Southeast VC

WedPics CEO Shares Investor Email

I referenced WedPics' CEO/founder Justin Miller in my last blog post. He sends a monthly email to us. His emails serve 2 purposes:

1) Keeps Justin and WedPics top of mind

2) Shows off his continued success as he thinks about his next round

Here is the email Justin just sent us and with Justin's permission, I am sharing it here.I like that it is short, easy to read and to the point. This is a good strategy and format to follow. 

Although Justin said it was ok, I removed all the numbers from his email.  

Hey guys-

August was another record breaking month for WedPics, seeing a continued “upward and to the right” progression with all of our metrics, including monetization. Below are some of our Year To Year comparisons as well as cumulative metrics:

 

Below are some of our notable AUGUST stats:

 

Weddings That Took Place: K+/K+ per weekend (+% growth year to year)

New Brides: K+ (+% growth year to year)

New Guests: K+ (+% growth year to year)

New Media Uploaded: M+ (+% growth year to year)

August Rev: $K+

 

CUMULATIVE + YTD:

 

Cumulative Brides: K+

Cumulative Guests: M+

Cumulative Media: M+

YTD Revenue: $K+

 

Let me know if you’re interested in continuing our discussions, as we’re beginning our next round of fund raising. 

Fundraising Tips

Raising capital from investors can be a long, tough and often an incredibly frustrating process. Entrepreneurs often ask us for help (even when we're not in their company). I thought I would share my email I just sent in response to a local entrepreneur with their request for help. My hope is that it helps other entrepreneurs.  Feel free to post here with your other ideas. 

My recommendations:

 

1) Speak with all the local entrepreneurs that have received funding (venture & angel) and see if those CEOs/founders see a connection with the investor(s) that backed them. That is one of the fastest paths IMHO. An intro from an entrepreneur to their investor gets the fastest response and the closest attention.

 

2) Go see Justin Miller at WedPics. He is very savvy with his emails he sends to investors. Learn how he does it, what he includes in the email. As your stats at your company build, I would let the numbers speak for you. Justin is a master at that. Copy his format. 

 

3) Attend CED Venture. Don’t just “walk the halls.” Find out which investors are attending and set up individual 20 min presentations with folks ahead of time. It will take time/research.

 

Getting funding is hard as shit. Treat it like a sales process. Stay organized (excel, whatever works for you). Keep me plugged in.

 

Bull City Venture Partners III, L.P.

We are really excited to announce the closing of Bull City Venture Partners III, a $26 million venture capital fund.

David and I sincerely appreciate the commitment from all of our LPs and the overwhelming support from the entreprenurial community. 

Now, more than ever, we believe there is a big opportunity in front of us. The region we serve has less capital than in the past. However, the level of activity in entrepreneurship has never been stronger.

We will continue the same focus we have always had:

• Great entrepreneurs
• Southeast and Mid-Atlantic
• ~70% seed/early; 30% growth
• Software, e-commerce, internet, mobile, health IT

We are looking forward to the working with the very best entrepreneurs in the years ahead.

Durham, Washington DC, Tech Jobs

Like all VC firms, we receive a lot of resumes. And I just wanted to post here as a reminder that most of our companies are hiring. 

ChannelAdvisor - Morrisville NC

Etix - Morrisville NC

Global Value Commerce - Raleigh NC

ReverbNation - Durham NC

WeddingWire - Chevy Chase MD

Zift Solutions - Durham NC

I hope you see something that matches with you, or know someone great you can refer in. As always, if I can help, let me know.

Have a good weekend.

Reference Check a VC

Pulling up and referencing some old blog posts, but I think this is important topic. Entrepreneurs need to take time to do their homework referencing a new investor. With some recent financings I have seen getting done, this was not the case.

I just read this 2010 post from Mark Suster on Why it's Critical that you Refrence Check Your VC.

If you are an entrepreneur raising capital, you should check this out. It doesn't matter if you are raising capital from VCs, angels, angel groups or strategics. The advice still applies.

