UPDATE AUG. 26, 2020 - We are working to come out of stasis with a new offering to help Founders, Investors and experts during these Covid times. (see About page).
If you are a Founder who is ready to test your startup with feedback from Investors and Experts please email [email protected].
To all Founders, Investors and Experts: We have not sent out an update for a long time, but if you want to join the more than 4,000 people who have received our updates in the past please sign up here.
Original post:
Hey - how are you? My name is Michael Cayley and I am the Founder of Cdling (pronounced "seedling"). I was the Director of Startup Grind in Toronto and KW and for the last couple of years I have been living in Ottawa with my family.
Cdling has worked with hundreds of startups from Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, New York City, Silicon Valley and Montreal over the last few years. In fact we have orchestrated more than 50 one-on-one meetings between promising startups from more than 6 countries and seed/early stage investors like 500Startups, First Round Capital, Softbank Capital, Sequoia (more than 40 investors from all over the world).
We are always looking for great startups to feature in our LABs. Please feel free to @michaelcayley to start a conversation if you are interested.
For more background on Cdling, you are welcome to visit our About page. Or check out our FAQs.
Depending on the pitch materials that your startup already has, setting up your Cdling profile should take less than 15 mins.
During the one week LAB period, Founders will want to begin by recruiting credible experts to share opinions about their startup and then engage with the feedback that they are receiving on an ad hoc basis as the conversation evolves.
Here is a good example of how a startup was able to break through the noise with Cdling.
Any startup's objective for a LAB is to qualify for a Cdling Rated Referral but it is never too early to begin identifying the right people to connect with and determine if you are on the right track.
Need two hundred more reasons to test yourself against your peers in innovation?
Tootyr is creating a marketplace for on demand tutoring. Their first verticals include music and tech support (replacing Apple's One to One service.) and they are using a Cdling LAB to collect insight on their progress.
Today Tootyr announced that they have posted a $200 cash prize that will go to the expert who has the top rank in the Tootyr Cdling LAB when the LAB closes on January 30.
To volunteer to join the LAB, click the join button on the LAB page.
Click here to learn more about how to win a Cdling LAB
“We want to reward experts for their feedback,” says David Blackmore, Founder and CEO of Tooytr.
“We are grateful to have Tooytr as a customer,” says Michael Cayley, Founder of Cdling. “I think David’s addition of the prize to the LAB recognizes that our experts’ time is valuable, but more importantly it says something about David’s ability to innovate!”
Update: If you are looking for details on the $200 cash prize that Tooytr has posted for their Cdling LAB click here.
The “coffee meeting”. It is perhaps the most undervalued activity in innovation. Whether you are rubbing shoulders at a conference, huddled in a meeting room or exchanging first impressions at Starbucks - I am sure you have asked yourself many times, “How do I make this meeting matter?”
Next time you are in a coffee meeting, enjoy the coffee and use a Cdling LAB to account for the investment you are making in collaboration.
There are benefits every time that you participate in a Cdling LAB.
1. You get rewarded when you apply and sharpen your judgement.
2. You earn your reputation and distinguish yourself among your peers and future business prospects.
3. You discover other experts who have interests, experiences and talents similar to yours, where ever they may be.
4. You earn the respect and gratitude of the startups you provide feedback to.
The objective of a LAB is provide the best feedback to the startup that is featured in the LAB.
This is how you can win a LAB:
Actions lead to increasing your score. The highest score gets First Rank in the LAB.The second highest score gets second rank and so on.The First Rank wins a lot of CD$. The 2nd rank wins about half and so on.
Being the first to participate in a lab or to write a comment gives you a big head start. Then the engagement that you get to support your input helps improve your ranking.
Share your comments on twitter and receive tips from other players who support your point of view - these are the activities that help you improving your ranking.
If your input gets the top rank, you win the LAB!
Every time there is an engagement in the LAB everyone who is participating will get a notification. You won’t miss out on a chance to defend your positions against the other players.
Scroll down in the LAB to get hints on what to do next and to see who is winning.
These trends and the challenges that they present motivate Cdling.
“The intellectually easy thing to do is to look at an existing process and say, How can I have a machine do part of that job? It does take a certain amount of creativity and a little bit of work to do that, and it does create value. However, it takes a lot more creativity to say, How can I have this machine and this human work together to do something never done before and create something that will be more valuable in the marketplace?
