TiEQuest, the annual business venture competition hosted by TiE Toronto that features an “Expression of Interest” for investments of up to $1,000,000 to top teams and various cash prizes and in-kind services from sponsors exceeding $150,000 in value for contest winners, has agreed to use Cdling Ratings in its review process whenever possible.

“Last year over 225 entrepreneurs from 51 different cities across North America participated in TiEQuest”, says Karl Miranda, Associate Director responsible for TiE Toronto operations. “Cdling ratings will help our reviewers as we continue our quest to discover and support the best startups in 2013.”

We can not say enough about this break through. TiE is one of the most important and influential startup networks in the world.  Most people outside of Silicon Valley do not realize the historic role that pioneering engineers from India played in the creating the most successful tech companies in the world. While there have been other instances, this is the first time that we have been able to talk about a clear case where real money is on the line and Cdling ratings will have an impact on the decisions being made. 

Last date to register for TiEQuest2013 is Jan 31, 2013 (11:55PM, EST) at www.tiequest.org

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One of the top ranked seed accelerators in the United States has decided to grant advanced standing to Cdling Rated startups.

“We’re always looking for new ways to find the highest potential startups for our accelerator,” says Mike Bott, General Manager of the Brandery. “We think that Cdling Rated Referrals will be a great additional datapoint to help our team identify the best possible companies for our program.”

The Brandery is a seed stage venture accelerator, which has been ranked as one of the top 15 programs in the United States the past two years. They run a three-month-long program in Cincinnati, Ohio focused on turning your great idea into a successful, brand-driven start-up.   Leveraging the regional strengths of design and marketing, The Brandery aims to give startups an edge in both user experience and user acquisition.  Started in 2010, they have graduated 25 companies.  The 2013 cohort will include 10 companies, with each receiving $20,000 in seed funding, mentorship, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program. More details can be found here.

When Derek called me up on Boxing Day to suggest that we add OFFICE HOURs to Startup Grind 2013, he gave me two criteria:

1. We don’t want to waste anyone’s time. Quality matters.

2. We are trying to start lasting friendships that are needed to survive the Startup Grind.

Our mutual disdain for live pitch competitions was established when we first met, so factoring that in was already part of the equation. Like Mark Suster, it’s not that we think Demo Days and Pitch Competitions are useless, we just believe that they could be re-imagined to serve everyone better.

Here is our first step in that direction:

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Even when investors, mentors and experts dedicate their full time and life to spotting the next big thing, it can come walking straight through their door and they miss it.

We love the honesty of Bessemer Venture Partners Anti-Portfolio page. It is a badge of honor among VCs to have the courage to share stories about the ones that got away but all would rather have had the insight available that would have supported a different decision and gave them the billion dollar ride of their life.

At the same time, there are Founders working away in hacker houses, Estonia or where ever, who feel they can not possibly boil their life’s work down to a demo day or pitch competition. We love why Mark Suster doesn’t do demo days.

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UPDATE Nov. 21

Riffing on the “Office Hours” added to Startup Grind events with First Round Capital’s Howard Morgan and 500Startups’ Paul Singh, back in early October Wasabi Ventures Managing Partner, Tom “TK” Kuegler decided to select 5 promising startups for 10 min, one on one sessions in an exclusive hour just prior to Startup Grind Baltimore’s October 30th fire side chat event.

That was before a lady named Sandy decided to put the plans of millions of people on hold. While the Startup Grind event has been successfully rescheduled to December 4 in Baltimore, unfortunately TK can not be on hand to meet face to face for the hour before hand.

Genacast Ventures Joins the Search!

The good news is that Gil Beyda from Genacast Ventures is joining the search for great startups in the Baltimore/D.C. region!

Genacast Ventures is a seed fund that invests up to $1 million in technology-centric Internet start-ups in the northeastern US.

A partnership between serial entrepreneur Gil Beyda and Comcast Ventures, Genacast brings the best of “been there, done that” start-up experience and seasoned venture investing.

