Tips for your pitch presentation

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Drawn from our experience, we have gathered several useful tips for your pitch presentation.

This is what we think investors want to hear from you:

  • PRESENT YOUR PRODUCT – Explain in simple terms what you are doing exactly. Only talk about your product, and keep it short and to the point. Think problem-solving: What is the problem and how does your product fix that problem? What solution have you developed?
  • PRESENT YOUR UNIQUENESS – What makes your product unique? Where do you make a difference while all the rest does the same thing?
  • PRESENT YOUR TEAM – Who (read: which skills and experiences) do you have in your team to develop your product? Highlight your team’s expertise but also tell the VCs what additional know-how you are looking for.
  • PRESENT THE MARKET – Give sufficient market information. Briefly discuss market segmentation, technologies, go-to-market strategy, regulations, patents, competitor’s analysis, company growth expectations, etc. And have you thought about opportunities and risks? If you don’t have enough time for explanation during your presentation, mention that you have this information available as appendices. In this way, you can give the information later, during a personal meeting for example.
  • PRESENT YOUR BUSINESS PLAN – Communicate your business model. Talk about financials. How much capital do you need and how much do you want to raise. For the audacious: Tell the VCs what you expect from them and why you think your cooperation will be a successful one!
  • PRESENT YOUR GOALS – Make clear where you want to be in the future. Show the big potential of your product. Don’t be afraid to dream. Be bold but also realistic and deliberate.

You only have a short time, so make most of it! Good luck!

Private equity takes interest in Europe’s renewable energy industry

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Good news for the European clean technology companies participating in the EVM in May: Private equity is showing an increased interest in the green energy industry. Last week, two European investment firms, HgCapital and Frog Capital, announced they have made investments in the sector.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Marietta Cauchi writes:

HgCapital Renewable Power Partners, HgCapital’s dedicated renewable energy fund, has made three new investments–in two Spanish solar-power projects and one U.K. onshore wind project.

In the U.K., HgCapital bought a 50% interest in Scout Moor, a 65 megawatt operating wind farm near Manchester developed by Peel Energy, part of the Peel Group. In Spain it added two new projects to its existing portfolio, branded Mercurio Solar. (…)

Frog Capital, a growth capital fund, Monday said it had invested EUR3 million in agri.capital, a producer of biogas energy based in Munster, Germany. Agri.capital has grown from inception in 2004 to become Europe’s largest biogas producer, operating 46 electricity production sites with an installed electrical capacity of 29MW and three gas-to-grid sites with a biomethane production capacity of 7MW.”

You can read the entire article on: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100201-711947.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Looking forward: Venture Capital in 2010

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

After a decline in venture capital investments in 2009, a predictions survey conducted by the National Venture Capital Association shows that polled venture capitalists have a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2010.

Almost half of those surveyed expect that venture capital investment will slightly increase throughout 2010. Especially, investments in clean technology, internet, software and media and entertainment companies are expected to grow. 54% of respondents forecast higher investment level for clean tech enterprises followed by 46% for internet, 33% for media and entertainment and 32% for software companies.

The survey also points out that there will be fewer investments in seed and early stage companies; however, the NVCA president, Mark Heesen, recognizes the need to help and support young entrepreneurs: “Seed and early stage companies represent a pipeline that must be supported if our country is to continue building new and innovative companies.”

Even though many venture capitalists are cautiously optimistic, the research concluded that they are expecting a contraction in size of the venture capital industry. Most VCs predict that the number of firms will drop during the next five years. This does not directly imply, however, that their will be fewer companies funded.

Are you optimistic and do you think the amount of investing will increase slowly but steadily? Or do you want to remain realistic, expecting a smaller investment industry with fewer and smaller investments?

Source: Article ‘Venture Capitalists’ predictions for 2010 – press release’ on www.nvca.org.

Looking back: Venture Capital in 2009

Monday, February 15th, 2010

At the end of January, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association have released a report in which they examined the state of venture capital for technology start-ups in 2009. According to their research, venture capital has known a sharp decline last year, investing the lowest amount since 1997: $17.7 billion in 2,795 start-ups (a downfall of 37 percent compared to 2008). Especially, internet companies and clean technology enterprises took a hit, as investment in their sectors dropped respectively 39 and 52 percent.

