FYI – if you have signed up for PitchCamp this Wednesday, please note the time change.  It will be held at 2pm rather than 6:30pm.

Cheers.

 

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Welcome to SL #17! In this show, we go one-on-one with Gregg Warren, the CEO of IVOX, winners of the 2007 TAG/GRA Business Launch Competition. Gregg shares his insights into the competition, how his company prepared for it, and what the impact has been on his company.

As an added bonus Mike takes his game to the “next level” and tosses someone under the bus. We also provide another update on our upcoming Capital Connections and PitchCamp events here in Atlanta.
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Welcome to SL #16! Sooner or later, every startup struggles with the issue of how best to offer healthcare benefits to their employees. We are joined in this episode by Angus Mcrae, a guy who does a ton of consulting and brokering for healthcare benefits for Atlanta-area high-tech startups (for companies like N2 Broadband/Tandberg, ViTrue, etc.)

As an added bonus we toss (under the bus) the knuckleheads holding up SB80 (the legislative bill that would allow the Georgia teacher’s pension fund to be invested in private equity). We also provide an update on our upcoming Capital Connections and PitchCamp events (as well as ATDC’s upcoming CapVenture program) here in Atlanta.
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In advance of the upcoming Fall date for Capital Connections, we are kicking it up a notch and offering a free training seminar called PitchCamp. PitchCamp is geared towards better preparing entrepreneurs to network with investors during Capital Connections (and other types of events). We wanted to do this before the last Capital Connections event, but we didn’t have time to adequately pull it all together.

The training will focus on four key areas:

1. The Elevator Pitch (led by Warren Bare, CEO, Jobkabob)
2. The Mythical One Pager (led By Scott Burkett, StartupLounge.com)
3. Investor Networking (led By Michael Blake, Adams Capital)
4. The Follow-up (led By Andy Monin, CEO, Vendormate)

We’ll cover a ton of stuff, including:

• how to craft an elevator pitch
• creating a dashboard-based one pager for your business
• expectations of today’s investors
• how to approach investors at the event
• how to fast pitch your company
• how to “read” an investor
• when to call investors back and when to back off
• how to approach the follow-up in-person pitch (including what it should look like).

The seminar will be held at the Atlanta offices of Adams Capital (near Galleria).

Slots are limited to around 20 or 30 (we’re still deciding), so if you’re interested in participating, let us know so we can get you on the list for consideration. NOTE: You must have already been approved for attendance at the Capital Connections event in order to apply for PitchCamp!

Cheers.

Fall is creeping up on us, and it will be the end of August before we know it! The next quarterly StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event will be held on August 29th here in Atlanta.

Our last event was spectacular – drawing 180 entrepreneurs and investors together. Investors at the last event included UPS, Imlay Investments, Croft-Bender, Southern Capitol Ventures, Chrysalis Ventures, Atlanta Technology Angels, Cooper Capital, Smith-Hoffman Capital, Kinetic Ventures, Grotech, Leader Ventures, EGL Ventures, Monolith Capital Partners, and others.

We are also pleased to share with you that we’ve heard of at least 6 or 7 deals that gained some degree of traction from the event. Click here for the photos and wrap-up from the last event.

If you are a fast-growth entrepreneur in the Southeast U.S., or an investor who’d like to network among such innovators to scout for new deals, head on over to StartupLounge.com and sign up. If you missed the last event, you can read the wrap up and check out the photo gallery over here. We had about 180 folks last time – and we’re expecting even more this time.

For this next event, there will be some changes to the format:

1. First and foremost, we are opening it up to entrepreneurs across the Southeast United States (not just those located in Georgia). This includes Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. We are doing this because Atlanta really, truly should be the hub of entrepreneurship in the region. Several investors that attended the first event also made this suggestion, and we think this move will benefit investors (more deal flow) and entrepreneurs (more regional connections).
2. We are going to cap attendance at some point, so if you have an interest in attending, it would probably be wise to sign up sooner rather than later. We just opened up the registration system and already have over 80 approved attendees.
3. As before, companies will be limited to sending no more than two (2) representatives (investors may send as many representatives as they’d like, though).
4. We’re encouraging more entrepreneurs to bring demos, laptops, etc. (especially on the technology side)
5. We’ll be providing some free coaching for entrepreneurs prior to the event (how to craft a solid pitch, investor strategies, etc.)
6. We’ve expanded our RSVP form to capture additional information that will help us better serve attendees.
7. If you attended the first event, there is no need to apply again – you should have already received the RSVP code.

The cost is still free, of course, and the room will be free of job-seekers and service-providers. However, we are seeking a few more sponsors to augment the sponsors we currently have. If your firm (or someone you know) is interested in helping us sponsor this event each quarter, please have them get in contact with us. Service-providers are welcome sponsors – in fact, it is the only way they can get in the room.

To apply to attend as an investor or entrepreneur/company, click here.

Cheers.