One of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce’s main organizational goals is Entrepreneurial Development. We recognize that entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy, and it’s the innovators who take the risks, launch new ideas into market, invest in business growth, create jobs and provide great products and services to our community and beyond. 

Entrepreneurs and innovators who have or need to raise somewhere between $200,000 – $2 million to launch their idea into the market can submit their business plans to the Southern Willamette Angel Network (SWAN). Below are the submission requirements:

Executive Summary Outline (not to exceed 5 pages):

1. Need in the Market – including an overview of your company
2. Your Product/Solution – including any information about patents/intellectual property
3. Your Traction – highlighting the successes you’ve currently attained (i.e. money raised, customers secured, signed Letters of Intent, significant hire, significant media coverage, etc.)
4. Your Target Market – including your addressable market, and any barriers to entering this market
5. Your Customer Acquisition Strategy – including any data to back-up your proposed strategy
6. Your Competition – including your value proposition
7. Your Revenue Model – including how you will phase your growth over time
8. Your Financial Projections – including key assumptions and the number of human resources you’ll need to reach these goals.
   • Note: You will also be required to provide your detailed financial projections as an attachment to the Executive Summary
9. Your Management Team – highlighting successes relevant to this venture

     10. Your Key Advisers – noting if they have any ownership in your company

     11. Your Funding Needs – including your use of these funds

     12. Your Exit Strategy – including any market comparables

Investor Pitch Deck Outline (Presentations should take 12-15 minutes to deliver – which gives you around 1 minute per slide; therefore, it’s important to practice you pitch. Investors need to walk away understanding the value proposition of your product):

Slide #1:            Title Slide

Slide #2:            The Problem in the Market (tell in story format)

Slide #3:            Your Solution (your product/service)

Slide #4:            Your Business Model (how you’ll make money)

Slide #5:            Your Special Sauce (why you’re product is so unique)

Slide #6:            Your Customer Acquisition Strategy

Slide #7:            Your Competition (best to present in a matrix format)

Slide #8:            Your Team (including key advisers)

Slide #9:            Traction (key milestones you’ve met)

Slide #10:            Your Current Status and Timeline for Growth

Slide #11:            Your Financial Projections (key assumptions)

Slide #12:            Your Funding Needs (including use of funds)

Slide #13:            Your Exit Strategy (highlight comparables where appropriate

Process for Submitting to SWAN:

1. E-mail your Executive Summary and Pitch Deck to JJ O’Connell: jjo@eugenechamber.com                                                                                                        
2. Your submission will be reviewed and you can expect to hear back within 2 weeks after your submission. You will be notified whether or not you’re selected to pitch to SWAN. We will inform you if additional coaching is required, and where possible, we will recommend advisers.
3. SWAN hosts company pitch meetings once a quarter – and sometimes more frequently (depending on the time of year and the quality of the deal flow). Contact Ben Sappington: bens@eugenechamber.com for more information.
4. If selected to pitch to SWAN, you will be invited in prior to the SWAN meeting to deliver a dry-run of your slides, and additional coaching will be provided.
5. Upon delivery of your presentation to SWAN, individual members will decide whether or not they choose to inquire further about your company. The Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce does not have any involvement in the investment decisions.

Best of luck to you in your venture!

Contact:

Caroline Cummings, Smart-ups Co-founder | Director of  Entrepreneurial Development at the Eugene Chamber of Commerce

carolineineugene@gmail.com | 541-968-2982

DM via Twitter @iamcarolina

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First-Ever Start-up Expo in Eugene, Oregon

The hottest/hippest super entrepreneurs will be showcasing their cool innovations on Aug 26th

Smart-ups, a program of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, is hosting its first-ever Start-up Expo at the Valley River Inn on August 26, 2010 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet our region’s coolest and hippest Super Entrepreneurs as they come out of their garages, back offices, home offices and university research labs, to showcase their start-up super powers.

WHO: 

Entrepreneurs — showcase their start-up companies, and share their entrepreneurial Super Powers with their peers, investors, service providers and the media. Industries represented include: software, clean/green tech, Internet-based, biotechnology and consumer goods.

Exhibiting Companies Currently Registered:

Arcimoto (electric vehicle)

Dune Sciences (nano technology)

Elements Naturals (natural, compostable baby wipes)

Floragenex (bio technology/planet genomics)

Forward Thinking (internet media and hardware)

Good Clean Love (consumer goods/natural intimacy products)

IDX, Inc (internet/real estate technology market)

Incisive (spreadsheet analysis solutions)

Investing Ventures (factor services/alternative commercial finance solutions)

Moonshadow Mobile (content management system/mobile-optimized Web site and mobile apps)

One Click Sports Now (internet/sports news advertising platform)

Opa Cove (consumer goods/fun-themed life jackets for kids)

Pharmacopia Herbals (consumer goods/herbal extracts)

Planet Verde (internet/sustainable e-commerce)

Precision Plant Systems (technology/agriculture field measurement hardware and software)

Rainwild Rehabilitation (medical devices/robotic-assisted fine-motor therapy device)

Restaurant Tech (internet/restaurant training software)

Sipping Dreams (consumer goods/drinkable chocolate)

UGo Furniture (consumer goods/easy-to-move and assemble furniture)

VizMe (social media)

Investors, Service Providers and the Media — meet the hottest/hippest start-up companies in our region and the Superhero Entrepreneurs starting, running and growing them. 

