recently rated:

Rated by 27

4.0 3.7 2.8 2.8 3.4

3.3

Index Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Geneva, Europe

top rated funds:

Rated by 12

4.2 5.0 4.4 4.2 4.6

4.5

Rincon Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Santa Barbara, CA, US West

Rated by 22

4.8 4.7 4.6 3.5 4.4

4.4

Foundry Group

Certified

$$$$$ Boulder, US Central

Rated by 11

4.8 3.5 4.1 4.3 4.1

4.2

Silverton Partners

 

$$$$$ Austin, US West

Rated by 19

4.3 4.2 4.1 3.6 4.4

4.1

New Atlantic Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Reston, US East

Rated by 39

3.5 4.0 4.4 4.1 3.9

4.0

True Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Palo Alto, US West

Rated by 10

4.3 4.3 4.0 4.0 3.0

3.9

Andreessen Horowitz

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 30

3.3 4.1 4.1 3.9 4.0

3.9

Leapfrog Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 30

4.0 4.2 4.1 2.9 4.2

3.9

406 Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Boston, US East

Rated by 63

3.9 3.9 3.8 3.5 4.0

3.8

First Round Capital

Certified

$$$$$ San Francisco, US West

Rated by 11

3.9 4.2 3.2 3.6 4.0

3.8

Mangrove Capital Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Luxembourg, Europe

Rated by 43

3.8 4.1 3.4 3.6 4.1

3.8

RRE Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ New York, US East

Rated by 27

3.8 3.6 3.8 3.8 3.6

3.7

FLOODGATE

Certified

$$$$$ Palo Alto, US West

Rated by 105

4.7 3.7 3.7 3.0 3.5

3.7

Sequoia Capital

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 31

3.9 3.8 3.7 3.4 4.0

3.7

Altos Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 11

3.6 3.7 3.6 3.8 3.4

3.6

Flywheel Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Santa Fe, US West

Rated by 20

3.5 3.3 3.8 3.6 3.9

3.6

DFJ Mercury

Certified

$$$$$ Houston, US Central

Rated by 16

3.6 3.5 3.8 3.5 3.5

3.6

August Capital

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 10

4.0 3.8 3.9 2.8 3.7

3.6

Updata Partners

 

$$$$$ Red Bank, US East

Rated by 62

3.7 3.6 3.4 3.4 3.9

3.6

Trinity Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 10

3.5 3.8 3.7 3.4 3.8

3.6

IDG Ventures SF

Certified

$$$$$ San Francisco, US West

Rated by 20

3.5 3.6 3.5 3.2 3.4

3.5

Wellington Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Munich, Europe

Rated by 12

3.2 3.6 3.4 3.0 4.2

3.5

DN Capital

 

$$$$$ London, Europe

Rated by 18

3.2 3.5 3.3 3.1 3.8

3.4

Blumberg Capital

Certified

$$$$$ San Francisco, US West

Rated by 19

3.8 3.1 3.4 3.2 3.3

3.4

Draper Richards

Certified

$$$$$ San Francisco, US West

Rated by 14

2.8 3.5 3.7 3.2 3.7

3.4

Merus

 

$$$$$ US West

Rated by 48

3.7 3.5 3.1 3.4 3.2

3.4

Menlo Ventures

 

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 31

3.3 3.3 3.2 3.6 3.7

3.4

Clearstone Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Santa Monica, US West

Rated by 16

3.9 3.7 2.9 2.9 3.6

3.4

Versant Ventures

 

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 11

2.9 3.6 3.7 3.3 3.6

3.4

OpenView Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Boston, US East

Rated by 10

3.6 3.4 3.9 2.7 3.3

3.4

DFJ Esprit

Certified

$$$$$ London, Europe

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Last month, leading up to our Founder Showcase event, I sent out some of my thoughts on the funding landscape to TheFunded.com's mailing list. I received a lot of great feedback, which I incorporated into the editorial below that was published on Women 2.0 last Friday. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Since 2008, I believe there has been more innovation in the field of funding entrepreneurs than in any other short period in history. Recently, I have been asked by many entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists to provide my thoughts on the last five years, and on where we are headed in the future. Here’s my opinion.

In 2008, as we watched banks fail and governments hand billions to organizations that ultimately stole value, I believe thousands of people around the world came to the same realization: bankers and politicians had led the world into a dark place, while the passionate entrepreneurs who were building value struggled in the shadows. The time had come to focus and support those that build value.

As a result of this thinking, we have seen a massive amount of innovation.

In the five years since the “Great Recession,” the broad field of funding entrepreneurs has changed more than in any other point in human history. There are literally hundreds of changes worthy of discussion, but lets discuss what I believe are the five most important.

Increased Viability of Bootstrapping
Everything a tech entrepreneur needs to build an amazing product or service is now nearly free, eliminating cost as a key barrier to entry for innovation. The free part was born out of the crisis of 2008, when most service providers and technology companies were struggling to stay in business. Everyone from lawyers to hosting companies said to entrepreneurs, “you can sign up and use my service now for free, as long as you agree to pay me later, when you can.” Vendors realized that this was not only good for business, but it was also the right thing to do to help fix the economy.

Now, anyone with a dream that is willing to work hard can build a world-class company at a reasonable cost. And, market forces will continue to reduce the costs, both tangible and intangible, that stand in the way.

Shifting Business of Venture Capital
The venture capital market as we once knew it is dead. The vast majority of the people, the language, and even some of the deal terms, are gone. The amount of money and the volume of deals has declined, opening opportunities for new players to enter the market. The venture capitalists who did survive probably don’t even recognize themselves in the mirror anymore.

With increased competition, the venture capital industry is becoming increasingly founder-friendly as well. Now, the newest partners being hired into firms typically have recent entrepreneurial experience, and we are seeing increasingly favorable deal terms. New firms are being launched that look at differentiating through analytical investment, like Right Side Capital Management, or through services, like Andreessen Horowitz. Many firms are even starting to look like full-fledged consultancies.

Angels to the Rescue
Angel investing has become significantly easier on both sides of the fence, with standardized terms like convertible equity, and tools like AngelList or Gust. For the first time in the last 20 years, the amount of angel investment dollars has surpassed venture capital. And it’s not just a little larger – it’s TWICE as large, and maybe more.

I actually believe angels are pouring over $75 billion per year into startups. I also believe angels are funding the “gap” of the “Series-A crunch”, significantly reducing the impact that I, and many others, predicted. There are hundreds of promising companies being created now that will only ever raise money from angels, which ultimately means lower fundraising and management overhead, and more incentivized team members. This is undeniably a good thing.

Emergence of Crowdfunding
Governments around the world are loosening rules that govern the funding of private companies, supporting a boom for inexperienced investors to finance companies with small amounts of money. Startups will soon be able to advertise that they are seeking an investment and raise money from anyone.