What kind of economic environment would make the best use of the new digital technologies?
McAfee: One that’s conducive to innovation, new business formation, and economic growth.”
Read “The Great Decoupling” in Harvard Business Review.
Just a quick follow up to express our gratitude to Matt Miller from Sequoia and Derek Andersen, my friend and the Founder and CEO of Startup Grind globally.
These two guys have a long standing relationship, and it is because they invited me into that, that I had an opportunity to work with Matt at the Startup Grind annual conference last February and then follow up with the invitation to visit Toronto.
The chat was great and you can see for yourself that it is smart Partners like Matt that put Sequoia at the top of the VC heap.
We were also fortunate to be able to arrange OFFICE HOURS, one on one meetings with Matt for almost a dozen local startups and venture capitalists, while he was in town.
In total, Cdling was able to include over 50 ranked referrals to startups for this push and give Sequoia a great overview.
Today we have released the beta version of Cdling Scores based upon our analysis of Crunchbase.
Cdling Scores are a measure of real world experience and influence across the global startup funding ecosystem. We completed a social network and financial analysis of over 349,000 individuals and 275,000 companies in Crunchbase. What is the total investment represented in this analysis? $737,821,977,673.
You can think of the method as a kind of Page Rank for experts, investors and founding teams that is rooted in their startup co-investments not their social media presence.
Follow this url pattern and you will get the Cdling Score for anyone in Crunchbase:
Cdling Scores are expressed in terms of the highest ranked individual who has already joined the Cdling platform. The top ranked person on Cdling has a Cdling Score of 100. Jason has not joined yet, but we know from this score that he is 4.79 times more connected and influential than the top player already on Cdling.
Keep in mind that Cdling Scores generally conform to a long tail distribution.
Based on the scores, we allocate our reputational currency called CD$ (that is a twitter friendly spelling of "seeds"). This enables investors, experts and founders to bring their real world experience and influence into the Cdling platform. A CD$ is a CD$, but when Jason provides feedback on a startup on Cdling, his CD$ carry more intrinsic value than mine.
Jason can use his CD$ (i.e. a measure of his real world social currency) in limitless ways outside of Cdling too. He can go to his settings page and get the code for a TIP button that he can embed anywhere he publishes content on the web, so that anyone who appreciates his contribution can TIP him with their own CD$. Or he can reward anyone by sending them some of his CD$ with a TIP send via email, Twitter or Cdling’s messaging system.
It seems appropriate that Jason is our poster child today.
When we did a test release of a chart with the ranking and Cdling Scores of the 25 judges for Jason’s Launch Conference, Forbes' Pulitzer-prize winning journalist George Anders asked us to use Cdling Scores to compare the startup funding influence of the established "PayPal Mafia" and the emerging Facebook Friends.
“Dig deeper, though, and Cdling brings intriguing visibility to the rest of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.” George Anders, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist,Startups’ Best Patrons, Forbes, Mar. 8, 2012.
We realize that CrunchBase does not have all of the information on all startups. We have also used Thomson Reuters data in the past and moving forward we will take a far more comprehensive approach.
When we do not have enough data on someone to rank them or rank them accurately we call it a transparency gap. As soon as we can get the data, we can add more CD$ to the individual's rating if appropriate.
Cdling Scores will enable potential collaborators to quickly understand players' real world experiences. Enabling the establishment of trust faster, and just like a FICO report, enable smoother, faster commerce.
Discover over 200K investors, experts and founders
This week we have added over 20,000 investors and 200K experts based on our analysis of CrunchBase to our matching engine at Cdling.com. We can help you discover the network of people that are most important to your success whether you are an investor, startup or expert.
Hit the LABS tab to check out the first startup that has shared their profile(roughly the same kind of info many startups share on AngelList).
CLICK HERE TO JOIN
You can see a sneak peek image of our matching engine here:
Right now we are preparing a list of promising startups that we will share with Sequoia Partner, Matt Miller and Startup Grind HQ. HQ is recommending a short list for upcoming batches at Y Combinator, 500 Startups and TechStars.
Don't hesitate to reach out to me. We want to make it easy for startups to connect with great investors and great investors to discover their peers in regional markets so that everyone can spend less time on expensive, time wasting events and have more time to focus on building great businesses.
