The Killer Model - September 22
2nd Thursday - October 14 (New Location)
Strange Loop Conference - October 14-15
The Killer Model Boot Camp - October 21
Geek Night - October 27
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Company News
1. Case Study With Leading Doctor Directory and Moxe™ 3D Video Plateform 2. Aint I Social, LLC Lauches First URL Magnifier
3. Matthew Porter Recognized as Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame
4. Digital Media Solutions Announce VIVID Books CMS
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Director Blog
ITEN Finds Talent, Finds Jobs
Jim Brasunas
Director, ITEN
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I've recently had discussions with a number of our entrepreneurs who are looking for key talent to add to their growing companies, and I am often contacted by people who are networking to find job opportunities. ITEN has a number of ways in which we facilitate talent and opportunity matching. Most of what ITEN offers is geared to help our entrepreneurial ventures find the talent they need to grow, and yet these same offerings can be useful to people searching for positions with early-stage companies. Here are some of the ways talent and opportunities can find each other through ITEN:
The Start-Up Connection is an event held two times a year, once in the Spring and again in the Fall......
Click Here to Read the Full Article
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ITEN Presents The "Killer Model" Boot Camp
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Mark your calendar for Thursday October 21, 9am until 3pm, for a 'Killer Model' Boot camp. The Boot camp is a continuation of the finance program that will begin this week with the free 'Killer Model' seminar held on Wednesday September 22nd from 5:00pm - 7:00pm. Ted Feierstein, a VC with First Analysis Securities Corp. will lead both events (see www.itenstl.org/events for more information and the registration link).
In the Boot camp we will build the following models:
- Your Structured Financing Plan: that is, the capital that your company requires, in stages (milestones) and hopefully at higher and higher valuations, to get to a 'liquidity event' years down the road;
- The Scalability and 'Capital Efficiency' evidenced in your business model; miscommunicate this and you are 'dead-on-arrival';
- Terms, Structure and Valuation; Will your investor's security be a 'bridge loan' that will not place a valuation on your company or will it be a note/preferred security with a valuation? What should the valuation (range) be? Are the various securities in your anticipated multiple rounds of financing compatible with each other so as to avoid misalignments and difficult negotiations that will distract you, at least, from running your business and be very expensive (dilutive) to the founding team?;
- The Investors (angel or VC) Analysis/due diligence of your company's model to gauge returns (IRR, ROI); downside risk (anti-dilution provisions and protective provisions); and their rights;
- The Angel/VC 'quick test' that you must pass if you are to even get a first meeting;
- Your Capitalization Table over time,hopefully depicting a growing pie with ample slices for the founders;
- The Basics; P&L, $ flow, Balance Sheet, built-up sensibly (versus the usual unrealistic hockey stick) by customer by unit (subscription) by sales rep, etc. And the steep price paid (in terms of dilution) for financing an entrepreneurs unrealistic hockey stick when the follow-on rounds happen yet you haven't 'grown into' your initial valuation;
- The key metrics of recurring revenue (subscription, e-commerce/transaction; revenue share, etc) business models against which your company will be assessed. These include cost-of-customer-acquisition; contracted monthly recurring revenue (MRR); churn/net churn; $ flow/EBITDA (adjusted EBITDA).
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ITEN Lauches E-Commerce/Web Business Mentoring Program
September 20 - The IT Entrepreneur Network (ITEN), an operating entity of Innovate St. Louis, announces the launch of a new mentoring program targeted specifically at companies needing to increase their online effectiveness, e-commerce results and market positioning. The ITEN E-Commerce/Web Business Mentoring Program is the most recent addition to the family of programs and services currently offered by ITEN, and will directly address the growing need for early-stage tech ventures to access advice and suggestions from highly knowledgeable professionals with experience in e-commerce and online marketing.
Mike Austin, CEO of LocalDeal.com was the first company to participate in the program. He said, "The E-Commerce/Web Business Mentoring Program was a big help to me. The exceptional insights from the mentors have enabled me to focus on areas of e-commerce that are already enabling LocalDeal.com to gain new traction. I highly recommend this program."
Like all of ITEN's programs the E-Commerce/Web Business Mentoring Program is offered to registered ITEN companies free of charge. A description of the program and with a link to the application can be found Here. Initially, one company will be accepted into the program each month. Mentors in the program are selected e-marketing executives and entrepreneurs who have already "done it" successfully for their own companies.
The E-Commerce/Web Business Mentoring Program is being underwritten by Traffic PRM, an interactive PR agency whose Principal, Brian Posnanski, is a mentor in the new program.
ITEN is the premier provider of development programs, mentoring, events and networking for early-stage technology ventures in the greater St. Louis region.
For additional information contact Jim Brasunas at jbrasunas@itenstl.org or Brian Posnanski at brian@traffic-prm.com .
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Company Spotlight
Gremln is a proud member of ITEN and was the winner of the Innovators Cup at this year's St. Louis Innovation Camp.