Obviously crowdfunding still faces a ton of challenges, such as preventing the cheaters, the thieves, and the charlatans from stealing the show. However, I believe those that cite the current shortcomings of the JOBS Act (of which there are many) are being shortsighted. It will be a very, VERY, bumpy road, but the potential for change is absolutely massive.

Rebirth of Incubators and Accelerators
In most developed cities around the world, incubators, accelerators, and other programs are being launched to help founders beat the odds. They come in all shapes and sizes, from office rentals to early-stage investors, offering a mix of training, mentorship, investment and services.

The promise of a return is uncertain, not all of these initiatives are created equal, and many will crash and burn – even by the end of this year. But, I think most people who criticize these programs are overlooking a simple, underlying fact: their motive is to help.

You can certainly argue that there are too many incubators (there are), and you can scrutinize the management, philosophy, and financial sustainability of most programs as well. However, of the hundreds, if not thousands, of incubator and accelerator programs that I’ve seen, I can probably count on one hand the number of “bad apple” programs that genuinely try to take advantage of entrepreneurs. At the end of the day, these organizations want to help, and I believe it is the right thing for the ecosystem to support any program that wants to help entrepreneurs succeed. Everything else will work itself out naturally.

So Where Do We Go From Here?
The promise for a bright future is now great, but the reality is still harsh. In particular, the lack of sizable liquidity events or exits is very concerning.

To see greatness emerge from all the innovation we have seen these last few years, there needs to be three big changes to our current situation, in my opinion.

First, the terms of acqui-hire deals need to be standardized, and dozens of these deals need to be completed each month, turning bold founders into millionaires.

Second, large companies sitting on billions in cash need to start buying good companies for tens of millions of dollars, and stop trying to copy the innovation spawned by these fledgling startups.

Lastly, there needs to emerge a thriving secondary market for the strongest startups, allowing founders and employees to take money off the table without going public.

The good news is that I know plenty of great, amazingly talented people working on all of these initiatives, so I am confident that the future is bright for funding entrepreneurship.

P.S. To celebrate the launch of the San Francisco Founder Institute (which I am leading), I will be hosting a number of free events in San Francisco to help aspiring founders improve their ideas, perfect their pitch, and find co-founders. The full event schedule is here - I hope to see you there!

The Founder Showcase, now in it's 13th edition, is TheFunded.com's pitch and networking event for early-stage startups and investors. To kick off 2013, the first Showcase of the new year will be an exclusive, investor-focused event centered around the theme: “The Future of Funding".

After announcing our first Keynote Speaker last week (Chris Dixon, Investing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz), I am excited today to announce our second Keynote Speaker: Keith Rabois, Investor at Khosla Ventures.

Keith Rabois joined Khosla Ventures in March 2013. He served as the Chief Operating Officer at Square from August 2010 until January 2013 where he lead the company’s business operations including marketing, communications, business development, distribution, human resources and risk management. Keith specializes in transforming early-stage startups into successful businesses and has deep expertise in the financial services industry and government affairs.

An accomplished executive, entrepreneur and angel investor, Keith has held leadership roles at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide and began his career practicing law at Sullivan & Cromwell. Keith was an early investor in several high-profile Internet companies including YouTube and currently serves on the board of directors of Yelp (NYSE: YELP) and Xoom (NASDAQ: XOOM). He also holds a JD from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree in political science from Stanford University. You can follow Keith on Twitter @rabois, or learn more about him at http://krabois.com.

I look forward to hearing Keith's thoughts about the "Future of Funding" at the event, and I hope you will join us.

As a reader of TheFunded, you get an additional 20% off here.

The Founder Showcase, now in it's 13th edition, is TheFunded.com's pitch and networking event for early-stage startups and investors. To kick off 2013, the first Showcase of the new year will be an exclusive, investor-focused event centered around the theme: “The Future of Funding".

What are the most radical trends we are seeing in angel investment and venture capital? Was the dreaded "Series-A Crunch" overblown, or just getting started? How will crowdfunding mature in 2013 and beyond? On March 27th, we will gather top investors to discuss these issues, and provide their thoughts on what to expect for tomorrow.

And, we have just confirmed our first keynote speaker: Chris Dixon, Investing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Before recently moving to the Bay Area to become their newest Partner, Chris was a leader of the burgeoning New York City startup scene, where he co-founded, and was the former CEO of two startups; SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee in 2006), and Hunch (acquired by eBay in 2011). As an investor, Chris also co-founded Founder Collective, a seed venture fund, where he made early stage investments in GroupMe, Buzzfeed, Betaworks, and MakerBot. He also recently won a Crunchie for "2012 Angel of the Year" to recognize his stellar track record as an angel investor, with a personal portfolio that includes Foursquare, Kickstarter, Stripe, Warby Parker, Pinterest, OMGPOP, Behance, Stack Overflow, and more.

Reduced price tickets for the event end tomorrow, March 8th, and as a reader of TheFunded, you get an additional 20% off here. That's barely $100 a ticket for Founders & CEOs.

I hope to see you there.

Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Then apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $70 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 USD in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline is this Sunday, February 17th. 

The Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com, is Silicon Valley's Leading Seed-Stage Pitch Event. The 13th Founder Showcase event is now scheduled for Wednesday, March 27th in Mountain View. We are expecting over 350 founders, investors, and press in attendance.

Don't miss this opportunity to apply to this 100%, free pitch competition.

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

The 12th Founder Showcase is taking place tomorrow, Wednesday November 7th, in San Francisco. This is TheFunded.com's startup pitch and networking event, where we help early-stage entrepreneurs get exposure to Silicon Valley.

We are expecting over 600 global startup founders, investors, and press in attendance, so get your tickets today before they sell out at http://foundershowcase.com/tickets. Use the code 'friends_of_thefunded' to get a 20% discount.

At the event we plan to cover some important trends in entrepreneurship and venture capital. Speakers at the event include;

1. David Sacks, Founder & CEO of Yammer, which recently sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion
   
2. Justin Moore, Founder & CEO of Axcient, which recently was named Silicon Valley's 7th Fastest Growing Company by Inc Magazine
   
3. An Investor Panel featuring David Hornik (August Capital), Katherine Barr (Mohr Davidow Ventures), Noah Doyle (Javelin Venture Partners), James Cham (Trinity Ventures), and Jon Soberg (Blumberg Capital)
   

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

We are very excited to announce the second Keynote Speaker for the 12th Founder Showcase: Justin Moore, Founder and CEO of Axcient. Axcient is a cloud platform that eliminates downtime and data loss and ensures data application uptime for businesses. Justin will be joining David Sacks (Founder and CEO of Yammer) on stage for what promises to be a great event.

