Libations on Location (LOL!) at Local 360

Lucas Schenck, Brian Gawthrop, Cathi Hatch, Ed Brennan, Supida Sanders,
Michael Roupp and Kate Holmes

Last night, a group of ZINO Society members and guests got together at Marcus Charles' Local 360 Cafe and Bar on First Avenue in Seattle for a ZINO Society Libations on Location! networking event.  It was my first visit to Local 360 and when I walked in, I realized that it is located in the old Flying Fish restaurant location.

Dr. Ben Conmy, Bernie Dochnahl,
Christine Gilbert

Cathi Hatch with Tim Narby,
:Note Bene Cellars

Karen Ducey, Mary Holmes,
Lucas Schenck

David Palmer, Carla Sanders,
Jeremy Ruby, Ricky Holm

ZINO Society plans several networking events such as this LOL! during the space of a year in addition to the eleven investment meetings and forums that occur every month except August.  These events give our investor members, our entrepreneur members (ZINOpreneurs), our sponsor/corporate members and our social members a chance to interact and connect.  It is always fun to see old friends and meet new ones at each of these events.

Ken Hatch, Randy Squires

Denny Dochnahl, Eric Blackstone

Local 360 provided delicious hors d'oeuvres including Bocorones and Soft Boiled Egg, Goat Cheese and Tapenade Crostinis, Rosti Potato with Smoked Salmon and Salmon Roe and my personal favorite, Pork Belly Rillette with Pickled Shallot.  The featured ZINO Society Wine Professional Member was Tim Narby of :Note Bene Cellars and he poured a selection of four of his wines which included his 2007 Syrah, and three Bordeaux blends; 2007 Abbinare, 2007 Miscella and 2008 Cheval du Ciel Vineyard.  Though I liked each of the wines, my two favorites were the Syrah and the Cheval du Ciel Vineyard blend which included a major component of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

It was a great party once again!  Thank you Marcus and Tim!

Welcoming Kate DesRosier to ZINO Society Team!

Kate DesRosier, ZINO Society Dealflow & Operations Manager

I am so pleased to welcome Kate DesRosier to the ZINO Society team as our new Dealflow and Operations Manager!  Kate was selected after an extensive and laborious search of many qualified candidates.  Kate will be working directly with all the entrepreneurs and our ZINO Society Screening and Coaching Boards overseeing our entire dealflow processes.

Kate has worked with entrepreneurs and startup companies for the past several years, most recently in the university technology transfer space at UW’s Center for Commercialization. Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from UW and a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University. She has a background in mental health counseling, makeup artistry and social development research; widely varying fields that add up to a wealth of experience. She enjoys being immersed in the energy and creativity of the startup world and supporting entrepreneurs toward their goals.

In Kate’s spare time she volunteers with several non-profits that serve underprivileged and marginalized youth. She is involved with Ruby Room, a volunteer-run prom dress boutique that offers formal wear free of charge to Greater Puget Sound teenagers who qualify for the free and reduced lunch program at school. She is also a member of the scholarship application review committee for Seattle Pride Foundation, an organization that supports the educational goals of LGBTQ youth and young adults.

Welcome to ZINO Society Kate! 

SIFP Quarter Finals Impressive

Kristie Lanum & Kate DesRosier

Today the Social Venture Partners Social Innovation Fast Pitch (SIFP) Quarter Finals Round was held in Paccar Hall at the University of Washington.  Around 37 social entrepreneurs were on hand to make 5 minute pitches to a panel of judges in the hopes that they will be passed through to the Semi Finals Round.

Will Poole, Chairman of the overall SIFP event and self-described "Chief Digital Media Innovation Officer" facilitated and led the day beginning with his own 5 minute pitch to ask for support to fill the room for the main event which will be on October 3rd at Fisher Pavilion.

Will and the Judges deliberate between presentations

ZINO Society is "powering" the event with our staff providing the staff support for this event. Will has definitely challenged us with his aversion to paper and the many new innovation digital tools he has introduced to us.  We are actually looking forward to continuing to use many of the tools he has shared.  Doodle polls are now a staple at ZINO Society!  Thank you, Will!

ZINO Society Dealflow Managers, Kristie Lanum and Kate DesRosier oversaw all the entrepreneur Powerpoint presentations on their computers, managing the audio and visual elements of the day.  ZINO Society interns Stephanie Halamek and Alex Fraser managed the timing and microphones, while Christine Gilbert managed the registration and food and beverages.

