Robin Axon

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• We are two partners and an angel. We already know we need to seek additional funding, should our share %'s be discussed and possibly re-negotiated prior to seeking additional funding or during so we can see what the terms of the new deal may be?

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    You should have the terms of the relationship between your existing partners figured out before courting others to join.

• Entering business plan competitions (Local competitions, TechStars, MassChallenge) or posting on websites such as kickstarter good strategy to determine if there is/could be investor interest, business opportunity, exposure to mentors? What would you do/not do for someone that has good ideas, wants to them to go to the next level, but struggles on next steps?

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    Testing your product/idea in market (even in concept) is a critical starting point in the creation of any new company. I highly recommend kickstarter as a means of getting early feedback on a product idea – we’ve had great success with sites like these in the past. If you’re not building a physical product, there are many great strategies (adwords campaigns, test websites, etc) for getting market feedback of an online service. Business plan competitions are also good although they don’t typically help you get product feedback. They are, however, a great way of getting business feedback and helping to tighten your pitch.

• Hi Robin, What do you think of Groupon's IPO and what that means for all the clones that have launched or are about to?

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    Tough one…i’m not sure i would have bought any stock on opening and last i looked the stock was up significantly. I do think that survival/success in this game will require access to capital and most of the clones that don’t have deep pocketed investors may have challenges. Beyond that, i don’t think the market for deals is going away anytime soon.

• When looking a team of an online venture, assuming it's a seed round, does not having a technical team member really hurt an investors opinion? Or is this something this can be viewed as a first hire or outsourced.

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    It really depends on the business but speaking for us, a strong technical founder is critical. Most of our investments are centered around a technical thesis and our confidence in a company’s ability to evolve, change or just deepen the technology around this thesis will be highly dependent on the team/person responsible for it.

• Hello Robin! Everyone has a brilliant idea, but we really do! My two partners and I all have successful careers, and are planning our startup by burning the midnight oil and weekends. It's nearly impossible for us to quit our day jobs right now. Do you have advice for a team like ours just starting out?

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    Raising venture money will definitely require you to quit the ‘day jobs’ but progressing your business further may not. The tough question that only you can answer is when to take the plunge even the without the commitment of an investment.

• How can a municipal economic development corporation work with VCs and Angels to generate a pipeline of leads as well as foster entrepreneurship in our respective community?

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    I’d start with a simple discussion with the VCs in your community. If you’re in or near Toronto i’m happy to chat with you further about this.

• What's the best way to get in front of Mantella? What types of ideas are you looking to fund, or , better yet, what problems would you like to invest in seeing solved? Any stick out?

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    The best way to get the attention of anyone in business is through a referral. And given that much of your future business success will come from selling and your ability to get to people, consider this your first test and find someone that can refer you to the investors you want to reach. Linkedin has made this a fairly easy problem to solve.

• What % of a company do you think a CEO should receive as part of his/her compensation package? Assuming they are not part of the founding team? And, what % do you think founders should try to retain after a Series A round?

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    The biggest question that i’d ask in this scenario is how much more capital do you think the company will require prior to exit (or being independent of traditional venture investments)? Investors typically do an analysis of this type prior to every investment where the investor looks at a range of potential exit amounts after a number of different scenarios of raising capital (good, medium and bad cases for example) and then the investor will make the determination if they’d be happy with that outcome. You should do the same.

• What role do you think law firms SHOULD play in the early stage fundraising/dealmaking process?

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    This depends a bit on your skill level as an entrepreneur. For first time entrepreneurs a good early stage lawyer should be able to guide you through many of the typical early stage challenges: fund raising, hiring, firing, esops, etc and this definitely includes introductions to appropriate people along the way. More experienced entrepreneurs, however, may not need this type of support.

• Should I bother to write a Business Plan? If so, (1) what should I focus on and (2) how long should it be?

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    A business plan for me is a living document that changes significantly throughout the life of a tech business. Unless you’ve put enough thought into your complete plan you’re probably not ready to pitch your business to investors. So in short, it’s not the document that investors are looking for specifically it’s the thorough analysis of your markets, competitors, go-to-market strategy, financing req’s, etc that’s behind your business that you need to be able to present confidently.