If startup CEOs want to anonymously rate, review, and criticize venture capitalists, they can still do that on TheFunded. But the site added a feature today called TheFunded Connect that lets members help each other with what they really want: introductions to those same VCs.
CEOs looking for funding can put up brief pitches, solicit comments from other members to refine those pitches, and ultimately get personalized e-mail referrals to VCs on their list from other CEO members.
Adeo Ressi, the founder of TheFunded, cringes when I ask him if he is trying to turn his site into a social network for entrepreneurs. “God no!” he replies. But when entrepreneurs network, it is to make business connections, which is exactly the purpose of TheFunded Connect. (Perhaps it is more a business networking feature than a social one, but you get the idea).
As part of the pitch, CEOs identify how much they are hoping to raise. For instance, Erik Weaver, the CEO of Digital Ribbon (described as an “eBay for CPU Cycles”) wants to raise $1.5 million on a pre-money valuation of $5 million. Widgeteer Khris Loux, CEO of JS-Kit, wants to raise a $5 million series A. Suzanne Xie, CEO of online closet site Weardrobe, is looking for $500,000 to $1 million in angel money.
If another CEO wants to refer one of these funding seekers to a VC he knows, an email can be generated through the site (but the referrer puts in his or her own email address to make it look genuine). To help fuel these connections, whenever members look at the profile page of a venture firm that another member wants to be introduced to, they will be prompted to look at the relevant pitch.
The theory is that a personal introduction can be the breakthrough an entrepreneur needs to get a VC’s attention. Automating this process fits in with Ressi’s belief that most startups need to do 30 pitches to get three serious offers.
Whether or not this will generate any referrals, at the very least CEOs can get some feedback from their peers on their pitches. The problem is that the pitches, at least the ones up right now, are a bit spare in their details. There is little background information on the companies other than what is in the one-paragraph pitch, no bio information on the CEOs, no slide decks, and no video presentations (cough, Elevator Pitches). That makes it difficult to recommend any startup based solely on the pitches. But those elements can certainly be added, and Ressi is exploring his options there.
If Ressi can create a community where CEOs can actually help each other get funded either through helpful advice or introductions (or, in the future—why not?—pooled capital), then CEOs will keep coming back to TheFunded. If the introductions and advice go nowhere, then they’ll stick to working their Rolodexes.
will try to experiment with this feature to get funded
I think this is a very good idea.
For my company, I pitched six VCs in the Bay Area and got 3 term sheets. I just accepted one of them, but I kept very good relationship with the 2 other VCs. If I recommend one “deal” to these VCs, I’m sure they will at least spend some time to study the opportunity.
I am going to try this. I am currently packaging the http://www.sitespaces.net social networking software into a script called PHPSocialize.com which I will blast to the public with help from Eric from hotscripts and a several thousand dollar advertising campaign.
The $199 script runs on $2.99/mo godaddy hosting, and the $499 one has a full video section like youtube and an encoding daemon. They both let users create subdomains with .htaccess just like livejournal.
I am also selling a $3999 phone supported package like red hat. The other 2 have vbulletin community support on a private forum.
The business plan is to let as many people start their own friendster as possible, but to let them keep the database like WordPress instead of bogarting it like Ning. Kids are savvy to what Ning is doing with their user data, and I think they’d rather pay $199 to keep it all to themselves.
This plan is a total winner and can not fail. I am going to see if a VC wants on board with the funded. If a vc doesn’t jump on this plan, then web vc intros will never work.
I wanted to mention before it’s too late that I’m having 5 skin sets made up at launch including a cartoon theme for kids and a XXX theme for pr0n webmasters so they can all buy, buy, buy and have an appropriate theme for their portal out of box. Also a multi language dictionary with 4 launch languages
They go on sale next month. I am going to put an ad on the funded in about 2 hours.
I think too often the web tries to make things too efficient and loses its effectiveness. I like the rating system as people should get what they deserver….I know many good VC’s who never get PR or want it. I’d caution new entrepreneurs about putting efficient before effective….careful, it’s a relationship, not a one night stand.
@Chris: Who cares?
@chris. plenty of white label solutions already doing what you are doing.
@6, People who want to spend $199 for a super robust social networking script that can handle millions of users and run on $2.99 a month godaddy hosting and can wait until next month.
Back to the original topic, I did notice this
http://www.thefunded.com/invitations/send_welcome
“Your Membership is now being manually processed. You will receive an invitation email in approximately 48 hours that contains instructions to create a username and password, so be sure to check your SPAM FOLDER to avoid missing the invitation. Occasionally, processing applications takes longer that two days.”
“processing applications takes longer *that* two days.”
This screams out 3rd world oDesk creation of this website. The website also has other flaws that scream out 3rd world developers.
Aren’t many startup CEOs competing for the same funding? I can’t recall the the stat about the percentage of startups that get funded, but the odds aren’t great. So not sure every startup CEO would be helpful to others since interests are not 100% aligned.
