Refresh Austin: How to Get Funded or Acquired
This post was written by cecycorrea
You might be wondering who the hell I am. I’m Cecy Correa, and I’ve known Joey and the ACTLab peeps for a couple of years now. Joey asked me to do some write-ups for Austin three-oh (it’s not Austin thirty), so here I am!
I attend Refresh Austin pretty regularly. Refresh Austin is a monthly meet-up of developers and designers in the Austin area. We meet at Buffalo Billiards the second Tuesday of every month (you can check out the Refresh Austin site here.)
This past Tuesday Michelle Greer kindly organized an excellent panel on start-ups and how to get funded our acquired. The panel included Jason Cohen (SmartBear software), Pat Condon (Rackspace Hosting), Jim Curry (Rackspace Hosting), and Josh Baer (OtherInbox).
The panel was excellent! We’re about one month away from SXSW, but the quality was on par with SXSW. Video of the panel should be posted soon, so here are a few interesting bullet points I took from the meeting:
Bootstrap: Most start-ups thrive due to bootstrapping. It’s not greed! Bootstrapping builds a good sense of what’s really important in your business, and allows you to focus on what matters. Once you make it as a successful business, what you have learned from bootstrapping will keep you on the right track.
Don’t get VC unless you need it: Sure, Venture Capital is great. Someone gives you money and you get to work on your business. However, you should not rely on VC. If you can get started on your business, get started! Don’t let the wait for capital freeze you and keep you from even starting your business. Acquire a couple (or a few) clients to get you enough of a cash flow to stay afloat. Having a small number of clients will help you focus your business, while proving to a potential Venture Capitalist that your business is worth it and can make money.
The business plan: Most panelists agreed that a business plan is not important: You can’t predict where your business will be in 5 years or 10 years. Moreover, you can’t predict how your business will change in 5 to 10 years. That said, I think a business plan is important because it allows you to sit down and write down your ideas concisely. Writing a business plan will allow you to articulate your idea for your business, which in turn should enable you to give a good business pitch when the opportunity arises. Ultimately, panelists seemed to agree that a business plan should not be longer than 2 pages.
NDAs: Should I sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement and what are the rules for disclosing information in a business meeting? No! First of all, a Venture Capitalist is not going to sign an NDA, so why should you? Just keep it simple and refrain from disclosing secret information about your business. You can discuss your business at length without revealing anything that you feel would compromise your business. Do keep in mind, however, that if you think your idea is too good to be revealed, it probably isn’t. Think about it: if your idea is that easy to steal, you probably need to move on to another idea, or fine tune your current one.
That’s it! That’s what I took from it. The next Refresh Austin for March 2010 will be a lightning speed round for those lucky souls presenting at SXSW who want to practice before the big event.
For a link to more panel information, click here.