Kind Regards,
Michael
@cdlingHQ
Founder, Cdling Capital Services Inc
Director, Startup Grind Toronto
We have now introduced LABs which give startups complete control over how to present their startup. Here are the features of LABs:
Any startup can be recommended just introduce the via twitter @cdlingHQ and we will take it from there.
Startups decide if they want to move forward with their free LAB, indicate the stage of their progress, have complete control over how much or how little information to include and have our matching engine to help them discover the investors and experts that are critical to their success.
Startups collect MUSEs (a simple 4 question feedback format) from people they know or discover via Cdling's matching engine.
Experts who provide feedback to the startup discover other global experts just like them and they are instantly recognized and rewarded for their time and insight.
Get more than 10 MUSEs and your startup is qualified for a Cdling Rated Referral.
We hope you had a great summer!
This fall we are excited to be presenting OFFICE HOURS with SoftBank's Jordan Levy,Maven Ventures' Jim Scheinman and Ariel Poler.
If you would like to recommend a startup for a meeting with one of these investors please email me at [email protected].
We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Startup Grind Toronto and a long list of collaborators for this ambitious program. Click here for all of the details.
In January of last year we worked with Nir Eyal and Startup Grind Toronto on a workshop, introducing Nir's HOOKED model of building habit forming products. This coming November, we are delighted to be part of Nir's Canada book launch, teaming up with 500px and Penguin Canada to bring designers, developers and marketers a special lunch, learn and book signing offer. Register now!
HOW BITCOIN CAN UNLEASH A POWERFUL NEW STARTUP WAVE
GET YOUR TICKET HERE
UPDATE, Oct. 15: Marc Andreessen: Bitcoin is like the early Internet.
"As late as 1994, many of the same things said about digital currency today were being said about the Internet: it can't scale, the Fortune 500 will never let this happen, etc.
Bitcoin has grown to $1.5 billion from $10,000 in three years. But the opportunity is much bigger than currency speculation: in order for digital currency to succeed, there has to be an infrastructure of companies to move them efficiently through the system. What could you use the Internet for before Amazon, eBay, Google, PayPal and Yahoo? Digital currency needs its own superstar companies to support its potential trillion-dollar marketplace. Coinbase has already grown to 260,000 users and 200,000 transactions per month in less than a year. Who will become the Amazons and eBays, Walmarts and Microsofts of digital currency?"
Michael Terpin, Co-Founder, BitAngels
BitAngels co-founder Michael Terpin, who also founded Marketwire and SocialRadius, will discuss the opportunities and risks in the coming digital currency boom.
Since May of this year when Michael co-founded BitAngels, the first multi-city angel network and incubator dedicated exclusively to digital currency startups, it has attracted over 120 investors and US$18-million in capital.
Special Guest: NACO Chair Michelle Scarborough will provide closing comments.
Food & Beverages will be served after Michael's presentation.
LOOKING FOR THIS EVENT IN Kitchener-Waterloo?
This Event Produced in Co-operation with:
Promotional Partner: With more than 2,000 members across the country, NACO is building an Angel community by making connections across borders, sectors and asset classes.
Venue Partner (KW): We help tech companies start, grow and succeed.
Venue Partner (Toronto): Rated the #1 Ontario regional law firm by Canadian Lawyer magazine. Serving start-ups to major multinationals. We offer flat fee packages for startup companies.
Michael will also be participating in a Fireside Chat with Startup Grind Toronto during the evening.
ACCELERATE YOURSELF: Cdling sprouts global expert CTO & team
Here is the news release that we issued today ...
Happy Independence Day!
“Everyone recognizes the billionaires in the startup world,” says Michael Cayley, Founder of Cdling Capital Services Inc., “but Cdling recognizes and rewards the talent that each and every mentor, expert and investor adds to a great startup community,” says Cayley.
These days, no matter where you are in the world, success depends on the ability to assess what changes are worth your time and attention. As crowd funding explodes, more people are going to be asked to make hard choices about which startups to support. That discretion adds up as feedback to Founders and a filter for investors. It makes or breaks potential billionaires. On Cdling (pronounced “seedling”), every assessment you make is tracked and as your reputation improves you get the credit.
“Michael approached me and my entrepreneurial side took over. I saw in Cdling the opportunity to put into action the intellectual property on using crowdsourced predictions that Paolo, Valerio and me had been working on for years,” says Ernesto Damiani, a world recognized expert in reputation systems and trust building. Ernesto developed a familiarity with the crossover of talent between startups and universities while shuttling back and forth between Italy and Silicon Valley working on projects like Hypothes.is.
