Selling your business? Who will buy ? How to go about it?

Written by

Paul HauckPrincipal at ICT Strategic Consulting

SME owners often think they know the likely buyers for their business, but many are surprised when they actually go to market. Often, the unlikeliest buyers have the strongest motivations to buy and will support much better valuations than obvious buyers will.

Ignoring unexpected possibilities leads vendors to undervalue their business and ‘leave cash on the table’ when they sell.

Some owners don’t realise their business is saleable at all – or could be with a little work. Many businesses are shuttered or run down to let owners retire, just because they didn’t know the value of what they had or simply failed to prepare properly (more on that another day).

A little open-minded thought and outside advice can open owners’ eyes to possibilities that make a huge change in their results – and their lifestyles.

A few recent examples in the Australian ICT M&A market:

A small local implementation partner specialised in a single product from a multinational software vendor’s portfolio. The vendor, however, offered significantly higher commission rates to partners handling a wider range of their software. We ultimately found another partner that could increase their revenue dramatically by acquiring our client to extend their portfolio coverage. The cost of acquisition was small by comparison, allowing a great deal for the vendor while still providing huge benefits to the buyer. 

A domestic software vendor was well aware of prices paid for competitors that had sold to larger players in the same market. Foreseeing a similar result, their expectations were reasonable when the time came to sell the business. By casting a wide net, we were able to identify an American business that was keen to enter the market, at a time when the value of the Australian dollar had dropped dramatically. While domestic buyers were still working with the same valuations, the international buyer was much more flexible, owing to their additional buying power, and the vendor achieved a much better result. 

Another vendor was very concerned about the market coming to know that the business was ‘for sale.’ They sought to carefully constrain the range of prospective buyers contacted about a potential sale, expecting that the known buyers in the market would be their only potential acquirers. As a 3rd party, we could ensure approaches were conducted on a ‘no names’ basis until serious interest was established and we convinced them to allow us to talk to their key customers as well. Their key customer was keen to extend their market and saw the opportunity to combine their purchasing with the vendor with the acquisition price to support a significantly better valuation than was available from the more obvious buyers. 

These and other examples show the importance of ‘casting a wide net’ when it comes to prospective buyers, particularly for smaller companies. There are a lot more buyers who could handle and $2M deal than a $20M deal. As a result, valuations for smaller deals tend to show much more variation and the impacts of finding a more motivated buyer can be dramatic.

It’s important to keep an open mind when drawing up your ‘long list’ of people to contact about a potential sale. Some of the obvious prospects to consider include:

• Anyone that has purchased a business in your space or of your type in the recent past
• Customers and potential customers where ‘vertical integration’ might make sense (to them) and/or if you have a key or anchor customer with mutual dependence between companies
• Suppliers and potential suppliers to extend or control more of their own supply chains, particularly if you are a distributor or channel partner, or focussed on one product
• Competitors and potential competitors looking to extend their presence in the market and/or build the overall scale and value of their own business
• Complimentary providers of allied or related products or services to your customers, or customers similar to yours, who might seek to integrate your respective customer bases
• International or regional potential competitors, whether they are active in this market or not
• Businesses in other markets with a related business model seeking ‘horizontal integration’
• Overseas companies that might enter this market, particularly if your business has sufficient scale (A$10+M revenue, generally) to be a viable as a market entry and/or if your product or service could be taken into overseas markets as well
• Private Equity, Venture Capital (PE/VC) or other investors, where your business has the potential to support aggressive growth with professional management
• Staff and management – current employees who might support a Management Buy-Out of Buy-In (MBO/MBI) on their own, or with appropriate investor backing
• Owner-operators – someone looking to ‘buy themselves a job’ (yours), particularly for smaller businesses that might suit someone retiring out of a corporate position
• ‘Product stable’ operators – firms that specialise in buying and operating firms or products like yours (for example, several specialise in buying up ‘mature’ software businesses)
• Consolidators seeking to build larger companies by combining a number of smaller ones, either integrating or ‘federating’ the businesses for economies of scale
• The public via share market listing on the ASX or other public market, for businesses that are large enough

An open brain storming session and some research using a list of ideas like this can often generate a list of prospects many times longer than our vendor clients initially expect. Lots of the entries on that list are going to be ‘long shots,’ but it doesn’t cost much to approach them, and when one pays off, the value can be well worthwhile.