Under Justin's leadership, Axcient has been growing at a three-year rate of 2,462% - no you did not read that wrong - enough to earn the company Inc Magazine's recognition as Silicon Valley’s #7 fastest-growing company. The company currently protects nearly 3 billion files and applications, and provides instant access to the information and systems that keep a business up-and-running. In addition to his work at Axcient, Justin is also a Venture Partner at Thomvest Ventures, where he focuses on enterprise and SaaS investments.

 The Founder Showcase is TheFunded.com's pitch and networking event, gathering over 600 startup founders and investors in San Francisco to launch a promising new company to greatness. The 12th Founder Showcase scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th:  Get your tickets today. Reduced tickets end this Sunday, and TheFunded readers can take an additional 20% off using the code 'friends_of_thefunded.'

We have also added a new feature to our Demo Table Competition. Now, in addition to pitching onstage in front of the crowd, the winner of the Demo Table Competition will also win lunch with the Emcee of the Founder Showcase, Adeo Ressi. There are still a few tables left at http://foundershowcase.com/tables, so get yours today before they sell out. Or, if you'd like to try your luck at winning a free Demo Table, we will be giving four away to people who help us spread the word.Click here for more details.

Hope to see you at the event!

Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Then apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $45 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 USD in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline is this Sunday, October 7th. 

The Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com, is Silicon Valley's Leading Seed-Stage Pitch Event. The 12th Founder Showcase event is now scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th in San Francisco. We are expecting over 600 founders, investors, and press in attendance. Confirmed as our first of two Keynote Speakers is David Sacks, Co-Founder & CEO of Yammer, which recently sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion.

Don't miss this opportunity to apply to this 100%, free pitch competition.

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

This guest post was written by Nilay Patel, Co-Founder & CEO of Selligy, who won the Grand Prize at the 11th Founder Showcase. Selligy is a mobile service for salespeople. Learn more at selligy.com.

The secret to winning the Founder Showcase is this: focus on your product. At Selligy, we’re focused on building a great product for salespeople. To win, we spent a year researching our user and building a product that solves their problems. That gave us the two things that were the heart of our pitch: great user stories, and a great demo. 

So the good news is, winning didn’t involve some hypnotic presentation trick. The bad news is, well, it took a year!

But enough on the big picture - how did we boil down a year of passion into just a 180 second on-stage pitch?

1. Establish credibility.
You are going to spend 3 minutes on stage painting a vision for a future that does not yet exist. Why should the audience take you seriously? What makes you an expert in your subject matter? Do this fast and efficiently.

2. Make an eye-popping demo.
Nothing better demonstrates what you’ve accomplished than a live demo. The demo has to be a great story about your user, NOT about you, the product, or the design. Don’t waste time describing your design decisions, or touting a list of secondary features. Don’t describe how the product works - instead describe how it makes the user feel.

Also, take the time to build a self-contained and bullet-proof demo mode. We showed our real product, but a version that doesn’t rely on a network connection and resets the demo data each time it starts. We built this for demo competitions, but I’m amazed at the number of times it remains handy - to show a potential partner, user, or VC. Unlike the real product, this demo always works, whether on a plane or 30 minutes after an inevitable gremlin broke the latest build.

Optics also matter. Our demo was given with my real iPhone. Even though receiving a phone call or text message could have been fatal. We didn’t use an iPod Touch or switch on airplane mode. The audience would immediately notice you were giving a staged demo and discount everything you say. The first question from a VC would be, “Was that staged? How does your real product work?” We took the time to disable all notifications and forward phone calls - all to keep the AT&T logo on the top left corner of the status bar.

3. Answer questions confidently and authentically.  
Since you know your space, you know your user, and you know why your problem is important to solve – you have nothing to fear! I got asked a couple questions I didn’t have answers to and just said, “I don’t know. I think this is how we’ll find out.” Don’t try to BS your way out of questions. It probably won’t work, and if you do know your stuff, you don’t need to! 

4. Hook ‘em with the essentials, but leave ‘em wanting more.
You only have three minutes, so you can’t get to everything. If you get them interested, they’ll ask for the rest later. We focused on establishing (1) our credibility, (2) the user problem, and (3) the huge market this user problem presents, and then dove into the demo to show how we would delight the user.  We did steps 1, 2, and 3 in fewer than 8 sentences. So, to put it mildly, we barely touched the ‘go-to-market’ and other topics. But, since we hooked the audience, they actually asked about the rest during Q&A, or at our demo table. 
Bonus Tip: By purposefully omitting key facts, you can correctly predict the questions you will get on stage - and prepare some really great answers.

5. Listen to Adeo. And don’t listen to Adeo. (Boom!)
He has seen some of the best pitches ever – and, more importantly, he has seen presenters crash and burn. When he said our pitch had an issue, we stopped and fixed it. Full stop. 
But, we did something different than our competitors – we focused on all demo, and didn’t use slides. You need to stand out in a series of pitches, and this stood out. From the start, Adeo cautioned strongly against doing live demos, for many good technical reasons. We listened to the reasons, created a resilient demo to mitigate against the technical risks, and forged ahead. I believe this approach really set us apart. 

We’re a company founded by salespeople, building a great product for salespeople. So, maybe refining a pitch comes naturally to us. But ultimately, like any great sales pitch, it started with a year of gathering great user stories and building our product that got us to the top of the heap. That’s key to building a great company too, not just a great pitch.

Thanks for the great advice Nilay! You can see a video of Selligy's winning pitch (as well as all previous competition-winning pitches) here. 

If you would like to participate in the 12th Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, applications are due this Sunday, October 7th. Previous presenters have raised over $45 million in funding, and all companies less than 2 years old with less than $250,000 in funding are eligible to apply. Click here to apply now. 

This post was written by Adeo Ressi - Founder of the Founder Institute and TheFunded.com. Special thanks to TechCrunch for releasing the news.

Over the past few years, Founders and investors alike have flocked to convertible debt, loaning billions of dollars per year to insolvent startups. The great irony is that nobody expects this debt to be repaid, and the debt comes with a lot of unwanted consequences.

Does ballooning debts, unsophisticated lenders and no ability to repay sound familiar? How did this happen and what are we going to do about it?

Let's start with some history. After the dotcom crash in 2000, hundreds of venture- funded companies took "bridge loans" to raise capital from existing investors while they fought unfavorable market conditions to raise a new round. These convertible debt bridge loans became fairly common in venture capital. I personally did at least four during this period. Investors, Founders and lawyers became comfortable with loans.

