January 31st, 2010 — Uncategorized
YouTellYou bills itself as a photo-story magazine published by its readers. At its heart, it’s a cross between Flickr, Wordpress, and Life Magazine.
The Pitch:
On YouTellYou, anyone can create and publish a photo-story in minutes linking to their Flickr, Facebook or Smugmug account or uploading the photos from a their computer. The stories are presented in an online magazine, according to number of views, ranking, category, publishing date.
YouTellYou is NOT another photo hosting service: the emphasis is creating and sharing our stories via our pictures. The YouTellYou target author is someone that is willing to share information and is looking for a large audience.
YouTellYou aims are to be easy and quick for the authors, elegant and easily navigable and searchable for the readers.
The possibility are endless: travel diaries, breaking news, family events, sport events, nature photography etc.
YouTellYou offers a publishing platform to the reporter that hides in all of us.
Accomplishments to date:
Live since Jan 6, 2010
Reviewed by:
Development plans:
YouTellYou needs 2 developers to make the website secure and scalable, 1 designer to make it gorgeous and 1 internet marketer to spread the word and get traction, readers and authors.
Key Challenges:
- Spread the word and make the website go viral
- Build a smartphone interface to allow people to post stories “on the go” with audio comments
Principals & Previous Experience:
Ruggero Domenichini, Senior Business Analyst and Project Manager, Italian by birth, in New Zealand since 1996 (citizen since 1999)
What they want from an investor:
~ NZD 300,000 to fund development and staff over the next year, with significant business mentoring to produce a business strategy for the next stage.
Dave’s commentary:
Ruggero Domenichini, the founder of YouTellYou seems an energetic and passionate man with plenty of real-world experience in IT and creative flair. Like many start-up founders, he’s developed his product to the beta launch and now need to build a team to turn his product into a company, as well as cash to make it happen.
Contact details:
Ruggero Domenichini (founder)
email: rujero@youtellyou.com
mob: +64 21 683305
skype: ruggero.domenichini
Note: If you plan to act on any information on this site, please be sure to read the disclaimer.
November 6th, 2009 — Uncategorized
AngelLink, a national angel investment network backing New Zealand high growth technology ventures, with an emphasis on life sciences, engineering and ICT, welcomes the inclusion of the Life Science Angels Network into its structure. The move is designed to create greater scale and focus in the life sciences angel investment space.
AngelLink’s members include some of the country’s leading biotechnology and high technology investors including Movac, K1W1 and Sparkbox. AngelLink has also partnered with the NZ Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF) through its Seed Co-Investment Fund.
AngelLink Chairman Chris de Boer says, “Our national network of angel investors and international partnerships provide excellent leverage for high-growth potential start-up companies that are seeking to develop unproven markets or technologies. Life sciences are a key part of AngelLink’s focus. The inclusion of the Life Science Angels Network helps AngelLink achieve greater scale and expertise in this area. As a result we’ll see more investment activity in the life sciences space which will benefit the network and the sector in New Zealand.”
The Life Science Angels Network was created by a collaboration between NZBIO, ICE Angels and Auckland Plus to validate the concept of creating a virtual network of angel investors who are interested in investing in life science technology deals.
Andy Hamilton, Director, ICE Angels says, “When it comes to early stage funding there is a case for some sectors, such as life sciences, to have specialisation. The ongoing viability of the sector depends on its ability to raise funds from a variety of sources and to complete value-creating deals. This access to funding is consistently one of the key constraints identified across the bioeconomy in New Zealand yet, based on international experiences angel investment has the ability to be a key part of the funding solution.”
“Having validated the need for The Life Science Angels Network we readily came to the conclusion that the natural home for the network was actually AngelLink as they already have in place a number of critical partnerships for deal flow in the life sciences space. As a small country we need to take every opportunity to achieve scale.”
The merger will include all research, contacts and emerging international partnerships, including the Australian Life Science Angel Network, Life Science Angels Inc (USA) and Bansea, Singapore.
NZBIO, the national bioscience industry group, has applauded the transfer to AngelLink.
Chief Executive Bronwyn Dilley says, “AngelLink’s strong focus on life sciences and nationwide coverage will be further strengthened by the inclusion of the Life Science Angels Network. Angel Investment is an important part of the investment landscape and a strong, focused approach is vital to the success of a mature New Zealand life science industry. It’s great to see AngelLink continue to gain momentum, as the result will be more early stage life science projects are spun out of the lab into the market with benefits to all.”
AngelLink, which was initiated by WaikatoLink, the commercial arm of the University of Waikato, connects investees to the full continuum of funding through its lifecycle from science to market spanning proof of concept, angel investment, early stage venture capital, expansion stage venture capital, and public markets.