This highlights 3 of the key benefits of using an external 3rd party M&A advisor like ICT Strategic Consulting:

1. Objective and open-minded approach to expand your own thinking
2. Able to approach many prospects without distracting you from running your business
3. Confidential 3rd party that can approach sensitive contacts on a ‘no names’ basis

Australia's leading investors spill their guts on recent investments

Great article from http://blog.recomazing

 06-Jul-2017 10:17:53 / by Marc Cowper

As data driven entrepreneurs we are trained to seek greater insight through actual behaviour. 

Past sales behaviour is our best data point for forecasting next financial year's profit. Past conversion behaviour helps us predict a new marketing campaign's ability to capture leads...and so on. 

So why don't we apply this same approach to capital raising?

After going through two rounds of funding for Recomazing I found most information focused on generic advice rather than prior behaviour. 

With this in mind we asked Australia's leading investors* to answer the same questions on their most recent investment. The result is a collective insight based on past behaviour to help you get investor ready. 

NB if you're an investor that would like to contribute please reach out and we'll add you.

First, we'll kick off with a brief summary of the insights...

 

And now, for all you eager beavers, we'll dig into the detail. Take it away investors...

 

 

What was the last business you invested in?

Co-commerce is a set of proven tools to automate sales, increase customer loyalty and decrease the cost of doing business with other hospitality businesses. It has been operating 2+ years

How did they first contact you?

We first met Leigh Sherman and Joshua Chittick in 2014 through a Startup Weekend hackathon which we ran at the York Butter Factory coworking space. It was at this event where they came up with the Co-commerce concept (then known as Pantree). This was also the first time that Leigh and Joshua had met; they spontaneously decided to form a team together to work on Co-commerce, and ended up taking first prize at Startup Weekend.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

What was most impressive was that they had validated the idea with many hospitality operators within a short timespan of 54 hours through Startup Weekend. They were clearly solving a pain-point for these operators.

More impressive was the ability and tenacity of the founders, who worked incredibly hard over the weekend (and who have since shown to be even more tenacious than we originally thought!).

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

1 year.

While we liked the concept, the company was still far too early for us to invest in, and they had not yet found real product-market fit. After winning Startup Weekend, Leigh and Josh worked from York Butter Factory for 1 year, building 7 different iterations of the Co-commerce product and pitching us monthly.

After a year, when they had shown sufficient traction and demonstrated their tenacity and dedication, we decided to invest in the company.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

We invest in Seed to Series A rounds (between $100k - $1m). The revenues we target are B2B SaaS, FinTech, IoT, and in the future HealthTech.

This investment differed from the norm as the investment size was smaller than our usual cheque size (as we had almost finished investing our first fund), and because the timing from first contact to deal was far longer than normal due to the early-stage nature of the company.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

Wrong product-market-founder fit.

  

 

What was the last business you invested in?

HyperAnna is an Artificial Intelligence for Analytics which has been operating for 12 Months.

How did they first contact you?

We were referred by a close friend of the fund.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

Natalie and Sam are two of the most impressive, product-centric founders I've ever met.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

1 Week.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

We love to be the first institutional investor in very young companies. We can write small cheques and will happily work with other helpful co-investors at the early stage. That being said, we can also invest up to $20m+ (we recently led a $25m Series B round for Prospa, for example). These deep pockets are great for our existing companies, but also mean we can partner with companies at Series A and Series B.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

A lack of evidence that customers love the product. This need not be monetisation, but engagement and retention are key metrics for us.

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in? Shippit’s technology seamlessly connects retailers to carriers, selecting the best carrier for every shipment and allows shoppers to track deliveries in real time to result in cost & time savings and a better overall experience for both retailers and end customers.

The SAAS business started booking their first parcels in December 2014 and up to June 2015 were processing around 100 deliveries per month. Shippit are now processing over 250,000 deliveries per month which equates to over c.1.5% of the Australian delivery market.

How did they first contact you?

We have been pretty close to Will and Rob (Shippit founders) for quite a while now and have always stayed in touch. We also looked at the business when it was doing its seed round, which was too early for us, however we really liked the team so we kept close to the opportunity. The timing of this round for us was perfect as we had just made a first close in our new ESVCLP (the Aura Venture Fund) and they had reached a point in their business where they gained a significant amount of traction and were looking for some strategic investors to help them expand more quickly in Australia and into Asia (where we have a strong footprint).

