Details on a new event from our friends at the Angel Forum…

Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Investors
A unique first-time workshop – March 9 – downtown Vancouver.

Companies need an exit strategy first, which in combination with their capital requirements, drives their financing strategy. Ask yourself:
1   What is my exit strategy and why do I need one before I look for investors?
2   What type of investor best matches my exit strategy and capital requirements?
3   What are the four major steps I should be doing now to plan for a successful exit?
4   What about the timeline, valuation and legal process? – case study: Parasun exit.

This all day March 9 workshop will be presented by Basil Peters, Axel Christiansen, Thomas Hellman, Steven MacDonald,  Steven Lukas, Bob Chaworth-Musters and other experts to be announced. It will be a blend of presentations and war stories with local experts, with lots of time for Q&A and networking.

First 15 seats at $270 each = 30% off final fee.  Bring a qualified friend (approx. 10% lower). Questions to bob@ANGELforum.org. REGISTER NOW.

Rocket Builders hosted an event yesterday to present the 2009 Ready to Rocket List. Congratulations to this year’s companies to make the coveted list.

Quick links:
- Press Release
- Ready to Rocket 2009 List
- 2009 Emerging Rockets List
- Ready to Rocket Homepage

Notable mentions on the Ready to Rocket List include past NVBC participants Genologics, Movieset, and RFind. Several NVBC participants also made the Emerging Rocket List, including this year’s winners Saltworks Technologies and Small Energy Group.

Former NVBC Top Ten Company BuiltIT has launched a video describing their services for construction scheduling. Check it out….

BuiltIT Video

This year, New Ventures BC is expanding its educational outreach throughout British Columbia. Starting in February, New Ventures BC will be visiting several regional science councils throughout the province to kick off the competition and present the first session of the NVBC seminar series.

Details are below – we’ll keep you updated as we confirm additional seminars.

Seminar Schedule:

KAST – Kootenay Association for Science & Technology: March 11, 2009, 1pm-4pm
KRIC - Kootenay Rockies Innovation Council: March 12, 2pm
OSTEC - Okanagan Science & Technology Council: February 5th, 1:30-4:30
ISIC – Interior Science Innovation Council, Kamloops: March 31, 10:00am
VIATEC - Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Centre: March 18, 1-4pm
MISTIC - Mid Island Science, Technology & Innovation Council: March 19, 8:30-11:30am
IRC – Innovation Resource Centre, Prince George: March 13, 11am-2:30pm
NSIS - Northwest Science and Innovation Society: March 23, 1pm

Seminar Synopsis: Assessing the Opportunity

Got a better mouse-trap? What to do next? Commercializing new technologies and building companies around them starts by measuring whether you have the right stuff and then crafting your story so that people will buy into your venture. Come join this interactive event that will review what it means to be a technology entrepreneur and help you develop a business opportunity statement that can be used to take your idea or business to the next level.

Speaker Bio
Bob de Wit is a mentor, advisor, investor and consultant to growth-stage technology companies. Bob has executive experience in corporate development (M&A strategy and execution), corporate finance (raising equity capital) and competitive market intelligence. Bob has been a co-founder, advisor or angel investor to Canadian V-Chip Design, Axonwave Software, TechBC Corporation, Flintbox.com, the Fraser Valley Technology Network, RIP.TV, Energy Aware Technology and ClearVision Technologies. In addition to his involvement with technology companies, he has consulted to the technology transfer offices of Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and the University of California at Los Angeles where he has worked with university faculty members to develop effective technology commercialization strategies. Bob has undergraduate (BBA, ’91) and graduate (MA, Economics, ’94) degrees from Simon Fraser University.

About New Ventures BC
Turn your idea into a profitable company by entering the New Ventures BC competition.

The competition will give you the opportunity to:
* Join in-depth seminars, and network with business, legal, government, and marketing professionals.
* Meet experts, mentors, and innovators who can help you take your idea from germination to fruition.
* Refine your idea for a technology product or service and develop a business plan to attract financing.
* Win the first place prize package worth over $100,000

2009 Entry Deadline is April 20, 2009

From the Angel Forum:

Get Investor Ready – an Angel Capital Overview workshop

Improve your success rate of obtaining angel investment or investing in private companies.

Workshop covers Valuation, Due Diligence, Terms Sheets and Post Investment relationships – comprises of expert presentations, panel discussions and small group case studies – 30+ people have already registered.

Hear local experts: Paul Geyer – Vancouver investor, Theresa Carbonneau – Vancouver serial entrepreneur, Nadeem Kassam – Vancouver investor, Brenda Irwin – BDC Venture Capital and Steve Lukas – Fasken Martineau lawyers.

Workshop Leader is Bill Payne – an active private investor, board member and advisor to entrepreneurs. He is an involved member of San Diego’s Tech Coast Angels, Vegas Valley Angels and Aztec Venture Network – founded or invested in 41 start-up companies. “Bill has a particular knack of delivering his great knowledge of angel capital, worth the price of admission.”

Only ten seats left – $290+gst for this Angel Capital workshop on Jan 26 in downtown Vancouver.

Why attend? If you are planning to raise private equity in the next 6 to 12 months, ask yourself:
1    With public equity markets down 35+ %, how do I correctly value a private company?
2    Do I have a good overview of the language and ramifications of a term sheet?
3    Am I familiar with the due diligence process?
4    What post investment activities (Board of Directors, Mentoring, Communication) are required?
This workshop is almost mandatory for pre-revenue companies wanting to present at the next Angel Forum in May

Who should attend: Investors with senior experience and considering investing in early stage companies, Entrepreneurs wanting to learn about the angel capital process to raise money for their company and Advisors who work with entrepreneurs.

Content designed for investors by the US Angel Capital Assoc, are ranked 4.5 or better out of 5.0. 100+ people attended the first two workshops in this region. No comparable content offered in Canada. “Great info, must have to complete a deal.”

Bring a friend – 10% less for 2nd person on same registration. For info and registration, click on Workshop page at http://www.angelforum.org. Questions? email Bob Chaworth-Musters at Bob@ANGELforum.org

A message from the TIME Centre:

During NVBC’s “off season” I’m always looking for ways to improve our efficiencies.

I’ve been looking into different software solutions to help improve and speed up review/feedback process. As the competition has several rounds, it is often a lot of work sending out information and compiling feedback.

Some solutions I’ve looked at so far:
ReviewRoom – the demo I had looked quite promising. Thanks to Boris over at Enterprize Canada for the reccomendation.

Another one I’m looking at tomorrow is YouNoodle.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

Our friends at the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs have unveiled the 2009 e-series class of women entrepreneurs and 2008 competitor Dawn Bowles of Dreambank is on their list of fifteen.

Each year up to 15 women entrepreneurs are selected to participate in the program with a focus on ” women entrepreneurs of high growth, leveragable businesses.”

Congrats to Dawn your cohort!

Former NVBC winner Augurex Life Sciences Corp was recently featured in the December 2008 issue of Healthcare World Magazine (go to page 80).