By the middle of 2010, the bridge loan had made a jump from successful venture-funded companies to the most promising new startups, and, by the beginning of 2011, most new startup fundings were being done as loans or convertible debt. The loans caught on because they were fast and cheap, and startups could borrow as much money as they could get investors to commit. Seasoned angel investors started to push back, in some cases demanding equity versus debt, but the inertia kept the debt coming and coming and coming nonetheless.

Now entering Q4 of 2012, there is tens of billions of dollars of debt held by tens of thousand of startups, and many of the debt deals are starting to hit their maturity dates, when the money needs to be repaid. Of course, the startups have no intention of repaying the debt, so most of the notes will be extended. The larger question is: why are we issuing debt in the first place? Frankly, it's marketplace stupidity.

So, I started working on this problem about nine months ago with Yokum Taku of WSGR. We batted around a few ideas about changing debt terms when I saw some deals being done with the involvement of Sequoia Capital called "capital contribution" rounds. These deals are equity investments in the present with the valuation set at a future round, much like convertible debt. That was my "ah ha" moment - Why don't we just take the "debt" out of convertible debt? And so was born "Convertible Equity".

Convertible Equity has all of the benefits of convertible debt. It's fast. It's cheap. It's flexible on the amount raised. Convertible Equity can have a discount, a price cap, forced conversion events and all of the other popular terms of convertible debt. It actually has less terms, since you don't have to think about repayment or an artificial interest rate mandated by the IRS.

Investors in Convertible Equity will likely get a lower capital gains rate by having their investments treated as "qualified small business stock." And, investors don't worry about chasing down insolvent companies to repay their debts by "repossessing the furniture". Instead, they can shoot for the big ideas where more favorable capital gains tax rates really matter.

Companies that take Convertible Equity will not be burdened with debt on their books that they have to renegotiate every 12 to 18 months. They don't have to worry about a lone disgruntled or struggling investor calling in a note and bankrupting the business. They can get a line of credit for equipment, or share their balance sheet with big partners without appearing insolvent.

It's ridiculous that the primary way to "invest" in startups is to straddle them with debt through short-term loans. We are bankrupting the future out of the gate, and it's time that we change this.

Here are free Convertible Equity documents to use in your next angel round.

Download the Term Sheet Template

Download the Security Template

Download the Purchase Agreement Template

We are happy to announce that Kevin Rose, Venture Partner at Google Ventures, will join as a Keynote Speaker for the 11th Founder Showcase event on Wednesday, July 25th in Mountain View, CA. Kevin will join Aaron Levie (Co-Founder & CEO of Box) and Hiten Shah (CEO of KISSmetrics) onstage for what may very well be our most impressive lineup of speakers ever. Get your tickets today.

The Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com, is Silicon Valley's Leading Seed-Stage Pitch Event. The 11th Founder Showcase event is now scheduled for Wednesday, July 25th at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA. We are expecting over 300 founders, investors, and press in attendance.

Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Then apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $40 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 USD in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline is next Friday, June 29th, but the sooner you apply, the longer you have to collect votes. 

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Then apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $40 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 USD in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline is next Friday, June 29th, but the sooner you apply, the longer you have to collect votes. 

The Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com, is Silicon Valley's Leading Seed-Stage Pitch Event. The 11th Founder Showcase event is now scheduled for Wednesday, July 25th at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA. We are expecting over 300 founders, investors, and press in attendance. Confirmed as our first two Keynote Speakers are Aaron Levie (Co-Founder & CEO of Box), and Hiten Shah (CEO of KISSmetrics).

Don't miss this opportunity to apply to this 100%, free pitch competition.

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

The Founder Showcase is TheFunded.com's quarterly startup pitch and networking event, which gathers over 300 investors, founders, and seed-stage companies in Silicon Valley to hear talks from leading CEOs, and help launch a promising startup to greatness.

The 11th Founder Showcase event is now scheduled for Wednesday, July 25th at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA. Reduced-Price tickets are available until Friday, June 15th: Purchase your tickets today.

Confirmed as our first Keynote Speaker is Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box. Aaron is one of today's most impressive young entrepreneurs, having spoken at other events such as Web 2.0, SXSW, and more. Aaron originally created Box as a college business project from his dorm room in 2005, and since then has raised nearly $160 million in venture capital, and has secured more than 8 million customers using its secure cloud content management and collaboration tools. We look forward to hearing his story on stage at the event.

Are you a startup looking for exposure? Then enter the free Pitch Competition for your chance to present on stage. Any company less than 2 years old with less than $250,000 in funding can apply to pitch here. Get your applications in now - previous presenters have received over $40 million in investment, but applications are due on June 29th, 2012. 

Want to win a free Demo Table?  Help us spread the word by tweeting a message with the hashtag #FounderShowcase and the URL http://bit.ly/9OlVo8, or RSVPing for the event on Facebook, LinkedIn or Plancast. On Friday, July 20th, we will randomly select one winner, announcing the person on our @founding account.

We hope you'll join us.

Our friends at San Francisco-based FounderLY specialize in deep-diving the stories behind company founders, and last week they did just that in a series of video interviews with TheFunded.com's Founder, Adeo Ressi.

In the video below, Adeo describes the beginnings of TheFunded.com. In particular, he says that, after the dot bomb of the late nineties, "investors had lost so much money that they rebounded to an extreme where they squeezed entrepreneurs and mistreated them to a large degree." After being treated poorly by his investors, Adeo realized there were systemic issues underlying entrepreneurship that made it impossible to successfully build companies as a profession. So, "TheFunded was designed to clean up something that had become abusive and set it straight."

Watch the full 15 minute video below;

Adeo will be leading the upcoming Silicon Valley Founder Institute program. The Application Deadline is this Sunday, June 3rd. If you or somebody you know could use expert training and feedback to launch a technology company, then click here to apply today.

Special thanks to our friends at FounderLY for the interview. Be sure to check out www.founderly.com to see video interviews with other top entrepreneurs, or follow them on Twitter at @founderly.

The 10th Founder Showcase is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24th in San Francisco. This is TheFunded.com's startup pitch and networking event, where we help early-stage entrepreneurs get exposure to Silicon Valley.

We are expecting over 500 startup founders, investors, and press in attendance, so get your tickets today before they sell out at http://foundershowcase.com/tickets. Use the code 'friends_of_thefunded' to get a 20% discount.

Guests will be treated to talks from leading startup CEOs and investors to discuss the current state of startups and venture capital. Our last event featured Mark Suster (GRP Partners), Mike Maples Jr. (FLOODGATE), and Dave McClure (500 Startups), interviewed by writers from The New York Times, All Things D, and TechCrunch. If you missed the event or didn't see the videos, check them out here.

As always, there is also an exciting Pitch Competition featuring 8 promising seed-stage companies. In fact, we're happy to report that over $35 million has now been raised by presenters in the history of this free competition.

