Raising Money From 75 Angels: Manmeet Singh, CEO of Dataguise (Part 2)

Manmeet Singh: I started thinking of better ways to secure data. That’s when I started thinking about data masking. Data masking can keep the data relevant and useful for non-production, and in certain cases, production environment also and take the personal PII and PCI values out of it. I found a couple of people who shared the same ideas and we started this company.

Sramana Mitra: In terms of getting the company going, you said you raised $900,000 in the beginning. Before you raised the money, what did you do to validate? Did you have a set of early customers, or at least, a customer discussion? What was the validation process like?

Manmeet Singh: That’s a good question. My validation was my consulting group. >>>

Raising Money From 75 Angels: Manmeet Singh, CEO of Dataguise (Part 1)

I have never seen a company raise so much money from so many angels. It is far from standard practice in the industry, but Manmeet did it! Find out how…

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your story. Where are you from and where were you raised? Give me the back story of your entrepreneurial journey.

Manmeet Singh: I’m from New Delhi, India. I did my education back in India. In about a year, I came to the US as a programmer for HCL. Since then, I’ve been in the IT field, working for large companies. In 1999, I made a move towards startups. I learned how >>>

Why 70k+ Angel Financings Is A Problem

Much as we would like to see more entrepreneurs successfully raise seed money from angel investors, the current level of investment is structurally worrisome.

In 2013, 70,713 ventures received angel financing (Source: Center for Venture Research, UNH).

However, the number of companies that get venture financing has remained more or less steady over the years at about 1000.

Presumably, a vast majority of the 70k entrepreneurs and their investors aspire to substantial exits down the line.

However, the market cannot sustain that many exits.
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Building an Exciting Healthcare IT Company From Chicago: LaunchPoint CEO Terry Ryan (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: So about 2008, you were done with HP?

Terry Ryan: That’s when I started the current business I’m running. I had successful exits in the 90s with companies in which I was an early employee but I wasn’t a founder of those companies. I had some nice exits in three or four cases before I started Knightsbridge. Fast forward to 2008, I sat down with HP management and said, “I think if I point my guns in one direction for the next decade, I can move this battleship and make a difference. At the same time, I think I can make a bigger difference going out and building my next company.” I politely gave them all the time they wanted. I decided I was going to take six months off and think real hard about what I wanted to do next. I wanted to build on what we did in the Knightsbridge days, which was build world-class data warehouses that solved business problems. I wanted to take the next step, which was not only to do that, but also to own and build the software and solution set that provided great business value for the clients.

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10 Strategies For Angel Investors To Build Quality Dealflow

There are a handful of angel investors in certain startup hubs who see all the good deals. The rest, even if they want to source fundable companies, can’t seem to find them.

Then, the best deals get terribly competitive, hopelessly oversubscribed.

So if you are an angel investor (or a small VC fund) looking to build a solid early stage portfolio, how do you find good companies?

My take:

1. Build an investment thesis. What do you want to invest in? Can you add value in that domain? Why would entrepreneurs choose you over so and so?
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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Peter Bauer, CEO of Mimecast (Part 1)

We don’t often see significant global cloud technology companies being built out of London. Mimecast is an exception and is likely to go public in the near term. This conversation highlights the activities of a major player in the cloud-based enterprise email system space.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to Mimecast and yourself.

Peter Bauer: I’m the CEO and co-founder of Mimecast. I’m originally from South Africa but moved to the UK in 2002. I set up Mimecast, which is headquartered in London, with my co-founder who is also a South African. The business today has grown to an >>>

May 10,000 Cloud Startups Bloom

The cloud services market has fueled a boom of immensely successful startups, most of which have raised millions in venture funding. Take analytics platform company Birst, which started off in the high-end financial sector, raised $64 million in venture capital, and is now growing fast as a regular Silicon Valley-style pre-IPO company. Technology Business Management solutions provider Apptio raised a $7 million series A to get started and within the year got to $6 million in annual recurring revenue. Its customers include 29 of the Fortune 100 companies and has to date raised a whopping $136 million.

Business analytics provider Adaptive Insights raised $100 million in funding and has over 2000 customers. Huddle, enterprise collaboration service provider, raised $38.2 million in funding and now has close to 80 percent of the Fortune 500 as clients. Email marketing company iContact bootstrapped for three years to $1 million using services and then raised $53.4 million in three rounds. They eventually got acquired for $169 million. Mobile website maker DudaMobile bootstrapped using a paycheck and then went on to raise $18.6 million.

However, not all cloud startups have gone the heavy funding route. There are many under-the-radar cloud/SaaS startups that are also developing as bootstrapped businesses. Analytics company DataSong has bootstrapped all the way—for 11 years—and expects to do $6.5 million in revenue in 2014. Another such company in our 1M/1M premium program is Happy Grasshopper, which has chosen to bootstrap so far, and is approaching a $3 million run rate in 2014.

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Bootstrapping with a Paycheck: Axosoft CEO Hamid Shojaee (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Is there anything else that’s worth discussing in your story in terms of strategy and moves that led to big losses or wins?

Hamid Shojaee: From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I think that having that focus on a particular market segment is very important and then doing things for that market segment that creates value outside of the product offerings that you have is important because it helps establish credibility. >>>