AngelLink was launched at a function at NZX in August. The Minister for Research, Science and Technology, Wayne Mapp was the guest of honour.
At the launch, WaikatoLink Chief Executive Mark Stuart said, “At an industry level there is a real need to make some improvements to generate more economic benefit from life sciences and technology research. We need to start with the end in mind and bring the market in from the start. We need to encourage a co-ordinated approach and funding models that encourage collaboration rather than competition. AngelLink represents a step change in early stage company investment by formalising visibility to upcoming investment opportunities to all of the partners across the investment continuum”.
Dr Mapp said, “The highest priority for the New Zealand Government is growth. Future opportunities will depend on innovation and entrepreneurship and much of this comes from fundamental science. AngelLink will connect research and investors with the intent of getting science to the marketplace. Our future prosperity depends on getting this right.”
The first Australasian Life Science Angels Network Meeting today in Queenstown, part of the annual summit organised by the Angel Association of New Zealand, is the setting for the first meeting between AngelLink, the Australian Life Science Angel Network and Bansea, Singapore.
November 3rd, 2009 — news
The New Zealand Venture Investment Fund is committing $4 million to an investment partnership with Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund to invest into new technologies emerging out of Auckland University.
NZVIF’s $4 million commitment will be alongside the Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund – an AU$30 million investment fund established last year to commercialise research at Auckland University and four Australian universities.
The investment partnership will look at commercial opportunities emerging from UniServices – Auckland University’s commercialisation agency. NZVIF and TTCF have already invested into two drug development companies spun out of UniServices – Pathway Therapeutics and Saratan Therapeutics.
NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said the partnership is encouraging given the level of innovation emerging from Auckland University.
“Auckland University is New Zealand’s highest ranked research university, and UniServices is generating some exciting commercial opportunities, as we are already seeing with Pathway and Saratan.
“NZVIF’s involvement in the trans-Tasman partnership ensures that there will be a New Zealand focus to companies being developed from New Zealand generated research.
TTCF Investment Manager Craig Reilly said there are significant investment opportunities in New Zealand-generated life sciences, engineering and ICT research.
“With this partnership, we hope to see greater investment in research which has the potential to advance to the commercial stage in global markets.”
NZVIF’s partnership with TTCF is through NZVIF’s Seed Co-Investment Fund. Through the fund, NZVIF is investing $40 million into early stage companies with strong potential for high growth, alongside investments made by its partners.
This is the eleventh partnership NZVIF has entered into through the Seed Co-Investment Fund. Through these partnerships, NZVIF and angel groups have co-invested over $33 million into 30 companies.
November 3rd, 2009 — io
Gridspy provides an online realtime power monitoring system for homes and businesses. They are looking for both trading partners and investors, especially with marketing or sales background.
The Pitch:
Gridspy provides you with an interactive view of power, water, gas and other resource usage in your building. Gridspy allows you to access and monitor your consumption patterns in real-time using a standard web browser on your PC, laptop or mobile phone. The data is accurate and updated each second as you watch.
The power data is split into multiple channels so you can see which parts of your building are using the most power. Unlike a smart-meter, the Gridspy system can isolate the power usage within your building to individual systems such as AC, hot water, lighting or computers. This allows you to focus your power efforts where they really count. Learn how much you actually use on standby devices, or how changing to compact florescent lights will actually save you money.
Gridspy has passed the development phase and is a working product. We need your help to get to market. The team behind Gridspy bring years of experience creating smart hardware devices and off the shelf solutions and have supported a variety of customers that have succeeded both in New Zealand and internationally.
What sets us apart from our competition is our live data collection and display, our web based approach, and our low cost. We also offer high accuracy and can sample many different loads at once. We can also provide automation and control to any degree of complexity. The aim is to give people back control of their power usage, helping our customers measure and save power.
Accomplishments to date:
- Development of a power monitoring prototype, with all the key technical hurdles overcome.
- Manufacturing plan that will take us from prototype to fully automated production over three months grounded on previous experience.
- Comprehensive manufacturing contacts.
- Several sales leads with potential for large sales volumes over the next quarter.
Development plans:
- Begin the electrical approvals process, including CE Mark, so our solution can be sold both domestically and internationally
- Create staged runs of 25, 100, and 400 units to build our manufacturing pipeline
- Design and test several related devices to round out our offering
- Offer Gridspy to New Zealand industrial clients
- Improve the look and feel of our website and general branding
- Create a stock of rental and trial units to enable sales
- Build a community of home and business owners who are proud to openly discuss their power usage and demonstrate their environmental credibility.