Even though the slowdown caused serious trouble for technology companies in need of money, several investors claimed that this development functions as a much-needed and healthy check-up of the venture capital business. Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, believes the industry needs to reinvent itself. Jeff Fagnan, a partner at the investment firm Atlas Venture, could not agree more: “It would be healthier if we can return to the pace and kind of deals that were done in the 1990s.” Venture capital should be backing more first-time entrepreneurs and ideas coming out of universities, he adds.

And there is hope: investments in technology companies have slightly increased in the final quarter of the year, due to the recovering global economy. However, although entrepreneurs can hope for an improvement in 2010, the 2009 slowdown in investing is expected to continue this year.

Rethinking Davos

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Two weeks ago, the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting in the picturesque Swiss village Davos. CEOs from world’s biggest multinationals, heads of state, ministers and government representatives, top academics, civil society leaders, … have met in Davos to examine how industry and government can improve the current state of the world.

During the five-day meeting, the world’s top business and governmental tycoons have rethought environmental, ecological and humanitarian questions and have examined how to ensure global sustainability, how to create more social responsibility, how to create more welfare and how to enhance overall security.

Their intentions are all noble and good, but – as everybody knows – it is all about the outcomes, more precisely, it is about deal-making. On the significance of the WEF opinions differ. In an article in the Washington Post, several scholars gave their impression about the necessity of the Davos conference.

David Rothkopf for example, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes: “If you think Davos is about anything other than status-seeking-behaviour, then you have read too many of the press releases of the overly-earnest Swiss gnomes who put the meeting together.” On the other hand, Walter Russell Mead, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes that “there is plenty of jaw-jaw, and to the extent that regular communication between the world’s business and political leaders can reduce the chances for war-war, Davos does a lot of good.”

What do you think? Will the Davos meeting achieve results, at least to the extent that it can justify the jet fuel, luxury catering and other extravagance the globe-trotting internationals consumed during their trip? What is Davos according to you: World’s biggest future-oriented think tank or a celebrity event, strongly needing lessons in humility?

170 profiles up and ready!

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

[4th of December 2009]

All participants of the 2009 European Venture Markets are now present with their individual profile, most of them with a video presentation.

First European Venture Market Blog entry!

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

[2nd of October 2009]
Welcome to the European Venture Market blog page! If you have visited us before you may notice that we have a new layout and design! We have given the website a fresh and clear look to let you navigate around easily. We have also added this blog to keep our participants and friends informed of what we are doing as well of stories of interest, so don’t forget to RSS us. If you prefer fast information just follow us on Twitter where we will send regular updates to our readers at http://twitter.com/evm_online.

Continua AG has been organizing the European Venture Market events since 2004, every time drawing a large crowd of promising entrepreneurs and influential investors with a continuous selection of notable speakers. Working closely with many exciting entrepreneurs, we like to know what is happening online and are always moving forward with our brand to better meet the expectations of our visitors. The last European Venture Market was very exciting: we had many great speakers who all approached subjects of relevance for the attending startups, eager entrepreneurs from all over Europe and were even able to serve typical Berlitzer Spargel on the first day and a Spanish lunch on the second day. Every company presentation was filmed and you will soon be able to find these online on our new platform. Luckily for our boat party on the last evening, the sun was shining and all participants could enjoy a cool drink on the upper deck of the boat Hoppetosse on the river Spree. In the end, everyone left content with a successful event, much networking and promising company presentations.

We are now working on organizing the next European Venture Market that will take place on the 5th and 6th of November 2009 at the zanox GAP Campus in Berlin. At the moment we are looking for interesting speakers, so get in touch with us if you wish to give a key presentation. Registration for participants is open and we look forward to welcoming new participants! The earlier you sign up, the better chance you have at choosing the day and time of your presentation.

If you are not sure why you should come to the EVM then browse around this site for more details, or better yet, give us an email or a call!

Hope to see many of you in November!

The Continua Team