Sponsors of this event include: Title (Endeavor Law Group); Supporting (Palo Alto Software, Moss Adams LLP, and Pacific Continental Bank).

WHAT:  

Smart-ups is a program of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, and a chapter of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network headquartered in Portland.  Smart-ups was started by two entrepreneurs in Feb 2008. Smart-ups hosts eight “pub-talks” a year where the focus is to provide emerging growth/traded sector start-up companies with education, access to capital and networking.  This Start-up Expo is our first event of this type and we will be featuring up to 20 start-up companies from our region.

WHERE:  

Valley River Inn, McKenzie Ballroom | 1000 Valley River Way, Eugene, OR 97401-2115

WHEN:  

Thursday, August 26, 2010 | 5 – 8PM

WHY:  

The Willamette Valley has numerous emerging growth start-up companies, but most people are not aware of these companies and/or the entrepreneurs starting, running and growing them. Many of these companies are started in garages, back offices, home-based offices and university labs – so they are under the radar of most people in the community. You may remember the Willamette Angel Conference that was hosted in Eugene for the first-time this past May – where Eugene-based start-up Good Clean Love walked away with a $165,000 seed investment prize. There are many “firsts” happening in our community related to supporting entrepreneurship. Don’t miss this next first!

This Start-up Expo will give people the opportunity to mingle with these Super Entrepreneurs and see the exciting new innovations coming out of our region. Investors, entrepreneurs, lawyers, bankers, accountants, educators, politicians, students, and people from the media are encouraged to attend this event.

HOW:  Online registration is closed – you can pay at the door…

Fees:

$20 if you pre-registered ($25 at the door)

$15 for Eugene and Corvallis Chamber and SAO members

$10 for students

Table Space to Showcase Company: + $29 (when you display you get an extra free ticket into the event)

The following individuals are also available for interviews:

Dave Hauser | president of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce

Caroline Cummings | co-founder of Smart-ups, and leader of the Eugene Chamber’s entrepreneurial efforts; regional representative for the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

Don Gerhart | associate vice president for research and innovation, UO, and member of the Eugene Chamber’s Entrepreneurial Advisory Board

Tim Berry | founder/president of Palo Alto Software, sponsor of Smart-ups, member of the Smart-ups Committee, and local angel investor

# # #

Christina started the Ducks Denim Business Group this past fall, along with six other business majors who joined her venture after she pitched her idea to the International Business and Economics Club, Entrepreneurship Club, and Launching New Venture class, which are entities she is greatly involved in. Their first product? O-Jeans. O-Jeans are premium denim jeans with Oregon logos (which ones are still to be decided) on the back and/or the front pockets. They contacted the head buyer at the Duck Store, pitched their product, and the store love it! The store had wanted to do something like this, but had never been able to get at-cost price low enough to make it profitable.

By working primarily in the exporting division and attending China’s Import and Export Fair, Christina learned great insight into the premium denim industry. Premium jeans can sell $100, but for all practical purposes they cost $10 to make. Using her connections in China she was able to get a competitive price on quality denim, have the manufacturing company waive minimum quantity for styles and sizes, and brought the total minimum order quantity down from 3000 to 1000 through negotiations (since the Duck Store would only order 300 to start). Christina and her group believe that selling their first shipment of 1000 pairs of O-Jeans would not be difficult in a student body of over 22,000. They even have their distribution process down pat: Manufacturer (who has an exporting license so an intermediary is skipped) to Freight Forward (ship, insure, and import products to Port of Portland and they pick up merchandise there) to Duck Store to Storage (inventory).

Right now, cost is the most important factor for Duck Denim. The group wants to put the students first in all of their considerations because they are in fact student themselves. They’re still trying to find the right price point for students (approximately $45). They want the price to be affordable, but still be representative of a quality product. They also want the price to fit in with other products that the Duck Store sells, like sweatshirts ($15-30). The group is still in the process of sending out a marketing survey to help determine prices, styles, cuts, and designs. However, the most important quality they want to emphasize is the unique benefit of O-Jeans—the Oregon duck spirit.   

