Presenters at this week’s Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) PubTalk stepped up to the challenge of pitching their firms on the heels of OEN’s highly successful Angel Oregon 2010 competition held March 5th.

Orbo Sports, Inc., CEO Greg Johnson credits his wife for his initial and ongoing support, with whom he first shared his idea and who responded. “You’re brilliant, honey. Anything you do will succeed.” Orbo Sports is an online sports and lifestyle social network that provides connectivity, collaboration and self-expression for athletes and sports enthusiasts. Orbo Sports offers users a 360 degree online and offline experience and features relevant content about sports and the lifestyle that surrounds them.
greg@orbosports.com
www.orbosports.com
503-703-7749

Public Marketspace, Inc. CEO Nathan J. Wagner discussed what he feels is the number one issue with emerging entrepreneurs—competing on the internet with its cost of entry, available URLs, search engine optimization, and social marketing.  Public Marketspace is an online marketing channel for small businesses. The company’s first product, Publicmarketspace.com, is a social media and eCommerce (SaaS) platform for entrepreneurs, an online public market to attract customers, and a company committed to giving back to the merchant community.
nathan@publicmarketspace.com
www.publicmarketspace.com
503-866-4800

With the recent worldwide popularity of the 3D blockbuster film Avatar, CEO Mike Green made a strong case for his firm Vizitnow3D in the world of online commerce. Vizitnow3D builds revenue-generating navigable 3D replicas of real world environments, accessible via web browsers and mobile phones that can be used as marketing tools by high-traffic destinations. Introducing a disruptive innovative method of bringing consumers and merchants together in real time, Vizitnow3D capitalizes upon the exploding 3D trend by developing a niche in a wide open market.
Mike.green@vizitnow.com
www.vizitnow.com
541-730-2164

Mark April 14th on your calendar for the next OEN PubTalk. Watch for the upcoming announcement that will include the agenda and presenters.

A day in Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Venture Northwest 2009

Session 1: Presenting companies of OEN Venture Northwest 2009-Wicked Quick, Giftango, Lucid Commerce

Success story: Dave Moffenbeier of Zeba– Absorbent Technologies

"You could raise money in town, with a great story and distribution strategy" - Dave Moffenbeier

Wicked Quick -                                                  

Wicked Quick is a premium clothing and accessories brand rooted in the world of speed, rebellion and attitude. We currently offer lifestyle product at Nordstrom, Metropark, select Harley Davidson Dealership's and others. We also produce performance gear for professional teams including three-time NASCAR champion team Joe Gibbs Racing.

Giftango –

Giftango is focused on the NEXT stage of gift, loyalty and member cards with virtual cards delivered through computer and mobile phones. This means new promotions, incentives and rewards capabilities for merchants through an all-digital, carbon friendly fulfillment channel that is already proving more popular than plastic.

Lucid Commerce -

Lucid Commerce is the leading provider of media optimization solutions for marketers. Lucid Commerce enables marketers to see exactly what their real return on investment is for every marketing dollar they spend. Lucid Commerce has optimized over $600,000,000 in revenue for its clients.

Session 2: Presenting companies of OEN Venture Northwest 2009- Elemental Technologies, Shore power, Prolifiq and Calidora skin clinics

Success story: Jim Johnson of Tripwire. Tripwire's powerful configuration assessment and change auditing solutions let IT gain configuration control of the entire IT infrastructure.

Elemental Technologies –                          

Elemental Technologies is the leading provider of massively parallel processing solutions for video applications. Using off-the-shelf, programmable graphics processing units (GPUs) for compute-intensive video processing and conversion tasks, Elemental’s products are ideally suited for a variety of video applications including consumer media processing, professional video editing and Internet video processing.

Shore Power –

Shorepower Technologies builds, deploys and operates road-side plug-in stations that allow the nation’s 500,000 long-haul truck drivers to eliminate unnecessary idling during required rest periods, saving drivers an average of $4,000 per year on diesel fuel while significantly reducing associated toxic emissions.

