Tag: Exit

This week I've been attempting to work out the value of our company, which means I've been taking the business world's equivalent of a Dark Arts class at Hogwarts.

My focus this week has been on drawing up the first draft of our Information Memorandum (IM). Unlike the business plan, I haven't found this particularly easy at all.

Firstly, let's clear up some confusion. Commercialisation Australia is not going to pay for your marketing campaign, help you with advertising or fund you to break into your desired market. CA will help you up to the point that you are ready to go commercial. That is, it will help with pre-commercialisation.

As one of this year's 30under30 winners, Clint Walker was instrumental in building, running and selling the enormously successful Rising Sun Research (RSR), which was also named the Coolest of the Cool at Anthill's 2007 Cool Company Awards. He's now in startup round two with his second company, Run with Robots.

Oodles.com founder Steve Sherlock has set himself the goal of raising a multimillion dollar Series A funding round by the end of January 2010. He is documenting his trials and tribulations and seeking feedback from readers on AnthillOnline.com. This is the third post in his series.

If you ain't the Big Cheese, it's likely you think (at least occasionally) that you could run the company better. So get a team together and make it happen! Here are eights steps to buying out your boss and seizing the reins.

In August, we decided to explore the many facets of capital raising - from angel investment and grants to venture capital and private equity. For want of a better name, we called the exercise Anthill’s Venture Capital month. The theme tossed up plenty of investment advice and discussion. But it also triggered some strong reactions from Australian inventors who think that the investment culture in Australia needs a dramatic overhaul. Trevor Rose was among the most ardent, so we invited him to provide a 'right of reply'.

Later in the evening, perhaps after a second or third round of cocktails (all the pubs were closed), Cummings shared his views that raising capital is a time consuming process and that, in particular, he would be seeking a strategic partner. That's why I was particularly pleased to receive news yesterday that Travellr.com has secured growth capital from none other than the travel insurance and travel services company The Worlds Normad Group.

While most new technology developers will spend months chasing down angel investors and cold calling VCs, often with the randomness of a headless chook, without too much planning or forethought (much to the potential investor's frustration), sometimes the safest money is already right under their noses. It's called 'strategic capital' or 'smart money' (or a mix of the two).

Jumping ship to work with a larger, market-leading competitor was a disruptive change. The realisation that his entrepreneurial skills would be best utilised growing their business, rather than his own, did not come naturally for Peter Henderson, one of the few genuine "intrapreneurs" in this year's crop of 30under30.

It says much about the schismatic nature of Australia's economic strategy that the Federal Government invited public submissions on how to build a clever country in the same week that it signed a $50B gas export contract with China. Jordan Green outlines his vision for Australia's knowledge economy.

A little over one week ago, the Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, issued a call for public comment to help inform the development and operation of the Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute. Over the past seven days, we have been pressing our readers to get involved and provide a 'private sector' perspective (after making the seemingly unpopular suggestion that commercialisation in Australia has been hijacked by public servants with MBAs). Today, we're turning our attention to the last section of SmartForm, which requests suggestions for the delivery of funding.

So while this $US32.5 million US Government funding for UltraBattery is certainly a tremendous validation for the technology and the CSIRO researchers who developed it, the international licensing option pursued means that Australia will, in all likelihood, only receive couch change from what stands to be an extremely lucrative venture for the foreign companies (Furukawa Battery Company and East Penn) that are actually doing the commercialisation.

If you were given the opportunity to stand up for 90 seconds and pitch your company to a panel of angel investors and a raucous, how would you fare?

This first event in Anthill's upcoming 'Tunnel Talk' series, held in conjunction with Design Victoria, is a two-part initiative developed for business builders, commercial...

Designed to help high net worth individuals become successful Angel Investors. Angel investing involves active mentoring and coaching of an early stage management team towards a successful exit or additional funding, probably from a venture capital firm. This book sets out a comprehensive and rigorous process which will help the Angel generate deal flow, evaluate investment proposals and manage the investment and subsequent harvest. The book also provides a useful guide to managing operational risks in the venture.

This eBook by celebrated Australian entrepreneur and lecturer Dr Tom McKaskill was developed as entrepreneur’s guide to securing venture finance.

This eBook by celebrated Australian entrepreneur and lecturer Dr Tom McKaskill was developed as entrepreneur’s guide to securing venture finance.

The BizExchange Index for the June 09 quarter has been released and and it provides further evidence that the economy may have bottomed out.

Part of Anthill's upcoming 'Tunnel Talk' series, held in conjunction with Design Victoria, this two-part initiative is designed for business builders, commercial innovators, aspiring...