He is head of the University of Milan’s PhD program in computer science. Since mid-May, he has taken charge of Cdling product development and he is joined on the team by Paolo Ceravolo, Valerio Bellandi, Fulvio Frati, UX & UI expert Zhu Li and Jonathan Maggesi. As part of the deal, Cdling acquires intellectual property that Cayley says will cut in half the development time for its most valuable revenue line: due diligence quality predictive analysis for crowd, seed, angel and venture capital startup investors.
Cayley used Google Scholar to discover and reach out to the world’s top experts in social network analysis, reputational systems, virtual currencies and prediction markets; the innovations that Cdling is pulling together to create a ratings agency designed for the era of globally funded, low cost startups. That is how he met Damiani.
In addition to new team members in Europe, Cdling’s talent search has led to new connections in their backyard and Silicon Valley. The company also announced today that University of Toronto’s Craig Boutilier, himself the CEO of a decision support startup and Leslie Fine, co-founder of Crowdcast and former SVP of Product at Spigit, have both joined Cdling’s Advisory Group.
Founded in 2011, Cdling has over 1300 Founding Members from 80 cities. Using big data sources like CrunchBase, it has already developed ratings for over 22,000 investors and in pilots with investors from 6 countries, it has rated more than 50 startups from all over the world.
"Angel investing - one of the leading sources of capital for the innovation economy - is undergoing rapid transformation and growth, with new social media entrants, legislative changes, and the explosion of the start-up environment." - Angel Capital Association Summit 2013
At Startup Grind 2013 conference in Silicon Valley I hosted the "No Harps or Hallows in Angel Funding" section designed to explore the changing early stage funding context. Coming up in April, ACA Chairman David Verrill and Board Member Jean Peters have invited me to join a related panel: Crowdfunding: Wisdom of Crowds or Greatest Fool Theory? at the Angel Capital Association's 2013 Summit: Navigating Change for Angel Success.
Click through for a collection of insight from these great exchanges with:
Jessica Scorpio, co-Founder, Getaround
Jeremy Liew, Partner at LightSpeed Ventures
Jeff Clavier, Partner at SoftTech VC, and
David Verrill, Chairman of ACA, Founder/Managing Director at Hub Investment Group, LLC
Here is an idea: Let's take a woman from Canada, transplant her to Silicon Valley and disrupt the automobile industry. That is the story of Jessica Scorpio and Getaround, her startup in "sharing economy" that has attracted over $14-million in investment.
"The biggest force of change in early stage investing right now is that individual investors are getting less disciplined on valuation and that is creating upward pressure on seed and Series A round valuations." says Jeremy Liew, Partner at LightSpeed Ventures. He cautions, "that a gaggle of small investors is inferior to a lead investor as someone has to have the economic motivation to do the heavy lifting when heavy lifting needs to be done." This is a man who was ready to invest in SnapChat ($485,000) just 25 mins into his first meeting with them.
Jeff Clavier has a top 20 Cdling Score out of more than 22,000 investors and founders that we have ranked for California and when I asked him for his views on crowdfunding (20 min mark in this video) he says that his firm in in favor. He sees it as the institutionalization of the family and friends round and another source of validation for business models and demand. And certainly not a source of competition for established early stage investors.
David Verrill shares this perspective:
"The ACA Summit in San Francisco this April 16-18 has a whole "sleeve" of sessions devoted to the (expanding) ecosystem that is involved in helping startups get funding and the resources they need to be successful.
The ACA has expanded its mission to serve accredited angels, angel
groups, family offices, and platforms. There may well be other players in this space in the future. The value proposition of each must be proven out through the success of their investment in time and money. Personally I think the more important aspect of investment is the time (and expertise).
The obvious topic to discuss is Crowdfunding. The ACA is bifurcating
crowdfunding into accredited and non-accredited, and is focusing on the accredited side of the equation.
The US startup space is a $50 billion market (angels and VCs), and with the new players that will more than likely expand. The notion of angels (or VCs or any player in the ecosystem) having their space threatened is taking more of a contractionary view. Sure the existing players will have to modify how they work, who they partner with, etc., but there is room for everyone to contribute to startups, and the benefits they bring to their investors, employment, and our economy."
