill the hole, then this (www.growvc.com)  is WHERE you’ll find them!