Category: Voices

Angel Investor Startup Digest

On June 3, 2017

Every Friday we send out a newsletter to more than 8000 Angel Investors around the world, once in a while I post some news here so you maybe can see the value of subscribing. Here you have some of the posts I have been reading the last couple of days and hope you find some relevant stories. Sign up for Angel Investor Startup Digest today.

Angel Challenge Bergen Finalists

Angel Challenge Blog

– Over the past 2 months, 20 Angel Investors have worked closely together with 6 startups screening, mentoring, and evaluating them to decide which one to invest in. Here are the companies…

Digital economy profits from angel investors

Martin Cash – Winnipeg Free Press

– The recent spate of workforce trimming by some of the Winnipeg’s largest corporate entities – Great-West Life, IGM Financial, Manitoba Hydro and Bell MTS – is not a signal that the economy is collapsing. But it does provide another warning bell of sorts that significant change is occurring – the digital economy is shaking the foundations of legacy industries.

The difference between investing and speculating

George Beall – TNW

– With Bitcoin cracking $2,500 per coin recently, it seems everyone has an opinion on what the future of the cryptocurrency is and whether it is a worthwhile investment. The hard truth though is that no one with an opinion on bitcoin is making an informed decision.

Paris has never been closer to toppling London as Europe’s tech hub

Shona Ghosh – Business Insider Nordic

– Paris is maturing into an impressive startup ecosystem, attracting foreign talent and funding. Research shows France received more VC investment than Germany in 2016.

Distributions of Outcomes and Angel Investing

Scott Shane – Small Business Trends

– This week I want to recount the story of a high volume early stage investor who described to me his experience with an inefficiency in a gambling market that he sought to exploit.

Deal of the week: Boom Fantasy

Finsmes.com

– The company, which has raised over $3m in total, will use the new funds for product advancement and player enhancements. In conjunction with the raise, Boom Fantasy has acquired Draftpot, a company that had raised $3m in funding, to double its user base.

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Meha Agarwal – Inc42

– This week 12 startups raised about $215 Mn in funding altogether.

12 Reasons Why I Love Estonia

By bergmoe

On January 2, 2017

In Voices

Sign up for my updated weekly newsletter “New Venture Insights” and receive my new ebook “12 Reasons Why I Love Estonia” (5 min read) with the confirmation email.

How TED Talks killed my pitch

By bergmoe

On May 16, 2016

In Voices

After been massively inspired by Chris Anderson’s great book released May 4, I have decided to ditch most of what I had preached and sold as the only true way to successful investor pitching. TED Talks is a must for everybody who are speakers, planning to do a talk or simply want to learn more about public speaking.

Chris Anderson has worked behind the scenes with all the TED speakers who have inspired us the most. He has in his book shares insights from such favorites as Sir Ken Robinson, Amy Cuddy, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Gilbert and dozens more — everything from how to craft your talk’s content to how you can be most effective on stage.

Learn more about the book and read other reviews at Amazon.com

I just wish that I could have had the opportunity to read this book before I did my TEDx talk in Bergen in 2014. Yes, I was informed about the format and did not extend my limited time of 18 minutes, but I was not well prepared, and my thru line was unclear. I also did som repetitions throughout the presentation. I had a lot of very positive feedback on my approach, and many of my predictions regarding the decline in the oil and gas sector in Norway have come through, but I am hundred percent sure I would have done better today after listening to TED Talks Audible version for totally 450 minutes.

The main idea behind a 4 – 7 minute is to cover most of the stuff that investors traditionally are looking at in their screening. The main subjects are the business concept, business model, team and why it will succeed, niche of the market, competitive advantages, uniqueness regarding intellectual property, traction, simplified financials, capital need and exit strategy.

My focus in preparing my next investor pitch will be to tell as story, concentrate at giving, unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, sharing knowledge and promoting our dream. Is it possible to do this and the same time gives the investors what they want? Yes, I think so. If I can provide the audience with the desire to learn more and meet us in the next break or networking, I believe that we have succeeded.

Do not degenerate yourself and your visions

By bergmoe

On December 9, 2015

In Community, Voices

We had a wonderful 10th anniversary in Norwegian Entrepreneur Association and we had engaged the comedian and entrepreneur Jon Schau. He was quite an experience. One of his main messages was “be true to your idea and who you are”, and I wanted to play a little further on this message the next day. I wake up and made a blog post that have made several Norwegian entrepreneurs and a few politicians reaching out to me.

Jon Schau at the 10th anniversary in Norwegian Entrepreneur Association in Drammen. Photo: Odd Moe

The situation in Norway is special because there is a lack of private business angels. Seed funding is mostly provided by the government through their state organisation called Innovation Norway. There are some professional seed funds that are coming up and running now funded with 50% oil money, and that will hopefully be a game changer.

In Norway most of the entrepreneurs from day one have to adapt to the system by having to have one gameplan towards Innovation Norway relating to getting funding and grants while the real plan lies in the back of their head ready for use when they have the money. My recommendation in the blog post was;

“Be true to yourself , say what you believe is right and do not degenerate yourself and your vision in the face of the system”. “Wherever crazy, politically incorrect or spectacular your idea is, you will always find investors, partners and others who have thought some of the same thoughts as you and who understands you. It takes just a little longer!”

So do we have a problem in Norway? I think that too many bright people and good ideas have left this beautiful country because of reasons mentions above.

I feel it is happening positive thinks and we have a government that really want to do something and change the system. There are a lot of good intentions, but there are issues regarding cultures that changes slowly up here in the north.

“Norway can never be Silicon Valley – but we can be much more if we define our space.”

We for sure have the financial power of the oil fund if we are willing to us it to create the future.

3 trends that excites Marc Nager – CEO of Startup Weekend

By bergmoe

On January 12, 2012

In Voices

In an articel in IdeaMensch Marc Nager focus on the following trends;

Specialization of cities and their communities. “Startups” are getting saturated, so we are seeing a huge movement towards more focused and intentional efforts to specialize.

The government policy makers and big businesses are realizing the importance of investing in startups and innovation. It is fundamental to ensuring our growth as a nation and a world.

Ideas are worthless, its about the people. We try extremely hard to push the level of conversations across the board towards highlighting and supporting the importance of people/individuals. We can have all the programs, money, and incentives in the world to help ideas, but without the right people and teams behind the ideas, all of those programs are worthless.

Marc Nager is for sure an entrepreneur that have changed the world. Read this interesting intervju at IdeaMensch.

Author of the month – Eric Ries

By bergmoe

On January 8, 2012

In Startup, Voices

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Business, published by Crown Business.

He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has consulted to new and established companies as well as venture capital firms. In 2010, he was named entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and is currently an IDEO Fellow. Previously he co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup. In 2007, BusinessWeek named him one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. In 2009, he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership.The Lean Startup methodology has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review,Inc. (where he appeared on the cover), Wired, Fast Company, and countless blogs. He lives in San Francisco.

Learn more about Eric Ries…