However, the ability of some CEOs with VC connections to help others without connections could be helpful to both VCs (since the connected CEO could be a useful deal filter) and, of course, to the unconnected startup CEO.
If they have the good intentions of helping them, why not, i think it will be a good idea.
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
I’m getting tired of listening to his comment spam.
Haha…sitespaces.net is a shitty myspace clone that screams 3rd-world developers. Also, anyone with any skills or talent at all knows that it is 100% impossible to run a robust social network with *millions* of users on $2.99 / month godaddy hosting.
But it’s irrelevant, because no one serious is going to buy a $199 script to start a new social network on godaddy hosting.
Your entire presence on TC is some kind of extended prank, right? It has to be…surely no one is this stupid.
@11, I was merely saying that I would like to try this website for funding and provided some background information.
So my link in @8 was invalid because the site code checks the referrer
http://www.thefunded.com/invitations/welcome
“Your Membership is now being manually processed. You will receive an invitation email in approximately 48 hours that contains instructions to create a username and password, so be sure to check your SPAM FOLDER to avoid missing the invitation. Occasionally, processing applications takes longer that two days.”
“processing applications takes longer *that* two days.”
The creators of the site either do not have spell check or are not english speakers in my opinion.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com.....9e7d_o.png
They added a cookie too. Sorry, there. There is the spelling error. There were also javascript errors a plenty.
Chris,
Seriously. Get the fuck out of here. We’re all tired of listening to you and your shameless self-promotion for your shitty me-too ideas. Please find another website to spam.
At least their typo is an actual word…from your own website’s privacy page at http://sitespaces.net/index.php?privacy:
“We do not share your email address or any other information with any other agency, company, or *diety*, period.”
WTF is a diety? I can only assuming you mean *deity*, but your India-based outsourced development team that works for $8 / hr made a mistake.
Right?
@15,
http://farm4.static.flickr.com.....66d1_o.png
My vim says you’re wrong.
Here’s an odesk post where Chris offers a poor slob in India or China $2000 to get one million signups on sitespaces.net in two months or less, so he can “sell it to investors for investment money.” How did that work out for you, Chris?
http://www.odesk.com/jobs/Attr.....2b3a4fb9e7
Classic.
Wow, way to hijack the comments. you need an idea person to tell you what to code because what you got will not work. None of it. Nadda. Zilch.
Features are not differentiators.
You seem to have the skills and enthusiasm, but your me-too approach will never work. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.
@17, none of the poor slobs on oDesk could bullsh1t as good as TC or Scobleizer. God bless america!
BTW, @15, you can keep proof reading my site for grammar mistakes for free if you like. My vim will be open until 5PM.
“Automating this process fits in with Ressi’s belief that most startups need to do 30 pitches to get three serious offers.”
I don’t know where such stats come from, my guess is more from companies who have already pitched. But in the larger scheme, it’s much more likely that 1) a company would have a very hard time getting 30 pitches (where they come in for the meeting and do the full presentation, not “send your info and I’ll look it over”) 2) getting 3 term sheets from 30 pitches (10%) is wildly optimistic.
I also don’t know what hot area @”A”[#2] poster did to get 3 term sheets out of a mere 6 meetings, this is fantastic, unless one already started a succesful company, is well connected, or has a super-hot idea/company, but a lot of start-ups read this blog and the reality is that this is FAR from the reality. In reality, less than 1% of all companies seeking VC funding get any money. Your chances are greater with angels, friends & family, building revenue, or other creative means of raising money - not VCs.
one caveat - IF a company *could* get 30 pitches (which again is wildly optimistic and highly unlikely) then it might mean they are is in a hot spot that the VCs are after and are funding already at that particular juncture timing is a big part), and companies in the space are therefore more likely to get funding anyway, then 3 pitches out of 30 could be more likely.
But the first premise of getting 30 pitches is still extremely unlikely - most companies are lucky if they get a handful, and most don’t pan out for an actual term sheet.
By the way, it takes up to 2 days to process new Member applications because each application is manually reviewed to ensure that the applicant is a founder / entrepreneur, not a venture capitalist. TheFunded will regularly take in 200 new CEO applications per day, and each application takes between two and five minutes to validate, depending. On larger days, the site will see as many as 1,000 CEOs apply.
- the founding member
This is a fantastic resource for startup CEOs and executive board members and I look forward to checking it out. Even though the site can be used to quickly show off your elevator pitch, you still have to have a solid business proposal. Many brilliant thinkers have contemplated the entrepreneurial code - the magic algorithm that puts a business over the top, allowing a company to hit crucial mass and skyrocket above the rest of the competition. Has anybody discovered this code? The best place to look for the key elements to growing a mega-business are from the people who have successfully done it time and time again. http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
@22, seriously though, run your site through a spell checker.
- begin a moment of genuis -
A search engine that spits out only pages with spelling errors of spidered websites
- end a moment of genuis -
3.455555555555555 repeating million in VC.