The entrepreneurs, who were all mentored and coached, did a fantastic job of sharing their company pitches in a timely, compelling and convincing manner. Congratulations to all of the entrepreneurs who made it to the Quarter Finals Round.  Everyone is on eggshells until tomorrow when we will hear who was selected for the SIFP Semi Finals.

Gala Schmala -- SIFP is Different

ZINO Society is partnering with Social Venture Partners to produce the inaugural Social Innovation Fast Pitch (SIFP) forum coming up on October 3rd at Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center.  We are expecting passionate supporters of social innovation and entrepreneurism creativity to join us for what will be an intellectually stimulating (and fun) event beginning at 4:30 pm that afternoon.  I hope you will join us.

Below I repost for you a blog written by fellow SIFP Core Team member, Vikram Chalana, which will give you all the information you will need to know.  It will be an amazing evening!

Submitted by vchalana on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 12:30


Many nonprofit organizations host a big gala with a keynote speaker to help raise money and awareness for their mission.

SIFP is not that. Here are the top 10 ways SIFP is different:


1. Instead of a 60 minute keynote, SIFP features 5 minute pitches by 14 passionate and committed social entrepreneurs.

2. Instead of hearing about the same-old, same-old, you hear about new and innovative world changing ideas.

3. Instead of asking you for money, we ask you to vote by text message for your favorite pitches so they can get money that we've already raised.


4. Instead of hearing only about one non-profit, you will hear from multiple non-profits, from for-profit social businesses, and from social enterprises driven by high school and college students.


5. Instead of supporting and getting involved in one-cause, at SIFP you can choose the social innovation that you want to support in the future and get involved with.

6. Instead of trying to eat a meal at a round-table while trying hard to hear the keynote over the clinks of the forks, SIFP features the pitches in a theater-style seating followed by a wine and appetizer social hour.


7. Instead of interacting with only the 10 people at your table, at SIFP you get to interact with anyone and everyone, including the social innovators making the fast pitches.


8. Instead of a weekend night, SIFP is being held on a Monday evening starting at 4:30pm.


9. Instead of awkward ballroom dancing after dinner, at SIFP you get to interact with other like-minded people and the social entrepreneurs over a glass of wine.


10. Instead of a tuxedo or an evening gown, Jeans, T-shirts, and Birkestocks with socks are considered appropriate attire at SIFP.

This ZINO team is Kick A__!

ZINO Team Christine Gilbert, Mary Holmes, Cathi Hatch,
Kristie Lanum, Jamee Nunnelee

This coming Tuesday is our biggest ZINO Society event of the year, ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum.  The ZINO Society team has been working VERY hard to get all the details ready so that everyone attending has a wonderful time!

Kristie Lanum, our Chief Dealflow Officer, has managed the overall task list for ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum for our entire team and has worked specifically with all of our presenting entrepreneurs, most of which are now new ZINOpreneur Members for the upcoming year.  Kristie has overseen the screening and coaching processes and worked with our incredible list of coaches to ensure that each entrepreneur presenting on Tuesday will be the best that they can be in sharing a concise and compelling pitch.  This is akin to herding cats since there are so many people involved, but Kristie has done it with her usual aplomb and grace.

Mary Holmes, our Chief Marketing Officer, has recruited and communicated with over eighteen (18) panelists who will participate in three separate expert panels providing input and advice to entrepreneurs and investors.  Each panel should be fascinating including a Hospitality, Food, & Travel Panel, a VC & Angel Panel to provide input to our Back-of-the-Napkin presenting companies and a Due Diligence LIVE! Panel to ask questions of the six (6) fund finalists who will be selected by the ZINO Angel fund investors.  Mary has also worked to attract sponsors, develop new branding elements for ZZIF, overseen the press relationships and worked directly with our Co-Presentor, Puget Sound Business Journal, to produce a two-page ad coming out in today's issue.

Jamee Nunnelee, our VP of Membership, has communicated with ZINO Society members to get them the information they need to attend ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum and invited many of our friends and membership prospects to join us as well.  She is offering a rebate on ZINO Society membership for those new members that join by the end of September.  Jamee has also worked to attract specific ZZIF sponsors and arranged for some of our Wine Professional Members to pour their wines at the Networking Reception at the end of the day.

Christine Gilbert, our Events Director, has worked tirelessly to design and produce our blast emails to notify everyone of the details of ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum, design and produce the agenda and event program, taken reservations, answered endless questions, produced name tags, and panelist tent cards, arranged for prizes for fund finalists and ZINO Zenith Award winners, worked with MOHAI to arrange all the event details and the caterer to provide sustenance so we can all make it through the entire day with appropriate food, beverages and snacks to keep up our energy.

Please come see what we do!  I think you will be impressed with the quality of the entrepreneur pitches, the panelists, the food and wine, and all the details that make this a first-class event!  And then please do tell me what you think.

Let Us Entertain You . . .

Keynote Tom Skerritt with Cathi Hatch

Yesterday was ZINO Society's inaugural ZINO Entertainment Investment Forum where we focused expert panels and featured entrepreneurs in the three business sectors of Gaming, Mobile and Film. Though we have seen some dealflow in each of these three sectors over the past six years, we had never before focused one of our larger targeted investment forums on businesses that come only from these genres.

The event was held at the Seattle Harbor Club, where there was plenty of room to spread out for the over 150 guests who were there to meet the entrepreneurs and panelists.  We heard many positive comments from both our regular ZINO Society members and featured ZINOpreneur members as well as friends and guests.  The agenda included three separate dealflow flights interspersed with expert panels from each of the three business sectors.

Our first expert panel focused on Gaming was moderated by Kristina Hudson, Founder of the Washington Interactive Network and included Jeff Pobst, CEO of Hidden Path Entertainment, Joseph Tung, Executive Producer of Bungie and Chris Erhardt, President of Academy of Interactive Entertainment followed by mobile and gaming dealflow presentations from Mobile On Services, Choopy Games, Arc Computer Co., and BeDynamic facilitated by ZINO Society Elite Roundtable Member, Charles Finkelstein.

Mobile Expert Panel: James Sun, Colleen Brown,
Bala Subramanian, Kraig Marini Baker, Rob Strickland

The Mobile Expert Panel came next which included Colleen Brown, President & CEO of Fisher Communications, Rob Strickland of Strickland Consulting, Bala Subramanian, VP of Enterprise Architecture for T-Mobile, and James Sun, CEO of Pirq  all facilitated by ZINO Society major event sponsor, Kraig Marini Baker of Davis Wright Tremaine.  Brad Harlow, ZINO Society Elite Roundtable Member, facilitated the second flight of gaming and mobile dealflow presentations which included Novel, Splat Interactive, CrowdCompass, Swagger.com, and Open Mobile Solutions.
ZINO Society CMO Mary Holmes, facilitated the "Back-of'the-Napkin Pitch" dealflow flight which included two-minute pitches with only one powerpoint slide for each of the four presenters.  The Mobile Expert Panel was then asked to choose just one company of the four that they would "invest" in knowing only the small amount of information that they had gleaned from the brief pitches.  It was interesting to note that three out of the four companies making the brief presentations were selected by one or more of the panelists as what they deemed to be the "best investment opportunity".

Film Expert Panel:  Scilla Andreen,
Steve Edmiston, Matt Hooper,
Amy Lillard, Carl Spence

Following a cookie and coffee brief networking break, ZINO Society Chief Dealflow Officer (and avowed film buff), Kristie Lanum, moderated the Film Expert Panel which included Scilla Andreen, CEO & Co-Founder of IndieFlix, Steve Edmiston, an independent filmmaker and attorney with Invicta Law Group, Matt Hooper, an attorney with Foster Pepper who focuses on film production, Amy Lillard, Executive Director of Washington Filmworks and Carl Spence, Artistic Director of Seattle International Film Festival.

The final dealflow flight facilitated by major sponsor, Kraig Marini Baker of Davis Wright Tremaine, featured film projects from Low Fidelity Films LLC, Sit Forward Entertainment, Footprint Features, Truth Cabin Productions, and Tender Brisket, LLC.

Eliza Flug-Coburn & Cathi Hatch

We completed the business session with ZINO Entertainment Investment Forum major event sponsor and Elite Roundtable Member, Eliza Flug-Coburn, Founder of Gaia Indie Films, introducing our keynote speaker, Emmy Award winning Actor/Director, Tom Skerritt.  The audience hung on his every word as he shared his perspective on what really makes a successful film project.  He thinks it is all really about the "story" more so than the actors, special effects, etc.