Key Challenges:
- Cash to finance due diligence and further prototype runs so we are ready to handle future high demand.
- Our current small production runs force us to adopt higher prices than we would like
- Competition is entering the “Smart Grid” arena all the time. Our niche is unique and we need to continue to differentiate ourselves.
Principals & Previous Experience:
Stephen Leys as 30 years experience as the managing director of Technman designing custom electronics solutions for a wide range of clients. He is an experienced electrical engineer and has seen many products through concept to large scale production.
Tom Leys is a software developer who has been working with firmware with Stephen for 9 years. Tom has a background in designing user interfaces for a number of applications. Since 2008 he has been spending all his free time making Gridspy a reality.
What they want from an investor:
- $250,000 – Enough to build a reasonable stock level, work through any product issues and reach the marketplace.
- Contacts – especially large clients, distributors or technology partners
- Experience building a sales channel, marketing a new product or launching products internationally.
Dave’s Commentary:
Tom and Stephen are very passionate about bringing their technology and experience to market in this increasingly relevant industry sector. They appear to be very capable technically, and have put together a great looking prototype web site. They will need cash, connections, and excellent governance advice to successfully commercialise their work, and the right “smart money” could really help them take off.
Contact details:
Tom Leys
tom@gridspy.co.nz
Mob: 021-1654-764
www.gridspy.co.nz
Note: If you plan to act on any information on this site, please be sure to read the disclaimer.
October 12th, 2009 — events
Strong governance is critical to support a growing business however many business owners grapple with the concept. Governance has become synonymous with compliance, mitigating risk and those obligatory board meetings, yet it’s a lot more. It can be a platform that enables business owners to ensure their foot remains on the accelerator while maintaining control.
It is important you take the right people along for the journey. But how do you get them on board, maximise the guidance, advice and the challenge?
Ultimately the end goal is to achieve growth – but how do you ensure you end up there? Join the panel for alively discussion.
Faciltated by Simon Telfer, Director & Co-founder of Springboard
Event details
Date: Wednesday 11 November
Venue: Deloitte House, Level 8, 8 Nelson Street, Auckland
Time: 5.30pm
RSVP: via Linkedin
Download the flyer
September 16th, 2009 — events
We Angels frequently find ourselves explaining the role of a Board of Directors to entrepreneurs, and why governance is important even in a nascent business.
Springboard NZ has been busy filling the gap between the big-end-of-town Institute of Directors and the legendary entrepeneurial garage in terms of helping entrepreneurs upskill themselves and each other on governance issues.
Springboard ran a session last night on SME Governance which I was unable to attend, but thanks to Simon Telfer, Vicky Taylor and the Springboard team, the’ve posted slides from the two presentations on the Springboard web site:
If you’re on LinkedIn, I can recommend the Springboard group for lively discussion and getting to know the next generation of people serious about running great New Zealand companies.
August 19th, 2009 — news
Saratan Therapeutics Limited is a New Zealand drug development company spun out of Auckland UniServices, the commercialisation arm of The University of Auckland. Saratan is the second recipient of funding from the Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund (TTCF).
The TTCF is an AUD$30million dollar investment fund designed to help the earlystage commercialisation of intellectual property developed at The University of Auckland and four Australian universities.
TTCF in conjunction with the Breast Cancer Research Trust (“BCRT”) is to invest AUD$1million in early stage finance in Saratan, which was launched in June 2009, subject to agreed milestones being achieved over the next two years. With the investment, Saratan has secured funding to progress its early stage program.
Saratan’s current drug development programme focuses on novel therapies developed by a research group led by Professor Peter Lobie at The Liggins Institute in The University of Auckland. Professor Lobie’s work is focused on identifying cancer targets that are associated with poor outcome and cause an increased resistance of tumours to traditional therapies, and/or result in the increased invasive and metastatic potential of tumours. Professor Lobie is an expert in the field of developing monoclonal antibodies that inhibit the action of these targets in cancer and are potentially active as new anti-cancer medicaments.
The research and development to date has been supported by funding from the Foundation for Research Science and Technology along with Auckland UniServices.
“BCRT and TTCF each have made an early stage equity investment of A$500,000 in Saratan because they can see the potential health and economic benefits if this work results in a new cancer treatment. TTCF is delighted that BCRT has agreed to cofund this development program even at this high risk stage and in an unsteady financial market” says Craig Reilly, the Auckland based Investment Manager for TTCF.
Peter Lobie is one of New Zealand’s foremost scientist and currently holds the Chair in Breast Cancer Research funded by the BCRT. He has made a discovery with the potential to address a critical need in the treatment of breast cancer. UniServices is proud to work alongside the investors BCRT and TTCF to see Professor Lobie’s invention take an important step in progressing the development of the technology.