Gremln is a web-based software tool for businesses that use social media. They have created a suite of tools to help businesses get organized and take control of their brand within the most popular social media networks (like Facebook and Twitter). Businesses are able to manage all of their social media accounts from several networks within one easy-to-use website. To provide data analysis, Gremln has also developed a robust, social data analytics platform. This enables businesses to better understand their communities by reviewing real-time data about customers and revenue generated from social media efforts.
Before Twitter was yet a household name, Gremln founder Ryan Bell (of St. Louis) saw great potential for the micro-blogging website to change the way businesses communicate with their customers. Initially taking on one of the biggest issues with social media, time management, Ryan (and partner, David Bell) quietly launched the message scheduling tool Twaitter (http://twaitter.com) in 2008. Over the next few weeks, thousands of Twitter users began using the service. Within months, millions of messages were being sent through the system and the website was listed by PC World Magazine as "A Top 5 Business Tool for Twitter".
As Twaitter grew and added new social networks, it became apparent that the name of the site should change and the idea for Gremln.com was born. Gremln was happy to receive confidence in the new company name recently from Biz Stone, Twitter Cofounder, who said "I like the name 'Gremln' and how it symbolizes disrupting business as usual". Over the next few months Twaitter will be conducting a major rebranding campaign to transition to the new name.
Many companies have discovered that social media networks are a great medium to market their products and build vibrant customer communities. Once this approach is adopted, businesses need metrics and actionable insights to determine if their efforts in social media are yielding a positive return on investment. This is the driving factor behind the new suite of tools from Gremln to provide companies with software to aid in both the execution of marketing plans across social networks, as well as the analysis of the data gained through interaction with their customer communities.
To date, Gremln has been used by over 50,000 users and has sent 10's of millions of messages. The service has been written about in several publications including MSNBC, PC World, CIO Magazine, and Mashable.com. The North Face clothing company recently called Gremln "Essential to any business with a social media presence". If your business has a social media presence, stop by http://gremln.com/ today. Gremln's services are currently provided at no charge. When the new site is released the free services will continue along with new subscription services for businesses and power users.
Gremln has yet to pursue an "A" round of funding and hopes to soon participate in the Mock Angel Training program provided by ITEN.
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Mentor Spotlight
Why Do I Mentor
Francis Chmelir
You could say that I was involved with ITEN before it even came into being. From 2004-2008, I worked with Jim Brasunas, proudly serving as Director of Operations for the Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC), a business incubator for startup information and communication technology companies. TEC offered below market office space, shared administrative services and a business mentoring program structured to nurture early stage companies in the St. Louis region. At times it felt like a never-ending, uphill battle, in a town that seemed very skeptical of high risk, high reward ideas. However, even small victories were exciting enough in those days to keep the work invigorating. TEC had some hits and a few misses, but my time there convinced me that being involved with technology innovation in our region was something I needed to do. In many ways it led to my current role with technology startups at the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development center (MO SBTDC).
As I reflect on the progress of ITEN, I feel a sense of pride and amazement at what has taken place in just a couple of years. Since its inception in 2008, ITEN has mentored over 100 companies and enlisted the support of dozens of mentors, committed to helping entrepreneurs in this region. I am happy to serve on the Help Me Choose team for companies looking for mentors. I also serve as a Mock Angel in the monthly program helping companies with their investor pitches. ITEN has preserved the best mentoring practices from TEC and put them to use for the benefit of its member companies. In a region that desperately needs to leverage its entrepreneurial talent to shape its future economic health, ITEN plays an important role. It is gratifying to still have a small hand in doing that.
Francis Chmelir serves as the Statewide Director of External Operations for the MoFAST team of technology development counselors of the University of Missouri's Small Business and Technology Development Centers. The aim of the MoFAST program is to strengthen the technological competitiveness of Missouri businesses through the use of federal innovation grants such as the SBIR/STTR grant program. More information can be found at http://www.mofast.net/.
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Start-Up Connection, November 4, 2010
You are invited to Start-Up Connection - The St. Louis Event to Connect Entrepreneurs, Start-Up Companies, Talented Professionals and More!
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 4th, 2010 4:00PM - until 6:30PM ITenterprises, 4633 World Parkway Circle (off Natural Bridge just east of Lambert Airport)
Register for this free event to:
- Learn what's new in the St. Louis innovation community
- Engage with entrepreneurs about their start-up technology companies
- Network with entrepreneurs, scientists, CEO's, investors, tech professionals, students and talented people in transition
- Create awareness about your new company or idea
- Connect with experts/mentors/advisors/talent
- Explore resources in the community to help advance your company or idea
Sponsored by ITEN, Nidus, Innovate St. Louis, RCGA's Bounce Back St. Louis and the Biogenerator
Please visit the website at http://www.itenstl.org/eventsfor a link to more information and the registration site.
Register as a COMPANY to reserve a table to showcase your company or as an INDIVIDUAL to attend the event and network with everyone!
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Contact Info
Jing Wang
314-783-6395
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