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

It is an incredibly scalable business model – that is the first thing we loved about the business. Secondly, they have identified a real problem in sector that has significant tail-winds and addressed it using an extremely sticky piece of software that once companies start using, cannot live without. There is a true network effect with the aggregated volumes and pricing. Their churn rate is to date virtually zero. The technology they have built is clean, user friendly and seamless despite its complexity and requirement to integrate with a large number of carriers and online retailers. Finally, the management team are first-class. Both really great operators who we get on really well with.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

2 months.

As I mentioned before, we had been pretty close to Shippit for quite some time so had a pretty good understanding of the business model and the guys behind it. However, once we formally engaged Shippit, it took about two months to complete due diligence and finalise terms etc.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

We typically like to come in at the growth/expansion stage once a company has validated its product or service through real traction in the form of revenue. $1m for us is a pretty good litmus test. In terms of industry we are comfortable looking at a range of verticals however because a central pillar to our thesis is adding strategic value and extracting portfolio synergies – we are tending to build out in data & analytics, fintech, e-commerce, as-a-service models. Finding a solid, sticky business model is more important to us than sector. In terms of investment size, we have the ability to deploy cheques from $500k to $5m which on $5m-$20m EV companies usually gives us enough equity to be able to influence the business.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

I would say that either a company is too early for us or we are unable to identify how we can add real strategic value to the business.

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in?

Uniti Wireless is a fixed wireless internet service provider delivering NBN like speeds at ADSL like prices. They have been operating 3 years.

How did they first contact you?

Through an advisor that we have known for years and has brought us good deals in which we have invested in the past.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

The business had initial market traction, the founders knew their numbers and business inside out, had figured out a compelling, high gross margin business model that could be cash flow generative even without external investment (albeit at slower pace.). The business had already attracted backing and advice from industry heavyweights - further validation of their business model. Founders pitched with confidence and clearly complemented each others' skill sets. The founders had operated and exited successful businesses in the past. However hopefully this is their most successful yet...

Approximately how long between first contact and deal? 3 months. The time taken from being initially contacted by an advisor to set up an initial pitch, progress through initial screening, more detailed due diligence and finally for the company to close the deal with other investors.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

Our sweet spot for earlier stage investing is to invest in companies that have initial traction (and corresponding revenue) that validates their product in market. Ideally the parts of the business model that remain to be proven out are more to do with roll-out / expansion and further market penetration. We are industry agnostic and investments have more to do with the calibre of the management team and our ability to gain confidence in their ability to execute on the plan presented. We also typicaly seek deals where there is a clear pathway to an exit. In this case Uniti was upfront that they were seeking a listing within 24 months and were very clear about the metics required to achieve this outcome.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

Too early / product has not been proven / Not easily scaleable / Crowded space

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in? Practice Ignition is a Software as a Service business providing practice management software to professional services firms, with a focus on the accounting sector. Professional firms use the platform to generate online proposals and secure digital signatures, to onboard clients, manage the scope of engagements, automate invoicing and process payments. The platform helps to streamline activities, ensure compliance and manage cash flows. The platform also provides a range of analytical tools to provide real-time reporting and insight into the firm’s financial performance. They had been operating for approximately 4 years.

How did they first contact you?

Guy Pearson (founder) was referred to us by one of our investors. We always prefer referrals from trusted sources. We had an informal coffee in the first instance - which proved to be $3.50 well spent! After we decided to lead the round, we approached other investors together with the PI. If you have existing investors, often asking them to make the intro on your behalf or talk to new investors directly can be the best type of introduction as showing you have existing support or going through existing relationships is almost always an easier channel than going in cold.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

In truth the initial pitch was less polished than many others we see. Our challenge as investors is to look past the polish as best we can, and to take a view on the underlying market opportunity, the product and the team. Practice Ignition addresses a global market undergoing significant change. Its product is best in class, it has widespread adoption across some 20 countries with almost no offshore marketing and the team are industry insiders with a deep understanding of their market and a track record of driving innovation in the space. The pitch was less about blue sky and more about current traction and customer engagement. In our experience, this type of well-grounded, frank and honest approach to a pitch is often the most convincing.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

6 months. Unfortunately it often takes much longer than you expect to finalise an investment. This investment involved multiple VCs with the Microequities VC Fund leading the round which meant there was added complexity in the deal. It took about 6 months from first contact to closing the round.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

We have a broad investment mandate to invest in packets of $500,000 - $5million and our ‘typical investment’ is a Series A investment at around a $1-1.5million cheque size. We look to back exceptional founders solving real problems that can show a track record of execution and momentum. We only invest post revenues and are looking for businesses that can show a proven product market fit and are seeking capital to rapidly expand on the back of a product and strategy that has shown an early propensity to scale.

