Recap WITI Orange County - February 20, 2014

Recap of: Venture Capital: Do's, Don'ts and How to's

WITI Orange County, February 20, 2014

What a wonderful way to delve into the ideas around starting your own company! WITI Orange County hosted an event with the partnership of K5 Launch and an excellent panel of women entrepreneurs. Paige, Stephani and Nicole, all experienced entrepreneurs, suggest that you need to do the following in order be successful at launching your own business around a disruptive opportunity:

- Perform industry research - assess competitors, determine what gives you a distinct advantage.
- Make a prototype - don't just build a business plan. A proof of concept or prototype will help you learn what the market really says, and helps validate your business plan.
- Talk to everyone you know! Networking is key, and outweighs the fears around others possibly stealing your ideas.
- Determine what your special talents are, and surround yourself with other special talents.
- Leverage financial advisors to help define key performance indicators including when to pivot.
- Make sure the timing is right for your idea.
- Ask for advice! If you ask for advice, you may get a check. If you ask for a check, you'll get advice.
- Leverage social media as a network platform. LinkedIn is great to build relationships and network by getting followers and making new connections. Social media is not just about selling. Start "selling" through social media outlets once you have about 90% of your product ready to launch.
- Have an exit strategy - Don't assuming your exit is an IPO. The odds are few and far between for this type of exit. There are lots of angel investors that are happy with quick and steady returns.

There's ways to get seed funding relatively easily. No need to mortgage your own house! SBDC's (Small Business Development Center - sba.gov), money from family and friends, as well as angel investors are places to start.

There are several companies that are doing more and more partnerships with women. Often, there are government incentives for more diversity, thus more and more companies are partnering with Women.

As for some cautions mentioned, don't hire someone to write your business plan. Only you know about your disruptive opportunity as you have the experience and data required. There was also a caution around crown funding - this way of funding can help validate market interest, but if you want a professional investor, they aren't interested in crowd funding opportunities due to ownership and legal considerations.

There's a balance required between taking too much risk versus not enough. An entrepreneur needs to be able to take a lot of risk, especially if you want to get big value. You need passion, flexibility and critical thinking to pivot quickly if necessary. The key is to market yourself and be able to do what you say you can do.

"Failures come in all shapes and sizes." Looking back, everyone can find things they could have done differently. What's important is to learn from these "take-aways" and apply learnings to the next round. If you've fallen, get back up and keep going - don't stop! The odds are that 1 in 10 small businesses survive. It takes hard work, energy, passion, and sometimes luck.

Then evening wrapped up with a raffle including two $50 prizes to use with Wonder, a new app that lets you buy gift cards to any merchant, anywhere as well as several great books, WITI bags and a WITI membership that went to Chrissy See - congratulations Chrissy.



About our Panelist:

Paige Cattano is the Co-founder and COO of Wonder. Paige started Wonder after a successful exit with Yoohoot, a mobile advertising and loyalty start-up. She is a marketing executive who has launched 10 products across 4 industries and successfully integrated 16 acquisitions in terms of different product roadmaps, engineering talent and product marketing teams.

Nicole Washington is the CEO and owner of Micro Biz Coach. She works with micro and small business owners to identify strategies to boost the bottom line leveraging internet technology. Nicole worked for several fortune 500 companies including Sprint, Nationwide Insurance, Ernst&Young, Whittman Hart and MarchFirst. She is a member of the Ohio TechAngel Fund and has written an e-book, "Best Kept Secrets of Internet Business". Nichole serves as the Chair of Business Advisory Council for the Academy, a STEM high school servicing underserved youth

Stephani Ardrey is a serial entrepreneur, having conceptualized and launched multiple business ventures since she was 18. Her entrepreneurial and corporate experience has covered multiple industries. Ardrey has trained thousands of entrepreneurs nationally, and is an adjunct professor teaching in the Bachelor of Science and Arts programs at CSULA and FIDM/LA. She is the author of "Show me the money: the 9ps to profit!" and columnist for www.examiner.com and CaribPress.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.