A recap and wish for 2009,

As another year turns the page, fundfindr.tv has been pleased to present some of the top minds in investment, entrepreneurship and events for your viewing pleasure this past year.  Our mission has always been to democratize venture capital and venture success.  Key to this goal is sharing great content - over 153 posts - with you, our viewers.  Herewith, some of these Top posts and videos from the past year.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Interviews:  Over 45 exclusives including highlights from The Funded’s Adeo Ressi.

Adeo was definitely one of the amazing people we met - no bullshit and committed to  helping leveling the playing field between the ideas and money.  In his New Year’s message he announced great plans for Thefunded.com next year - ping us and we’ll send you his message.  We also highly recommend you check out and register for the site if you are a CEO.

Other no nonsense types with valuable advice, we had the pleasure of featuring included: Robin Chakrabarti who started the year as a key man in The Dragon’s Den, Bootup Lab’s Danny Robinson, Super blogger John Chow and Miss 604 Rebecca Bollwitt. Robin shared some success snacks with our viewers and ended up joining Boston Pizza International CEO Mike Cordoba in launching a new Investment company targetting mid-market firms with high growth potential.  No doubt, we’ll hear much more from Robin in the coming year.

Danny launched his latest venture Strutta as a destination video competition’s site, transformed it to an API licensing model all while launching an exciting new Vancouver-based incubator Boot-Up Labs geared to build real companies first and attract VC later.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Straight from the investor’s mouth: We gathered pearls and nuggets from leading Angel Fund managers and investors like Basil Peters, Mike Volker and Yaletown Venture’s Ralph Turfus.  The video thumbnail above  features Part III of the exclusive fundfindr.tv interview with Mike Volker on Angel funds and how they are structured for success.

Webisodes and Features: Our first Webisode set the tone on our mission to educate entrepreneurs and our many features including a growing roster of top expert speakers like Dr. Geordie Rose, Barry Jinks and Eric. T Petersen ended the year with a big finish.  Look for their excellent knowledge sharing and upcoming presentations by Darrin Barefoot at IMC, Mossadiq Umedaly at VEF and many more on backbonemag.com and fundfindr.tv.

Can’t miss Events: Way too many to cover them all but fundfindr.tv was there capturing the excitement at: New Ventures BC, New Media B.C’s Fusion Forum, Small Business BC, Enterprize 2008, VEF Momentum, VANTEC, Massive Tech Show.  Riiplay some of the excitement here and look for much more in 2009.

fundfindr News: Like many of our subjects, fundfindr Media also transitioned through the year.  Stay tuned for much more Knowledge on Demand, top opinion leaders and experts captured on video as we put finishing touches to the upcoming launch of the Riiplay.tv Alpha - covered here on Techvibes.

We are convinced that in today’s economy Knowledge is Power and we’re committed to helping you get it.  Register for an Alpha invite at www.riiplay.tv today.  Just hit the riiplay button and provide your email.

So, set your goals high, attack the year with optimism,  reflect on  hits and misses from the past year and learn as much as you can to prepare yourself for success.  Make 2009 your best year ever!  We will.

Thanks for watching,

Bret Conkin and the fundfindr.tv team

In our series on Adeo Ressi, founder of thefunded.com, we share more tips on venture capital raising and knowing the rules. We sat down with Adeo at the Fusion forum in Vancouver - for more Adeo and our exclusive interview video click here.

————————

10 More Tips

1. Do not outsource fundraising.
2. Do your homework.
3. There is no “industry standard” or such a thing as “confidentiality.”
4. Understand exits.
5. Inform your targets of progress during negotiations.
6. Avoid founder vesting.
7. Prepare your references for due diligence - “smart & accomplished” is good!
8. Legal details matter.
9. Have a back-up plan.
10. Know key security terms.

And our favourite, “once the term sheet comes in, your law firm is working for the VC.” Of course, what Adeo means here is that the legal beagles will crank their billings if you are fully funded. Hey, we’re not here to bash lawyers - we like ours - just the messenger baby. More from Adeo later.

