New Ventures BC

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Posts Tagged: Bob de Wit

NVBC Seminar 1. Assessing the Opportunity

Tonight, New Ventures BC’s own Bob de Wit and Elisabeth Maurer of LightIntegra Technology present Assessing the Opportunity. Entrepreneurs get the answers they need tonight about what do do when running with a new business idea.

Before getting underway with the seminar, Bob de Wit gave a warm and informative introduction of what NVBC is all about…

The NVBC competition takes place over four successive, and increasingly complex, rounds. Competitors are eliminated after each round until only 10 remain in play to win $300,000 in prize packages.

Need more details? Learn more about the New Ventures BC competition.

Check out the winners of past NVBC competitions!

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Bob de Wit:
What defines an innovative product that might be entered by a company into the competition?

  • It utilizes new technology
  • It combines existing technologies in a new way.
  • Utilizes technology to develop new or improved existing products or services
  • It utilizes technologies to develop new or improve existing production processes
  • It is early stage of a new technology

Bob’s Checklist for Crafting an Effective Business Opportunity Statement or elevator pitch

  • Say what you do
  • Define the pain
  • Define the solution
  • Say why anyone should care
  • Define how you’re going to win
  • The call to action (ie. Show me the money)

Elizabeth Maurer delivers award-winning pitch representing last year’s winner, LightIntegra

For first place in 2009, they won the $120,000 BC Innovation Council prize package. LightIntegra develops a medical device and disposables to measure the quality of platelets before transfusion…

—

Questions and Answers Session following the Presentation

Question
1. You talk about the market and how big it is, but do you plan to take it private?

Answer
We plan on going private. These companies that I have listed here already have an established customer base. We would feed into what they are doing. They don’t have a platelet quality test. They just want us to go through the FDA process.

Question
2. Market adoption and market penetration… You mentioned you were going to start with hospitals because they are most incented. You mentioned they would pay $500 for a bag of platelets. If they find the platelets are bad, would they return them? They’ve already paid for them…

Answer
Once hospitals can determine which one is the better product, they will force the production site to give them the better product. Can they get their money back? I don’t know. Maybe they can do an exchange and not pay for the next product. Something like that? Most cost savings comes from reducing the stay of the patient in the hospital… the cost attached to repetitive transfusions.

Question
3. You won the competition… Were there areas you saw that differentiated you from the competition? Were there paradigm shifts that if you knew then what you know now, would you have made changes?

Answer
I didn’t actually get to hear other pitches, so as a contestant, I didn’t really know how we compared. What we learned… being a scientist, I found it tremendously important to see these seminar topics and get the experience of the mentors. To get the feedback about what we had to think about was essential. To have a good idea is one thing, getting feedback was good. But being willing to listen and learn so that the feedback was actually helping you was also important.

(Bob de Wit: All three of the top teams added to the management team as they went along last year. This should be noted by current competitors).

Question
4. Where else did you get support for growing your venture?

Answer
Within Vancouver, the angel network and the life sciences network, where you can test your pitch is really, really helpful.

8:18 pm – Time For Prizes

New Ventures BC Leather Folio goes to Oliver!

New Ventures BC Jacket goes to Wolfgang!

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8:20 pm Bob de Wit is back! “So, How do you Win?”

Round 1 Questions. What are the NVBC judges looking for?

  • Describe the product or service offering
  • Describe the innovation behind the idea without disclosing proprietary technology.
  • Briefly describe the tech sector
  • Provide a brief analysis of the market and competition

How about eligibility?

Our WIPO Definition of IP – Creations of the Mind

Round 2 Entry, Feasibility Test

Deadline is May 10, 2010!

Round 2 Judging Criteria

9 questions, grouped into Baseline questions and Evaluation Questions

Baseline
Where you sell the judge on your venture.
Describe your product or service.
Technology Development.
Who’s on your team?
What’s your Business Plan status?

Q1. Intellectual Property
Describe your IP strategy including plans for how your IP gives you a defensible competitive advantage. Remember, IP is not just patents!

Note: If patents are part of your strategy, don’t disclose all of your secret sauce. Talk about what it does, not how it does it. Patent protection is important to us.

Q2: Market

  • 9 out of 10 submissions don’t talk about how they make money. Don’t make that mistake!
  • Be specific about the size of your target market in terms of size, segments and trends. You need to come up with a number that shows you’ve researched what the market is.
  • Make sure you consider all the markets you could apply your technology to, but keep focused on your first market.
  • Next, describe your ideal customer. This really helps you work from the ground up.

Q3. Distribution

Explain the go-to-market plan. Do you have alliances you intend to strike? Why? When?

Q4. Competition

  • Describe your company and product’s primary competitive differentiators.
  • What makes you unique? How will customers benefit or save money?
  • What are the barriers to competition?

Q5. Financial (key numbers)

  • What have you spent to date? What funds have been raised? From where? How much do you need?
  • When will your venture be cash-flow positive?
  • Include your key assumptions that drive your forecasts.

What do Successful Entrepreneurs Understand?

  • The market where their product is sold.
  • Key defensible qualities that give an edge over the competition
  • Strong supporting team
  • Philosophy: “Cash is king”. They budget as closely as they can so they always know their cash runway.

Some final tips:

Find mentors to expand your vision

Don’t overplan – take action

Hire people who are smarter than you.

Tailor your elevator pitch to different audiences

Play to win but be willing to risk failure

Acknowledge the competition. Never say “there is no competition!”

