Tag: Venture Capital

WHAT IS A HUMP DAY? According to Anthill’s founder and editor-at-large, it’s the logical name for a Wednesday (also known as ‘hump day’) brain...

Professional investors eye businesses with the potential to rapidly grow. Christopher Golis, author of ‘Enterprise & Venture Capital,’ thinks if the potential market of your business is lower than $100 million, venture capitalists would simply pass the investment opportunity. So make sure you can demonstrate a large enough market that can deliver the expected ROI.

Retailers now have a much lower cost way to engage with and acquire the customers they want. At the same time, customers love receiving sponsored and group gift cards from their friends to spend on items they actually want. Put the two together and you get some thing interesting.

There is basic information an investor will want to see before they become interested in you and, your online venture. But basically, it’s all about returning tons of money to the investor. It's never about making you a multi-millionaire. If you can answer the following questions honestly, then, you're ready to speak to potential investors.

Venture capital assistance from Australian Government programs, such as the Innovation Investment Fund, has been vital for helping turn groundbreaking ideas into commercial products...

In our first Anthill Forum Video of the week, Jeremy Liddle, Chief Entrepreneur Officer at ENYA, explains the NAB Micro Enterprise loan. This loan is for all budding young entrepreneurs looking for seed funding, and business owners that want to grow their existing enterprise.

Imagine being able to turn every tv screen into a wireless monitor. All it takes is a nifty little device that's all smooth and curvy. That's the promise of PLAIR.

In this edition of the Anthill Quickfire Question, I sat down with Nick Smoot, Co-founder of Here On Biz. Nick and his co-founder Allen Hartwig have only been out of stealth for a couple of months but, in that time, they've secured meetings with companies such as Seqouia, HP and LinkedIn. They are currently raising their series seed round.

Not only does Adventure Capital's Stuart Richardson have a great hairdresser (we share the same barber) but he knows a thing or two about pitching for venture capital. This is because he lives at the receiving end of hundreds of pitches every week.

For those of you who’ve not had the pleasure, Innovation Bay’s Angel Dinners bring together angels and entrepreneurs. To date, the organisation has assisted entrepreneurs raise over $10 million in seed investment as a result of these dinners. (Heard of Spreets? Yup? Innovation Bay kick started the group buying behemoths capital raising endeavours.) If you're an entrepreneur in the high-tech space and fancy a bit of funding, you may wish to apply.

How great of a challenge do Australian entrepreneurs face in trying to set up their own businesses? You won't want to miss this special edition podcast, featuring eight (count 'em, eight!) influential investors and start-up specialists and their insights on promoting a healthy venture capital industry in Australia.

Any start-up that’s had to raise funds via Angels and VCs will tell you it’s a white-knuckle ride. Independent game development studio Bubble Gum Interactive (BGI) is no exception. The Australian start-up’s tales of capital raising include near-hypothermia, an encounter with Interpol, and a handwriting analysis test (that they passed and scored $100k.)

Today, 99designs, the world's largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, announced a $35 million first-round investment led by Accel Partners. In this exclusive podcast for Anthill, 99designs co-founder Mark Harbottle speaks with James Tuckerman about the deal and what it means for the 26-person company based in Collingwood, Victoria.

According to a new report, the Australian private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) industries generated attractive returns over a one, three and five year period, as of June 2010, in comparison to traditional stock indexes.

On 25 March, Anthill is hosting a full-day Capital Raising, Acquisitions & Exit Masterclass, facilitated by Domenic Carosa. Learn the benefits of growing a business using acquisitions as a strategy, and the processes involved in approaching, negotiating, closing and integrating acquisitions or mergers.

The Melbourne International Venture Capital Conference, featuring more than 30 expert speakers, keynotes and panel sessions, will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 8 March, at the Park Hyatt Melbourne. Speakers will include Tan Yinglan, author of "The Way of the VC -- Top Venture Capitalists on Your Board" and "Chinnovation -- How Chinese Innovators are Changing the World."

Lesson #1: There is definite value in pitching unprepared. One of the pitchers on the night had not pitched before. You could tell he was hungry to get in front of the crowd and tell his story. This is because few of us ever get the opportunity to have our ideas challenged.

Angel investing in Australia is alive and well! That’s the message from day one of the 4th Annual Australian Association of Angel Investors (AAAI) conference which opened in Newcastle yesterday. The conference, in its fourth year, was created as a forum for Australian angels to network, learn and showcase industry best-practice.

Offer Me, one of Australia's early adopters of the group-buying model, released a media statement on Friday alerting the media that it is on the "verge of" receiving "substantial" venture funding from overseas investors. But being on the 'verge' of a big deal is, indeed, not a big deal (and possibly not even news). So, why would someone produce a media release and court the media's attention about a deal not done?

Domenic Carosa, at age 35, is already a wily veteran of online entrepreneurship. In this wide-ranging interview with Anthill, he talks about investing in internet upstarts (as compared to startups) and about what kinds of entrepreneur he's likely to invest in. Oh, and keep an eye out for a Special Guest Appearance at 5:23. Woof.