…. provisional patent filed. That would have been a killer feature on Google. They can always buy the rights.
Chris..regarding your post looking for Indian marketers to inflate your membership to get funding you wrote..
” I was told that the average yearly salary is $2000 in China and India,
so if you can do this ONE LITTLE THING for us,
consider you won’t have to work again for the rest of the year. ”
http://www.odesk.com/jobs/Attr.....2b3a4fb9e7
You are a real moron. Please leave Techcrunch, you and your “Myspace clone” site. Good luck getting funding.
@28, you have a right to your opinion. I was really told that the average worker does only make 2k/y in those countries though.
The good thing about this thread is that it lead me to invent a component on my search engine that exposes search results with spelling errors highlighted and have the search results of indexed sites organized based on spelling errors.
Google doesn’t have that, Yahoo doesn’t, Microsoft doesn’t, powerset doesn’t.
Plus I patented site:example.com search for spelling and grammar mistakes too. I have a whole year to get the illustrations for the utility patent done now. It won’t take me 2 months. I just have to release my social script.
This is actually my 8th patent app, so this thread was awesome for me.
I’m really sorry Mike if you were offended by the whole Indians make poor salaries thing, but why the hell do you think corporate America moved low skill jobs there? It’s because they can run people into the ground like pets there for cheap. That’s reality. They are very mean.
Hey all, am I allowed to put a plug in for an alternative to TheFunded? I am a founder of Venture Returns (www.venturereturns.com). It would be great to get your feedback on the company, if any of you get a chance. We are really working on doing something a bit broader than TheFunded, but we do have fund reviews and a range of other features.
Chris wrote..
” I was really told that the average worker does only make 2k/y in those countries though…..I’m really sorry Mike if you were offended by the whole Indians make poor salaries thing, but why the hell do you think corporate America moved low skill jobs there? It’s because they can run people into the ground like pets there for cheap. That’s reality. They are very mean.”
Chris…i am not offended by Indian or Chinese workers making 2k/y, I am just offended that a guy as uneducated as you are making stupid comments on a site like Techcrunch. If you want people to take you seriously, you need to smarten up a little and “try” to learn from others. Claiming that you have something that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or Powerset does not have, is not helping especially when your sitespaces.net’s cloning job turned out to look worst than MySpace.
Stop acting like you know everything by putting others down. If not, you will just end up a superficial guy with a big head who everyone will ignore.
Oh lol, by the way, Indian and Chinese workers make more than 2k/year
http://www.financialexpress.co.....id/229357/
Ok well moving on…I was wondering if people would receive feedback about their proposals in all reality. I only say this because I believe John stated that the CEOs are probably competing for the same funding. If we were living in a perfect world I’m sure this idea would work perfectly because they may not necessarily be looking out for themselves, but have genuine interests in others. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world… not even close. So, is it valid to think that others will help each other strengthen their proposals if that means possibly losing their own funding?? Just a thought. Thanks!
And remember: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBn0cO862U
@30,
I wrote “the average worker”
You are citing the average IT MANAGER. Big difference.
“If you want people to take you seriously”
I actually don’t really care if they take me seriously. The pending patent will take care of that. If I open up Google or MSN one day and see a “grammar search” where it lists grammatical or spelling errors on indexed pages, I will call up the patent army and enforce my invention.
Aside from that I just want people to click on the $199 paypal payment button and buy my social networking script, which they will. Because it rox.
I also relish the day when MS xbox360 or Sony Playstation releases a thermal feedback game controller. One that gets cold when the game gets cold or gets hotter when it gets hotter in the game. When ever a huge company lands on my park place, it’s gonna be paydirt city.
How? Thermal plates right under the heat resistant plastic, all controlled by USB and an API for the games. They can never reach temps to burn or freeze somebody’s hands.
@Mike,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8.....2/sizes/l/
Eventually people are going to get sick of the WII’s novelty. They are going to get sick of not seeing spellling and grammar errors in search results, or being able to search for spelling mistakes on websites.
When you are a small entity you really have to start laying out some IP land mines with good inventions that are probably going to be used in the near foreseeable future, and that’s what I’m about. That and selling social networking software. I used to be about selling programming but that didn’t pay very well. So now I am about this.
BTW, Chris, content on TheFunded is contributed by the Members, so by commenting on typos, you are insulting your peers.
@36,
They clearly write the blog entries, but now you wanna tell me they wrote the thank you message for the signup?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com.....9e7d_o.png
That was the context of my citation earlier on.
[ goal posts moved back ]
“so by commenting on typos, you are insulting your peers.”
No, I’m not. It’s a sad day when we have to cast patent nets, but thanks to Microsoft, we have no choice. Don’t be fooled. I am very sad about having to patent every little invention I make up. Thanks to Microsoft, we have to spend thousands of dollars, and countless hours drawing those stupid illustrations in Dia.
I would like nothing more than a world without patents. Microsoft, and their evilness will never let that happen.
Chris, you are hilarious!