OFFICE HOURS, Cdling Rated Referrals - UPDATE, Dec 3, 2012

Based upon the experience of our most recent OFFICE Hours pilot in NYC, we talked to Gil and TK today and we are changing our approach. To sum it up …

Get 10 credible opinions about your startup on Cdling and you can request a meeting with either TK or Gil or both.  Your request will trigger the creation of a Cdling report on your startup that will go TK and Gil. Once they receive the report, TK or Gil will make the decision on whether to schedule the meeting.

If your startup would like to meet with Gil or TK to make a pitch, ask for advice, seek an introduction here is how to advance your startup on Cdling.  There is no deadline. You don’t need to be a Baltimore based startup (but you will need to be a match for these investors if you expect to get a meeting). We will create these reports for the first 10 startups that qualify. If you have any questions contact Founder, Michael Cayley: michael at cdling dot com.

Attention mentors, subject matter experts and investors in the Baltimore/D.C. region.  You know these startups better than anyone. Genacast Ventures, Wasabi Ventures and Cdling look forward to your participation!

Each year, 15 deals account for 97% of all venture capital profits. 

Andreessen Horowitz burst on to the venture capital landscape in 2009 with that simple thesis. Now they are ranked as the number one investor of choice by entrepreneurs. Go figure why.

At the same time this new firm has raised $2.7-billion while the number of active fund managers has dropped by half and only a very few fund managers (15 to 25 elite firms) are attracting 80% of new funds raised.

“The speed with which the venture firm — started by Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, and Ben Horowitz, a former executive there — has rocketed to the top ranks has served as a case study in successful self-promotion.” New York Times, July 22, 2012 

“If you were advising young entrepreneurs on their startups, you’d tell them to look for ways to ‘go direct’ to their customer base. In a sense, that’s exactly what blogging and social media allow today’s venture capitalist to do.” Mark Suster, General Partner, GRP, A Look at Venture Capitalists on the Web, OpenView Partners Report

Reputation matters. 

Can (or should?) a local angel or VC who has a laser focus on the few startups that are a good fit for their expertise, try to top the list like Fred Wilson?

Granted, not everyone can attract 100,000 followers on Twitter like Dave McClure.

But just consider the flip side of the Andreessen Horowitz thesis.  If you are not among the elite firms that are vying for those 15 deals that account for 97% of all venture capital profits, then you are one of hundreds of investors that are fiercely competing to get your share of the remaining 3%. (Argue with the size of pie, but not the point.)

Investors must dig into the competitive advantages afforded by open innovation, network learning and connectivism. Yesterday, McClure described these effects as a “modern-day guild” in this prescient review of the evolution of startup investing taking place globally. (Word up! for tools, tech & data platforms like Cdling that are making investing more efficient.)

Marc and Ben are real world tech rock stars.  It is not the size of your social media footprint that matters the most, it is how you leverage the best tools and strategies to succeed in the real world.  

We are talking about who you really are.  Not public relations.

As Cdling moves from Alpha into our Beta release, we will introduce our Cdling Scores that bring your real world reputation into our platform for building trust with other investors, startups and advisors. 

Cdling is designed to fit the time, focus and priorities of investors. It is a level playing field where those who are really plugged into innovation can thrive.

“Dig deeper, though, and Cdling brings intriguing visibility to the rest of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.” George Anders, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist, Startups’ Best Patrons, Forbes, Mar. 8, 2012.

We will save you time; deliver curated, contextualized news; help you prospect new deals; monitor your portfolio and its competitors; enable you to discover and build relationships with new co-investors (increasingly over greater distances) and most importantly, we will help you measure risk and make better decisions.

Sure we want to improve your returns. That drives us. Beyond that, we see a world where more, great Founders focus on bigger, game changing problems, faster and overall success rates for venture investors improve dramatically. Cut back on the wasted time and capital: better world.

We have already developed Cdling Scores for California and Ontario, with plans for more than 20 tech hubs globally.  In the meantime, if you are an experienced investor and want to trial Cdling, email me at michael@cdling.com and we will get you going with an advanced standing.

What signals are you sending to the best entrepreneurs and LPs?