Please join us for the December 3 Ultra Light Startups event on Bootstrapping vs. Venture Funding.

Please note that we do charge admission for Ultra Light Startups events - but for various reasons we do not use the Meetup.com payment system. The price is $10 (if you Pitch your venture during our "introductions by elevator pitch"), $20 (if you do not Pitch), or $30 (if you pay at the door - cash only). Online registration closes at noon the day of the event. To secure the lowest price for admission you must register online. We hope to see you there!

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Bootstrapping vs. Venture Funding

Topics:

• Objectives of this panel
  o To help entrepreneurs determine whether venture funding or bootstrapping is more appropriate for their project.
  o Understanding how to position your company for financing success under each scenario.
  
• The investor's perspective
  o What is a venture fund (limited partners, general partners)?
  o Expected returns on portfiolio companies (~80% failures, ~15% breakeven, ~5% blockbuster)
  o Motivations of a venture capitalist in making an investment decision
  o Characteristics of a fundable company (concept, market size, team, barriers to entry, etc)
  o Venture funding success stories: Google, Amazon...
  
• The bootstrapper's perspective
  o What is bootstrapping?
  o Characteristics of a bootstrap-able company (early revenue, low capital requirements, low burn rate, etc)
  o Bootstrapping success stories:Placebase, PlentyOfFish, MacRumors.
  o Funding sources for bootstrappers: founder savings, full-time job, consulting, organic growth, etc.
  
• Would I ever want to seek funding for a company that could be bootstrapped? Would I ever want to bootstrap a company that could be venture funded? Why?
  
• The right time to seek funding. What is the right "state" of the venture for seeking funding?
  
• Pitfalls to avoid - Common outcomes for non-fundable companies which seek venture funding.
  

Moderator:

• Owen Davis, Managing Director at NYC Seed
  

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Art Chang, CEO of Tipping Point Partners
  
• Brian Cohen, Founder/President of iFluence PR and Board Member at New York Angels
  
• Mark Davis, IT Venture Capitalist at DFJ Gotham Ventures
  
• Dennis Mortensen, Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and founder of Canvas, Evonax, and IndexTools (now Yahoo! Analytics)