Dot.com and Dot.bomb

The mid to late 90's saw a rise in various technology companies. Investors scrambling and dashing out money to get in on the technology boom. Any company branded as an internet company already seemed like a success even when they weren't and so investors were putting in their money into companies that looked more solid than they actually were.

Within the tech industries, there was huge acquisitions, and fierce competitions and in a technology industry, companies have to adapt speedily to stay alive; something several companies failed to do. Andrew Fry illustrated this idea with dinosaurs representing some very prominent companies including Compserv, yahoo, AOL etc. Just like the dinosaurs, the companies that did not adapt to the changes were wiped. Unlike yahoo! the crocodile lol.

Anyway, on a more serious note, i love crocodiles because they always look like they are smiling and happy to see you. Check this out:



GENIUS.

This serves as a note to tech company founders like us the students, technology is always evolving and we should always be quick to change and adapt as required..

John Dimmer Visit

Our class was introduced to funding by guest speaker John Dimmer. John Dimmer is an investor, entrepreneur and serves on the board of directors of several companies and a Managing member of FIRS management. John Dimmer attended clover park high school with our instructor Andrew Fry.

John Dimmer got a baseball scholarship at the University of Oregon where he studied accounting. After graduation, he returned to Washington to work for Puget sound bank. After that, he worked a couple of jobs and later started free range media with Andrew Fry in 1994. In 1999 he had a happy exit after selling the company to Luminant Worldwide.

After free range media, he also built up and sold another company. Prior to selling his company, he gave us tips on how to use Accounting principles to our advantage. His company had quite a bit of dept and that scared every buyer but he was able to transfer that dept to the equity and suddenly his company was very attractive to potential buyers. He went into a temporary retirement after selling his company but later got out of retirement to start a Honda dealership in Oregon.

Regarding funding, he was able to give us the different steps to funding your business.
1. Self funding - this comes from the founders savings.
2. Friends and families - the comes from the founders relatives and wealthy uncles.
3. Crowdfunding - Kick starter, indiegogo
4. Anger - this are investors willing to put in thousands of dollars into a business. They usually have networks of them like the Tacoma Angel Networks, Angels Alliance in Seattle etc.
5. First Round - this is the first series of funding the company has to take part in to grow.
6. Capital Round - this is the next round that involves raising capital to start the business.
7. Second Round - this is when the company has already started but needs to expand or just keep running.
8. Mezzanine - this is the pre IPO round.
9. Public Offering - this is when the company files for and IPO and is liquidated.

Amy Salin Visit

Guest speaker Amy Salin talked to us about the UW business plan competition. Amy Salin is the assistant director from the University of Washington's Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Seattle Campus. The UW business plan Competition is open to college students across the state.

She talked to us about 3 different challenges; the Health Innovation Challenge, Environmental Innovation Challenge and the Business plan competition. The health innovation challenge involves students coming up with innovative ways to improve the health industry. This includes accurately collecting health data, health apps, prototype challenge etc. The environmental challenge is sponsored my Alaska airlines and involves students coming up with innovative ways to tackle environmental problems.

The judges in this competition are investors themselves and participants that get through more often than not get investment from Angel investors and VC investors. Participants are asked to try to connect with the judges and try to get the judges connect to them. Also participants are asked to attend a mandatory 1 hour training with a panel of coaches to practice for the real show down.

The winners of the competition are given $70,000. In the six years of the competition, there have been 46 companies created and and 37 still in existence. These companies range from consumer products to tech and beyond. The competition is difficult and competitive but students are encouraged to apply and to at least get the experience of pitching to an investor.