As for start-up funding, the group just finished their feasibility study and they want to be as conservative as possible in their estimates. As of now, the students only need $11,000 dollars for start-up money. The founding team is contributing $3-5000 and then will proceed to go to family and friends for funding. They want to bootstrap as long as possible before going to the bank. Based on projections, Duck Denim will breakeven by the first year and will not pay salaries for the first year. Their reasoning is what’s the point of paying each other and still having to pay other people?

What’s really left is waiting for the logo licensing to be approved. The Duck Store wants two different styles to start, so the Duck Denim Business Group will be in contact with a few UO alumni that used to work for major clothing retailers to design a fashionable pair of jeans that also shows school spirit. They also plan to launch a denim design contest across campus next year to gain awareness. Additionally, they are in the process of constructing a website and a Facebook page, which have a viral effect for marketing their jeans. The Duck Denim Business Group didn’t sign an exclusive agreement, so if the jeans prove to be profitable, there’s room to expand. In the future, they aim to expand their denim business across university campuses in Oregon, the West Coast, and throughout the USA. As for now, they hope to have the O-Jeans out by the end of Spring and just in time for IntroDUCKtion and Fall football. 

At the October 1^st Smart-ups “Meet Investors” Pub-talk at the Oregon Electric Station, attendees were able to gain insight from three Willamette Angel Conference investors.  Those investors were Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software; Nick Fowler, founder of Orion Ventures, LCC and CEO of Perpetua Power Source Technologies; and Christopher Klemm, director of OSU’s Austin Entrepreneurship Program. Anne Carney Nelson, having experience in investing in young technology companies, was a great moderator in asking the investors why certain companies were chosen for (or won) the WAC and why some were not.

Some of the most helpful pieces of advice?

·      Tim: A thorough and to the point executive summary and a great pitch are essential.

·      Steve: Go where the venture capitalists aren’t; the markets where people aren’t begging for money. Market research is key and do your due diligence!

·      Chris: Get experience!

The business card selected at the end of the pub-talk to give a five-minute elevator pitch was that of Keern Haslem, founder of Hogan’s Angle.

On a side note, local start-up Acrimoto was a an exhibitor at last week’s Lane County Home Show and will be a vendor at next month’s Seattle Auto Show.

Below are photos of Smart-ups co-founder Caroline Cummings and former UO president Dave Frohnmayer.

Here’s the video from their launch in Portland last week:

Thanks to Craig Gray for filming the conference and sharing these video clips – more to come…Find more videos like this on Smart-ups

CenterSpace (Corvallis-based) wins the $125K

CORVALLIS, Ore. – May 14, 2009 — The Willamette Angel Conference announced today that CenterSpace Software was selected as the winner of its inaugural 2009 investment competition, held in Corvallis. Corvallis-based CenterSpace Software, which provides numerical software components for financial, engineering, and scientific applications, will receive the $125,000 angel award investment prize.

Floragenex, a Eugene based firm that develops and delivers innovative, flexible applications of emerging genomic tools and technology, received a non-monetary vote of confidence, as the winner of  audience balloting for the best presentation.

“We are excited to bring a spotlight on to the breadth and depth of Willamette Valley Start-ups, and to expose these entrepreneurs to investors from around the Pacific Northwest,” said John Sechrest, Economic Development Director of the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition, and Chair of the Willamette Angel Conference. “The  quality of the business plans, and the support from the investor community show how vibrant the entrepreneurial economy is here in the valley.  The collaboration between Corvallis and Eugene on this event, with the support of OSU and U of O, creates a strong center for  turning the innovations into commercial successes. “

This year’s finalist companies were selected from over  40 companies based throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington that applied to compete at the Willamette Angel Conference 2009. A rigorous selection process was undertaken by the 25-member panel of active angel investors to select the winning company. Each investor staked $5,000 to create the $125,000 investment award for this year’s event.

This was the first annual Willamette Angel Conference, which is modeled after successful similar events run by the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, and the Bend Venture Conference.   Next year the conference will be run by The Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, and will be held in Eugene.

About the Willamette Angel Conference

The Willamette Angel Conference is an investors conference, connecting early stage and seed businesses with angel and venture investors in the Willamette Valley.  Their mission is to encourage, accelerate and showcase start-up companies in the Willamette Valley and  across Oregon. The competition is expected to have real economic impact in the Willamette Valley, generating new business and jobs using local entrepreneurs, talent and intellectual property. For more information see www.willametteconference.com.

Special thanks to all the great sponsors!

Title Organizers:

Premiere Sponsor

Organizational Sponsors

Grand Sponsors

Ignite Pitch Competition

Location: Oregon Electric Station | 27 E. 5th Ave, Eugene | directions

Time: 5 – 8pm

Register: $20 if your pre-register; $25 at the door; $15 for Eugene and Corvallis Chamber members; $10 for students (INCLUDES FOOD AND BEV)

Click here to register

Come and vote for the company you think has the most viable business plan. Audience members will be given a fake million dollar bill and asked to give it to the company they think deserves to win. Come out and support the amazing and talented start-ups companies in our region!