Following his remarks, Tom remained at the podium with me to present the ZINO Zenith awards (as selected by all the attendees) to Sue Cocoran of Tender Brisket for Best Investment Opportunity and to Matthew Donegan-Ryan of CrowdCompass for Best Presentation.

Best Presenter: Matthew Donegan-Ryan
Best Investment Opportunity: Sue Corcoran

From there, we all proceeded to the entrepreneur displays and exhibition space for the networking and wine reception featuring Italian sausages courtesy of Frank Isernio of Isernio's Sausage, wine poured by ZINO Society Wine Professional Members, Jess Zander of Fidelitas, Brad Sherman of Michael Florentino Cellars, Jon Staenberg of Hand of God Wines, and Beer Professional Members, Charles and Rose Ann Finkel of Pike Brewing Company.

Squeaky Green and Clean



Nathan Doran of C-6 Systems

 Yesterday I served as a judge at the annual University of Washington Environmental Innovation Challenge.  This is my second year as a judge for this particular competition and I was very impressed with the level of quality and innovation that the seventeen featured teams brought to the competition.  There were 97 judges participating and 111 students participating in the competition.  There were teams from not only the University of Washington, but also Washington State University, Seattle Pacific University, and Western Washington University.  The entire event was very well produced by Connie Bourrassa-Shaw, who heads the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Pam Tufts and team.  Connie shared that the teams are encouraged to think about "People. Planet. Profit." when they developed their ideas.

Voltaic Team, Grand Prize Winner

The judges were asked to judge the teams on the quality of their one-page plans, their two-minute pitches, their actual displays or prototypes, and the level of impact that they would make on the world.  It is an arduous process to get around to seventeen different teams and understand more about what each is attempting to do and then to actually rate them I find incredibly difficult.  This is not a full business plan competition, so there is not a requirement that financials are included at this time which makes it harder to judge whether these will become real companies going forward.  Several did tell me that they plan to enter their teams into the upcoming UW Business Plan Competition and that they plan to raise money and build their new businesses.

C-6 Systems, Honorable Mention

The nascent entrepreneurs presented included algae biofuels, a biodiesel producer, multiple water cleansing solutions, electric cars, turning slash into cash, secure bicycle parking, a stationery bike linked with a generator, solar enhancement ideas, Lighter Than Air vehicles, lightweight affordable carbon fiber parts for vehicles, and generation of wind power at lower wind speeds.

PotaVida Team, 2nd Prize
with Connie Bourassa-Shaw

The winners of the competition included three Honorable Mention prizes of $2,500 each for Pterofit, Biotek and C-6 Systems; a $5,000 Second Prize awarded to PotaVida, and the $10,000 Grand Prize awarded to Voltaic.

I also saw several UW SEBA students who have volunteered at past ZINO Society targeted investment forums including Josh, who was part of the EnergyCycle team.  The top two EIC winners from 2010, Envitrum and WISErg were back to show the traction they had made since last year.  Impressive!

Josh, EnergyCycle Team

  

ZINO Life just two days away!

The ZINO Society team has been working very hard over the past few weeks to put together our upcoming ZINO Life Investment Forum which will occur this coming Tuesday, March 8th at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Seattle.  I want to recognize them with a big THANK YOU for all their efforts to produce what I know will be a fascinating and productive angel investment forum!

Kristie Lanum, our Chief Dealflow Officer, has done a masterful job of recruiting, screening, scheduling coaching and preparing 13 ZINOpreneurs to share 7 minute pitches describing their companies during the afternoon event plus a traction update from our ZZIF 2007 Fund Winner, Healionics.  Please see the full list of presenting entrepreneurs at the end of this blog posting.

Mary Holmes, our Chief Marketing Officer, has put together a fascinating, expert panel including John Bowers of SonoSite, Tom Clement of Pathway Medical Technologies, Chris Rivera of WBBA,  Dave Schubert of Accelerator Corporation, and Alan Smith of Fenwick & West who will share their perspectives on the life sciences business sector and also ask the selected ZINO Life 2011 Fund Finalists follow-up Due Diligence LIVE! questions at the end of the afternoon.