Prolifiq -

Prolifiq provides on-demand software that accelerates sales and helps companies meet regulatory requirements by organizing, sending and tracking approved digital content throughout their sales processes. Prolifiq has transformed the sales operations of leading companies in the life sciences, technology and digital media industries.

Calidora Skin Clinic –                                           

Calidora offers custom tailored aesthetic solutions using cosmetic technologies and products under the care of medical practitioners and aestheticians in a friendly, retail environment. With 7 locations, 4 in Washington and 3 in Southern California, our goal is to become the leading national brand in this emerging, multi-billion dollar industry.

Session 2: Presenting companies of OEN Venture Northwest 2009- Shop Igniter, Advanced Inquiry systems, DesignMedix and Secondporch

Cularis, Inc. –

ShopIgniter is a real-time, social eCommerce platform with an intent-based search engine for Twitter, FaceBook and other popular social networks. It can manage multiple sales channels for products, including their marketing and promotion. Built for boutiques, small businesses and the enterprise, and delivered as a Software as a Service or download, ShopIgniter is a complete end-to-end solution for online sales.

Advanced Inquiry Systems -                  

Advanced Inquiry Systems, Inc. (AISI) is revolutionizing semiconductor test, helping our customers combat rising costs in the midst of falling product prices. Our unique solutions enhance flexibility for device design, greatly reduce test floor WIP, and nearly eliminate pad scrub, enabling at speed wafer test for flash, DRAM and logic devices.

DesignMedix –

DesignMedix develops novel pharmaceutical products for the treatment and prevention of life-threatening infectious diseases based on its proprietary approach to overcoming drug resistance. The company’s lead program for a low cost, safe medicine for malaria is in preclinical studies, with a second program in development for a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

Second Porch -

Second Porch facilitates renting and trading vacation homes through owner’s trusted network, avoiding pitfalls of dealing with strangers. The application spreads awareness of vacation properties across social platforms like Facebook. Owners list and renters search properties free. Revenue comes from premium features via subscription, referral and transaction fees.

Top 3 finalists are: WickedQuick, Prolifiq, Design Medix

Congratulations to Prolifiq , winner of Venture Northwest 2009

A few takeaways from Gerry Langeler

Myth 1 - You can't grow a company here as fast as in the valley. Busted! Mentor graphics is the fastest growing software company.

Myth 2 - You can’t raise Venture Capital in OR. Busted! Dave Moffenbeier has raised a quarter of billion in angel funding

Myth 3 - Nobody has built a major company here in decades. Busted! Tripwire has trumped it.

Myth 4 - Entrepreneurs are easy, it’s investors that are tough - It's a two way street, manage your relationships wisely.

Myth 5 - Nobody has gotten any liquidity here in decades - Keith Oelrich of Insight Schools found liquidity in 15 months.

Myth 6 - Limited Partners have abandoned Venture Capital - Ron Schmitz OR CIO, have dedicated targets for Venture investment

    ENTREPRENEURSHIP is as vibrant as ever in the American economy, but the capital that finances new companies is still in retreat. Venture capital is running at the lowest levels in more than a decade, and angel investors, who invest in far smaller companies than venture capital funds do, are holding back, too.

The  reasons for the cutbacks begin with the recession. Angel investors — typically individuals with more than $1 million who join together to back start-up companies — have seen their net worth decline. And these days, many angels find they need to offer additional support to companies they’ve backed in previous years, rather than take on new commitments.

Read the rest of the article Angel Investors Become a Little Less So

Companies seeking funding do have opportunities though to get in front of investors. Oregon companies may want to learn more about the Portland Angel Network (PAN), the Women's Angel Network (WIN) or other upcoming investment presentation opportunities: OEN's Seed Oregon, OEN's Venture Northwest and OEN's Angel Oregon.

Portland Angel  Network/Oregon Angel Fund - Call for Applications - Due Thursday, August 6th  at 5:00 PM

OEN’s Portland Angel Network (PAN) is a group of over 70  accredited angel investors who meet every other month to hear presentations from  three early-stage entrepreneurial companies pursuing angel investing. An  independently managed subset of PAN members who prefer to invest as a group have  formed the Oregon Angel Fund  (OAF), a highly structured, professionally managed, investor-led angel fund  dedicated to investing in PAN applicants over a 12-month period.

