But like a former poster you do get weary sending off info and getting no response

Still as a founder getting the no no no no no no responses is a good way to own more of the the company!

Simon

@ Eric Dewhirst: I hope they soon start shopping on iTailor on f-book for their shirts;-0

That said, other than nepotism, let me also quote Jack Ma (of alibaba.com)
saying of – VC’s follow great companies, not great companies follow VC’s.

So, there’s not much use to “beg the VC.” It just won’t work and waste
your time, if without connections.

America is all about nepotism these days, from funding to the presidency.
You can still make it on your “own”, but its getting harder and harder.

I have replaced the previous demo I uploaded earlier with a newer version with narrative. Our product isn’t world changing but we feel that it does have a real market potential – we’ve proven it already with the previous incarnation of the system having built sites for Sony BMG, Ryobi and Optus using our first flash-based CMS.

http://www.marc...al.com.au/demo/

Cheers

Chris

There are very few VC’s in Oz who get it. Maybe some of the guys at Jagen (Vic) but otherwise yes – there ain’t much opportunity for explosive growth with Australian based VC’s.

If you want US funding, you have to move to the US. Period. (Maybe there are exceptions but they are *very* few and far between but a flash based CMS system isn’t distruptive so it would be an uphill battle. There are valley VC’s that won’t invest in companies more than an hour drive from their office – their time is everything, so engaging them if you don’t have a base there is just going to eat time and money.

You have some good short term money options in Oz – COMET, EMDG, Austrade – use them to help you get over there. Engage firms like BSI/Anzatech to help you navigate the US landscape. Speak to Australian companies who are over there, etc.

Aside from that, my advice for a budding entrepreneur is to build your technology out as if it were a brick and mortar biz. Meaning, concentrate on the user experience and revenue from the get-go. Any hint of success will have the VC coming to you. Worrying about money to build that dream infrastructure will set you back. Then make your second venture the big infrastructure one where you can utilize the credibility of your first success.

It’s interesting. To be perfectly honest I would need to see more….

BUT, based on looking at some of your work in the cartoon and commercial area, this is where I would consider spending some time. You guys have very good talent here and video is a key growth area.

I can’t speak for The Founders Fund. BUT, here are things to consider when taking ANY VC money.
a) Must have: product, revenue and customers. Otherwise you get bent over.
b) Even if you have product, revenue and customer you’ll get bent over on valuation.
c)Best case scenario they take “only” 20%. Realistically they’ll take 50%
d) They will control the board of directors
e) Chances are greater than 80% that you will be fired within 12-24 months
f) They will control the product direction

My advice is to grow through your internal sales and keep costs to a minimum. If you are bursting at the seams and need an infusion of capital look for some “friendly”angels.

Wow, a Flash-based CMS. If a VC thought they could do that easily enough to just ’steal’ the idea and run with it (as opposed to funding somebody who was already close to release), it would have happened already.

So yeah, it’s a good idea. It’s not a particularly unique idea, though.

And I couldn’t load the screencast either. I tried.

If I were you I’d release all the details, put videos online, put out a press release, and get as much press as you can. Right when you do that, pool all your money together and fly your best two or three people out to SFO in time to attend whatever relevant conferences and mixers you can. Go to events with “Hello, My Name Is,” nametags and write your company name in huge letters. Demo at events. Answer questions.

If you can’t get some solid connections after all of that, then you’re doing something horribly wrong. If your product is really that good then it sells itself. (Then what do you need funding for?)

In response to #35, you know what? All those options are possible at the same time. I’ve been working hard AND trying to meet people. I am not the best at networking but damnit I try! As a bonus, I’ll have a product out within a month.

your demo sucks goat balls. i sat there for two minutes waiting and nothing happened.

http://www.marc...o/demo_001.html

As you’ll see from the video our product is in the advanced stage and nearing completion. This is the sort of demo that I’d be prepared to show VC’s (only better prepared) – I’m showing you so I guess that goes without saying. We have never shown this product publicly and only ever shown it to people we know and trust (or figure wouldn’t have a clue how to build it anyway).

We’ve been developing this system for a few years now – slowly refining it as Adobe releases new versions of Flex. The system is multi-user – multiple people can collaborate on the development of a site at the same time. It supports media such as Flash, Images, text, MP3’s, Video (FLV for now but soon it will support .mov, .mp4 etc) and attachments such as PDF’s, .docs etc. It has built in multi-file FTP making the uploading of files simple. Users can opt to build their site without ever seeing a line of code and the system is 100% WYSIWYG. There is a code view that enables tweaking if needed – the codebase is simple XML. The sites navigation system is dynamically built in realtime based on the site architecture map. It’s pretty awesome – if I don’t say so myself.

What chance would we have of securing a good deal from a US based VC like Founder Fund based on what you’ve seen here? Bare in mind that we are an Australian company (if that makes any difference to your opinion). From my research (googling a lot – reading lots of blogs like TechCrunch) there is nothing else on the market that compares to what we have created.

Being an Aussie company it often feels like we might as well be on the moon when it comes to accessing VC’s who ‘get the web’. I’ve heard a number of times that US VC’s don’t like investing in foreign companies, but Aussie VC’s seem to be too cautious or in short supply. It’s bloody frustrating!

We are seriously about to start shopping it around for funding. Wish me luck

Chris Walker
March Digital
chris@marchdigital.com.au