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361_  Interactive Media - Bridging Saskatchewan and Colorado
During the week of October 9, 2007 Deborah Black, President of the Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association will be joining a number of other Canadian organizations in a trade mission to Colorado. Deborah's organization is looking for partners on this two-way bridge between Canada and Colorado. They are looking for Colorado partner companies in addition to individuals who could be speakers at their events and developers in joint programs. Interactive communication, enabled by the application of new technologies and techniques is a rapidly evolving field. Saskatchewan Interactive started in 1995 and is in the leading edge of computer gaming in the traditional sense, moving into online games, advergaming, serious games, and games for health...education is also an important issue for them. LISTEN

Related Links:  Deborah's email || Doing Biz with Canada || In the News || David Smith: Denver Canadian Consulate || Building a Win/Win Bridge for Canada & the US || Keywords: Interactive Media, Saskatchewan, Deborah Black, Canada, Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association> Bytes: 7304780> 8/20/07

357_ What are Angel Investors Looking for in Return? (Part 1 of 2)
Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder has helped a number of entrepreneurs raise angel funding...the right way, and that's the key. If the company is going to go on a rapid or an accelerated growth path, it will likely need some amount of institutional financing. Angel investing can get you on that trajectory, allow you to hire employees, develop your business model, finalize prototypes, and establish that what you are doing has validation in the marketplace. And then be in a better position to seek venture financing money. Another reason is a trend over the last 4 or 5 years where the venture funds are doing a lot less early stage investing. So you’re seeing the Angel Investors filling in that gap. Mark also talks with Larry about the 4 things angels are looking for and business plan strategies.

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Interviews || CTEK Angels || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords:  Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, HRO, Angel Investors, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Venture Capital >> Channels: Venture Capital, It's the Law>Bytes: 5623957> LISTEN 8/13/07

360_  Angel Investors, Term Sheets, Valuation and Control (Part 2of 2)
A good target audience, vetting system, for your business plan or executive summary would be your corporate or business or finance lawyer. Because if they are not getting it after the first two sentences, it’s likely the angel investor isn’t going to do any better points out Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder as he addressed questions about getting healthy financing from angel investors. Mark brought up some poignant thoughts about term sheets and evaluation. Valuation is often looked at by the entrepreneur only in terms of ‘how much of the company am I going to have to give up?’ They’re not thinking about the return that the angle wants to have. The entrepreneur is thinking if my valuation of the company is $4 mil and I have to raise $2 mil, then I have to give up ½ of the company. There you see the entrepreneur’s interest is control, management, other issues; and they’re not really thinking ‘What makes sense for the angel?’ LISTEN Part 2 of 2

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Interviews || CTEK Angels || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital Channel || It's the Law Channel || Keywords:  Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, HRO, Angel Investors, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Venture Capital >> Channels: Venture Capital, It's the Law > bytes: 18325319 >8/20/07

358_  It was August 2001 and eBags came within $50K...   (Part 1 of 2)
"It was hard to attract someone because the Internet had gone into its dive; you know we’d entered into the ‘dot bomb’. Companies were failing every day, every business paper you picked up had on its front page 'this company went belly up, that one went belly up'..., We made it out of that;" reflects Jon Nordmark, co-founder and CEO of eBags. It was August 2001 and eBags came within $50K of making a profit that month and September we thought we were going to hit it – September 11 hit instead and it just blew the luggage market out of the water. The lessons we can learn by looking back can be invaluable. Starting in 1997, Jon was working at Samsonite, in charge of all the distribution channels there, from the marketing perspective, creating new products for them... And at the time Jon could see that the Internet could be what looked like, a major distribution channel. Most people didn't think it was possible to sell luggage to individual consumers on this thing called the Internet.

Related Links:  eBags || Profile of a Leader || In the News || Entrepreneurs || Keywords: Jon Nordmark, eBags, Luggage, Hand Bags, Samsonite, Entrepreneur, Leader, Online, Dot Bomb, Transparency Management> Bytes: 6863833 >8/13/07 LISTEN

359_  eBags Expanding While Deleting Its 50% Brain Drain (Part 2 of 2)
When we started eBags our goal was to create a billion dollar company. It takes a lot of capital; we ended up raising $30 million dollars (prior to 9/11) – that ended up being a great thing for eBags explains Jon Nordmark, co-founder and CEO of eBags. When I was trying to do eBags, I knew, from all the research I’d done, that 10% of all bag sales came from catalog sales. I was confident that at least that many would purchase online as they’d already bought without seeing and touching. Then we got into the shoe business – we sold that recently. It was very successful, quadrupled the size of the site in 3 years. It grew rapidly, but it only grew to be 11% of eBags total sales, but it was taking 50% of our heads! So what we’ve done is refocused back on bags. Larry and Pat also got some great entrepreneurial and networking advice from Jon. LISTEN Part 2 of 2

356_ IT Strategies for Physicians, Hospitals and the Patients
In the past physicians made notes into a paper file during your visit (some still do), and that was the ‘medical record’. When you left your doctor’s office, that paper went into a folder and sat on a shelf. There are many limitations to that, you can’t look at data across time. And you’re also limited if you go to a different doctor, because they have a different piece of paper that sits on a different shelf. We felt the ‘electronic record’ would bridge that gap and overall improve the delivery of care to patients. Terry Morreale, Senior Engineer, Applied Trust and Dena Somers, Director of Clinical Information Systems, Children’s Hospital discuss some life-saving IT strategies for physicians and hospitals as Children's actually has computers in every exam room. Dena describes her department as “The bridge between the IT department, the technologists and the clinicians."

Related Links:  Children's Hospital Denver || Women in IT Channel || Applied Trust Engineering || FIND It || Keywords:  Dena Somers, Clinical Information Systems, Children’s Hospital, Terry Morreale, Terry Morreale, Medical Record, IT Department
Channel: Women in IT >Bytes: 11246344> LISTEN 8/13/07

355_ International Human Rights Has a High-Tech Friend
Gillian Caldwell is a film maker and an attorney with experience in the areas of international human rights, civil rights, intellectual property, contracts, and family law. She is the Executive Director of witness.org, which uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy explore the makeup of and how Witness operates and Gillian's background as well as her take on the personal characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. She earned her way into the circle of fame of the NCWIT Heroes. Gillian was formerly the Co-Director of the Global Survival Network, where she coordinated a two-year undercover investigation into the trafficking of women for forced prostitution from Russia and the Newly Independent States that helped spur new anti-trafficking legislation in the U.S. and abroad.

Related Links:  Witness || NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || Keywords:  Gillian Caldwell, Witness , Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, Ticketmaster >Bytes: 20014710> LISTEN 8/13/07

357_ What are Angel Investors Looking for in Return? (Part 1 of 2)
Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder has helped a number of entrepreneurs raise angel funding...the right way, and that's the key. If the company is going to go on a rapid or an accelerated growth path, it will likely need some amount of institutional financing. Angel investing can get you on that trajectory, allow you to hire employees, develop your business model, finalize prototypes, and establish that what you are doing has validation in the marketplace. And then be in a better position to seek venture financing money. Another reason is a trend over the last 4 or 5 years where the venture funds are doing a lot less early stage investing. So you’re seeing the Angel Investors filling in that gap. Mark also talks with Larry about the 4 things angels are looking for and business plan strategies.

Related Links:  Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Interviews || CTEK Angels || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords:  Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, HRO, Angel Investors, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Venture Capital >> Channels: Venture Capital, It's the Law>Bytes: 5623957> LISTEN 8/13/07