We do not have any mandated sector bias but we look for high conviction opportunities where we feel we can really add value and help the business succeed. Our fund is a $25million fund and we are looking for a relatively small number opportunities (around 10 in this fund and more again in the next) that we can support in the long term through follow on rounds and all stages of growth if possible. This means that we do have an internal bias towards business models that we understand and have been involved in before. We have a lot of experience in helping SaaS companies and marketplace business scale and so we do have a limited preference in favour of these models and others we have worked with.

In terms of stage of growth and revenues, a typical investment might have GP of $30K - $300K but this is not a fixed rule and beyond revenues, we look for traction (which might be shown in a way other than revenues alone) and a compelling ability to scale. Practice Ignition was near the centre of our mandate spectrum in terms of profile but was unique as it involved several VCs, more than normal, which means added complexity. Our hope is that having smart people around the table will pay off in the long term given the effort taken to finalise the round.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

Analysing the investment involves many considerations and there is no one common reason that an investment would not be a fit for our fund. We see a lot of great opportunities that we have to pass on as we can only invest in the very small number of businesses that are the right combination of stage, sector, market opportunity, risk, investment quantum, personalities, historical growth, exit potential and many other considerations. Broadly speaking, we are looking for opportunities that align with our internal skills sets and fund focus to create the VC/founder team that is most likely to succeed.

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in?

INAMO are a Wearable payment lifestyle platform that have been operating for 12 Months.

How did they first contact you?

Referral.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

Founder background, coachabiity and quality.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

3 months.

What does a typical investment look like for you?

Seed, $250k-$2mill, Scalable, strong founder, good research and validation on product / market fit, good understanding of customer acquisition and journey.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

Founder quality, not scalable, no validation.

  

 

 What was the last business you invested in? 

Our eighth and most recent investment was in a company called Assignar where we led their $3m funding round. It is led by a team with significant industry expertise and is a cloud based SaaS platform built to help construction contractors improve efficiency and safety by providing for end-to-end real-time management of workforce, assets and compliance. Whilst sub-contractors today rely on paper and excel spreadsheets to track people, assets, certifications, inductions and forms, Assignar allows contractors to use digital and mobile forms enabling scheduling, compliance, communication and real-time tracking. Assignar now counts companies like UGL, Lendlease, Sydney Trains and Liebherr among their significant active client base in both Australia and the United States.

How did they first contact you? 

Assignar came to us through a mutual contact and prior relationship. Our business is relationship driven and we pride ourselves on our reputation as being founder-friendly and adding real value to the businesses and founders we back. Of the 20+ businesses we see weekly, the majority of the opportunities that we see come from our investment team, strategic investors, previous founders that we’ve backed and worked with and other relationships that we’ve formed. We also search for businesses and review inbound opportunities daily.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

We first and foremost back founders. Sean, the founder of Assignar, gave the first pitch and we were very impressed with him. Sean is a serial entrepreneur and built a large sub-contracting business so we were impressed with his track record of execution and domain industry knowledge. He is also a really genuine, honest, humble and down-to-earth guy and his passion for the business and the opportunity ahead really came through. We also felt that we’d have a lot of fun working with Sean and partnering with Assignar. In addition to ticking the “founder” and “fun” boxes, Assignar is a fantastic business that we are confident will deliver great returns for our fund. It is capturing a market with very loyal customers and the feedback, usage and revenue metrics are all impressive. It’s sticky recurring revenue with an opportunity to grow significantly, both in Australia and offshore and a team that can execute. We also have some great value to add so we are very excited about it.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

2 months. A couple weeks of meetings and getting to know each other’s teams, a few weeks of due diligence and documentation and a few weeks closing the deal. We can move very quickly and we don’t like to distract the business from their mission unnecessarily.

What does a typical investment look like for you? 