*** You must submit your executive summary and your 13 slides BEFORE 5pm, October 19th.

Please click here for submission guidelines.

This Smart-ups is going to be an Ignite-style business plan competition (13 slides, slides automatically advance every 15 seconds = 3.5 minutes to pitch your business plan). It’s an exciting competition – one you won’t want to miss! Click here to view Ignite Pitches from Feb 2009 Pub-Talk.

Any emerging growth start-up company (with an “investor-ready” plan) in the Willamette Valley can submit for the opportunity to present at this pub-talk. The audience will vote for the best overall pitch/plan.

 Note: Ignite Eugene is a business-plan pitch competition sponsored by Smart-ups and is not affiliated with the worldwide network of O’Rielly Ignite community events.

The winner of this event will receive two prizes:

• The winner will feed into the Willamette Angel Conference submission process (conference is May 13, 2010 in Eugene) – meaning they will have their $199 conference submission fee waived, and receive additional coaching from the conference’s Selection Committee (consisting of investors, and seasoned entrepreneurs). Up to six companies will be selected to pitch.
• The winner will also receive 20 hours of business consulting donated by Moss Adams LLP. These free services will follow Moss Adams’ SCORE (Systems, Control and Operations Risk Evaluation) consulting services. This prize is estimated at $4500 in value.

*** You must submit your executive summary and your 13 slides BEFORE 5pm, October 19th.

Please click here for submission guidelines.

Thanks to our great sponsors for supporting entrepreneurship in our community!

TITLE SPONSOR:

SUPPORTING SPONSORS:

Meet and Ask Willamette Angel Conference Investors Questions…

Panel Moderator:            Investors Sitting on the Panel:

Location: Oregon Electric Station | 27 E. 5th Ave, Eugene | directions

Time: 5 – 8pm

Register: $20 if your pre-register; $25 at the door; $15 for Eugene and Corvallis Chamber members; $10 for students

Click here to register

If you’ve ever wondered why investors choose to invest in one company over another, or why the companies in the recent Willamette Angel Conference were chosen, or why the winner was awarded the $125,000 investment prize, or why certain companies were not selected – this is the Smart-ups Pub-Talk for you! We are hosting a panel of investors from the May 2009 Willamette Angel Conference. They are looking forward to hearing your questions and sharing the qualities of “investor-ready” business plans. Whether your raising funds for your business or not – this is going to be a valuable conversation you won’t want to miss…

Ann Carney Nelson will be the panel moderator. Ann has over 11 years of experience investing in and supporting young and innovative technology companies.

Previously, Ann was the Senior Associate at Menlo Ventures, an early-stage high-technology venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA.

Also – don’t forget to bring your business cards – as we’ll be doing the “10 Minutes of Start-up Fame” after the panel. These are fun and offer great experience about how to pitch your business opportunity in 5 minutes. And who knows – maybe you’ll even get some live feedback from investors! It’s also great practice to prepare for the Nov 19th Smart-ups Ignite Pitch competition.

Panelists include:

Tim Berry

Founder, Palo Alto Software

Angel Investor

Invested in the May 09 Willamette Angel Conference

Judge of several Venture Competitions

Click here to read Tim’s full bio

Nick Fowler

Founder, Orion Ventures, LLC

CEO, Perpetua Power Source Technologies

Angel Investor

Fund Manager of May 09 Willamette Angel Conference’s Investor LLC

Click here to read Nick’s full bio

Christopher Klemm

Director, OSU Austin Entrepreneurship Program

Angel Investor

Invested in the May 09 Willamette Angel Conference

Click here to read Christopher’s full bio

Thanks to our great sponsors for continuing to support entrepreneurship in our community!

TITLE SPONSOR:

SUPPORTING SPONSORS:

Click here to register

Location: B-Squared Wine Bar | 279 Shadow View Dr. Eugene, OR 97408 | location

Fee: $20 ($25 at the door); $15 for Eugene and Corvallis Chamber members; $10 for students

(includes food and bev)

Date: Thursday, August 27th |Time: 5:00 – 8:00pm

Bring plenty of business cards!

Wayne Skipper (the president of SAO Lane County) and Caroline Cummings (president of Smart-ups Willamette Valley) are working together to plan a fun and educational networking event that allows both Smart-ups and SAO folks to get to know each other better, share their respective innovations/ideas/projects – and perhaps create some wonderful synergies as a result!

This is also going to be an event filled with FUN!  Click here for more info.

Thanks to our great sponsors for supporting entrepreneurship in our community!

SUPPORTING SPONSORS: