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.

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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!

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Having heard the pros - and the cons - on producing full-scale business plans, I was unsure whether I was a believer or not in ‘The Biz Plan’. Some successful entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed for fundfindr.tv have indicated a strong Powerpoint and Pro forma will do the trick! Upon arriving at the Small Business BC 5^th Annual Business Plan Competition on February 26^th, I was still undecided. What I found out was an eye opener.

Our cameras captured the fun and reality of businss plans in this fundfindr.tv webisode as the finalists in the Growth and Start-up categories, fellow entrepreneurs, business associates and judges gathered to reveal the winners. Kudos to CEO Tara Gilbert, Jaeger Mah and the entire Small Business BC team for a first-class event and a record of 170 business plan entries. This was the first solo event I covered for fundfindr and I couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement; there was a definite buzz in the air! Besides the cash prizes, finalists were awarded with feedback on their business plans from a panel of impressive organizations like Canadian Youth Business Foundation and the Royal Bank of Canada.

What really empowered the event were the entrepreneurs themselves who were so passionate and dedicated to the growth of their venture. Fundfindr.tv caught up with the Start-Up finalists, first place winner James Shearer from Peragro Media Inc. , whose ventures include Trail Canada, with Teena Legris, owner of NiMa’ma Maternity, a new maternity retailer built around an innovative approach and natural fabrics and with Art Hornal , of the Angry Spirits Beverage company readying to launch MacStewart Brewery, a souped up microbrewery based on historical ethnic origins.

Find how passion, dedication and a determination to expand your venture can be brought on and succeed through a business plan. Check out this webisode and like me you’ll be a believer! And check out the first cameo of our new fundfindr.tv animated characters - beware the buffalo!

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At fundfindr.tv, we are fortunate to be able to share a window into the world of hot new ideas, ventures and products - now there is one that truly uses Windows - your Window desktop that is. One of our favorites recently is Gwabs, a video game that you play by powering up your icons and other desktop items before going into battle with a friend right on your desktop - the Fusion Forum judges also thought it had great potential, awarding it third place.

Join fundfindr.tv’s Danita Harty and Gwabs Executive Producer, Steve Bocska as they walk through a demonstration of Gwabs. Gwabs is one of the first commercial products coming out of the innovative group, Cambrian House.

For more on Fusion, check out our webisode and previous post. For other cool demos from companies presenting at Fusion, check out Firetonic from Razor Technology and Pul.se from Something Simpler, the second place award winner.

Yes, windmills on cars. How about a Solar strip down the middle of all our highways that cars plug into and the plug travels with them? Wacky? Yes. Creative? Absolutely. Picking the winners? Much tougher. An esteemed Panel shared some of the more outlandish ideas that had crossed their path in the CleanTech category yesterday at Globe 2008. A centrifuge in your basement 9 feet in diameter? Free energy from nothing? Replace all the highways with a monorail that would come to the front of your house and carry all the Internet and phone cables too?

As Marc van den Berg of Vantage Venture Partners of San Bruno, California noted though, you cannot always see the winners. He spoke of an entrepreneur Vantage passed on that had a cannon that shot a sail out from the back of container ships - that venture got funded and has proven to reduce fuel costs by 15% - who knew? As Marc stated, “As VCs, we are measured by our slugging %, not our batting average” so risk is a given and picking the winners equal parts skill and luck.

The latest event covered by fundfindr.tv was the Globe 2008 conference on Green Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and the Intersection of Business and the Environment. We connected with some of the up and coming entrepreneurs in the Trade Fair, noted the real international flavor of the delegates, speakers and attendees and most importantly for fundfindr.tv captured some insights on Cleantech Venture Funding.

A panel presentation shared the current trends and opportunities including over 300 cleantech deals in North America in 2007, over $7B in VC investment and that cleantech represented the fastest growing asset class for venture capitalists. Dr. Wal van Lierop of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital also noted that Energy Generation continued to be the biggest sector but that strong growth was also being seen in other classes.

Marc shared the following as the major drivers for CleanTech:

1. Oil/Gas Price volatility
2. Climate Change
3. World Economic Growth (great slide showing Beijing pollution)
4. Need for Energy Security
5. Public & Corporate Awareness
6. State level policy mandates on renewable energy

The panelists debated whether there was a cleantech bubble or the biggest economic opportunity of our lifetime? Write us a comment on what you think. Look for a follow-up post on the International view, exciting development in Canada on categories like microbials and a Top 10 list on the greatest challenges facing cleantech ventures and investment.

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.

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