Notes
The Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund is an AUD$30million dollar investment fund designed to help the early-stage commercialisation of intellectual property developed at The University of Auckland and four Australian universities.
The fund’s members are The University of Auckland, Monash University, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, and the University of South Australia. Funding is provided by Westscheme, one of Australia’s leading superannuation funds.
Breast Cancer Research Trust is a New Zealand non-for-profit organisation set up to support research into breast cancer. Funds rasied are allocated to only the most outstanding visionary research and researchers in New Zealand – without restriction to any one institution – it’s only vested interest being knowledge and breakthroughs in both seed and translational breast cancer research.
SaratanTherapeutics Limited is a New Zealand drug development company, which focuses on the development of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer. The program being funded focuses on breast cancer as the primary target. The company is incorporated in New Zealand with operations based in Auckland.
Auckland UniServices Limited undertakes contract research and commercialises intellectual property and creates new businesses based on the expertise of The University of Auckland. UniServices’ ability to combine academic creativity with commercial rigour has resulted in more than 25 spinout companies worth around NZ$500 million.
The Liggins Institute based at The University of Auckland conducts focussed research into the developmental origins of health and disease, with emphasis on epigenetics. Other foci are premature labour, growth restriction, periconceptual nutrition and oncology. Much research is based on the interaction of pre- and postnatal nutrition and its effect on growth, body composition, reproduction and endocrine pathways.
The Institute headquarters the National Research Centre for Growth and Development, a national Centre of Research Excellence, which clusters key capabilities across four universities, and, a crown research institute and a State Owned Enterprise (Landcorp) into a ‘virtual’ research organisation
April 16th, 2009 — courses
Special Event – FREE admission
Why? Listen to top tips from The ICEHOUSE CEO, Andy Hamilton, about access to funding in the current market.
Who? Anyone looking for business funding to get your business off the ground.
When? Wednesday 29 April, 12 noon – 1pm
Where? The ICEHOUSE, Level 2, Textile Centre, 117-125 St Georges Bay Road, Parnell, Auckland
Registrations for this event are free. To register or for more information, phone Mariko King on (09) 308 6200.
April 15th, 2009 — news
Auckland-based wireless power solutions company PowerbyProxi has secured investment to accelerate growth from local investors Movac and Evander Management <outbind://5/#_msocom_1> , sending a positive signal that high growth potential businesses are still getting funded in these changing economic times.
PowerbyProxi delivers ‘unplugged power’ – eliminating the need for a physical power cable. The technology was developed to change the way electricity is delivered in hostile industrial environments where traditional power cables and physical connectors are problematic due to moving parts and/or wet and dirty environments. The technology can also be used for consumer device applications where convenience or design demands a wireless power solution.
PowerbyProxi Executive Chairman Greg Cross says, “PowerbyProxi are pioneers in the design and development of turnkey wireless power solutions. We’re delighted to have the backing of Movac and Evander Management as we go to market. Their investment and expertise will be used to accelerate technology development, grow the team and build on the 2008 launch of our first commercial products in the US.”
The current cap round as well as the follow-on round were fully taken up by angel investor Movac with a track record of early stage investment success including TradeMe, and Evander Management Limited a private investment company.
David Beard a partner at Movac said, “With all of our investments we look for high growth potential, and the PowerbyProxi technology, team and global potential impressed. We’re funding a company that has a fantastic market opportunity and a really compelling sales proposition. Movac is committed to investing in early stage companies. This investment shows that businesses can still get money in tough times if they are focused on meeting unmet needs.”
PowerbyProxi, based at the ICEHOUSE business growth centre, is founded based on leading edge research from the University of Auckland in 2007. The company has already come to the attention of industry due to a 12 month development effort with John Deere.
PowerbyProxi recently completed the commercial launch of the Proxi-RingTM, a completely contactless slip ring which is used to transfer power across 360 degree rotating joints. The new technology replaces mechanical slip rings which have a reputation for failure and high associated maintenance costs.
Greg Cross says, “Securing investment has allowed us to accelerate our plans for key international markets like the US and Japan. It will also enable us to build out our research and development team who really are doing some ground breaking work in this exciting space.”
March 30th, 2009 — Uncategorized
Neville Modlin contacted me recently asking if I knew any attorneys who were interested in working on a startup for sweat equity.
He’s looking for an attorney in Auckland that understands
(a) the entrepreneurial spirit
(b) property law
(c) angel investment
If you know anyone who might be interested, please contact Neville directly -
Phone: 021 285 3236
Email: neville@keado.co.nz