We hope you'll join us for a great event.

For more information, visit http://foundershowcase.com.

This post was written by Adeo Ressi - Founder of the Founder Institute and TheFunded.com. Special thanks to TechCrunch for reposting the story.

At the close of 2011, there was a lot of uncertainty for startups. Stock market fluctuations, underwhelming talent acquisitions ("acqui-hires"), and structural investment problems threatened the prospects for startups.

But what a difference a few weeks can make. The passage of crowdfunding legislation in the US, coupled with the $1 BN acquisition offer of Instragram, signals the beginning of a full startup boom. In preparation for the good times, Venture Capitalists have started to raise new fund money at their pre-crash highs.

Two and a half years ago, Mint.com was acquired for $170 MM, and everyone thought that was an amazing deal following the great recession. Now, a fledgling company with a small team gets acquired for $1 billion.

My best guess is that it is about to get crazy. And, only fools sit on the sidelines.

Many strong and older entrepreneurs that I know are wealthy today because they made intelligent decisions during the dot com bubble of the late 90's. Success was not easy then, and it will not be easy now, either. But, the likelihood of a great outcome is much higher in a boom. 

There are a lot of newly minted entrepreneurs that pursue their dream company in a half-hearted way. You may tinker with your idea while toiling at a day job. You may refuse to put in the work required to recruit the best talent. You might be afraid of launching an imperfect product. Or, you may put a mediocre effort into fundraising.

However, if you want to take advantage of a boom cycle and reap the rewards, you need to slide all of your chips on to the table. You need to go all in. And, you need to play smart. Every move that you take and every bet that you make needs to have the best odds of success.

You can't enter the game too late, either. If what I predict happens, very soon you will start to read about more and more crazy deals. When "crazy" becomes the new normal, the opportunity will have already passed you by.

So, let me get really specific. As an entrepreneur, you have a decision to make. Ask yourself, "is this my boom?" If your answer is "yes," then you have a lot of work to do.

Look around you. If everyone that you deal with is not top-notch, from cofounders to vendors, fire them immediately and bring on the best. Now. Right now. Seriously. Now. To really win during a boom, you need to play at the top level, and the winners in every boom always have the best talent. Always.

Is it your time? Is this your boom?

--

Adeo also hosts the Founder Showcase, a startup pitch and networking event coming up on Tuesday, April 24th in San Francisco. This event will sell out, so get your tickets today. 

Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Then apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $35 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 USD in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline has been extended until April 2nd, 2012, but the sooner you apply, the longer you have to collect votes. 

The Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com's Adeo Ressi, is Silicon Valley's Leading Seed-Stage Pitch Event. The 10th Founder Showcase is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, and will be attended by over 500 investors, founders, and press. Guests will be treated to talks from leading startup CEOs and investors (TBA), as well as an entertaining Pitch Competition featuring 8 promising seed-stage companies. Appetizers and drinks will also be served in a networking hall full of other hot startups demoing their wares in the Demo Table Competition. This event will sell out, so purchase your tickets today. Reduced-Price tickets are available until Sunday, April 8th!

Confirmed Judges for the event already include Noah J. Doyle (Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners), David J. Blumberg (Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital), Rob Coneybeer (Managing Director of Shasta Ventures), and Brian Ascher (Partner at Venrock). 

We are also giving away a free Demo Table to someone who helps spread the word. Help us spread the word by tweeting a message with the hashtag #FounderShowcase and the URL http://bit.ly/9OlVo8, and, on Friday, April 20th, we will randomly select one winner, announcing the person on our @founding account.

For more information, visit www.FounderShowcase.com.

The 9th Founder Showcase in January featured on-stage interviews with some of today's most respected startup investors and technology journalists; Evelyn Rusli of The New York Times interviewing Mark Suster of GRP Partners, Ina Fried of All Things Digital interviewing Mike Maples Jr. of FLOODGATE, and Alexia Tsotsis of TechCrunch interviewing Dave McClure of 500 Startups. Check out the videos below. 

The 10th Founder Showcase is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24th in San Francisco. Reduced-price tickets are available until this Sunday, March 4th - get your tickets now. 

Evelyn Rusli Interviews Mark Suster
In the video below, Mark talks about the funding boom, the Series A crunch, new investment trends, how Hollywood is ripe for disruption, and, most notably, his contrarian opinion on the carried interest tax issue. 

Ina Fried Interviews Mike Maples, Jr.
In the video below, Mike tells us the social networking wave has crested, his new investment strategy, and how the new "hypernet" is quickly emerging from the web, cellular, and WiFi.

Alexia Tsotsis Interviews Dave McClure
In the video below, Dave discusses the math behind 500 Startups' investment strategy, and his lack of concern over the "Series-A crunch."

A special thanks to All Things Digital and TechCrunch for posting these videos. 

At last week's 9th Founder Showcase, we celebrated the best investors of 2011 with TheFunded.com's Entrepreneur Investor Awards.

Anthony Ha of TechCrunch covered the awards here (including a video of the ceremony).

Here are the winners of the 2011 Awards;

---

Most Disruptive

Ben Horowitz, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

Top Rated in the Americas

George Zachary, General Partner, Charles River Ventures

Top Rated in Europe, Middle East and Africa

Philippe Herbert, Partner, Banexi Venture Partners

Top Rated in Asia

Yuri Milner, Founder and CEO of Mail.ru Group

Best New Fund Manager

Dave McClure, Founding Partner at 500 Startups

Other finalists included;

• Brad Feld (Managing Director at the Foundry Group)
  
• Bryan Schreier (Partner at Sequoia Capital)
  
• Chris Dixon (Founding Partner at the Founder Collective)
  
• David Skok (General Partner at Matrix Partners)
  
• David Sze (Partner at Greylock Partners)
  
• James D. Robinson IV (General Partner at RRE Ventures)
  
• Jeremy Liew (Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners)
  
• John Backus (Managing Partner at New Atlantic Ventures)
  
• John Doerr (Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
  
• Jon Callaghan (Founder and Managing Partner at True Ventures)
  
• Joshua Kopelman (Managing Partner at First Round Capital)
  
• Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz)
  
• Maria Cirino (Co-Founder and Managing Director at 406 Ventures)
  
• Mark Suster (General Partner at GRP Partners)
  
• Matthew McCall (Partner at DFJ Portage Ventures)
  
• Mike Maples Jr. (Managing Partner at FLOODGATE)
  
• Roelof Botha (Partner at Sequoia Capital)
  
• Ron Conway (General Partner at SV Angel)
  
• Shlomo Dovrat (General Partner at Carmel Ventures)
  
• Steven Arnold (Co-Founder and Venture Partner at Polaris Ventures)
  

Last Thursday, over 300 people gathered in Silicon Valley for the 9th Founder Showcase, hosted by TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute.