We have a relatively flexible mandate and are industry and sector agnostic. Having said that, our ‘sweet spot’ is a business that is post-product, post-revenue and that has found a product market fit and is generating revenue from that market. It also obviously needs to be run by an exceptional team with ‘skin in the game’. Ideally the business has growing traction and is looking for a partner to help it grow and capture the opportunity. Assignar was right in the sweet spot being a SaaS B2B business with substantial revenues, an impressive initial customer list and the desire to grow and capture the market.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

There are a range of reasons why we pass on an investment opportunity. Sometimes the business is either too early or too late for where we’re looking to deploy funds at that time and sometimes we don’t feel that the opportunity is the right one for us. In all circumstances though, where appropriate, we try to connect those opportunities that aren’t for us with people in our network who might be able to assist.

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in?

InDebted is changing the way businesses collect outstanding debts. Their platform helps businesses of all sizes collect more debts, in less time, by leveraging modern communications, automation and machine learning. They are committed to bringing positive change to this industry, ensuring that all parties are treated fairly and with respect. This SAAS company has been in operation for 1.5 years.

How did they first contact you? 

Through a mutual connection.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

It was the first instance where we had seen a business applying a software and AI solution to a fairly antiquated and manual industry with no other local technology competitors.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

2 months.

What does a typical investment look like for you? 

We come in at Seed to Series A and like to follow on after that. Our industry is Fintech and adjacencies, with a deal size of up to 6 million investment. This deal did not differ from that mandate.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

It is either too early, the founders aren’t strong enough or the business model has not been fully thought out.

 

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in? 

Practice Ignition’s software as a service (SaaS) accounting online platform helps automate elements of the accounting process, offering accountants an easy way to manage their work in the cloud. It was founded in 2011.

How did they first contact you? 

Referral.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

Co-founders Guy and Dane are a strong team with a deep connection to the set of customer pain points that Practice Ignition seeks to solve.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

6 weeks. It took a bit under two weeks to a term sheet and we closed a few weeks after that.

What does a typical investment look like for you? 

There's no fixed investment horizon for our fund although our centre of gravity is Seed and Series A+ investments, plus follow-ons. We invest in technology companies based in Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia. Practice Ignition was a Series A investment.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

We love working with founders who are experts in their own fields and who have a strong connection to problem they're tackling.

 

 

 

 

What was the last business you invested in? 

Founded in 2012, Vero’s vision is to be an automated, event-based CRM for businesses with massive customer scale by turning raw customer data into tailored comms.

How did they first contact you? 

We were introduced to Chris by other founders in our network.

What impressed you most about the business in their first pitch?

Chris – he’s bootstrapped the business until now; he is smart and driven.

Approximately how long between first contact and deal?

Approx. 6 months.

What does a typical investment look like for you? 

This fits our desire to invest in great Australian founders and take a material stake with a board position. Series A is in our sweetspot, noting that we are pretty flexible as to stage.

What is the most common reason you pass on an investment opportunity after an initial pitch?

We are judging the founder(s)' ability to scale the opportunity. 

 

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I hope this insight into prior behaviour has given you a clearer understanding of where your business needs to be in order to be investor ready! 

As always, feel free to reach out and let me know what other topics you'd like help on.

Topics: capital raise, venture capital

Written by Marc Cowper

Founder @Recomazing Non Exec Director @ Fishburners Board Advisor @ Newco. See everything I recommend for business growth here: https://www.recomazing.com/members/marccowper

How to make a Crowdfunding Campaign succeed

This is a guest post of Bob Pritchard by Andrew Ochoa, CEO of Waverly Labs.

 

We believed we had something incredible: the world’s first translating earpiece. On May 25, 2016, we launched our campaign for Pilot: Smart Earpiece Language Translator, and we had immediate, runaway success. In 15 minutes, we reached our initial goal of $75,000, within two hours, we raised $1 million, $2.4 million in 30 days and now have $5 million in pre-order sales.

 

Our success was not just because of an innovate product. It was the result of lots of careful planning during every step of our development.

Why crowdfunding?

We bootstrapped from personal funds and a small investment from friends and family, but we decided that crowdfunding was the best launch strategy for Pilot. Backers of crowdfunding projects skew high towards “innovator” and “early adopter”and Pilot seemed like a good fit for this audience.

 

Our launch strategy had three stages: pre-launch, launch and post-launch. The success of the campaign is based on pre-launch strategy, and if we didn’t execute well we wouldn’t have a successful campaign.

