End of an era
A business deal which originated last February is finalized. Uniform VP acquired a medical device product business. In future, we plan to become a player in sporting goods industry.
We no longer post to High Growth Venturing blog. We would like to thank you for reading our very biased entries. High growth venturing, or, in my terms, being a market leader in our segment, still is our passion. Thank... READ MORE...
How to build a startup in Silicon Valley style? Find answers in Oulu on Nov 9th!
When discussing how to build your market understanding and how to build your business with entrepreneurs, there are lots of different opinions how to do it. But this latitude, there are not too many people who know how to do it in Silicon Valley style.
My friend Saku (at the University of Oulu) was a visiting scholar at Stanford University for a year, and since he returned back to Finland, he has... READ MORE...
Venture capital is important for the economy
Last week I attended a clean tech VC conference here in Finland, and met some relevant, exciting entrepreneurs, and some potentially fundable ventures. Entrepreneurs were looking for funding for building winning businesses, and VCs were looking for investment opportunities.
At the event there were also attendees who were more or less just hanging around. I heard some of them talking about why we... READ MORE...
Building blocks for successful teams – evidence from business
At the moment there is a lot of discussion in VC and startup blogs on entrepreneur’s motives and financial rewards in early stage ventures. Mark Suster’s entry “Should Founders Be Allowed to Take Money off the Table?” is one of the most fruitful openings, and there are several others, too. But Suster’s entry made me really think about these issues.
His entry led me to dig deeper... READ MORE...
Entrepreneurship and Finance Challenged
Since our VC event in the end of May my partner and I have got a lot of questions from entrepreneurs and finance professionals. People have been asking questions like “What is the state of the VC industry and high-tech entrepreneurship”, “Is this really a great time to start companies”, “Does VC really work; is there real upside for entrepreneurs to get VC funded”, or “Aren’t VC and high-tech... READ MORE...
Big Picture
During my work career I have been fortunate to work with lots of different kind of entrepreneurs, professors, researchers, VC´s and public financiers. When I have discussed entrepreneurship and growth venturing with them, I have found out how many different views and approaches there are.
In many discussions, the entrepreneurs, researchers and public financiers have been talking about the... READ MORE...
Who is professional in venture financing, and why is funding issue so hot
I bumped again into twisted world of Finnish venture funding. Instead of an effective early stage funding mechanism, venture capital, there are tens of different types of funding instruments, one example of which is subsidy that must not provide competitive advantage. Complex venture financing environment also sustains a variety of services. Numerous are those service providers who sell their... READ MORE...
Part 3: Team composition sets the results
Examples of my previous posts Winning teams are built and Myth and reality of teams have shown that team issues can be more important than we think. Let’s do one more tour in team issue; do these theories and practices count also in public organizations?
Government policies can drive highly successful change,... READ MORE...
Who is most likely to become funded by Silicon Valley VCs
Silicon Valley VCs made some remarks on Finnish high tech start-ups when they visited us. Here you can read about the elements we need to have in place to be qualified for applying funding from there.
Note! There are some presumptions: we need to fulfill the regular VC funding requirements, like scalable business model. Secondly, these VCs were high tech investors. Finally, this is not exhaustive... READ MORE...
Part 2: Myth and reality of teams
Team work has also caught scientists’ attention. Diane Coutu’s article “Why Teams Don’t Work?” in Harvard Business Review May 2009 is based on interview of leading scientific thinker and expert on teams, Professor J Richard Hackman from Harvard University. Here are some highlights of the interview.
• Teams... READ MORE...