It is certainly no secret that raising money for your startup requires that you have a proven product, a solid customer acquistion strategy, and a sustainable business model. If you’re in DC, though, you have a bit of an uphill battle, as Uppidy founder Josh Konowe shared with me yesterday. If you’re not familiar with…
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If your new startup is trying to rise above the noise and get noticed – and looking for funding – you might want to move headquarters to Ohio and/or hire a female CEO. Brandy Wimberly, Founder and CEO of Toledo, OH-based Buyvite, a group-buying platform, told me that it seems there’s a lot more money…
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Back in July when I first covered Buyosphere, the Montreal-based startup felt like an iteration of Pinterest – you could curate collections of products, find interesting products through friends, and establish yourself as a tastemaker. I was skeptical about the future of the company – and said so. Co-founder and CEO Tara Hunt replied to…
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Intellectual Property (IP) lawsuits are big business these days. In fact, some companies and enterprising individuals use these lawsuits to make money—that is, filing lawsuits in order to get a monetary settlement is the business model. The phrase “patent trolls” was coined to describe companies that routinely pursue licenses and lawsuits in order to monetize…
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NYC-based Emma Graham Designs (EGD), a women’s clothing company whose preppy designs are part JCrew, Tori Burch, and Lili Pulitzer, has raised their first round of outside funding. Founded by 2 friends from Boston, Emma Mahon and Jackie Graham, the company designs and manufactures clothes aimed at the stylish college crowd on a limited budget….
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The Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women, announced today 2 investments to boost the role of women investors. PhilanTech received $50k from the fellowship, and anothoer $55k from the fellowship’s alumnae network, Pipeline Angels. It is no surprise that the number of women in leadership positions at startups is small. While recent studies…
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Houston-based SURGE, the country’s first and only seed accelerator that focuses exclusively on efficient energy software startups, has joined the TechStars Network in support of Startup America. Kirk Coburn, Managing Director and co-founder of SURGE Accelerator, had this to say: SURGE Accelerator was created to accelerate innovation in energy software technologies. The knowledge sharing and…
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According to the NVCA and Thomson Reuters, Q3 was a big ouchie for venture capital firms. In fact, only 5 venture-backed companies provided liquidity via IPO exits last quarter. This was down 77% from the 22 companies going public in Q2. The last quarter was a heart breaker for venture capital managers who were counting on the robust bull cycle that started…
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Over the past few weeks several entrepreneurs have been asking me about my opinion on convertible notes with caps. Jason Mendelson has posted a good summary of capped convertible notes on his blog here, which is mostly positive about the instrument while also acknowledging that entrepreneurs would like to avoid them. David Hornik, on the other…
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According to Dealogic, 15 scheduled IPOs were withdrawn in August. That’s the highest number of IPOs withdrawn from SEC filing since April 2001. You remember April 2001, don’t you? That was a market bubble or two ago, but it was also the beginning of a startup nuclear winter. That’s the bump in the road that, when compared…
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Co-working is not a new thing, it’s been a trend we have been watching for quite sometime and many people do it everyday across the country. On Thursday, September 1, Study Hall DC (SHDC) made its debut in DC. SHDC is a collaborative co-working session focused on enhancing community between its entrepreneurial minded members (not all of whom…
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It is my first time in Detroit, and I am riding shotgun down the main drag that is Woodward Avenue with a long-enough-to-keep-safe lens equipped camera in hand. Glide down one street akin to Park Avenue, make a sharp right turn and find yourself smack in the middle of an episode of TheWire. I was…
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Editor’s Note: This guest post is a three-part series on angel investing. Part I introduces angels and angel groups, Part II focuses on the due diligence process and the post-investment relationship, and Part III breaks down angel investing for entrepreneurs. Angel Profiles Angel investors, or angels, are usually wealthy individuals and “accredited investors” who provide…
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This blog post is by guest author Michael Harris. You may be seeking VC capital, an angel investor, or business partners. At some point, the person on the other side of the table will ask for a business card, and they will instantly assess you and your company based on that 2 x 4″ piece…
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TroopSwap.com, a DC-based startup that offers daily deals exclusively to military families, has raised $925,000 in new funding from several prominent angel investors. We are very excited for them, as we first covered them in May and then showcased them at our Tech Cocktail DC mixer in June. “Tech Cocktail and the DC tech community…
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It is a common trap for entrepreneurs pitching to investors to demonstrate their brilliance by conveying in a wealth of detail that they are subject matter experts. After all, if the investor is going to invest in your business, they really need to understand your business, right? Wrong! If you are taking up an investor’s…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More