Forward Innovations

Forward Innovations hosted another “Founders’ Boot Camp” this past week and the team was impressed by the group of founders who participated. The three-day program took place at a beautiful lodge nestled in the rolling hills of the Castro Valley Mountains of the San Francisco East Bay. Founders in the social, search, CRM, and augmented reality space travelled from the South Bay, Connecticut, Portland, and even Prague, to join us and learn more than they ever knew they needed to know about successfully starting a tech company!

To give you an idea of the quality of the group we saw this month, here are brief bios: 

Ondrej Homola is the CEO of Corinth, a Czech company swiftly making its way to Silicon Valley. Ondrej  got his degree in corporate finance from Brno Technical University and then joined DuPont’s sales team building Innovations for Czech Republic. In just three years he was appointed Sales and Marketing Director to Central Europe building innovations. Now, he has his hands at something way bigger, augmented reality, with Corinth, whose technology was recently touted by execs at Microsoft.

Robert Caruso is an experienced tech startup founder with seven issued internet patents and his eighth currently pending. His career has developed expertise in sales, marketing and technology, including his most recent startup Social Resolve LLC, a social media software company and the first to develop a social content management system, Bundle Post. Robert is recognized as a long time social media professional, ranked in the 95th percentile, worldwide. His company blog is a top ten finalist for Social Media Examiner’s 2021 social media blogs to watch and has been named 57th on the “Ultimate List of Social CEO’s on Twitter”.

Anil Jwalanna is the CEO of Acrowit, a platform developed to help companies improve productivity and achieve consistency by finding, assembling, and tracking up to date content and documents on the fly. Anil is an entrepreneur, visionary and business savvy leader driven to enable technology as a competitive edge for business. He’s passionate about building product companies that caters to business needs leveraging innovative & cutting edge technologies

Don Levy is the Co-Founder of Tunive, the one stop shop for entrepreneurs from around the world to find answers to their questions. Don has over thirty years of diversified strategic business, marketing, management and technical experience in the broadband, telecommunications, media and entertainment industries. His history includes startup ventures in Internet/web portal development, digital media creation, media asset management, nonlinear editorial and TV production.

8-time CEO and Angel Investor, Jack Porter, led the courses, giving these founders an in-depth look into the most effective way to launch their company, as well as successful strategies in raising their different rounds of investment, among other topics.

In addition to Jack’s trainings, founders got first-hand accounts of lessons learned in running successful tech companies from serial entrepreneurs Dave Sifry of Technorati and Jens Horstmann, CEO of Crestlight Ventures, as well as a look into raising capital and other challenges in the current market from Francis Pedraza, CEO of Evr.st.

While founders spent the majority of Boot Camp soaking up a vast degree of new and pertinent information from experts in their space, they also got to kick back and make new relationships with each other as well as renowned entrepreneurs and investors.

Start off your New Year on the right step and register for our next Founders’ Boot Camp, January 21-23, 2013. You’ll discover crucial steps you need to take for your startup, and meet potential investors, as well as serial entrepreneurs who want to help you.

To learn more about the monthly Founders’ Boot Camp, or other events and services Forward Innovations offers, visit our website at www.forwardinnovations.com. 

What a solid group of Founders and Angel Investors we saw at the November FASTtrack Angel Forum!

The Founders in our FASTtrack accelerator were each given 30 minutes to pitch their company in front of 15 active, first rate angel investors, followed by time after their presentation to network and answer questions from the investors.

These FASTtrack accelerator companies disrupting the tech scene include:

• SeenTh.at http://seenth.at/ +SeenTh.at is bringing movie lovers together;
• Sustainability Dashboard Tools http://www.green2sustainable.com/ is helping companies create cultures of sustainability;
• Flipside Workspace http://www.flipsideworkspace.com/ is creating the best environment for virtual work;
• Duxter http://duxter.com/splash.php is uniting gamers everywhere; and
• AirCloud http://www.aircloud.co/ is making mobile fun!

In between FASTtrack demos, Jack Porter, Forward Innovations Managing Director and Serial Founder, talked to the investors about the latest trends and hot topics in angel investing, including the Efficient Frontier for Angel Investment, Startup Genome, and Seed Primes.

Both Founders and Investors walked away from the forum with new and valuable knowledge, connections, and ideas.

If you’re an investor or founder wanting to learn about the FASTtrack Angel Forum, please visit our website: http://www.forwardinnovations.com/j/index.php/events-menu?id=56

Our most recent Founders’ Boot Camp, October 8-10, took place in a charming villa in the hills of the East Bay. We had the privilege of spending three days with a group of pioneering entrepreneurs who traveled to be with us from all across the continent. Here’s a look at the individuals and their startups:

• Jim Birch, Founder of ZPerfectGift. ZPerfectGift is a service that allows people to group money together for the perfect gift, at no charge. https://www.zperfectgift.com/
• Sarah Evans, Chief Evangelist of Tracky. Tracky is an open social collaboration platform and project management tool. https://tracky.com/
• Ravi Gundlapalli, Founder of Mentor Cloud. MentorCloud is a peer-to-peer platform purpose-built for people to connect as mentors and mentees, share expertise and drive mutual professional growth. www.mentorcloud.com
• Alexander Last, Founder of SportsHedge. SportsHedge operates various social sports games designed to collect high value sports prediction data.
• Sandro Tchikovani. Sandro is a full time artist designer and currently working on large scale works for a number of different clients; tech has become his new canvas.

