These organizations like Y Combinator and Tech Stars are good companies that provide a valuable service. Personally, I consider the APOC program to be a replica of these organizations, only better because. You have cooler colleagues, there is an even higher-touch, hands-on model, there is more professional expertise involved, and they don’t require an equity stake. Writing a business plan is a skill I would like to learn while in the APOC program. Just by googling the term, about 100 different sites come up offering business plan-writing software and services.
Every week I read in Techcrunch about another company that raises millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Today it was Outbrain, a ratings and recommendation platform for blogs and news feeds. Its differentiation quality is that is has developed a ratings widget that can be placed at the end of every widget so that users may rate that blog (a la Hot or Not). They raised $5 million in series A financing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Gemini Israel Funds.
I don’t know whether to find this disconcerting or encouraging. Every time you think you have an original social network site, or innovative platform, you can be sure to read a similar company receiving start-up funds, who have had prior experiences with successful launches or company sales. Similar to the mantra in Hollywood, there is nothing that hasn’t been done before. It is easy to be discouraged by this news. It is easy to feel like a small fish in a big pond. At the same time, there is money to go around.
Yesterday, Friendfeed raised $5 million. Built by ex-googlers Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh, who created the first version of Gmail, this is a social feed aggregator lets you keep track of your friends across 28 Websites. This was an idea conceived by a cohort of Googlers, basically a “Google Mafia.” Just like any business enterprise, venture capital funding becomes very incestual at the top levels, and the web of contacts becomes that much more intricate. Paul Buchheit himself has put his own money into about 20 startups, including Justin.tv and Zenter.
As someone who may one day want to get his hands on his own venture capital funding, this just goes to show that you should continue reading these stories, take good notes, and follow the money trail. It certainly helps if you once developed software at Google and are now connected to network of developers and funders. But even as an outsider, it just takes a good relationship and a good introduction to crack the circle. And money doesn’t even have to come from the major firms. It can come from individuals who are looking for a cool idea.
I guess the point I am after here is that creating a Business Plan is a skill that you can learn. Acquiring start-up funding is not exactly a skill, but is an art that you can pursue. The real meat and potatoes comes in finding content you can create, and an idea that you can sell.
