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"Yes, we would like to invest". The magic words that any startup owner loves to hear. Your idea is no longer just a seed in the back of your mind; it is about to be watered allowing it to blossom into the reality you always knew it could be.After the celebratory high fives and handshakes followed by the compulsory boozy lunch with your new best ‘investor’ friend, a term sheet or funding agreement arrives to formalise your relationship.
The agreement is ...
As you sat watching the fireworks explode in the night air, bringing yet another year to an end, you may have quietly committed to a resolution that this was finally going to be the year that you take the plunge and start your own business. Naturally, you’re a bit of a geek, so it will most likely be in the tech sphere.The idea has been brewing in the back of your mind for years and, for some unknown reason, the ...
Entrepreneurship cannot thrive if it is not given the right environment to do so. That’s according Anthony Farr, CEO of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation -- a non-profit organisation that looks to assist young entrepreneurs through learning programmes and educational scholarships."Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned, and is not entirely dependent on natural ability or talent,” he says, “However of equal importance to the skill of the entrepreneur is ensuring an environment that encourages and rewards high-impact ...
Billionaire internet investor Sean Parker took the stage in Paris at LeWeb with a simple message for his audience: There are "too many venture capitalists in the world and not enough entrepreneurs". Parker has a CV that would blow the mind of most people. He was co-founder of that great music industry disrupter Napster, and more recently an investor in Facebook and Spotify, among many other things.But don't call Parker an "investor", he finds the term a bit insulting. He ...
Fernando Madeira is the co-founder and CEO of Terra, the largest internet company in Latin America. He boasts that the "next Twitter, Google, Facebook" will come from this part of the emerging market world."We are seeing huge activity in Latin America," he says. "In Latin America we have a special sauce in the people... we love electronics and electronic chips."The stats, presented at the LeWeb conference in Paris, back up what Madeira is saying. There are 90-million broadband connections alone ...
Governments are often seen as a nuisance in business, but this is a jaded view. Responsible and engaged governments are able to do amazing things for a country's startup scene. Most countries outside the US want to mirror the success of Silicon Valley, the undisputed king of tech innovation.Nicolas Princen is French President Nicolas Sarkozy's "digital man". He has spoken about the ways the French government is stimulating its local startup scene and "helping startups grow". The internet economy contributes ...
It's rare that you see a talk that resonates so deeply and makes complete, fundamental sense. You have the realisation that experience, genius and truth is in the same room as you and you are having those "aha" moments every minute -- and it's exhilarating.Bill Gross is an entrepreneurial genius. He runs a company called Idealab, started in 1996. He founded the company to create and build successful businesses that capitalise on innovations in areas with growth opportunities. Naturally ...
I was recently in London for the Tech City UK Entrepreneurs Festival, as part of Britain's Global Entrepreneurship Week with over 300 tech entrepreneurs from around the globe. The experience was educational, to say the least, and gave me some insight into what any initiative aimed at developing entrepreneurship in the tech sector should be doing.Throughout the course of the week long conference, it became evident that emerging market initiatives like Silicon Cape in South Africa and the ...
While some might question the logic behind Alan Knott Craig Junior's purchase of MXit, one can only stand up and applaud the astuteness of his first actions as the instant messaging giant's new Owner, CEO and all round Big Cheese!His first steps were simple, focus on what MXit's core product offering is and make sure it is the best at it. I liken this to the experience when you walk into McDonald's where, despite years of success around ...
I recently watched a documentary on Steve Jobs called "One Last Thing". It was well done, mixing a fair bit of the good, the bad, and the ugly about the life of the man.There was also a lot of praise for the "marketing genius" of Steve Jobs.Then it struck me: If Steve Jobs were starting out today in Silicon Valley, he would have trouble getting funding because he's a "marketeer" -- not an engineer. Venture capitalists(VC) generally won't fund startups ...