ZINO Life attendees will choose the "best investment opportunity" and the "best presenter" ZINO Zenith Awards which will be awarded at the end of the business session.  The ZINO Annual Angel Investment Forums Fund investors will select four "best investment opportunity" finalists whom the investors will enter into due diligence following the forum.

Robin Moore, Events and Marketing Director, has handled hundreds of details including all the communication to attendees, reservations and event organization. If you are interested in attending, you can click HERE to make reservations.

Here is the full list of ZINO Life 2011 ZINOpreneur presenting companies:


Aspetica, Inc. / David Hatton
Aseptica's technology prevents catheter related infections. We save tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Cerevast Therapeutics, Inc. / Kendall SteverCerevast Therapeutics, Inc. is a medical technology company focused on the development of SonoLysis for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke.

Del Mar Pharmaceuticals / Jeffrey Bacha
Del Mar is developing proven drug candidates that have previously demonstrated human clinical activity in orphan and large-market cancer indications.

DNA Guide, Inc. / Bill KimmerlyDNA Guide develops software to navigate the personal genome for use by pathologists, genetic counselors, health care professionals, and patients.

Emergent Detection / Eric Fogel
Emergent Detection’s BodyKey helps people lose weight more effectively by providing personalized, daily feedback about their body through a simple biochemical test.

Empowering Engineering Technologies / Brian Glaister EETech's ExoWalk products help people with wheelchairs walk their way to better qualities of life.

FiatLux Imaging, Inc. / Max Lyon FiatLux provides a secure online service for the transport, viewing, sharing and storage of, medical images by medical professionals and patients.

GenQual Corp. / Jonathan Mirich
GenQual designs molecular diagnostics to facilitate early disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment approaches.

Impel NeuroPharma / Michael Hite
Impel is developing a novel drug delivery device to enable central nervous system drugs to bypass the blood-brain barrier.

Network Immunology Inc. / George Hoffman
Network Immunology has made discoveries expected to significantly advance the fields of both vaccination and organ transplantation.

Sinuwave Technologies Corp. / Jim BalcomSinuwave is adapting an already proven, high gross margin, disposable drug-device combination technology for the treatment of chronic sinusitis (CS).

S-Ray Incorporated / Steve Baird S-Ray owns a unique way of using ultrasound to detect cracks and cavities in teeth, without radiation.

VacuPractor / Paul Hagen VacuPractor is a revolutionary new treatment device for lower back pain. It is patented and registered with the FDA.











 

MIT Forum - Meet the Angels!

Villette Nolon, Cathi Hatch, Greg Huey

Last night I was one of the panelists representing ZINO Society as one of the seven local angel groups showcased at MIT Enterprise Forum Northwest also including Greg Huey of Alliance of Angels, Nathan McDonald of Keiretsu Forum, Byron McCann of NW Energy Angels, Stephen Handley of Puget Sound Venture Club, Villette Nolon of Seraph Capital Forum and Tom Kadavy of WINGS.  Rebecca Lovell, Executive Director of NWEN, did a masterful job of moderating the panel

Though there were a few entrepreneurs from other business genres, the room was filled primarily with technology entrepreneurs since the MIT Enterprise Forum is dedicated to the advancement of technology commercialization.  The entrepreneurs had a chance to hear a bit about each of the angel groups and about their primary focus(es).  Of the many specific questions posed by the attendees, the primary answer each time was, "It depends.", since each company is so individual.  It is impossible to follow a "rule of thumb" for establishing valuation, though some very good advice was given to avoid going over that $1 million valuation number for brand-new startups.

Rebecca Lovell at podium, Byron McCann, Steve Handley,
Nathan McDonald, Tom Kadavy, Villette Nolon,
Cathi Hatch and Greg Huey

There were questions about what percentage of a company should be the equity opportunity for angels and the response following, "It depends" was that angels are generally looking to own around 30-33% of a company with their funding.  Other important advice given to entrepreneurs was how important it is to communicate with their investors once they do receive funding; both the good and the bad things that always occur in starting up a business.  Byron encouraged the entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and not see themselves as "delusional" as they are passionately pursuing their dream and Steve advised that they be relentless in honing their story and continue to communicate it to their stockholders, their employees, potential investors, potential customers and the world at large.