At the event, 8 companies competed on stage in a free pitch competition, and taking the Grand Prize was Michael Mayernick and Spinnakr - a service for displaying targeted messaging on your website based on the specific audience segments. Spinnakr graduated from the Washington D.C. Founder Institute, and is also in the current 500 Startups class. Here is the video of their winning pitch;

Coming in an extremely close second place was Kloudless, a service for managing all of your stuff across the cloud and devices. Their pitch can be seen below; 

All in all, it was a very impressive slate of contenders. Others who presented include:

• Appsperse - Appsperse is a cross promotion platform for mobile applications.
  
• Gickup - An easy to use video chat gaming platform
  
• IndustryGraph - A local sales & support channel for B2B cloud services
  
• JetJaw - The proactive way to protect & promote your brand
  
• PetHub - Award-winning technology to keep pets safe
  
• Zoko - Kickstarter for parties
  
• Demo Table Competition Winner 1: ClientMagnet
  
• Demo Table Competition WInner 2: TagSeats
  
• Demo Table Competition Winner 3: Breezy
  

And of course, a special thanks goes out to our great Judging Panel; 

Scott Hartley, Venture Investor, Mohr Davidow Ventures

Scott is a venture capitalist at MDV focused on mobile and consumer Internet. He has worked at Google, Facebook, and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is interested in disruptive platforms that can address issues he has observed working on five continents, and at the White House and United Nations.

Bruce Taragin, Managing Director, Blumberg Capital

Bruce has 20 yrs experience as a VC, entrepreneur, banker and attorney. Prior to Blumberg, he co-founded and held management positions within many companies, including Charles River Computers. Past investments include ZipZapPlay, eVoice, PureSight, IP Infusion, GO Networks, and Siperian - all of which were acquired.

Matthew B. McCall, Partner, New World Ventures<
Matthew McCall is a Partner at NWV and co-founder of DFJ Portage Venture Partners. His investments include Apptera, BrightTag, Cognitive Concepts, Facebook, Feedburner, Performics, Playdom, Siimpel and TicketsNow. He was an AlwaysOn Top 100 VC in the US, and writes the popular blog, VCConfidential.

George Zachary, General Partner, Charles River Ventures
George joined CRV in 2004, bringing more than 17 rs of operating and investing experience in computing and consumer technology. He focuses on building services and software technology companies, and he's led CRV's investments in Twitter, Yammer, Millennial Media, Cloudshare, Geni, SocialMedia, Metaplace, and Scribd.

Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups

Dave McClure is a greedy venture capitalist & founding partner at 500 Startups, an internet startup seed fund and incubator program in Mountain View, CA. Dave has  worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O'Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft.

Thanks to everyone who attended! The next event will take place on April 24th in San Francisco, and tickets will go on sale shortly.

The 9th Founder Showcase is scheduled for January 19th in Mountain View, CA, and for the first time will feature TheFunded.com’s Entrepreneur Investor Awards, where we will celebrate the best investors of 2011, and see talks from Mark Suster, Mike Maples, Jr., and Dave McClure.

These Investor Awards are not your average popularity contest. In fact, the main criteria are the 2011 ratings and reviews investors receive from the 17,000+ Founder and CEO members of TheFunded.com – the web’s largest community to rate and review startup investors.

So, without further ado, here are the finalists for the 2011 TheFunded.com Entrepreneur Investor Awards;

• Ben Horowitz (Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz)
  
• Brad Feld (Managing Director at the Foundry Group)
  
• Bryan Schreier (Partner at Sequoia Capital)
  
• Chris Dixon (Founding Partner at the Founder Collective)
  
• Dave McClure (Founding Partner at 500 Startups)
  
• David Skok (General Partner at Matrix Partners)
  
• David Sze (Partner at Greylock Partners)
  
• George Zachary (Partner at Charles River Ventures)
  
• James D. Robinson IV (General Partner at RRE Ventures)
  
• Jeremy Liew (Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners)
  
• John Backus (Managing Partner at New Atlantic Ventures)
  
• John Doerr (Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
  
• Jon Callaghan (Founder and Managing Partner at True Ventures)
  
• Joshua Kopelman (Managing Partner at First Round Capital)
  
• Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz)
  
• Maria Cirino (Co-Founder and Managing Director at 406 Ventures)
  
• Mark Suster (General Partner at GRP Partners)
  
• Matt McCall (Co-founder and Managing Director at DFJ Portage Ventures and Partner at New World Ventures)
  
• Mike Maples Jr. (Managing Partner at FLOODGATE)
  
• Philippe Herbert (Partner at Banexi Venture Partners)
  
• Roelof Botha (Partner at Sequoia Capital)
  
• Ron Conway (General Partner at SV Angel)
  
• Shlomo Dovrat (General Partner at Carmel Ventures)
  
• Steven Arnold (Co-Founder and Venture Partner at Polaris Ventures)
  
• Yuri Milner (Founder and CEO of Mail.ru Group)
  

The awards up for grabs are;

• Most Disruptive Investor: Reserved for an investor who consistently demonstrated an investment strategy in 2011 of supporting innovative companies with big aspirations to disrupt established markets.
  
• Top Rated Investor in the Americas: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com’s members in 2011 across North, Central, and South America.
  
• Top Rated Investor in Asia: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com’s members in 2011 across Asia.
  
• Top Rated Investor in Europe, Middle East and Africa: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com’s members in 2011 across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
  
• Best New Fund Manager: Reserved for a new investor in 2011 that received the highest acclaim from the TheFunded.com’s members, and who has immediately demonstrated savvy and a willingness to help promising entrepreneurs succeed.
  

2011 was an amazing year for startup financing.

While traditional sources of investment declined, such as venture capital and angel groups, tens of billions more capital was still invested in private companies through a variety of new sources. A completely new financing landscape started to take shape in 2011, making 2012 the year that the “playbook” changed for startup financing.

Just a few years ago there was one startup playbook that was fairly consistent worldwide;

• Step 1: A promising startup looking to change the world would pitch a local angel group and raise a few hundred thousand dollars.
  
• Step 2: If everything went well and they were able to get traction, they could raise a $1 to $5 MM Series A from hundreds of venture funds spread throughout the world.
  
• Step 3: When the revenue model of the company was proven out, the startup, now classically called an upstart, would raise a $5 and $15 MM Series B or Series C from dozens of later stage VCs.
  
• Step 4: As the company scaled the revenue and the team, they would arrange a mezzanine round with a few strategic firms, a bank and a private equity firm to share up their balance sheet before going public.
  

This has been the playbook for the 18 years that I have been running technology companies, but it is quickly starting to look like ancient history.