RE: OSC Exempt Market Review - Comments on OSC Staff Consultation Paper 45-710
As the Founder and owner of Cdling Capital Services Inc. and the Founder & Director of the Toronto Chapter of Startup Grind, I am pleased to provide these comments on OSC Staff Consultation Paper 45-710. I am also the National VP of Startup Advocacy for CATAAlliance Invest CrowdFund Canada (ICC).
My primary issue for this letter is the advancement of investor protection measures that are designed for the current era of low cost, globally funded startups that we live in. This context is a direct result of new media forms, driven by new enabling technologies including ubiquitous broadband internet connections, low cost computing and powerful mobile computing devices.
My purpose is to pass on the advice that Marshall McLuhan might offer. At first any new media (or in this case the financing methods enabled by the new media), looks like something that came before it. An email looks like a letter. TV seems like radio before it, and so on. But eventually it becomes apparent that the new form is not the same as the old form. They have different dynamics and effects that demand different responses from us.
Crowdfunding is not a choice. To deny its adoption and significance is the equivalent of calling the internet a fad and adopting the position of an ostrich with your head in the sand.
Therefore, as you move to accept your responsibility to cope with this reality, please do not try to impose old frameworks for risk mitigation in this new context.
You can actually introduce more risk by doing so.
Who Is Cdling and Startup Grind?
Cdling (pronounced “seedling”) is an internet enabled technology platform that builds trust between investors, startups and the experts who serve them. We are developing a ratings agency that is designed for the era of globally funded, low cost startups. The Cdling platform recognizes and rewards the prospecting work that mentors, advisors, subject matter experts and analysts contribute to a healthy startup ecosystem. Using social network, financial and competitive analysis and prediction markets, Cdling produces Cdling Scores, which are a merit based measure of influence (more precisely, social capital) across the startup funding ecosystem. So far we have developed Cdling Scores for more than 2,200 of Ontario’s top innovators through the Ontario Cross Border Technology Innovation Ecosystem (OCTIE) Study, conducted under the supervision of Ryerson University with a world class advisory group and, using the method developed through OCTIE, more than 22,000 investors and founders in California.
Today, Cdling has 1,268 members and more than 600 startups in our community.
The Cdling community is emerging in remarkable ways:
Designers 25%, Hackers 45%, Hustlers 28%
United States 37%, Canada 22%, European Union 14.5%
Rest of the World 25.8% includes: China, India, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Venezuela, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Japan and the United Arab Emirates
more than 60 city/regions are represented in the Cdling community.
Sectors Covered: Biotech 2.1%, Cleantech 1.6%, Communications 41%, eCommerce 9.9%, Enterprise 10.4%, Entertainment 2.3%, Finance 8.4%, Government 1.3%, Hardware 2.5%, Health 4%, Incubator 3.6% Investor 3.4%, Legal 1.5%, Media 32.4%, Mobile 1.3%, Other 4%, Social Media 17.3%, Software 12.4%
Average years of career experience: more than 8 yrs.
Startup Grind is the fastest growing blog and meetup network emerging out of Silicon Valley. We have Chapters in 40 locations in 15 countries and the Toronto Chapter has attracted more than 750 Founders in less than one year with no government subsidies. Startup Grind Toronto’s mission is to inspire, educate, and connect the Ontario startup community with the smartest startup minds. Our guests so far have included Eric Migicovsky (Founder of Pebble Watch), Sherwood Neiss (co-author of the crowdfunding framework adopted in the JOBSAct and Howard Morgan (co-founder of New York Angels, Partner of First Round Capital). For more details on the top startup minds that we are connecting to Ontario see:
Startup Grind Toronto
Startup Grind 2013
In addition to my roles with Cdling and Startup Grind, I think it is useful in this context to note that I focused my MBA on the relationship between social capital and corporate value and have led my Social Capital Value Add thesis through two global “crowd sourced” competitions, having it published as a ChangeThis manifesto and being selected as a finalist amoung 248 entries from 48 countries in the Power Of US: Re-imagine Media competition. I also designed and taught the first post-graduate level social media courses in a full time program in Canada.
OUR INPUT - The Medium is the Message
”The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Regulators must consider the Internet and social media based nature of crowdfunding and the impact of this on the way we consider risk protection measures. Traditional protections that were designed to reduce instances of fraud may not be as effective – or may in fact be counter-productive – in an on-line and networked communications environment. We have the following broad recommendations.
