Startup Capital Ventures ©2013 Page 1

Tim Dick

Make It Happen (Confessions Of A Serial Entrepreneur Turned VC)

Startup Capital Ventures ©2013 Page 2

• First date...

• IPO...

• Global trust standard (non-profit)

• Eight years too early - that recently exited!

• One “controversy”

• One turnaround

• $300 million raised• $1.2 billion exit valuations

Serial Entrepreneur...

WorldPages

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The Best Of Times...• Living the dream

• Building a team you love to work with

• Building a culture with values that are important to you

• Doing things you never imagined...

• You love your company like a child - no matter what it does...

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The Worst Of Times...

• Founders often have to finance their dreams

• Insanely great companies take insanely hard work...

• Having to fire people

• Not all companies make it =:-(

• The hottest fire forges the strongest steel

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Living The Dream• Find your passion - a belief that you are doing

something greater than just building a company or making money

• Find ways to give back*

* Only OCD entrepreneurs found nonprofits...

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Being CEO!

Company

(No Pressure...)

Competitors Customers

CEO

Board Of Directors$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Investors

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Team (Those People You Will Be Working With 6 x 18...)• Value integrity above all else

• Hire only the best people (or go without until you find ‘em)

• Working with friends can be tough (remember the firing bit...)

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Find Your Company Mantra...• 5 words max.• Tells the world (and most importantly your

team)

• 1,000 songs in your pocket• Ultimate Driving Machine

• Hawaii’s Interisland Highway

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Are You Game-Changing?• Not “it’s like X but better...”

• Break barriers!• First online dating site• First white & yellow pages• First online trust & privacy standard• First online advocacy engine• Bring your car• World’s only 2G / 3G / 4G / XG cellular amplifier

• Will someone (not everyone...) love (REALLY LOVE) your product?

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Do One Thing... GREAT

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Who Is Your Customer?• Is it you?

• If it’s not you...• How do you know that your customers• deeply• passionately• want your product so much• (more than any of your competitors)

• they are willing to pay you more for it than it costs you to make

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Balanced Development...

SecondFirst

Financing

Seed

Founder

Developers

CEO Core Team

Full Team

Product

Market

Team

Production

First product

Patent(s)

Demonstration

Concept

Repeat Buys

Paid Customers

Beta sites

Potential partners

Size/Segments

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Your Ecosystem (What’s Outside Your Habitrail)• It’s hard to see the picture from inside the frame

• Eugene Kleiner

• Build a GREAT board for “the voice of experience” and to help open doors

• The right law firm...• Will help you incorporate and develop governance• Will help with contracts & financing• File patents and copyrights• (Got the message?)

• Get a real accountant or bookkeeper (really)

• EF Hawaii

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Rules To Live By• You can only lose your integrity once: never

compromise on finding the best partners, employees & investors

• Build partnerships with all stakeholders

• Resist “CEO-itis”

• Have a life

• Never, Never, Never Give Up• Winston Churchill (1941)

15

The Difference Between Visionaries And Dreamers...

...Visionaries Make It Happen

Timothy Dicktdick@startupcv.comStartup Capital Ventures ©2013