Adeo Ressi is a serial entrepreneur, focused on launching companies in new markets. He was an early pioneer in the growth of the World Wide Web, an advocate for the burgeoning private space exploration industry, and a champion of casual games and related entertainment. More recently he became The Founding Member of TheFunded.com, an online resource for CEO’s to research, rate, and review venture funds worldwide. Here all members remain anonymous. Adeo himself was only known as ‘Ted’ or ‘the founder’ until November 15, 2007 when he pulled off a major PR stunt by revealing his true identity.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Check out Adeo Ressi’s blog now linked in our blogroll and some nuggets below he shared at the recent Fusion Forum.

On VC Math

• 16,500 VCers (staff) working in the US for 3800 VCs
• 3,000 deals funded last year
• Do the math: Get your deal, in front of the right ones!

Is it a good time to raise money?

• Everyone looking for your big idea
• Low cost entry, new categories, money is available
• The answer is yes: Keep your Vision big, enter growing markets w/ new approaches/new techs

On rules of the game

• 2/3 of CEO’s funded get fired
• You will need capital, know the rules!
• VC motive is always control
• VCs want cheap equity, ROI and partner esteem
• Your pitch will suck! Fix it!

Or, as we would say at fundfindr, upload your pitch, get feedback, repeat! Look for more from Adeo Ressi, Dragon’s Denizen Jim Treliving and other experts coming soon on fundfindr.tv!

Fusion Digital Media Venture Forum and was hosted by New Media BC with support from Telefilm Canada and the National Research Council of Canada and took place February 20-21, 2008. This forum proved that BC is a leader in the New Media industry. Over 20 new media companies pitched their ideas in two formats: either eight minute pitch with 2 minute Q&A for more advanced stage ventures or five minutes pitch only to numerous investors, and later presented demos of their innovations. Investors and well established CEOs also presented on a range of topics from financing innovation to entry through to exit strategies. A most notable keynote speaker was Adeo Ressi, the founder of The Funded. Watch for his full interview coming soon.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Visit an earlier blog post on Fusion that includes mention of the winners.

Fundfindr.tv recently covered New Media B.C.’s Fusion Event and we really enjoyed the 20 or so pitches at the event - they were all delivered in either a 5 minute or 8 minute format. A big shout out to Adam Gooch and the New Media B.C. team for a first class event. On a whole the presenters were well prepared, had good visuals, stayed on time and engaged their audience.

Some though ran out of time before they could even deliver their punch line on “what they were looking for,” some had visuals that were too busy or hard to follow and others spent too much time talking about product rather than market. Fundfindr passes on pitch kudos to Paul Gertz of www.zeroes2heroes.com and Jasmine Antonick of Cambrian House and Steve Bocska of Gwabs for their kick-ass presentation on Gwabs desktop fighter and we really enjoyed meeting Adeo Ressi, the maverick founder of the VC Rating site, www.thefunded.com.

Watch for upcoming posts on best-in-class Powerpoint tips from some of our favourite sources like my old Procter & Gamble colleague, Dr. Andrew Abella of Extreme Presentations, Presentation Zen (both which we are adding to our blogroll), Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki.

Awards were given to several of the companies who presented at Fusion based on their innovative presentations, with the “Best in Show”award going to Ken Bautista of Hot Rocket. Ian Andrew Bell of Something Simpler was runner up for Best in Show, with a tie for 3rd place going to Paul Gertz of Zeros to Heroes and Jasmine Antonick and Steve Bocska of Cambrian House’s new game company featuring Gwabs Desktop Fighter Game. Winner Bautista was presented with a trip to Seattle and San Francisco for meetings with groups of notable venture capital firms. Firms interested in being a part of this or future events can find additional information at www.thefusionforum.com.

Stay tuned to www.fundfindr.tv for more from the event and some of the presenters including Danny Robinson of www.strutta.com, interviews with some of the leading players in digital media and interviews including keynote speaker, Adeo Ressi, serial entrepreneur who anonymously started www.thefunded.com and went by his pseudonym of “Ted” until recently being unmasked and featured in Wired magazine. The funded now boasts 6000 CEOs as members and we definitely recommend it as a resource to those looking to raise funding the right way. And, as always, stay tuned for many more resources, tools and services that will ensure that your venture realizes it’s potential!