Don’t let the critics get you down. Use the feedback. Adapt and overcome.

Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Where to Look for Help?

  • Your regional Science Council
  • NRC IRAP
  • New Ventures BC Competition
  • Mike Volker’s website
  • Ventureblog.com
  • Angelblog.net

Where NOT to Look first for feedback:

  • Your bank
  • Your family and friends
  • Outside your home market
  • Business planning consultants (You can’t have someone else write your business plan. It just doesn’t work!)

—

8:42 pm Questions Session

Questions

1. Can we get a copy of the slides?

Answer
Will be available on the NVBC site the following day

Bob – Who’s already joined the competition?

Answer from the audience: Most put their hands up!

The competition goes on!

Filed under: 2010 Competition, Competition, Mentors, Seminars | 3 Comments »

Live @ Seminar 1: Assessing the Opportunity

Taking the first steps to Technology Entrepreneurship And Preparing Effective Business Opportunity Statement

It’s Victoria here…live-blogging from the first series of the NVBC seminar at SFU.

First Up: Angie from New Ventures BC talking about the competition and that it is now open. If you’re out of town, they are providing funding up to $750. Bob de Wit is the speaker: Bob talks about his bio. He is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, mentor and WUTIF angel investor.

Intro to entrepreneurship: What is it? Who is an entrepreneur? A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk or a business venture. An innovator, renewing society by looking for opportunities to make products, institutions. Lists famous entrepreneurs like Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Jimmy Pattison, Don Rix (Metro Labs), Thomas Jefferson, Sir John A. MacDonald, and more. What do successful E’s understand? The market, the edge of product, supporting team, “cash is king.” What are some risks investors look at? Market, technological, people, financial. Pros and cons of being an entrepreneurship are discussed, like being your own boss and stress, people will tell you one thing and do another, becoming cynical, not everyone will love your baby.

Tip 10 tips:

Find mentors, don’t over plan, hire people smarter than you, know your customer, always know your cash runway and know when not to be cheap, develop an elevator pitch, play to win, acknowledge the enemy, don’t let the hosers get you down ( I love this one) and have fun!

Where TO look for help? NRC IRAP,  New Ventures BC, Mike Volker’s site, VentureBlog.com

Where NOT to look? your bank, family and friends, outside your home market, business planning consultant

Bob discusses the New Venture BC Competition.  In it’s 9th year, mentoring, education, networking, over $309,000 in prizes, discusses eligibility, see rules here. Are you eligible for SRED? Goes over the series. Rounds are described: Round 1 is a 2-page online description where most enter, about 150 companies, then a cut is made and a 5-page business overview (which is the toughest), then the major cut is made of 30 companies, you’ll need an 8-page executive summary and then it’s down to 10. This is where you make the oral pitch and final decisions are made. The prizes are all in cash. If you’re a bio-energy company you can win more money. For $100, you can enter..by April 20.

Who are the judges? Categorized by different sectors, like clean-tech, bio sciences etc. In Round 2, your entry gets evaluated by the appropriate judges. You can spend the cash anyway you want.

Back from break…

Preparing Effective Business Opportunity Statement:

Define the pain your solving, solution, why do we care, how are we going to win? Running through last year’s winner proposal by Saltworks.  How do you get money? What do you need in Round 1? Describe the product, describe the innovation, the technology, provide a brief analysis.

What’s the definition of IP? Creation of the mind, industrial property and copyright.

Round 2 deadline is May 27, 2009 and it’s important to understand judging criteria. Five judges will review submissions, 30 companies go to Round 3. 9 questions and all matter:

Baseline (not important but can sell a judge) : product, tech development, team, business plan structure.

Evaluation:

Describe your defensible competitive advantage! Include it in your story. If you’re worried about patent disclosure talk to a lawyer.Be specific about your target market. Describe your demographic-type, their value and why they will be customers.

Describe your revenue model.  What are your market-penetration goals. (It takes at least a year for a good plan to come together.)

Distribution? What alliances do you have and do you intend to make them? How is your product produced?

Competition? who are they, what makes them unique or same, different?

Financial? How much have you spent? Don’t lump cash and equity together. How much did you raise? How much do you need? When will you be cash flow positive? What’s the return?

Investor Math:

Present Value of your company, The VC vs. Angel views.  Angels invest earlier and expect higher ROI 6-20x their money back over 5-10 yrs. VCs invest a bit alter and need at least 10x their money back over 5-7yrs. Angel valuations $500-$2mm, VC is $2-5mm. Angel Round $250-750K. VC Round $2-5mm.

Angel Rules of Thumb: A great idea with IP gets $500K, the right team with biz plan is $250K, some market validation is $250K, early revenue from early adopters is $500K, more than above justifies higher value.

Future (exit) value: usually by mergers and acquisition, typical multiples are 1-2 times revenue, much less for service businesses.

Implications for revenue growth: $2 mm pre-evaluation means you need to archive $20 mm in revenue. What are difference between VCs and Angels? Bulk money, governance, go big or go home, Angels will invest smaller.

How does an angel view a company that offers a product and or service? Angels are great because they have their own company?  Inevitably, there will be lean times and you need service. Not many people want to invest in a service business. So, don’t tell them that. Recommends Bootup Labs for Web 2.0 companies as an incubator.

Contact Bob De Wit at rdewit@alumni.sfu.ca or call 604-916-3434

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