For those of you attending, I am moderating a panel today at 2:30pm. The topic is "Suggestions from Investors to Entrepreneurs".
(2) Suggestions from Investors to entrepenours
Cem Sertoğlu (Moderatör) – Mondus.net Chief Executive Officer – SP Ventures, Managing Partner
Emre Sokullu is organizing BarCamp Istanbul on October 20th at the Besiktas Campus of Bahcesehir University. His blog post and the BarCamp page cover the details.
Emre has a post announcing that Seedcamp is coming to Turkey. This is great news for Turkish entrepreneurs, because where Seedcamp operates is precisely the zone in the Turkish capital universe with a vacuum. From Emre’s post, my interpretation is that the Seedcamp team is not actually visiting Turkey but has indicated that they are interested in seeing Turkish ventures. I was not able to find any Turkey-specific details on the Seedcamp website.
What is Seedcamp?
Seedcamp is an attempt to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in
Europe by putting the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs
in front of a top-tier network of company builders; including seed
investors, serial entrepreneurs, product designers, architecture
experts, HR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, and venture
capitalists.Why is this important?
Europe has the necessary ingredients to build the world’s next
generation of leading technology companies; talent, capital, ideas, and
examples of success; but what it lacks is the tradition of
entrepreneurialism. This makes it hard for young entrepreneurs to
secure funding, develop the right connections and build teams. Seedcamp
is directly addressing these challenges by bringing together
entrepreneurs from all over Europe and exposing them to the collective
experience of people who can help turn their grand visions into
successful businesses.What is Seedcamp looking for?
A strong team of at least two people who have a creative idea and
the energy and commitment to execute. The teams do not need years of
experience; in fact, Seedcamp would most benefit first-time
entrepreneurs with early, seed-stage ideas. Ideas should leverage the
Internet and not have previously been funded. For a full list of
selection criteria, visit the website:
http://www.seedcamp.com/pages/apply_application_criteraTimeline
- Seedcamp is currently accepting applications: http://www.seedcamp.com
- Deadline is August 12, 2007
- Top 20 teams will be chosen and invited to Seedcamp Week in London
- Seedcamp Week takes place from September 3 – 7, 2007
- The top five teams will be chosen to receive €50,000 and continued support from the Seedcamp network
I would highly recommend it to any new Turkish internet venture.
I am in New Orleans at Auren Hoffman’s Dialog event. It’s an interesting and eclectic group of participants. I am looking forward to the discussions of the next few days.
Owen Thomas, in an amusing article, likens venture capitalists to the Mafia:
Where the Valley really starts to behave like the Mafia is when your
company starts to hit the big time. Take YouTube, for example, which raised a rumored $25 million
last year before its Google buyout. That was enough to pay for two
years’ worth of bandwidth bills. Did YouTube really need that much
cash? Nah. It just needed enough to scare all the other online-video
startups, and keep big media companies’ lawyers from pushing the
startup around.
There’s a semi public fight being played out, starting with a TechCrunch story, between FilmLoop and ComVentures.
As someone who has seen both sides of the fence, albeit at smaller scales than what’s being discussed, I have to come out on the side of the VCs in this story. FilmLoop’s ordeals are, of course, difficult for any entrepreneur to face. However, not having access to every detail of the deal or the process, I think it’s wrong to label ComVentures ‘evil’.
Sophisticated entrepreneurs know the pitfalls and caveats of accepting venture capital. In general, I believe VC money turns a venture into a more binary play. The downside of binary plays is that the alternative to a huge success is usually a big zero. The rules of the VC game are clear enough that it makes me doubt that another VC fund would have behaved differently, if they thought (presumably as the ComVentures team did) that FilmLoop was a failure.
In his new blog covering his new venture, Advisor Garage, Andrew Ive has a useful discussion on his experience as an entrepreneur raisinig venture capital.
Acumen Fund is an extraordinary organization that takes a disciplined approach to create sustainable philanthropic ventures. They are seeking a new class of Acumen Fellows. The ideal candidate looks like this:
Who should apply? Only those individuals with exceptional business skills,
proven international interests and a great ability to work with people. Acumen
Fund Fellows have the talent to do almost anything in their careers, and the
vision to see themselves making significant change to challenging social
problems. Fellows have the maturity to work with independence in Africa or South
Asia. They are communicators and team players. They are individuals who do not
accept the status quo. They are problem-solvers and listeners. They have a sense
of humor. Previous international experience helps. So does a track record that
demonstrates not only innovation and imagination but also the ability to work
with teams and in diverse situations. In short, we are looking to identify some
of the world’s next generation of leaders.
Here are the instructions for potential applicants.
Guy Kawasaki’s got a fun and insightful post about the necessary qualifications in a venture capitalist. The takeaway is:
Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first.
Worth reading and thinking about if you are interested in the industry.
Aydin Senkut, Turkish ex-Googler turned angel investor, has launched his blog. Welcome, Aydin.
Cem Sertoglu 