Pre-launch growth strategy

We established our funding goal, based on hitting our development milestones. We then encouraged our own community to contribute so we didn’t fall for the biggest myth of crowdfunding. People expect crowdfunders to show enthusiasm no matter what. But if you just launch it, they will NOT come. No matter how great the product, they will not contribute unless it is an immediate success.

 

The major component of the pre-launch was a strategy to build excitement weeks before the launch. This strategy included a teaser video, press outreach, ad spend and a rewards campaign, all with the purpose of driving traffic and increasing email signups to our website.

Teaser video.

We cut our full campaign video to create three separate teaser versions for different uses (Youtube, Facebook, website, etc). The teaser would create curiosity without giving away too much information and would encourage people to go to our website to learn more.

Referral campaign

We placed email signup forms throughout the website to amplify lead capture. We offered a giveaway of the Pilot and more entries into a raffle every time that person shared the campaign on social media.



Press outreach

We got a few press contacts to write about us and compiled a press list to pitch quickly via email.

Advertising

We allocated a few thousand dollars for ad spend on multiple platforms, including YouTube, Reddit and Facebook. We ran the teaser videos across these platforms during a test phase.   Facebook was by far the best platform for outreach, engagement, social sharing and ability to reach a target audience.

Execution

We ran the teaser video online a few weeks before the campaign, the referral program picked up and social shares increased. We went viral, 175,000 email signups in 2 weeks and the video was shared over 40,000,000 times on social media and press. We launched and it took off..

The pre-launch strategy success was due to an interesting product, we told a simple story: boy meets girl and the referral campaign encouraged people to like and share. You can’t have virality without sharing.

Launch

The video is the first thing people want to see. We had a minimal budget,

The focus of the video was product, team and traction with no technical details. We had an exciting thumbnail and enticing headline.

• Emphasize social media shares
• Create social proof through media/press
• Show how it works with detailed product pics
• Simplify the idea for the average person to understand.
• Provide testimonials from real people
• List the features and specs of what it does
• Reveal technological magic of how it works as proof
• Call to action: company history, the challenges, then ask for help
• Compelling rewards: infographic with clear/concise reward tiers
• History and roadmap / timeline
• Showcase the team
• We hired a designer to help us layout the page.

Post-campaign

To maintain momentum we stayed in communication with our community and moved our campaign into Indiegogo InDemand, which allows you to continue funding and taking pre-orders after the campaign has ended. We hired a Director of Marketing to keep our community engaged and responding to their questions.

 

Brilliant…that is how you do it.

 

The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%

Melbourne edutech startup Verso Learning raises $2 million for US expansion

• Gina Baldassarre
• 22nd Jun 17
• 2 MIN READ

http://www.startupdaily.net/2017/06/melbourne-edutech-startup-verso-learning-raises-2-million-us-expansion/

 

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• Melbourne edutech startup Verso Learning, which looks to assist teachers both in the classroom and with their own professional learning and development, has raised a $2 million Series A round led by Ken Lowe, cofounder of Canberra Data Centres.

Launched in 2014 by Colin Wood, having evolved out of his previous company Learnology, Verso previously raised a seed funding round, as well as innovation funding from the Victorian Government.

The startup’s platform looks to give educators analytical insights into their students’ work, allowing them to create data-driven teaching strategies to best engage all types of learners. It also enables teachers to connect and share their strategies.

Lowe, who spent almost two decades as a high school teacher, said, “Verso Learning disrupts the traditional teacher training model by providing teachers with ongoing, timely feedback and the tools they need to teach at their best every day.”

With Verso currently used by over 40,000 teachers in over 12,000 schools globally, the fresh funding will go towards further scaling the company’s offering and tailoring it to different markets, particularly in the US, where it’s being used in California, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Texas.

According to Wood, the platform has taken hold as schools increasingly seek alternatives to the “expensive, disruptive, and often ineffective” traditional training exercises like seminars and training days.

He said, “For less than the cost of sending one teacher to a half day of traditional training, Verso can deliver a full year of ongoing, continuous professional development.”

In Australia, the startup’s platform has been used in Victoria and NSW, where it was recently awarded NESA accreditation by the NSW Department of Education to allow teachers to use Verso as part of their professional learning requirements.

Also looking to assist teachers in better engaging with students is Sydney-founded Smart Sparrow, which in April raised a $5.3 million Series C round, led by OneVentures, to help further expand into the US.

