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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
When it comes to funding for life science companies, it isn't a matter of angel investing versus venture capital. Read about funding sources for startups.
The National Institutes of Health has billions of dollars designated for biotech research. Read about how to win NIH research grants.
A term sheet is a complex legal document, but it's important for entrepreneurs to understand these four points when closing deals with investors.
Steve Perricone is President, CEO, and Co-founder of BioFuelBox Corporation. And he has over 20 years experience in the technology industry, with over half of those years in start-up environments. Perricone was Vice President of Worldwide Sales for SonicWALL, which he joined when it had less than 20 employees. Perricone was instrumental in the growth of the company, and expanded it to over 450 employees worldwide. He was directly responsible for building the worldwide channel for SonicWALL?s security products from the product line?s inception in 1998. That successful channel and sales organization contributed to near immediate company profitability and aggregate revenues of over $200 million in the first three years. Prior to SonicWALL, Perricone was a senior executive in two other technology start-ups - Network TeleSystems (acquired by Siemens) and Structured Internetworks. He is an alumnus of California State University, Chico.
Timothy C. Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He was instrumental in bringing viral marketing to web-based e-mail to geometrically spread the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and the practice has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by countless businesses and organizations. Draper launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe. He also serves on the boards of Skype, SocialText, Project Y, MailFrontier and Chroma Graphics. He was an original investor in Parametric Technology (PMTC), Tumbleweed Communications (TMWD), Overture.com (OVER), Digidesign (AVID), Preview Travel (TVLY), Four11 (YHOO), Combinet (CSCO), and Redgate (AOL). He also founded or co-founded Wasatch Ventures (Salt Lake City), Zone Ventures (LA), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburg), Timberline Ventures (Portland), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC) and DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara). Draper has been recognized as a leader in entrepreneurship and venture capital through numerous awards and honors, and he has frequent TV, radio, and headline appearances. He was number seven on Forbes? Midas List and number 52 on the list of the most influential Harvard Alumni. He was also named AlwaysOn Magazine?s number one top venture capital dealmaker for 2008. Tim is the course creator and Chairman of BizWorld, a 501c3 organization built around simulated teaching of entrepreneurship and business to children. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Angel financing - or funding from individuals with the time and money to invest in early-stage companies - is more accessible thanks to the gathering of such investors into networks, writes an erstwhile entrepreneur turned angel investor. The process is still arduous, but the author offers tips for easing the way.
Bootstrapping is one way to extend existing cash and postpone the need to raise money, thus allowing the entrepreneur time to achieve milestones and raise the valuation of the company. The author provides specific ways to bootstrap your company and extend your cash runway.
This informative piece explains a well-known method that venture capitalists use to determine "post-money valuation," which is a company's valuation at the time of investment. Perhaps more important, it provides valuable insights into why the returns expected by investors are often perceived as "too high" by entrepreneurs.
A highly successful angel investor and entrepreneur identifies and puts to the test a valuation calculator tool. He finds that it works very well, thank you. By answering twenty-five questions, entrepreneurs and investors arrive at valuations that can reasonably be used as a practical guide to investing.
Numerous factors affect how angels value a company. Primary are the strength of the management team and the size of the opportunity, or a company's potential to scale. Accompanying this article is a valuation worksheet that entrepreneurs can use to better understand what investors look for and to identify factors that can justify higher pre-money valuations. Investors will find it useful to compare companies and determine whether valuation should be higher or lower.
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