My advice to entrepreneurs was to use the expert coaching that ZINO Society provides as part of our ZINOpreneur membership benefits and assume that they will need to pitch at multiple angel groups before they receive all the funding that they need to make their company successful.  It is in the best interest of the angel investors and the entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs to get that funding   I believe that collaboration and sharing of information and dealflow between the angel groups is of great value because together we can all make the entrepreneur and angel investing landscape a vibrant one for the future health of new businesses in our region while helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and providing the best possible investment opportunity dealflow to investors in our community.

Cathi Hatch, Byron McCann, Steve Handley

Entrepreneurship Education in Action

This quarter, I have been serving as a mentor to a class team participating in the University of Washington Entrepreneurship 370a: Introduction to Entrepreneurship course.  This course is designed to be approachable for undergraduates in all majors who seek to understand the entrepreneurial process.

My job as a mentor, has been to meet with my assigned team three or four times and assist them in thinking through their Opportunity Assessment and Opportunity Execution projects.  For the Opportunity Assessment project, students learned how to tell the difference between a good idea and a scalable business opportunity.  they had to identify and define a market opportunity and pitch the opportunity to their classmates.  For the Opportunity Execution project, though students were not required to write a full business plan, they explored how to actually assemble a company; thinking through how they would sell, distribute, create demand, attract a team, build and fund their project which then culminated in a 10 minutes pitch.   To help expand their vision, I invited them to attend one of the recent ZINO Society Roundtable Investment meetings where they got to see "real" entrepreneurs pitching.

"Find-a-Kid" - The Pitch

This morning, I attended my team's pitch along with other team pitches in front of their classmates and other mentors in the room.  The course was presented by Emily Cox, Assistant  Professor of Management and Organization, at the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

My mentees participating in the development of their "Find-a-Kid" business were Hannah Jackowski, Daniel Matson, Ailyne Halim, Jessica Allison and Catherine Dubois-Boutet.  Great job of presenting! 

I must say that I was impressed with the quality of the presentations of these teams and look forward to seeing at least some of them in the Business Plan Competition later this school year!

ZINO Marketplace - Founders' Funding, Foibles and Feats



Fund Finalists Dave Lefkow, Bob Mighell, Bill Kallman, Paul Hagen



Back-of-the-Napkin Pitch
 "Reveal"



Mike Almquist, Dan Gerrity, David Guiliani,

Jan Hendrickson, Tom T. O'Keefe



The entire ZINO Society team is very proud of our ZINO Marketplace Investment Forum held earlier this week at the beautiful Pan Pacific Hotel.  There were 17 entrepreneurs presenting; 12 ZINOpreneur members with 5-minute pitches and 5 2-minute Back-of-the-Napkin pitches.



Of the ZINOpreneur members' 5-minute presenters, four finalists were selected for consideration for the $50,000 ZINO Marketplace Investment Forum fund which included Dave Lefkow of J&D's Foods, Inc., Bob Mighell of Tilting Motor Works, Bill Kallman of Scayl, Inc., and Paul Hagen of VacuPractor.  ZINO Zenith (Peoples' Choice) Awards were awarded to Bob Mighell for Best Presenter and Bill Kallman of Scayl, Inc. for Best Investment Opportunity.  Joe Aboubakr of Cargozz LLC received the ZINO Zenith Award for Best Investment Opportunity among the Back-of-the-Napkin presenters.  Here is the press release with more details.    

In addition, there was a stellar panel of successful entrepreneur "founders" including Michael Almquist, Dan Gerrity, David Guiliani, Jan Hendrickson, and Tom T. O'Keefe who shared some of their "a-ha" lessons learned over the years with the entrepreneurs and investors present.  The expert panel also reviewed the "Back-of-the-Napkin-Pitches" and shared which company they would invest in with the very limited knowledge that they had about each company.  One of my favorite lines during the forum which drew a roar of laughter was Tom O'Keefe's comment as he was selecting a company and was able to give a call-out to each of the 2-minute presenters, "I can get a card for my wife on our anniversary from Thoughtful People, we can go celebrate at Cold Cold Heart where we can drink Mistica Wine and be protected by GunUp and then get home safely with Cargozz."