And, even better, make time to do a face to face reference check.

Proof: Innovation is Happening Outside of Silicon Valley

I couldn't make it out for the Google for Entrepreneurs Demo Day, which Google hosted earlier today. My partner David Jones was there and I watched remotely. You can watch it here.

 

A few comments:

• I know the Valley is the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity, but it was great to see all the companies highlighted outside of the Valley. Cities that participated included Minneapolis, Chicago, Waterloo, Nashville, Durham, Denver and Detroit.
• Two companies were selected to present from Durham including Windsor Circle and Automated Insights.
• North Carolina companies absolutely can compete on a national level. Congratulations to the entire team at Durham, NC-based Windsor Circle for winning the best the best pitch at Demo Day!

You can read more about the event here, here and here.

StepLeader Adds COO

Great news yesterday with one of the BCVP portfolio companies StepLeader. They added Steve Carnevale as COO. Of course, Steve is well known as the CFO at Geomagic which was venture backed and sold for $55m to 3D Systems last year. 

Congratulations Steve and StepLeader!

Entrepreneurs' Breakfast

My partner David and I are hosting Entrepreneurs' Breakfast in Durham.

This is a very informal way to meet us, but also a good way to get your VC and startup questions answered. We have found these to be a good resource for entrepreneurs, but also very selfishly, we have funded 2 companies over the years that we met by hosting these. 

The next one is in February, but that one is already full. So, signup for the one in March, if this interests you.

Entrepreneurs' Series is Back!

Join us the morning of Feb 26 in Raleigh, NC for Venture Outlook 2014.

To register: www.eseriesfeb14.eventbrite.com

We will have 2 panels of angel investors and venture capitalists discuss startups, trends
and where they are thinking about investing in 2014.

Panelists include: 

• John Burke, True Ventures
• David Gardner, angel investor
• Vic Gatto, Partner, Solidus
• Tim Huntley, angel investor
• Wayne Hunter, Managing Partner, Harbert Venture Partners
• Scott Kupor, Managing Director, Andreessen Horowitz
• Dave Neal, Managing Director, The Startup Factory
• Don Rainey, General Partner, Grotech Ventures
• Wright Steenrod, Chrysalis Ventures
• Joe Velk, Contender Capital

We are the host. But I'd like to thank Business Innovation & Growth Council (Terry), Southeast Venture Conference and WRAL Tech Wire for all their support of this.

And make sure you follow the conversation about the event on Twitter #eseriesral.

2013 in Review

Jennifer, my two daughters and I spent Christmas and the New Year in Southeastern Massachusetts with my family this year. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on the last twelve months. Here are some of the accomplishments:

• ChannelAdvisor IPO. We were the first investor to participate over 11 years ago. This was the biggest investment we ever made as a firm. Now it carries a market cap close to $1 billion.
• We announced our participation as sole institutional investor in AudienceFUEL. This marks the second time we have invested in a company led by Troy McConnell. His first one was Batanga. The neat thing about this was it was also the second time out of SCV Fund II that we backed a Fund I entrepreneur. 
• David and I hosted Entrepreneurs' Series: Venture Outlook in January 2013. We keep getting asked when these will return because we haven't hosted one since and they were popular. Yes, they are coming back!
• David and I continued our involvement and successful partnership with the guys at Tech Media. They put out a bunch of great conferences throughout the year. The ones we are most heavily involved with include Internet Summit, Startup Summit and Southeast Venture Conference. Just those three attracted close to 3,000 people.
• David and I launched Bull City Venture Partners, to continue our focus on partnering with great entrepreneurs in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. 
• From BCVP, we partnered with River Cities Funds and invested in Raleigh, NC-based Stepleader Digital. Brian Handly has always been one of our favorite entrepreneurs in the region.

I think we had a really productive year and I'm looking forward to a great 2014. As always, if there is anything I can do to help you this year, please reach out.