SAN FRANCISCO – X-Games, shmex-games. What's trickier to keep in the air than a skateboarder in the middle of a triple loop leap? What can free-fall faster than a parachuting snowboarder?
A Net start-up.
In these gold-rush days of vertiginous IPOs and e-commerce bonanzas, everyone wants to stake a claim. But newfangled ideas still require old-fashioned cash. And the best way to get that is still from outside investors, which in this game generally means venture capitalists.
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"Internet-based businesses are operating on Internet time, so you must move now to get a leg on your competition," said Dan Beldy, an associate at VC firm Hummer Winblad. The partners announced an impromptu pitch contest early this week, giving companies two days to send in their proposals for Hummer Winblad to consider. They heard the pitches Thursday.
"An infusion of cash from a VC firm can make the difference between your company succeeding, and three other competing companies with a similar, great idea, failing," Beldy said.
Access to these investment gods is not easy to get. Success is often serendipitous. Take the example of Atif Hussein, co-founder of NoNameArt, a marketplace for independent artists.
"I was just cruising around on a totally unrelated site, happened on a link to Hummer Winblad, and saw their X-Deals announcement," said Hussein, whose company was one of 18 Hummer Winblad picked for a pitch, out of 50-plus companies who applied. The firm will give contestants comments, but cannot say when it will deliver the feedback.
Of course, when serendipity fails you, the tough haul out a little chutzpah.
Ed Murrieta, founder of Genghis Content, a broadband development studio for the children's market, found out about the X-Deals one day too late. When he approached Hummer Winblad he was told there was no more room for his pitch, so, he politely thanked them for their time – then left his business model in the office men's room, in an envelope marked "JH," the initials of partner John Hummer.
Someone found the envelope, handed it into the receptionist, who assumed it was Hummer's, and put it directly in Hummer's hands.
That's just the kind of moxie VCs demand from the companies they fund, said Andrew Anker, a partner at August Capital.
"If you want to get our attention and distinguish yourself from all the others in the pile, get out there, network, make connections," he said. "When somebody I know recommends you, that means you've already passed one level of screening. And it's a sign of the kind of drive we're looking for in our entrepreneurs," Anker said.
