#cdling

[cdling]

Doing something hard: The Great Decoupling

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.

[cdling]

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.

[cdling]

Navigating Change for Angel Success

"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."

[cdling]

OFFICE HOURs NYC

Do you know a startup that is ready to meet one on one with Howard Morgan, Nikhil Kalghatgi, Shai Goldman or TK Kuegler?

Or how about a one on one meeting with Erick Schonfeld as he searches for the best mobile startups to showcase at DEMO Mobile?

Over Thanksgiving weekend, these world class investors will select startups to meet with for 10 minute, one on one meetings. How can your startup be selected for one of these opportunities? Click here to learn how. Cdling (pronounced "seedling") is a platform that builds trust between investors, startups and experts across global startup communities. Want to learn more? Thank you to Howard, Nikhil, Shai, Erick and TK for working with us across the New York startup community to create these opportunities for some promising Founders.

Thank you party! 

On the evening of November 27, Cdling, in collaboration with Ultra Light Startups NYC, Picatic and Goodwin Procter LLP is hosting a private thank you party at The Alley NYC! Here are the details! http://www.picatic.com/cdlingofficehrsnyc

Give us an opinion of the hottest startup in NYC now!

Click to browse NYC Startups

[cdling]

Earn a VIP Seat, Front & Centre

UPDATE: Shelflife is the winner!

Our Startup Grind Toronto Fireside Chat with Nikhil Kalghatgi is sold out.

But one local Founder can still earn one VIP seat, front and centre.

It is very simple. The startup that uses the Cdling platform to gather the most opinions about their potential from different individuals by noon, Thursday October 25th gets a guaranteed seat.

You know how it is done.

Here are the FAQs on Cdling to share.

Feel free to shoot me any questions at michael at cdling dot com.

[cdling]

Improvements to Cdling UI

First of all, we would like to thank again the MaRS Mentor Network and Howard Morgan for working with us on an experiment with the Cdling platform.

It was a big learning curve for everyone.  We observed many insights into the differences between putting startups in front of investors based entirely upon a traditional referral and the referral approach offered by Cdling that captures each cycle of activity for each startup so that each effort contributes to the ongoing profile of the company.

Social media has had an interesting effect for event planning.  You can publish details months and weeks before the event but attention and most of the confirmations around it take place within the last week before. 

Building reputation take times.  So while each event (whether that be an accelerator's demo day or something that Cdling is more directly involved in organizing) typically operates on short time lines, to get the minimum of 10 opinions around each startup that we are looking for, the startup needs to be proactively engaged, well in advance.  That makes sense.

Nevertheless, we were able to report on the quality of opinions to create our shortlist for Howard and the direct input of the MaRS team, who has an established, vigorous selection process, was a dominant force.

Congrats again to the selected startups.  Keep in mind that First Round made the final selections and they have an existing portfolio of over 150 companies.  So if you did not make the final selection, it can easily have more to do with First Round's existing interests than anything to do with your startup or team.

On the morning the 26th, immediately after the Office Hours meetings, we sought feedback on Cdling from the startups who demonstrated their interest in meeting with Howard, the team at MaRS and Howard.  In the days and weeks since, we have followed up with each again and completed our own analysis of what worked and what didn't.

Lots to improve in the process of welcoming new members and startups on to the Cdling platform, screen them (we have a waiting list for alpha members at the moment) and focusing them on what to do.  More to come on that.

To begin with we have responded to the feedback with a simplified UI for collecting opinions on each startup and a straight forward Leaderboard to highlight top startups and players.

We hope that you like this next iteration.  We know it isn't the end.  Only the beginning.

Thanks again,

Michael

[cdling]

Crowdfunding is about helping startups thrive ...

Cdling is dedicated to helping startups thrive.

We are pleased to announce that we are hosting Sherwood Neiss, the co-founder of StartupExemption.com in Toronto on July 16, 2012.

Part of this day is about kick starting the conversation about crowdfunding in Ontario (and Canada).

We extended an invitation to representatives of the Federal Government (via the PMO and Industry Canada), the Ontario Provincial Government and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to meet with Sherwood for a briefing about the emergence of crowdfunding in the United States.

Ontario has responded and we have meetings scheduled with senior policy representatives from the offices of the Premier, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Economic Development and Innovation.

We also have a briefing session confirmed with representatives of the OSC. 

Stay tuned.  We have tried, and would be grateful if we could make the right connection with the Federal Government as well to get them involved.

At 1 pm we are co-hosting an all party OPEN BRIEFING with the Centre for Social Innovation, to help connect MPPs, Federal government representatives, the OSC Small and Medium Enterprise Committee and all parties interested in promoting the adoption of legal crowdfunding in Ontario (and Canada) at the CSI Annex Lounge.

Sign up here: http://helpstartupsthrive.eventbrite.com

And please participate in OPEN RSVP.  Take this issue into your own hands by reaching out to determine who is coming and who is not and why.

An Inspiring Startup Story

The story of StartupExemption.com, is the story of three entrepreneurs who defied the odds and led a 579 day campaign to get bi-partisan support in both the Congress and Senate and obtain Presidential approval to make crowdfunding legal in the United States.

Inspiring, educating and helping startup enthusiasts connect are the reasons why we are behind Startup Grind Toronto.

On July 16, we will end off a jam packed day, with a typical Startup Grind style fire side chat with Sherwood, where founders, funders and mentors will have their best chance to hear about the trials and tribulations of this historic drive to change how innovation will be funded in the US. Get your tickets here.

Once again, ITBusiness.ca will be collaborating with Startup Grind Toronto to cover this event with a webcast and live reporting.