1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: One of my observations is lots of stuff have already been built. Nowadays, there aren’t so many wide open opportunities, especially in B2B that you can consistently build billion-dollar companies. There are many niche opportunities.

Some of these businesses need to be built for very small amounts of capital – $1 million to $2 million and then sold for $10 million to $15 million. Maybe even smaller – $250,000 to $500,000 and then sell for $5 million to $10 million. Do you have appetite for these kinds of investments? What is your analysis of this dynamic in the industry? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What do you see? Is it B2B or B2C? Where is the sweet spot of your entrepreneurs?

Cem Sertoglu: We have two very distinct strategies that we focus on. The first is what we call local champions. These are focused on large markets. We would probably back these companies only in markets like Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, or Romania, but not Slovakia or Estonia where the local market is not big enough. In these businesses, we look for proven business models and technology. These are models that have worked elsewhere.

Sramana Mitra: Concept arbitrage. >>>

12 VCs, Angels and Seed Investors Pinpoint Where They Want to Invest via the Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum

To benefit entrepreneurs who are seeking funding, I’ve asked many investors to pinpoint what they want to invest in and exactly what they are looking for in startups. Industry trends, segments, locations and areas of personal interest all play roles in developing an investor’s investment thesis. Read the following investor interviews to learn exactly what these VCs, Angels, and seed investors are looking for in startups.

Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, outlines the top trends driving startups and venture capital from his firm’s perspective.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashmeet Sidana of Engineering Capital (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: This company is selling to enterprises?

Ashmeet Sidana: Menlo Security is focused primarily on large enterprises. If you’re a bank or financial services enterprise, that is our target market. You have to be very careful what you do and yet you have tens of thousands of employees who have to be able to interact with the web.

There is no modern business that can run without access to the web. Yet, anti-virus was not solving the problem. A radical new technology with a fundamentally new architecture creating real business value is what we’ve been able to create with Menlo Security. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures (Part 4)

Cindy Padnos: We structure our seed investment with, at most, three other co-investors, but typically have one co-investor. We think it’s really important to be investing with like-minded investors.

It’s also a bit dangerous to have a very large fund writing a small check into your seed round. It’s a significant signaling risk if that fund doesn’t come back to lead the Series A. The question is why not. It might not have anything to do with the company. It might be as simple as the fact that that partner had another company that they financed three months ago and they just can’t take on another new investment right now.

Sramana Mitra: What you’re talking about is this trend that has come together in the last decade – spray and pray. There are lots of funds that are putting a little bit of money in a lot of deals and just not taking any Board seats or any real skin in the game. That has become very popular right now.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Cem Sertoglu, Earlybird Venture Capital was recorded in October 2017. 

Cem Sertoglu is Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, based in Turkey. Cem brings the spotlight on Turkey and the Eastern and Central European startup eco-systems.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashmeet Sidana of Engineering Capital (Part 4)

Ashmeet Sidana: There’s great wisdom in what you’re saying. It is not just something that entrepreneurs should think about doing. You are required to say no to money on the path to success. Every company that is successful, at some point, says no to large amounts of money along the way.

Here’s the way I visualize it with my CEOs. What I tell them is, “You’re running a marathon. Any money you raise is candy. The real thing that you want is whole wheat bread and lots of protein. That’s how you run marathons. You don’t run marathons by eating candy. Raising money is like eating candy. Where is the protein? Where is the whole wheat? That is revenues and profits.”

That is the analogy that I always make. I haven’t seen Pygmalion, but the wisdom of middle class morality was brought to me by >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I have a specific question that relates to our community. We have a global base of entrepreneurs. Very often, entrepreneurs have their development teams elsewhere, whether it’s India, Eastern Europe, or other parts of Europe, but they’re aware of the fact that if they’re going for enterprise customers, North American customers are the primary customer base they want to go to.

How do you look at those companies? How do you define North American companies? Do these kinds of companies fall within your scope or are they outside?

Cindy Padnos: They’re well within our scope. Most of our companies have a portion of their development resources offshore.

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