Companies interested in applying to present at the September 17th  PAN/OAF meeting need to apply by 5:00 PM on Thursday, August 6th.

OEN's Venture Northwest - Call for Applications - Due Wednesday, September 2 at 5:00 p.m.
OEN's  Venture Northwest is the premier forum for investment opportunities in emerging  companies throughout the Pacific Northwest. This conference will showcase  venture-ready companies to investors.

If your company is venture-ready  we invite you to apply. We’re looking for strong companies from Oregon,  Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia who are ready to present to investors. 

OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk - Call  for Applications - Due Friday, September 18 at 5:00 PM

OEN's Seed  Oregon is a unique competition held during four consecutive PubTalk events. The  competition is for Oregon and Southwest Washington seed-stage companies who are  seeking capital within the range of $100,000 to $2,000,000. One winner from each  preliminary round will move on to a championship round, where a finalist will  earn a coveted presenting opportunity at OEN’s Angel Oregon, the premier  angel investing event in the Northwest.

Nine presenting companies in  total will be selected to compete in the 2009-2010 Seed Oregon tournament. Each  will have 10 minutes to present their concept to the PubTalk audience, followed  by a 10 minute Q&A session. Three companies will compete at each of the  preliminary rounds, with the audience voting for the winning presentations to  move to the championship round.

Apply to OEN's Seed Oregon  PubTalk!

• 
  
• Application  & Guidlines Page
  
• Seed Oregon  FAQ
  

Jive Software, a Portland transplant and start-up recently went through a tough year of diffult choices and lessons in company survival. Their history was one of ongoing profitability and bootstrapping the company's growth. When they determined to get outside funding to fuel growth, they were successful in securing $15 million from Sequoia Capital.  The Jive success is a interesting case study of just how hard it is to grow a company incredibly fast even when you have funding and especially in an atmosphere of rapidly shrinking credit opportunities.

Read the New York Times interview with Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software in the article Startup Gets Course in Survival by author Claire Cane Miller.

At last week's session you learned about Term Sheets. So let's say you have a signed term  sheet with an angel or venture-capital investor. Now what? How does the actual  process of closing an investment work? What can go wrong? What are the key  documents that are involved? Neil Nathanson of Perkins Coie will explain how it  all works - and what can go wrong.

What: Closing an Investment -  How it Works
When: Tuesday, March 3, 11:30am to 1:15pm (program starts  at noon)
Where: OTBC
MAX: Blue line, Beaverton Central stop  (one stop west of the Beaverton Transit Center)
Driving: Directions
Parking: Free parking in the parking  garage next door to our building

Cost: $10 if pre-paid; $15 at the door  (includes lunch)

Get more info and  RSVP.

Program Partners

These lunch programs are brought  to you by OTBC in partnership with the OEN and the SAO.

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OTBC  Sponsors and Partners

We appreciate the support of all of our  Sponsors and Partners!

The National Venture Capital Association today released recent survey findings that predict venture funding will decrease in 2009. 62% of the venture capitalists surveyed are expecting that 2009 investments will decline more than 10% in the coming year. With that, entrepreneurs seeking investment dollars will need to prepare more diligently for investor presentations to succeed.(http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2008/12/15/daily46.html?ana=from_rss).

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network offers some unique services that can help entrepreneurs sharpen their business concepts and develop and refine their business plans to speak the same language the investors want to hear in determining what investment opportunities are worth their time and money.

With membership, OEN provides Private Business Concept Reviews to entrepeneurs for a nominal cost of $30 and a more intensive Private Business Plan Review is $100.  Both review provide the entrepreneur 1-2 hours of private counseling with members of the entreprenuerial and investment community in Portland who have been down this road before and can provide valuable insight to the new entrepreneur to set them off on a more solid footing, ensuring a better chance for success.

For more information on these services, here's a link to OEN website:

http://www.oen.org/programs_startup_services.aspx.

Good luck and prosperity to all of you!