1. Facilitate New Reputational and Investment Analysis
Where any individual can readily communicate with anyone else, new methods for reputational analysis are enabled. We accordingly agree with the proposition in the Staff Consultation Paper that the crowdfunding exemption could be used to sell securities to any investor, regardless of income level or “sophistication”. In technology and social media start-ups, limiting participation based on “sophistication” would create a void of opinion and expertise from key contributors such as academics, experienced technology industry players and new participants such as recent graduates who are a source of innovation. Excluding these sources eliminates important social signals on the prospects and features of particular companies and projects.
Simply put, the broader the spectrum of participants, the more likely the “wisdom of the crowd” and “the right expert, for the specific question, at the right time” will be brought to bear. This is not a theoretical concept. Tools that leverage social networks for reputational analysis and risk measurement have been deployed to measure social and entrepreneurial influence – for example, Klout,[1] PeerIndex[2] and Cdling Scores.[3] In a crowdfunding environment, these tools and many more like them are used to evaluate an offering and the reputations of the people behind the offering.
From a traditional securities regulatory perspective, it can be argued that analysis by “the crowd” is only as good as information that is provided by the issuer. This is only true if there is a scarcity of information. With the vast increase in the amount of publicly available data on markets, business models, products, and virtually every other subject, the problem is not lack of information – instead, what investors are missing is the ability to assimilate, critique and use information. This is why in the public company realm, an industry of highly paid analysts has emerged to put publicly available information in context and make it understandable and useful to investors. Crowdfunding supported by robust social media has proven to do the same thing on startups.
The Staff Consultation Paper also addresses the specific question of investment limits for individual investors. We believe an arbitrary threshold should be avoided. Any fixed dollar limit on investment will inevitably result in a clustered distribution around the limit.
If you set investment limits, link to income distribution not arbitrary thresholds.
If you must, explore a limit like 10% of annual income for "unsophisticated" investors (dislike these definitions). Make it an undertaking of funding portals and issuers to get contributors to certify in terms & conditions.
Regulators, politicians and everyone involved in this debate must understand that a $ limit of $1,000 or $2,000 or $10,000 would display obvious ignorance regarding the social dynamics and distribution of contributors to any wise Crowdfunding.
Any social movement like Crowdfunding or Wikipedia or an election campaign works with individuals contributing along a "power law" or "long tail" distribution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail
An arbitrary imposition of a limit would cluster people around that limit and eliminate signals for a large range above the limit.
This would distort the signaling effect that is required to enable the "crowd" (actually opinions from a group of focused experts rather than a mindless crowd) to sort "good" investments from "bad" investments. This would effectively increase the risk of crowdfunding particularly for less informed participants who rely on social signals more.
These limits would be particularly terrible for crowdfunding in Canada where we need to generate continuity, consistency & quality of signal with a relatively small “crowd” (inherent in our small population) in order to attract bigger crowd funds from more distant market participants in the USA & beyond.
2. Encourage Engagement over Social Media by Issuers and Investors
A wider range of active and engaged investors, located globally, with diverse insights will promote greater accountability by issuers. We accordingly disagree with the restriction on the use of social media as construed in the consultation paper but agree with a ban on “advertising” by issuers. First, “advertising” is a product primarily of broadcast media like radio, television and newspaper that is paid for by the “advertiser”. “Advertising” is a one-way communication in which information is controlled solely by the advertiser and it can be used to reach and mislead investors, particularly ill informed late adopters. On the other hand, Social Media is an inherently reciprocal communication where information is transmitted via social networks. Issuers must be encouraged to communicate through social media channels. In order to reach potential investors without advertising, issues need to win the trust and endorsement of communities that can share their offering with wider constituencies. In other words, social media is essential because it subjects the issuer and its information to the scrutiny of everyone needed to signal the quality of the offering. Social media will reduce fraud, not increase it.
Thank you for this opportunity which I offer in addition to the input that has been submitted via ICC. I would be more than happy to meet with your team at anytime to demonstrate the Cdling platform and advise more specifically on any items where you think my expertise would be helpful.
The list of participating investors and mentors for OFFICE HOURs, Startup Grind 2013 has expanded to more than a dozen leading startup minds, including Adeo Ressi, CEO of the Founder Institute, Michelle Scarborough, partner of Smart Ventures and Chair of Canada's National Angel Capital Association and New Delhi investor Rajesh Narayan, Partner at Opdrage Venture Partners.
