Entries from April 2008 ↓

Many investment pitches I’ve seen recently, in fact nearly all of them, hinge on wanting some cash to break into overseas markets. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise recently released their research results into International Perceptions of New Zealand Business. The report itself is well summarised on their web site, and is easy to read.

The bottom line is that “New Zealand has a business culture that is perceived to be high in human values and low in business acumen.” While that result might give you a nice feeling that it isn’t the other way round, we lose points for our core values of “give it a go” and “she’ll be right”. While we’re experimenting in the shed with whatever works, the rest of the developed world are researching their markets, forming long-term alliances with key industry players, developing resources and doggedly executing their plan in the “survive or die” world of global business.

There’s good news though in that “there’s no need to become hard-edged or cut-throat, just come up to par [in business acumen].”

These are valuable insights for both angel investors and entrepreneurs – and there are more worthwhile learnings in the report.

X|Media|Lab is a highly acclaimed international digital media conference – the sort of thing that you’d hop on a plane and fly to Sydney or Shanghai for … but hang on, they’re having one here in New Zealand 30 May – 1 June 2008!

XML NZ focuses on helping people to get their digital media idea into shape, getting to market, and achieving commercial success.

In addition to conference sessions, the organisers are selecting 12 projects on the theme of “commercialising ideas” for intensive mentoring. If you have a project or investment in this sector and you’re looking for mentoring by an outstanding team of international experts, this is your big chance.

Their International Mentors includes Google’s Manager of Business Development; the Chairman of Codemasters and the former Chair of Sony Europe; the Co-Founder of Participant Productions (Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck etc); the Founder and President of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation; the Founder of Trade Me (NZ); the President of the Interactive Emmy Awards; the General Manager of Interactive Content, Services and Advertising Development from Intel’s Digital Home Group; Games Industry Legend Noah Falstein (Dreamworks, 3DO, and Lucas Arts); the Founder and CEO of mInfo, China’s leading mobile content search service; and many more.

At $99 entry fee for individuals or $199 for corporate / government, it’s a no-brainer to attend for anyone in the sector.

For more information, see the XMediaLab web site.

Wellington’s AngelHQ will be running an education evening on Due Diligence on 7 May 2008 at CreativeHQ. Rod Drury and Dion Mortensen (MOVAC) will be address issues including what questions you should raise during due diligence, what information to review, how to make a decision, what advice to take, how much time due diligence typically takes … everything you always wanted to know about due diligence but were afraid to ask.

AngelHQ is a new organisation, and is shaping up to be a great resource for Wellington-based angels.

For more information, contact the ever-helpful Marie-Claire Andrews.

The Pitch:

Celsias is the online marketplace where companies sponsor social entrepreneurs to create and fund corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. Celsias offers companies the opportunity to sponsor CSR projects and promote their corporate citizenship globally via the growing Celsias community. Celsias offers social entrepreneurs the oportunity to describe their projects on Celsias for free, and then attract a corporate sponsor. The main market is SME’s that need to implement CSR programs to satisfy customer, stakeholder, or contractual requirements but do not have the staff or budget to manage a CSR program in-house. Revenue is based on subscriptions.

Accomplishments to date:

Site traffic has been growing at a compound rate of 65% per month since October 2006. The site has over 90 projects listed, and growing. The Wall Street Journal says that it reads the Celsias blog regularly, and the Times (UK) named Celsias in the top five climate change websites in the world. Celsias recently closed a sponsorship deal with Ricoh and is in negotiations with a major US-based technology company.

Development Plans / Key Challenges:

The trick now is to win a handful of high-profile Fortune 500 clients to validate the offer, and help them to achieve their CSR goals and whilst combatting climate change. At the same time, the site needs to continue to attract high-quality projects, and continue to build the Celsias community and traffic.

Principals & Previous Experience:

CEO: Nick Lewis

• Former CEO of Energy Intellect
• Investment banker and group head at JP Morgan and CIBC World Markets in New York
• Founder and CEO of NADE Corp (outsource drug and alcohol services provider)
• Nuclear engineer at ABB
• Peace Corps volunteer in Yemen
• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

COO: Matthew Wright

• UK-trained information architect and web strategist
• Formerly with Shift in Wellington, and Saatchi and Saatchi in London

What they want from an investor:

• NZD 300,000 to lead sales efforts and land corporate clients in USA and New Zealand
• Experience in working with US-based corporates

Dave’s Commentary:

A trust in which I am a trustee purchased Celsias shares when they were first issued a couple of years ago. At the time, they were building a platform for carbon credit aggregation trading, but were soon gazumped when the New Zealand Government decided it was such a great idea they’d do it themselves through Landcare Research’s carboNZero programme. No problem for the team though, they reinvented their value proposition and came up with something much more compelling – how to engage corporates in working toward a more sustainable world.

The Celsias blog is a fantastic source of information and seems to be amassing readers at a remarkable rate. The projects area is growing quickly. Climate change isn’t going to go away anytime soon, and Celsias has established itself as a leading authority on the issue. There would appear to be huge upside potential, and hey, if you get involved you’re deploying your resources to help save the planet and that has to be good on both an individual and a societal level.

