MITX / K&L Gates Series: Seeding your Web 2.0 Company
MITX Event Coverage - January 22, 2008

Tuesday morning's event was held at the offices of K&L Gates at the State Street Financial Center in Boston. This was a great event not only for Web 2.0 entrepreneurs but for business professionals of all kinds. The venue was nearly full, which is impressive for a Tuesday after a long weekend. The key message was that a business needs to provide a unique solution to a problem, with the right team and market conditions and be able to communicate and network with investors. The panel discussions and Q&A from the group provided some valuable pointers for entrepreneurial folks ranging from those with back-of-the-napkin ideas to an established companies looking to take it to the next level.

As Woody Allen once said "Eighty percent of success is showing up". It takes a lot of networking to get funding. VC's are looking for particular kinds of deals. It depends on the investors interest or expertise, market conditions, what deals they are currently participating in and a number of other factors. Its like dating, just because you think you have the 'right stuff' doesn't mean that you will find your match right away. The business and the investor need to be compatible on many levels. That means not only being in the right places, but lots of places (and lots of MITX events).

I'm not sure who said "Luck is where preparation and opportunity meet" but another key takeaway is to be ultra prepared for those investor presentations. Have your elevator pitch down, boil your slides to 10-12 simple slides. Keep the focus on you - the slides are only a presentation aid. Sim suggested to have two decks, one to present and one to leave behind with lots of details. You need to interest the investor right away, put the exciting stuff up front. You only have one chance to make a first impression and if you don't interest the investor in this meeting its unlikely you'll get a second chance. The VC has money - what's most valuable to them is time.


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Moderated by James O'Hare, Partner at K&L Gates the panel
discussion included a mix of venture capitalist and entrepreneurs. The four panelist included: Mike Spataro, VP from Visible Technologies; Sim Simeonov, a Partner at Polaris Venture Partners; Christian Heidelberger, Nexaweb's CEO and Austin Westerling, a Partner at Charles River Ventures.

Its my opinion that any job is continuing education preparing us all to go out in the world and start our own business. This event definitely got my entrepreneurial gears turning. Any other tips for soon-to-be CEO's?