Also participating from the FI network will be Blumberg Capital EIR Misha Chella and Golden Gate Ventures Jeffery Paine with more to come.
Startups qualifying for OFFICE HOURs will receive Advanced Standing at the Brandery, one of the top ranked accelerators in the United States. And a point of differentiation in the review process for TiEQuest, the annual business venture competition that features investments of up to $1,000,000 to top teams and various cash prizes and in-kind services from sponsors exceeding $150,000 in value for contest winners. In 2012, TiEQuest attracted more than 225 entrepreneurs from 51 cites across North America.
TiEQuest & Cdling Ratings to work together - $150K prizes & $1-million investment at stake
TiEQuest, the annual business venture competition hosted by TiE Toronto that features an “Expression of Interest” for investments of up to $1,000,000 to top teams and various cash prizes and in-kind services from sponsors exceeding $150,000 in value for contest winners, has agreed to use Cdling Ratings in its review process whenever possible.
"Last year over 225 entrepreneurs from 51 different cities across North America participated in TiEQuest", says Karl Miranda, Associate Director responsible for TiE Toronto operations. "Cdling ratings will help our reviewers as we continue our quest to discover and support the best startups in 2013."
We can not say enough about this break through. TiE is one of the most important and influential startup networks in the world. Most people outside of Silicon Valley do not realize the historic role that pioneering engineers from India played in the creating the most successful tech companies in the world. While there have been other instances, this is the first time that we have been able to talk about a clear case where real money is on the line and Cdling ratings will have an impact on the decisions being made.
Last date to register for TiEQuest2013 is Jan 31, 2013 (11:55PM, EST) at www.tiequest.org
TiEQuest was started in 2005 with the purpose of helping startups and new businesses. TiEQuest helps bridge the gap between up-and-coming business people and the investment industry. The competition helps generate new ventures and give entrepreneurs the encouragement and the support to help them succeed and turn their dreams into reality.
TiEQuest provides its contestants an opportunity to present to well-known angel investors, venture capitalists and fund managers. Many of theses professionals were on the panel of judges/mentors so they get to know the competing ventures first hand. Sponsoring firms offered an “Expression of Interest” for investments of up to $1,000,000 to top teams. In addition, the winners received various cash prizes and In-Kind services from sponsors exceeding $150,000 in value.
The contestants of TiEQuest include existing and emerging entrepreneurs, patent holders and/or applicants, university students and alumni. Over 225 entrepreneurs took part in TiEQuest 2012. Contestants came from business schools, life sciences, engineering and technology departments of various universities in Ontario, Entrepreneur Assistance programs of the Ontario Ministry of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Board of Trade, Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Corporation. In addition, a number of contestants were referrals from banks, accounting firms, law firms, universities and other entrepreneurial associations and organizations connected with building entrepreneurship. The contestants came from 51 different cities from all over North America.
In continuation of this tradition TiEQuest will be looking for pragmatic ventures which have the potential to grow into profitable businesses.
Cdling Rated Startups get Advanced Standing at The Brandery
One of the top ranked seed accelerators in the United States has decided to grant advanced standing to Cdling Rated startups.
“We’re always looking for new ways to find the highest potential startups for our accelerator,” says Mike Bott, General Manager of the Brandery. “We think that Cdling Rated Referrals will be a great additional datapoint to help our team identify the best possible companies for our program."
The Brandery is a seed stage venture accelerator, which has been ranked as one of the top 15 programs in the United States the past two years. (update April 2014 - they are now in the top 10!) They run a four-month-long program in Cincinnati, Ohio focused on turning your great idea into a successful, brand-driven start-up. Leveraging the regional strengths of design and marketing, The Brandery aims to give startups an edge in both user experience and user acquisition. Started in 2010, they have graduated 25 companies. The 2013 cohort will include 10 companies, with each receiving $20,000 in seed funding, mentorship, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program. More details can be found here.
Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the Top 5 Consumer Marketing regions in the world. Cincinnati is home to 10 Fortune 500 Headquarters including Procter & Gamble, Kroger, and Macy’s. The region is also the home of leading marketing, branding, design and advertising service companies such as Possible Worldwide, LPK, Landor, and Nielsen. Cincinnati has one of the largest collections of Brand and Consumer Marketing talent in the world.