My Favorite Things from ZZIF

Today I just received the YouTube of Jon Doll's performance of his original song and lyrics, "On The Shoulders of Angel Investors" that we kicked off the ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum last week.  I may be biased, but I think it is fantastic and the lyrics are so appropriate for investors and entrepreneurs.  You can view it HERE.

Three of my other favorite things from ZZIF were our panels.  I thought that each panel was extremely interesting and that the audience was really enjoying their questions and input.

David Mackuen's Five-Minute presentation of BuiltBurger right before lunch.  It was a great presentation and he won the ZINO Zenith Award for Best Presenter.  But it also started stomachs growling and made everyone realize how famished we all were.

The ZINOpreneurs' presentations are always one of my favorite things and I love the Five-Minute pitches!  But this time, I was also hugely impressed with how much information the Two-Minute presenters were able to share in such a limited time.

The support of our ZINO Society sponsors is incredibly important, because we would not be able to produce ZZIF without their support.  What a great group of people!

Another BIG thank you to everyone who helped make ZZIF so successful this year.

Selections, Presentations, Projections, Entrepreneurs, Angel Investors

What a busy day!  I began the day at the judges' selection meeting for Puget Sound Business Journal's upcoming "Women of Influence" recognition awards.  Along with fellow judges Jeff Raikes, Phyllis Campbell, Constance Rice, and from Puget Sound Business Journal, Emory Thomas, Patti Payne and Becky Monk,, we selected 15 incredible women out of over 130 submissions (a stack of paper two inches tall!) to be featured at this year's big dinner event scheduled for November 18th in Bellevue.  I can't share with you who was selected since it is a surprise, but watch for the Puget Sound Business Journal insert announcing the winners soon.

After multiple meetings and getting ready for our ZINO Annual Angel Fund Investors' meeting tomorrow to begin due diligence on some of our ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum (ZZIF) Fund Finalists, I ended the day by attending the enterpriseSeattle quarterly Board meeting at the new PATH headquarters followed by the Atlas Accelerator Open House at Twist in Belltown.  I was impressed with some of the projected 2011 gains expected shared at the enterpriseSeattle Board meeting which included employment growth of 1.5% and retail sales increase of 4.4%.  It was also nice to catch up with other board members, David Allen, Arlan Collins, Casey Badger and Chris Rivera, and new President and CEO, Jeff Marcell.

At the Atlas Accelerator event, it was fascinating to hear three minute updates from 18 separate company CEOs.  I counted 10 out of the list that have also presented to ZINO Society investors and guests at some point during the past five years. What an impressive group!  I especially liked the program featuring three-minute pitches; just the right length of time to get enough information, but not too long.  In addition to saying hello to several of the entrepreneurs, it was also nice to catch up with Mike Crill, Gary Ritner, Dan Rosen, and Gregg and Lauren Bennett.

ZZIF - The Panelists Rocked!

Angel investors at ZZIF

On Wednesday, ZINO Society produced our biggest event of the year, ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum.  I was so proud of the ZINO Society Z-Team, each of the entrepreneurs who presented, and each panelist who spoke.  ZZIF Zillionaire sponsor, Bell Harbor Conference Center did a great job of hosting our event and the Bay Auditorium was the ideal location for the ZINOpreneur presentations to a roomful of investors and business professionals.  The International Promenade housed demo tables for the 20 5-minute featured entrepreneur presenters, the 10 2-minute back-of-the-napkin entrepreneur presenters, plus another 13 demo table only participating entrepreneurs.

David Allen, Troy Hartzell, John Otter, Petra Franklin,
Alan Smith, John Cook

I have already detailed the list of presenting ZINOpreneurs in previous blog posts here and here, but wanted to share the impressive list of panelists with you.  Our first panel was the Due Diligence LIVE! panel sponsored by Fenwick & West which included Alan Smith of Fenwick & West, David Allen of McKinstry, Troy Hartzell of Evolution Capital Advisors, Petra Franklin of Vault Capital, John Otter of Commerce Bridge Company and John Cook of TechFlash.  Their role was to ask quick follow-up questions after each ZINOpreneur presented and they did an excellent job of doing just that.