What has taken its place? Dozens, if not hundreds, of varying financing options now entice and confuse the startup entrepreneur. There is a complex tapestry of capital sources, vehicles and deals for every stage, including liquidity. There are so many options, that 2012 could be called the year of optionality, but the outcome of many of these financing routes are uncertain. So, in 2012, I predict that we will start to see some of these options group together into new viable funding paths for startups.

Let's take a look at just a few of the new options available today that, for the most part, did not exist just a few years ago. How do they work, and what viability questions will be answered in 2012?

Crowdfunding
Almost overnight, crowdfunding has emerged as a viable financing option - especially for companies who produce a premium offering. Startups usually pre-sell access to media, hardware and software through crowdfunding sites, like Kickstarter.com, which allow the public to contribute different levels of funding based on access. The success of this model has been so dramatic that there are two proposals in the US House and Senate to formally legalize the practice. But can a single crowdfunding round be enough, and can crowdfunding expand beyond movies and hardware accessories?

Incubators and Accelerators
Hundreds of incubators and accelerators have sprung up to the point where there are now several in most major cities worldwide. Startups can trade a small amount of equity, normally less than 10% of the company, for some cash, usually less than $20,000, and some services, such as facilities, guidance or launch promotion. Incubators, which tend to be earlier stage and have more services, and accelerators, which tend to be later stage and provide more capital, have replaced many of the angel groups that serve a similar function. But can the hundreds of copycat programs in various markets around the world re-create the success of the early pioneers?

Online Networks
AngelList has grown over the last 12 months to become "the" social network for startups and angels to connect. A startup with a credible lead investor can use the added exposure from AngelList to create a "snowball effect," sometimes turning a five-figure round into a seven-figure one. But what are the regulations that apply to these networks, if any, and can the communities maintain the quality of participants as they expand?

Competitions and Prizes
A number of "demo day" competitions have emerged with large attendance, pitch guidance, strong media exposure and cash prizes, such as SeedCamp, TechCrunch Disrupt, and the Founder Showcase. Successful companies have won tens of thousands in prize money, secured extensive press coverage and raised millions following such events. But can these competitions be scaled to bring success to multiple companies in multiple locations?

Secondary Markets
A number of secondary markets, specialty brokers, and secretive funds have emerged to purchase the stock of private companies in both "on the books" and "off the books" transactions, including SecondMarket and SharesPost. Shares in high profile upstarts are sold to private individuals, providing both growth capital and employee liquidity. There is even a vehicle for employees to borrow money on their employee stock options, pledging the options as collateral. But how will these markets be legitimized, accepted and regulated over time?

The Mega Round
A few late-stage investors, such as DST (now Mail.ru), venture capital firms and investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, are doing mega rounds - otherwise known as the "IPO replacement" rounds. The fastest growing startups are skipping Series B funding and raising hundreds of millions of dollars at multi-billion dollar valuations. But are these mega rounds sustainable, and will they grow to replace the IPO?

Multistage Funds
Most of the remaining 200 venture funds that still operate worldwide have moved into stage-agnostic investment, participating in deals from incubation to mega rounds. Today, startups can pitch most venture capitalists at any stage in their lifecycle, and there are opportunities to raise anything from a hundred thousand dollars to millions. But can stage-agnostic funds be successful with such a diverse approach to funding?

Super Angels/ Micro-VCs
Prominent regional angels around the world have amassed $5, $10 and $20 MM funds to make dozens of local investments. Startups pitch these super angels to receive tens of thousands of dollars in investment plus instant exposure to the local angel funding ecosystem. But can this model work outside of Silicon Valley?

Government Programs
Governments around the world have been trying to jumpstart local versions of Silicon Valley with a wide variety of programs, such as Startup Chile, Skolkovo Russia, and the IDA in Singapore. With these initiatives, there are usually conditions to receiving capital, such as using the money to hire locally. Are these programs short-term stimulus or long-term value creation?
As if all of these new options were not enough, there has been an explosion in corporate investments, new university funds, philanthropic funds, sovereign wealth funds, industry-focused incubators, prize programs, and multiple other sources of capital.

In general, choice is good for entrepreneurs, but as I outlined above there are still some serious concerns. First, many of these new sources of capital are unproven, and, in some cases, their legal and regulatory future is uncertain. The party can end very quickly. Second, there are no best practices, transparency or guidelines for all these new vehicles - so hiccups and failed experiments are to be expected. Lastly, there are some looming structural problems that could bring the whole boom crashing down - specifically, the billions of unsecured convertible debt issued throughout late 2010 and 2011.

But in the end, we are in the largest startup funding boom since the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, but with probably more money being thrown around. After all, nobody really knows how much capital is being poured into startups since many of the new vehicles are not tracked.

2012 is looking to be a bright year. It’s the Wild West in startupland, and 2012 will be a wild ride. Hold on tight!

The 9th Founder Showcase is scheduled for January 19th at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, and for the first time will feature TheFunded.com’s Entrepreneur Investor Awards, where we will celebrate the best investors of 2011. All in all, this will be our most exclusive event yet - with just 175 tickets available to the general public.

Applications to the FREE Pitch Competition are open until December 31st, 2011, at http://foundershowcase.com/apply. Over $30mm has been raised by previous presenters, so apply now and start collecting votes.

These Investor Awards are not your average popularity contest. In fact, the main criteria are the 2011 ratings and reviews investors receive from you, the members of TheFunded.com. You could call it the "People's Choice" awards - but we prefer to call it an "Entrepreneur Investor Awards."

The awards up for grabs are;

1. Most Disruptive Investor: Reserved for an investor who consistently demonstrated an investment strategy in 2011 of supporting innovative companies with big aspirations to disrupt established markets.
   
2. Top Rated Investor in the Americas: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com's members in 2011 across North, Central, and South America.
   
3. Top Rated Investor in Asia: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com's members in 2011 across Asia.
   
4. Top Rated Investor in Europe, Middle East and Africa: Reserved for an investor who demonstrated an impressive track record in 2011, and received the highest acclaim from TheFunded.com's members in 2011 across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
   
5. Best New Fund Manager: Reserved for a new investor in 2011 that received the highest acclaim from the TheFunded.com's members, and who has immediately demonstrated savvy and a willingness to help promising entrepreneurs succeed.
   

Second, as part of the awards, we will have on-stage, interactive discussions with three of the top investors of 2011. These discussions will leverage input from attendees, and address critical new trends in startups and investing for 2012. So far we've confirmed:

• Mark Suster, General Partner at GRP Partners, and Writer at Both Sides of the Table
  
• Mike Maples, Jr., Managing Partner of FLOODGATE and investor in Twitter, Digg, Chegg, and ng:moco
  
• Our third speaker will be announced shortly.
  

It all adds up to this being the most exclusive Founder Showcase ever. We hope you'll join us.

Last week, TechCrunch reported that the Founder Institute has now helped launch 415 companies. In terms of graduates and companies launched, this makes us the world's largest incubator - and we have done it just 2.5 years.

So, how have we done it? In order to describe our model as easily as possible, we created an infographic. It's a bit too long to post on TheFunded's blogroll, but you can check it out on the Founder Institute site here.

Members of TheFunded have played a crucial role in our growth, and for that, we thank you. Incorporated in April of 2009, it was originally named "TheFunded Founder Institute." In fact, we crowdsourced the program's company-building curriculum by polling TheFunded's membership, and also utilized our database to recruit our original Founder and CEO Mentors as well. Now we have over 715 Mentors, are operating in 21 cities across four continents, and are on pace to launch an average of two companies per day.

Rather than bringing talent to Silicon Valley, we are going to different markets, gathering their best startup leaders, service providers, and most promising founders, and building local, sustainable, teamwork-based startup ecosystems. This model is working, and our vision of globalizing Silicon Valley is starting to take hold.

For more information, visit http://fi.co

This post was written by Adeo Ressi - Founder of the Founder Institute and TheFunded.com, and board member of the X PRIZE Foundation. Read the full post on the Founder Institute Blog here.

When you ask a successful entrepreneur how they did it, you are almost guaranteed to hear them cite “luck” as a prominent factor. Why? Because most major decisions in a startup are "life or death," and to succeed you need to make the correct call on many of these decisions. In such a context, survival and success appear lucky. Well, it's not.

With startups, being fast is actually better than being right. A founder needs to make hundreds of critical decisions, and any indecision can literally grind all progress to a halt. Hesitating, over-analyzing, or 'waiting to see what happens' are all forms of indecision, and when you are indecisive you let the world decide the outcome for you. Indecision leaves the outcome to chance, and your chances as a startup are bad to begin with.

Making decisions that are both fast and correct is no small feat, and is a skill that will develop over time, but here is a simple decision-making framework that I use to make decisions quickly. Indecision is death for a startup, so here's how you can avoid it;

1. Boil it down to a binary decision.
The first thing to do is boil your decision down to a simple binary statement. For example, if your development is slow, there are a lot of things that you could do. There may be seemingly hundreds of options. Simplify it. You can choose to (1) replace or (2) fix your development organization. Hoping the problem will go away is not a decision. Any complex problem, decision or opportunity can be boiled down to a binary statement. Try it with a tough decision that you are facing now…

2. Make the decision quickly.
Next, just pick. Flip a coin. Throw a dart. Pull a card. Draw a straw. Whatever. Just pick. If you're lucky, when you pick one, you'll feel a sigh of relief that indicates you picked the one your "gut" likes. Sadly, in many cases, both options suck, and your gut will resist both. On the bright side, with the life or death decisions, you still have a 50/50 chance of getting them right.

Whatever you do, don’t hesitate. Not too long ago I was running a fast growing business and we acquired a foreign subsidiary that took over technology development. When product releases began to slow dramatically, I had a simple decision to make: (1) replace them or (2) fix them. Instead, I was indecisive and waited to see what would happen, hoping the problem would fix itself. When that didn’t happen, I ultimately was forced to sell the business for less than I felt it was worth. Meanwhile, better organized competitors launched multi-billion dollar businesses. I hesitated, and it cost me. It will cost you too.

3. Execute and observe.
Now execute. Immediately. Just do it. You'll know very quickly if it's the wrong decision. In fact, have your sensors on high alert to look for clues to whether you were right or not. A lot of decisions are so hard that they will feel wrong, but look for empirical clues to measure the success of the decision. You may even want to try and outline a couple conditionals up front, which we'll cover in a moment.

4. Adjust if necessary.
The moment there is clear evidence that you are wrong, whether it be a bad hire or a poor product release, drop everything and fix it. In at least half of the cases, you will be able to recover. So, even when you make a life or death decision quickly, your odds of survival are in excess of 75%, so just decide.

For the toughest decisions, introduce conditionals.
Now, some decisions are really brutal, such as the need to cut significant staff, take a pay cut, or sell your home. This is the life of a founder. When things get really tough, I personally use conditionals to help with the decision making process. Conditionals are simple if / then statements that help to take the sting off the toughest decisions. Here's an example.

Back in the 90's I was running a fast growing business that had cash-flow issues. A major customer owed us nearly a million dollars, and we had a couple weeks of payroll in the bank. My binary decision was to (1) cut staff and survive until we were paid, or to (2) win some new business to cover the period until we could collect. So, I introduced a conditional: if I could not get two months of cash-flow from new business within two weeks, then I would cut the staff as needed.

If I failed to get new business, then I would have to cut much deeper than if I cut right away. However, the identification of a conditional trigger point for the tough decision acted both as a motivator and as a calming agent. I had a target to shoot for, which we eventually hit. That business sold for approximately $100 MM.

There you have it: a simple decision-making framework for startups. (1) Boil it down to a binary decision. (2) Make the decision quickly. (3) Observe the outcome. (4) Adjust if necessary. And, introduce a conditional for the toughest decisions. Whatever you do, don't hesitate.

Good luck!

We are happy to announce yet another great Founder Showcase Keynote Speaker: Michael Arrington. In addition to founding TechCrunch and being one of the 'World's 100 Most Influential People' (according to Time Magazine), Mike has also been an active angel investor since 2006. His new CrunchFund is backed by a list of impressive investors, including Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, the founding partners of Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway, Yuri Milner, Kevin Rose, and more. We are really looking forward to his talk, because if there is anyone who has their hand on the pulse of Silicon Valley, it's Michael Arrington.

The 8th Showcase is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8th, in San Francisco. We are offering a 20% discount to TheFunded readers - just use the code 'TFmembers' at http://foundershowcase.com/tickets. Reduced price tickets are available until October 16th.

Applications to the free Pitch Competition are also due by next Sunday, October 9th. To submit your startup or vote for others, visit http://foundershowcase.strutta.com/. Over $20m has now been raised by previous presenters.

In addition, we are giving away one free Demo Table ($375 value) to someone who helps us spread the word. Just Tweet a message with the hashtag #FounderShowcase and the URL http://bit.ly/9OlVo8, and, on Friday, November 4th, we will randomly select one winner, announcing the person on our @founding Twitter account. If you've already purchased a table you are eligible for a full refund with this contest. A sample message is below.

- Join me at the #FounderShowcase on Nov 8th with @arrington - http://bit.ly/9OlVo8. Silicon Valley's Leading Pitch & Networking Event.

We hope you'll join us for another great event!