The event

Ibreakfast is …

The Monthly Meeting at the Capital of the Web’s “Storefront”

The monthly iBreakfast Club meeting promises to showcase the Silicon Alley movers and shakers in the context of the entire technology marketplace. That means the Breakfast Club will feature the people behind breaking news and the technologies about to make a difference.. Attendees also have the opportunity to network with other seasoned players in the New Media Technology industry.

The event was …

How Entrepreneurs can tap new sources of capital

Money is available in all kinds of places today from crowdfunding to the alternate VCs like the CIA. Here’s how to look in new kinds of places and in fresh ways. As we search for new sources of capital we have put together a group of new ideas for funding and growing your business with innovative solutions.

Alan Brody

Alan started by talking about who gets funding.

There are two classes of start-ups that usually get funding. The people that get most of the money most of the time have 10 years domain experience in a well established company. They have identified a problem that is very specific to their industry and they have walked off with either a customer list, key team of that company. So think of a bunch of guys at IBM that have figured out what the biggest problem… know who the customers are, stolen the team that knows how to develop that service and walked off with them.

I can tell you right now that their check is already in the mail.  From an investor point of view the chances of recouping your money is about 80 %, the chances of making good money is 60 %. The google’s, the 22 year olds, the 23 year olds with out of the ballpark ideas don’t pop up that often.  Especially in the New York environment it’s that middle league that gets most of the money and it’s that middle league that is not being laid off.

So, what’s happening is we’re seeing all kinds of people that are forced to think entrepreneurial with really no interest whatsoever in the VC community.  And the other kind is the serial entrepreneurial, the successful entrepreneur of any age.

The main focus of the breakfast was to think about what is coming up, what are people doing that is bringing un-thought kinds of money as well as structural changes that will deliver these types of benefits.

Stephen E. Arnold

The business model is that when you get software from IBM, micro soft, ORACLE  you’re in a cage.

So the whole premise of open source is not that its really cheaper or better it’s that you’re not in a cage.

Its really not going to be that much different but this is a very powerful idea.

In my research … Google is saying that they are an open source company. I don’t think they really want to be an open source company I think it is how do we get from here to there.

And Google is now using this open source play in 6 market sectors.

They are going to be very disruptive. They may not make any money but the disruption is what creates the opportunity for you.

He goes on to talk about other projects.

“ Lucene. ” It is downloadable software for search. Find it here.   You can search content.

Since we have a president that is pushing Open Source and funding sources are now available S.A has called all of this a game changer.

The same thing is happening in the U.K  Arnold mentioned.

So what you ask?

Stephen Arnold will say to you..

Funding of open source in the $300 million range. Which is nothing but so far in 2009 it has not been cut off. And why is that important? Because these companies, which you’ll recognize, have been putting funds into open source play in software.

The encouraging thing, which is really new, is that money will be available from government funding entities in the US and the UK and that means the same thing will flow out of the EC.

So this is new money. YOU’VE HEARD IT HERE.

I’m not sure if this is exactly the equivalent of the California Gold rush but this is something new to think about if you are looking for funds and you’re looking for a new angle.

Open source is definitely up in the air. There isn’t that much of a track record and everyone has to watch it. The reason why this is worth many people’s attention is because the President is fully pushing for new projects and ventures in this space. Once Obama says “ I want this ” and the CIA funds it this is the real deal.

____________________________________
VC companies aggressively looking to fund Open Source

Bench Mark capital
BV Capital
CMEA Capital
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Ignition Partners
Intel partners
Redpoint
Trinity

Allan T. Young

Allan mainly spoke about PCM exchange as a viable new platform to connect entrepreneurs and investors.

The vision is for PCM exchange to become a watering hole for both entrepreneurs and investors where actual transactions can be made online. The whole process can be managed through the site and provides a great value add for both parties.

They also have a secondary market for anyone interested in selling their business and/or trading private equity shares with third party investors. This is a great opportunity for many companies who aren’t quite ready for an IPO yet would still like take part in similar exchanges.

As the world changes drastically everyone is looking and experimenting with new models.

Slava Rubin

Slava opened up by speaking about Film maker Robert Greenwald. He is a documentarian who wanted to make a movie called “ Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.” He wanted to raise $750,000. He had reached a cap through his normal means of raising money and raised $350,000. He already had a following from his previous documentaries and so he had a novel idea about sending out e-mails throughout a 9-day time period looking to raise the gap amount. He offered credit not profit. He got an average of $1,000 per contribution. He funded the movie and everyone got credit.

Indie GoGo takes this idea of crowd-sourcing and engaging audiences to the next level.

The different levels in the film process

Fund raising
Production
Distribution
Promotion
Discovery

The earlier you can get your sales… If you get them before your distributing, if you can get them when you’re fundraising,  if you can get them when your producing you’re already ahead of the game.

Indie GoGo will likely evolve into a platform for crowdsourcing and audience engagement for many different industries. Slava mentioned that they simply started in the film space.

It’s the best of times and the worst of time in the media space. It’s the best of times because production costs are low, distribution cost are down, social media is making it easier to find a niche audience. Its also the worst of times because independent film houses are getting crushed and it’s progressively difficult to sell content online.

Slava also spoke about the reason selling is so difficult right now is because audiences are so fragmented. People need to figure out how to engage with them almost on a one-to-one basis.

Indie Go Go allows you to post, pitch your project, raise money and build an audience.

Slava mentions that if you raise $1 from anyone they’ll likely be a huge marketing power for you because they’ll promote enough to probably get you an extra $100.

The site will allow you use custom widgets and post it on different social media websites.

They launched at Sundance in 2008 and are in 90 countries. Sundance winners and Hollwood regulars are using the website as a tool for funding raising and marketing.

Slava meets with many top people in the film industry. He knows what is happening, he knows what is going to happen and is a go to person regarding the future in the film space.

If you’re looking for someone who really knows this space your audience will be delighted to hear from him.

The host

Alan Brody runs ibreakfast and ievening events. He brings an immense amount of passion and knowledge to all his events.

The social crowd + The networking crowd

It is a diverse crowd and was actually hard to pinpoint. Ibreakfast and ievening events bring an eclectic mix of people and it provides a platform for different points of view on the same subject.

The venue

Cresa Partners hosts many of the ibreakfast and ievening events. The offices provide for great meetings regardless of size of the group. They have space for many and can adjust the space for smaller crowds.

They have commercial real estate available. If you need anything from Cresa Partners be sure to reach out to Jack who is the senior vice president.

Difficulty in getting in

Pay. That’s it.

Future information needed

Here you go…

Notables

Other than the speakers ….

Herman Sperling. He is working on a potential innovation for the music industry with a few major music icons. Who? You’ll have to ask him yourself.  3D incorporated.

Last chaser notes

Ibreakast is doing an entrepreneurs day in association with Fordam University on September 14th  2009. This will give an opportunity for entrepreneurs to mingle with each other and hear from other people that are going through the same thing.

Also, a  thank you to Ellen Schaeffer and Alan Brody and thank you to Allan T Young for the meeting.