How enthusiastic corporates get about climate change CSR, and whether they’re really willing to “walk the talk” remains to be seen. Platforms like Celsias will lower the barrier for companies and people who are truly concerned to do something about it. I’m glad that Nick, Celsias, and New Zealand are leading the way.

Nick says that this will be investors’ last chance to get in on the act as angels, as their next investment round will be VC likely out of the USA. In fact, an angel who can help them achieve US-based VC and/or sell into the Fortune 500 will be very attractive to them.

Contact details:

Nick Lewis
Tel: +64 21381361
Email: nick.lewis@celsias.com

Listen to (or download) the podcast [audio http://nzangels.com/files/2008/04/nzange...]

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One of the big criticisms of the Internet is that while it can connect us instantly to any far-flung corner of the planet, it does so at the expense of our local relationships. As people spend more time looking at their screens,  and interacting with people on the other side of the world, they can feel increasingly disconnected from their neighbourhoods, their local communities, and their local social milieu.

We’ve seen some so-called hyperlocal social networking sites overseas, such as i-neighbors, EveryBlock, outside.in and Yelp. They all function mainly as news or review sites, and do little to build real local social capital. If we want to live in a connected society, then we need to actually connect with each other as individuals and as groups. Enter USPLUS, a web-based initiative which aims to encourage groups, clubs and teams to list their focus purpose and associated details, promote their activities, network and grow.

The Pitch:

USPLUS is a place on the Internet for groups, clubs, and teams that provides:

• A free listing service, and over time a valuable resource for finding local activities worldwide.
• An easy to use solution for people to seek out group-based activities.
• A website (or add-on to their existing website) for groups to promote their activities and events.
• A Social Network to meet friends and make connections around real common interests.

Unlike many other social networking sites, USPLUS focuses on and captures group dynamics. People can be active or passive group members but still get value from and feel like they belong to their USPLUS community.

Accomplishments to date:

• Company set up in December 2007
• Appointed Board of Directors and Management Team
• Domain name secured
• Beta web site launched

Development plans:

• Market the site to an Australasian user base
• Develop features to maximise usability and stickability
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Target potential local interest groups with national exposure
• Develop premium service with subscription system
• Develop localised advertising system
• Get grassroots traction

Revenue model:

Advertising and subscriptions

Key Challenges:

• Establishing “street cred” with grassroots communities
• Scaling quickly enough before competition develops
• Pricing model in an untested market

Principals & Previous Experience:

Peter Cahill, Managing Director: Peter has experience in introducing digital technology into an analogue world, having done so in the prepress industry. Peter has also run a small full-service advertising agency, Fraser-Cahill Communications, and has experience in business management and the comms industry.

Ben Marino, Technical Director: Ben is a certified Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, and has worked for Telecom and Sky City. He recently achieved a Media Design School Diploma of Internet Architecture and Development, graduating with honours and gaining an industry award for database design.

What they want from an investor:

• NZD 300,000
• Mentorship around Social Media and Marketing
• Access to networks which will help get exposure to at the right time

Dave’s Commentary:

USPLUS is a young company with a big vision. There is a huge gap in the market for local communities to integrate online, and for groups and clubs to communicate with their members. As the print-based news media’s demise accelerates, people will increasingly look online for local information. USPLUS has the opportunity to become the go-to resource for this kind of information.

Contact details:

Pete Cahill
pete@iqd.co.nz
Tel: (09) 3599 005

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Welcome to our first opportunity posting – PlanHQ, a Wellington-based Software-as-a-Service play ready to go global.

The Pitch:

PlanHQ is a web-based subscription service that allows business to create, action, track and achieve their business plan. The whole team is focused on execution, completing actions, achieving goals and tracking progress against financial projections. Team members are reminded of – and held accountable for – reaching targets. Board members, investors and advisers are kept informed with regular progress reports. A completely up-to-date comprehensive business plan document can be downloaded in Word or PDF any time.

Accomplishments to date:

In 2007, PlanHQ launched version 1 of their product, reached 100 paying customers, presented at DEMO (see the video), hired a US VP Marketing, and has signed up VC and Business Coaching companies to help these companies better manage their clients. They’ve received NZD 300K in angel funding to date.

Development plans / Key challenges:

PlanHQ plan to expand their NZ market this year, as well as big push into the US market this year, which will require significant resources. Meanwhile product development will continue apace, to continue to add functionality to adapt to clients’ needs and scale for both numbers and sizes of businesses.

Principals & Previous Experience:

See the team profiles on the PlanHQ web site.

What they want from an investor:

• NZD 300-500K
• Experience in closing deals in the US

Dave’s Commentary:

PlanHQ has a real chance of developing into the killer app for managing growing businesses. It’s no secret that business discipline is traditionally a weak point for rapidly growing tech companies in particular, and PlanHQ is sexy enough to make planning more interesting, relevant, transparent and even fun. From my investor’s point of view, anything that increases buy-in and accountability of an entrepreneur has to be good. They’ve clearly captured the imaginations of a number of players in their key target markets, so the challenge is to build on their successes.

Their board of Tim Norton, Rowan Simpson, and Rod Drury can only be described as a Wellington Web 2.0 Dream Team. They’re smart people with a successful track record with great resources bent on making PlanHQ successful. And it all comes from their own experiences trying to get the business plan working for you rather than vice versa.

Contact details:

Tim Norton
Tel: +64 21 463 331
tim@planhq.com

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