Gregg Bennett, Charles Finkelstein,

Brad Harlow, Byron McCann, Peter Ueberroth



Our second panel was the Angel Investor panel entitled "The Naked Truth - Getting the Skinny on Angel Investor Wins and Losses" which included panelists Gregg Bennett, angel investor currently running for Washington State Senate, Charles Finkelstein, previously of Microsoft, Brad Harlow of B. Harlow & Associates, Byron McCann of Ascent Partners Group, Dan Rosen of Dan Rosen & Associates and Peter Ueberroth of the Contrarian Group.  Peter Ueberroth was our featured angel panelist and we were so pleased to have him and two members of his Contrarian Group team join him to look at potential angel investments.

The responses from the angel investor panelists were fascinating as they discussed angel investment deals that went right and what was the tipping point for them to actually invest and investment deals that went wrong and what were the primary causes.  Several investors cited the biggest problem they faced with deals that went wrong was the CEO becoming uncommunicative once things were not going as well as hoped.  When Dan Rosen mentioned the company's name (Delve, previously known as Pluggd when it presented at ZZIF 2006) as a deal that went wrong, unfortunately he set off a firestorm of TechFlash blog posts and comments both attacking the company and attacking him personally.  You can read the postings here.

Bill Bryant, Andy Dale, Warren Gouk, Ron Howell,
Dan Kingston, Rick LeFaivre, Gregg Semler

Our final panel comprised of VCs who were to listen to two separate flights of "Back-of-the-Napkin Pitches" and select the company from each flight that they felt was most investable (at this stage with the limited information that they had after listening for only 2 minutes and looking at one powerpoint slide).  Panelists included Bill Bryant of Draper-Fisher Jurvetson, Andy Dale of Montlake Capital, Warren Gouk of Enclarity, Ron Howell of Washington Research Foundation, Daniel Kingston of Vulcan Capital, Rick LeFaivre of OVP Venture Partners and Gregg Semler of Pivotal Investments.  It was impressive to hear the individual choices and what the primary factors were in selecting which companies.  Each panelist sounded absolutely credible justifying his choices after only two minutes of information.

Hearing the insights that the prestigious ZZIF panelists shared throughout the day was worth the price of admission!



Ron Howell, Dan Kingston, Rick LeFaivre

Back-of-the-Napkin Presentations at ZZIF

This year at ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum (ZZIF), we are trying something new.  In addition to our traditional 5-minute presentations by entrepreneurs vying for the ZZIF $100,000 Angel Investment Fund, there will be an additional group of 2-minute "Back-of-the-Napkin" presentations by entrepreneurs who are also seeking funding but not eligible for the ZZIF Investment Fund.  A VC Panel including Bill Bryant, Andy Dale, Rick LeFaivre, Warren Gouk, Ron Howell, Daniel Kingston and Gregg Semler will provide immediate feedback to the presenting entrepreneurs about which of these early-stage companies appear to be most ready for investment and what the tipping point is for them in making their decisions.

Here is the list of the ZZIF "Back-of-the-Napkin" Presenters:

1. Bella Vista Software: Developer of digital photo software for use on iPhone, iPad and Apple computers.  Will be presented by Robert Zollo
2. Choopy Games:  A software company developing a free to play massively multi-player online game.  Will be presented by Don Le
3. Grape Quest: Mobile Wine App that optimizes the wine tasting experience by integrating the most current search, map, and GPS functions.  Will be presented by Shona Milne
4. InterviewStudio: Software vendor of online presentation tools, with first application (HR/Recruiting app) that displays everything about a job candidate on one very cool interactive screen.  Will be presented by Coleen Aylward
5. Maragas Winery:  Craft winery and event center pioneering viticulture in Central Oregon.  Will be presented by Doug Maragas
6. Moderation Technologies Inc.:  Moderation Technologies sells products which allow people to better manage and control some of their problematic or excessive behaviors.  Will be presented by Scott Walker
7. NADAC Systems LLC:  NADAC Systems LLC has developed a new control system and identification method that increases building security and allows energy distribution based on real occupancy.  Will be presented by Miodrag Ognjenovic
8. Pacific Equity Partners LLC:  Real estate investment firm that focus on acquisition of B & C class multi-family properties as well as deeds of trust securing such assets. Will be presented by Adam Gardulski
9. ProGyr:  Aural biofeedback providing a Kinesthetic Learning Platform.  Will be presented by Pete Handel
10. Wisemuv, Inc.:  We help people make smart decisions fast.  Will be presented by Chirag Pancholi