Business Incubator Series: Jean Boudeguer, Start-Up Chile — Santiago (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Jean Boudeguer, executive director of Start-Up Chile, which is a Chilean government program that seeks to attract foreign, high-potential entrepreneurs to come to Chile to bootstrap their businesses.  The mission of the new government and the primary focus of the Ministry of Economy are to convert Chile into the entrepreneurial hub of Latin America. Chile’s current president, Sebastián Piñera, who took office March 11, 2010, is a well-known economist and investor. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Kerry Rupp, Managing Partner, DreamIt Ventures – Philadelphia And New York City (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Kerry: The public funding that DreamIt receives is not contingent on how many of our entrepreneurs are successful. I think that is probably because our investors agree with us that this model of succeed fast or fail fast is valuable. They understand that some of the companies will decide not to move forward after the program, which is part of the process of vetting these ideas in the market place. I don’t think they want to discourage that. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: OK, so let’s say I want to send you a set of deal flow, screened deal flow, because in One Million by One Million we don’t advise people to apply for investment too soon and without enough traction. The reason is that 99% of deals are rejected by investors. We want our members to work on their company to the point where they have improved the odds of playing this very low-probability game. So, if we were to send you screened deals, how would you recommend we advise our 1M/1M companies to play here? >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Julia Rosen, Associate Vice-President For Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University, Venture Catalyst At ASU — Scottsdale, Arizona (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you engage with companies after they’ve completed the incubation program?

Julia: Not as well as we should. This is a struggle that I think most accelerators have. Once you don’t see them quite as frequently, it’s harder to keep track. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Kerry Rupp, Managing Partner, DreamIt Ventures – Philadelphia And New York City (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: Do you have any special initiatives at this time?

Kerry: I would say our expansion in New York City, which should be our first time operating in the city, this summer. We brought on a locally-based managing director, Mark Wachen, an entrepreneur who was the founder of the company called Optimost. Mark will now be running the New York program on the day-to-day basis this summer. We think he brings in a lot expertise and a [good] local network. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: OK, so, team, traction, social proof, and product are the four criteria. How do you gauge team?

Naval Ravikant: Team is hard; we do not meet the people, so we just look at where they have been and what they have done. If they are at Stanford that helps, or on Facebook. All the usual metrics one would use, we use.

Traction is evidence that customers are adopting the product. This metric is different in different spaces, and right now the traction bar for social network companies or a Groupon clone is set a lot higher. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Julia Rosen, Associate Vice-President For Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University, Venture Catalyst At ASU — Scottsdale, Arizona (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Are there any tools that help you to accomplish your mission?

Julia: We are, at present, the only U.S. university that is part of the TechStars Network. Being able to access and have a forum in which to talk to other accelerators from around the country and the world is immensely helpful. It is a specialized set of tools which we have already been accessing, that is already adding value. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Kerry Rupp, Managing Partner, DreamIt Ventures – Philadelphia And New York City (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Kerry: Scvngr is our best-known company. They are a mobile game platform that is used both in the B2B space, in that museums and cities can host Scvngr hunts for residents who can explore a community, and also a consumer game, where users can check in at different locations, compete in challenges, and earn the rewards from local business for frequenting them and participating in gaming events around their location.

We have several other companies that are all interesting and have been funded and are doing great things, so I could keep going … >>>