Founded in 2008 by Dror Ben-Naim, a researcher at the University of New South Wales, Smart Sparrow offers teachers and university professors an online platform where they’re able to design their own online course content to create an interactive and ‘adaptive’ learning experience for students.

Educators are able to integrate tutorials, interactive content, simulations and media into their course, which can be edited at any time. Course creators are then able to view student’s progress in real-time and visualise course data.

Image: the Verso team. Source: Supplied

WINNING CREATIVE3 PITCH HELPED DARREN TONKIN’S PHOTO SHARING APP ‘CUT THROUGH ALL THE NOISE’

Darren Tonkin (left) from Storyboard Social, winning the Creative3 Pitch in 2016

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/featured/winning-creative3-pitch-helped-darren-tonkins-photo-sharing-app-cut-through-all-the-noise.html

BY JAMES HARKNESS / FEATURED, NOTICEBOARD, START-UP / 19 JUN 2017

Start-ups selected to participate in Creative3 Pitch, QUT Creative Enterprise Australia’s annual creative-tech pitching competition, will compete for a place in StepUp, Virgin Startup’s mini-accelerator program in London. The winner will also secure the right to represent Australia at the international Creative Business Cup (CBC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, where there will be opportunities to connect with investors and other entrepreneurs. 

Up to eight applications will be chosen to participate in the Creative3 Pitch semi-finals in July, with four businesses progressing to the finals, which will be held at the annual Creative3 conference in Brisbane on 22 September. Applications for the Creative3 Pitch are now open and will close on June 26.

According to CEA’s acting CEO, Mark Gusowski, the prizes available to the winner of Creative3 represent opportunities ‘money can’t buy’.

“One of the most expensive and risky endeavours for a startup is building trusted international channels to market,” he told Dynamic Business. “By being a part of the Creative Business Cup and a part of StepUp – opportunities only available through the CEA network – the winner of Creative 3 Pitch will have exposure to hundreds of European angel investors, venture capitalists, strategic partners and supporters all in the one place, at the one time. The Virgin Startup program also introduces the winner to the whole of the Virgin Groups infrastructure and empire providing customer channels, experience and networks.

“To build and develop these trusted networks and connections can often take months, if not years, and also tens of thousands of dollars to develop. So, these two prizes will significantly accelerate the pace at which the winner can enter these international markets through trusted networks and intermediaries.”

Gusowski said initiatives such as Creative3 Pitch help “shine a spot light” on the importance of creative industries, both in Australia and internationally. He said he also hopes inspire budding entrepreneurs to “follow their passion towards launching the next Canva, Atlassian, Shoes of Prey or Trademark Vision”.

He added, “Whether you are purchasing fashion or wearables online, using graphics-based software, developing digital content or launching a fashion label, the creative industries collectively represent over $3.2 billion annually to the Australian export market, and contribute $45.9 billion in GDP.

The 2016 Creative3 Pitch winner, Darren Tonkin told Dynamic Business that winning the prestigious event enabled his photo sharing app, Storyboard Social, to cut through the “massive amount of noise” in Australia’s start-up ecosystem.

He explained, “The C3 Pitch provided Storyboard with a build-up of awareness through media coverage, as well as validation of the company. This has assisted us with connecting into business both across Australia- and internationally. At the end of the day, those business connections and that brand awareness is priceless.

“C3 Pitch also helped me take my pitching ability from that of public speaking or presenting at a university level, to a level where I can professional present and sell Storyboard Social. There is no better way to hone your pitching abilities to investors and other business leaders, than by entering and participating in a competition that is judged by the same audience you are already targeting.”

Tonkin said the opportunity to participate in StepUp and attend the International Creative Business Cup, where his startup placed 13 out of 65 participants, meant exposure to investors, business leaders and potential mentors.

“Since participating in CBC, I’ve retuned to Denmark to attend business events, including lunches with the Australian Ambassador and other business leaders in our field,” he said. “Just last week I had a new start-up out of Denmark get in touch because they had heard about me at CBC and wanted to know how we can work together”.

“I was lucky enough to be the first Australian startup selected by CEA to attend StepUp. For me, the program opened the door to the Virgin Brand globally. With little bit of hustle inside and outside of the camp I was able to meet with some amazing people and we are working on some big things on the horizon. So keep an eye on the Storyboard platform in the coming months!”