WHOI Center for Marine Robotics 2nd Annual Marine Robotics Entrepreneurship Forum: Panel 3 (Financing Technology Start-Ups and Small Company Resources)

1. CMR Funding Panel Discussion
July 15th, 2016

2. Steve An
• I am a FoJ
• Co-founded LocaModa, Connected Sports Ventures and
AppliedQ, served as CTO or CEO.
• 2 funded by multiple VCs and Corporate Ventures, 1 self
funded
• 1 exit, 1 shut down (gave $ back to VCs) and 1 fire sale, still
have one more failure up my sleeve, according to HBS
• Currently raising small fund and assisting other entrepreneurs
and startups
2

3. What is Marine Robotics?
• Is there an ecosystem?
• Big picture roadmap
• Who are the big fish?
• Need to educate the funding public
• Start a consortium website (e.g. Simc.tv)
• Upload your presentations to Slideshare.net
• Is there any parallel that can be drawn from other nascent
industries, e.g. drones?
• Adjacent interests
• Consumer interest?
• Energy, mapping exploration
• Data as a platform?
3

4. Talking to VCs?
• Paint the big picture but focus on what/how you do
• Be part of, not The Ecosystem, i.e. infrastructure, platform are 4-letter words to VCs
• Resist being too far ahead of the curve, i.e. pain reliefs not vitamins
• Talk about your game plan and experience not your brilliance! (put in appendix)
• Know your VCs
• Is this their 1st fund?
• Serial funds & ex-entrepreneurs often good choices
• Where they are in their funding cycle* (2*, 5, 10)
• Their ROI sweet spot and current focus
• 85% of them underperform S&P
• Research their portfolio companies, entrepreneurs
• VCs want to make $, end of story. They are long term greedy.
• Other sources of funding (seeds, angels, grants, corp. partners etc..)
• Look for good investors, don’t chase early valuation
4

5. 5
Leveraging the Seed / Early Stage Market
• Angel syndicates, incubators,
crowd funding collectives,
microfunds providing initial
capital
• Increase in deal flow
• Better quality opportunities
• “De-risking” of early stage
• Critical need for institutional
capital
The Explosion of Seed-Stage Investors
33
62
112
112
138
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014

6. What make great startup founders?
• Able to build and energize a great team!
• Have laser sharp focus on building the best products and
user experience
• Able to take decisive and corrective actions to market
dynamics, without losing sight of the end goal
• Able to clearly and concisely articulate company’s vision,
must have strong elevator pitch ready at all times
6

7. What make a great portfolio company?
• Solid idea or product is a prerequisite
• Solving a real and practical problem, i.e. pain point
• Strong network effects and first-mover advantage
• Metrics matter, i.e. what are KPIs and what drives
customer adoption?
7