Jack Porter, our Founder and Managing Partner, began the program by going over the credentials necessary to be a truly successful Founder, including the skills, personality, training, and tools. Founders received an overview on raising capital, the state of the angel market, plus a glimpse inside the mind of an angel, from an angel. Over dinner, the Forward Innovations team worked with the founders to nail their “Hollywood” and “Elevator” pitches.

On day two, we dove into each stage of development in the startup lifecycle: Discovery, Validation, Efficiency, and Scale. We were lucky enough to have four special guests speak to us. Peter Ashkin, Serial Entrepreneur and former President of Product Strategy for AOL, and Debbie Wright, Engineer and Angel Investor, gave us their perspective on how to get in front of Angels, and how Angels make their investment decisions. We also had Chris Strachan of TBird Angel Fund speak on creating company culture with social, team building, and mechanisms for feedback, and how to come up with systems to incentivize people to do the right things. Finally, former CTO of Cadence Design and current CEO of Enconcert gave his testimony on going from a large corporation amidst the digital design revolution, to a small company with a big dream. Ted emphasized the importance of mentorship, network, and the founding team.

On the final day of Boot Camp, Jack took the founders through a detailed look at the term sheet and strategies to negotiate with VCs, including venture tricks and traps, and applying game theory to raising VC money. Lastly, Jack gave an analysis, the good, the bad, and the ugly, on exits. Safe to say, the Founders at our Boot Camp gained, in just three days, a foundation that only entrepreneurs with decades of experience possess.

Everyone who attends Founders’ Boot Camp gets access to our portal, which houses the Boot Camp presentations, exclusive template documents for all the legal articles you need, and video tutorials. Our next Founders’ Boot Camp is in November. Email events@forwardinnovations.com if you’re interested in attending or speaking.

View photos from the event on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ForwardInnovations and Google+ Page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106350639330022569267/106350639330022569267/posts

Yesterday, Forward Innovations hosted a group of Angel Investors from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond for an update from Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Jack Porter, on the current state of Angel Investing, as well as presentations from Founders in Team 1 of FASTtrack, the Startup Accelerator.

At the Forum, Jack Porter gave a detailed analysis of Angel Investing in 2012, including trends, number of investments and amounts, deal size, and terms. He defined each of the Angel Stages and the requirements at each stage, plus gave a review of important Angel issues like leveraging a 1045 Account, the Small Business Investment Act, Convertible Equity, and the Jobs Act. Finally, Jack gave the Angels a tutorial on AngelList, guiding them through the steps to creating a profile that supports investments and facilitates a strong pipeline.

In addition to the Angel updates, Angels heard pitches from the following, emerging tech startups:

• Disrupting the publishing industry with “less fluffy/wordy” books is Slimbooks, the TED talks for books. www.slimbooks.com.
• Turning conference search into business results, ConferenceChecker is the Trip Advisor for Conferences. conferencechecker.com
• Creating a system of engagement in the CRM market is Next Principles, a tool that analyzes, engages, and integrates simply with social analytics. nextprinciples.com. 
• A new platform for young professionals to meet, network and foster relationships worldwide, YoPro Global, positions “yo pros” to land their dream job.

The Angel Forum took place on October 2, 2012 at the Rose Hotel in Pleasanton, California. Photos from the event are viewable on our Facebook Page http://on.fb.me/SD5f11 and Google+ Page http://bit.ly/O5yAoG. If you’re interested in attending the next Angel Forum, or would like to introduce Founders to our Accelerator, please email events@forwardinnovations.com.

Founders’ Boot Camp is just around the corner! Find out how to put your company in a unique position and get funded. http://www.forwardinnovations.com/j/index.php/events-menu?id=45

Attend Forward Innovations’ Founders’ Secrets, a half-day, live seminar and webcast that includes tips, tricks, and game-changing strategies for Founders. There are 50 secrets you need to know from the time you

start your company until you raise your angel investment, and we go over every single one of them. We understand that you “don’t know what you don’t know,” and we want to change that!

At this seminar, you’ll discover the secrets behind: Capitalizing the business, Implementing Founders’ Protection, The Founding Team and how to divide up the pie, The Start-up Milestones, Engaging Angel Investors, Determining your valuation, Structuring the deal, Founders’ Secrets Seminar

Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Time: 9:00am - 1:00pm PDT
Location: Forward Innovations, 2470 First Street, Suite 200B, Livermore, CA or via Webcast

TO SIGN UP: http://www.forwardinnovations.com/j/index.php/events-menu?id=48

Join us for a free, live webcast with 8-time CEO and Angel Investor, Jack Porter. http://www.forwardinnovations.com/j/index.php/events-menu

Jack Porter, 8-time CEO and Angel Investor, is hosting a call this Wednesday, September 19th, for tech founders and entrepreneurs. On the call, Jack will walk founders through the programs and services Forward Innovations offers to accelerate startups.

The call is completely free.

Here are the details:

Wednesday, September 19, 2012
1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

Link: http://www.JackPorter.enterthemeeting.com/m/ACZUZ3LU
Dial-In #: 949.202.4265
Attendee Pin: 8331261#

Email founders.secrets@forwardinnovations.com if you would like more information.