1. Burnrate is Growing Startup Funding for Developers (in Norway)
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2013-Oct-28
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Amund Tveit
amund@atbrox.com - http://amundtveit.info - http://atbrox.com

2. Personal Reasons for starting?
You’re Fired!
You suffer from creative handcuffs
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You have a big idea
.. or whenever opportunity or startup itch strikes
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3. Personal Reasons for not starting?
You dislike taking risks
You thrive from stability
You prefer the Blue pill
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4. Funding Overview
1. RD Tax Deductions
2. Innovation Grants
3. Research Grants
1. Angel Investors
4. IFU/OFU
2. Accelerators
5. Innovation Loans
3. Venture Capital
6. Crowd Funding (non-equity)
7. Customer Funded
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5. RD Tax Deductions
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www.skattefunn.no
How it works?
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Apply for (multi-year) project, up to 11 MNOK/year (5.5)
Reporting (audit of costs and time)
Get tax deduction (if surplus), OR Money back (if deficit)
Dive into your academic network
Example from Trondheim: MazeMap - http://
naeringslivsavisa.no/2013/05/30/tradlose-trondheim-vi-harutviklet-en-verdensnyhet/
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6. Innovation Grants
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http://www.innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/etablerertilskudd/
How it works?
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Apply when starting up - 300 KNOK (+)
Apply before market Introduction - 300-600 KNOK (+)
Parts of IN motivation - local employment, tax effects
Example from Trondheim: http://blog.verdandetechnology.com/
verdande-technology-investors-raising-8-million-for-thecontinued-enterprise-adoption-of-case-based-reasoning
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7. Research Grants
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http://ec.europa.eu/research/
How it works?
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Project coalitions between universities and companies in
European Countries
Application (50-100 pages), project sizes: millions of Euros
Partner with the best academics you know
Example from Trondheim: Atbrox - http://atbrox.com/
2013/08/26/atbrox-has-become-a-partner-in-a-research-projecton-cloud-computing/
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8. IFU/OFU
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http://www.innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/ifuofu/
How it works?
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OFU - 3 parts: IN, Public org. customer and you
IFU - 3 parts: IN, Private company customer and you
Potentially significant amounts (millions of NOK)
Partner with big/well-known (potential) customer
Example from Trondheim: Boost - http://www.adressa.no/
nyheter/okonomi/article7914743.ece
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9. Innovation Loans
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http://innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/Innovasjonslan/
How it works?
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2 types: low-risk loans and innovation loans
Amounts up to millions of Norwegian kroner
In many ways similar to your house mortgage
Note: do you really want to take on debt?
Norwegian Example: Bipper - http://bippernytt.blogspot.no/
2010/06/denne-uken-fikk-bipper-den-gode-nyheten.html
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10. Crowd Funding (non-equity)
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Services: IndiGoGo and Kickstarter
How it works?
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Describe your project, schedule and requested amounts
What backers get (e.g. diplomas, early releases of product etc)
Works best for: those that have a demonstrable prototype
Amounts: from low thousands to millions of $
Norwegian Example (1.5M$) - http://www.kickstarter.com/
projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey
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11. Customer Funded
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How it works?
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You get advance funding for developing for a customer
And keep all rights to resell it as a product or service
Advantage: down-to-earth wrt customer needs early on
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12. Seed/Angel Investors
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Typically 2 types:
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Affluent Individuals (serial entrepreneurs)
How it works:
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Professional Investors
Communication through platforms, e.g. angel.co
Or through personal networks (e.g. linkedin)
Amounts: thousands to low millions of $ (typically a coalition of angels)
Example: Irish startup raising $230K in 8 days using Linkedin - http://
www.businessinsider.com/irish-company-raises-230000-using-onlylinkedin-2010-1
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13. Accelerators
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Training Camp (one to a few months)
Value(Network+training) Value(funding)?
YCombinator:
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Guaranteed follow-up financing
Amounts: 0 - few hundred K$’ish
Innovasjon Norge TINC (1 month Palo Alto)
Oslo: StartupLab.no
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14. Venture Capital
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Typically for large investment amounts (1M$)
When your company is ready to scale
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Rough rule of thumb: min. revenue of $1.5-2M
Long-term commitment
Many rounds of financing (e.g. series A, B, C, D, E)
Their goal: big liquidity event (IPO or MA)
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15. How to Convince Investor?
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Competitive Advantage
Scalable and recurring revenue
Great Team
Conservative Pre-money Valuation (see angel.co/valuations )
Disruptive
Potential for big exit (sale or IPO)
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16. Approaching Silicon Valley
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A Working Demo says more than 1000 words
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Innovation House in Palo Alto is a must to visit
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many Norwegian startups
Good networking arena
You probably know someone who knows (e.g. via linkedin)
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Remember: Execution Idea in Silicon Valley
6 degrees is typically 2-3 within IT
Personal Experience: blogging can interesting open doors
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17. Funding Trends
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Globalization - Everyone/many invests anywhere in the world?
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Non-Nordic VCs (European and US) investors
“underweighted” in Scandinavia
Transparancy - Investor dealflow becoming commodity?
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VCs doing (low-profile) seed/early-stage investments
angel.co - Angel List Syndicates (individuals doing series-A/B)
Crowdfunding (equity-based) - In its infancy, but can have
massive impact?
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growvc.com
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