Archive for May, 2010

Rudy De La Garza gave a great speech today at the Idea Xchange.

We learnt about writing a business plan and making sure that YOU write your own business plan. Rudy said that he quizzes people who have brought him a plan. If they don’t understand their own plan, they have no business being in business.

Rudy also like to write a Performa first. He said everything else follows. You need to know your numbers before you can even start on the business plan. Know your competitors. Research them thoroughly. Never say that you have no competitors. There’s always competitors. If you think there isn’t, you haven’t done your homework.

Rudy discussed the different types of ways to get capital. Friends and Family, Banks, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. Also discussed was going public and how not to lose your interests to the shareholders. Exit strategies were highly emphasized.

There was a lengthy Q&A at the end of the discussion. That’s what I like most about these Xchanges. That’s what makes it an Xchange. The long Q&A and the in depth discussions that follow. Unlike a lot of palces where you’re just given a speech and then the speaker answers 3 questions and disappears. At the Idea Xchange, people really get to interact and ask whatever they like.

Stay tuned for news on who the speaker will be for the June Idea Xchange. I’m sure it will be another fascinating event.

After their first week of the Idea Finishing School, PREE’s management team met with Dr. Cory Hallam, director of UTSA’s CITE program to discuss the patent process.  At that time Dr. Hallam informed the management team that he would be able to assist PREE in obtaining an incubator lab on campus in which Mateo would be given access to the necessary equipment in order to develop the technology.

PREE was here at the Idea Finishing School on the 19th of May, when discussion included a breakdown of a pro forma statement by Mr. De La Garza, updated design ideas from Mateo, and market research done so far by Matt and Amanda.  Mr. De La Garza assigned the business students with additional market research including phone batteries, cost of chargers, and additional market information.  Mateo will be working on the wireless charger design, and learning new software to advance the design as well as researching product component costs for the new design.  Over the next couple of months, the management team will be reworking the business plan with Mateo improving upon the design of the technology.

Today, the 24th of May,  Amanda DeKay, CEO, Matthew Jackson, CFO, and Joshua Sellers, CMO, along with Matthew “Mateo” Ellison are back to go over their “homework” they were given in the last meeting. They’ve done more research on market shares, on how many other people are making iPhone cases, chargers, etc. It’s important to know how many people are potential buyers of the product. Rudy De La Garza explains that just because people have an iPhone, doesn’t mean that they’re going to buy your product.

They discuss how to create the product at the best cost and how to find who can make the product. It’s also discussed at how much people would be willing to spend on such a product. There’s a lot more discussion on the actual product; how it can be improved, competitor products, functionality, etc.

Rudy De La Garza handed the meeting over to Dean McCall after an hour. Dean discusses PREE’s web presence, domain names, twitter, foursquare and any other social networking opportunities that PREE could be taking advantage of. They discuss whether they will be making videos and the use of YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

The group will be back on Wednesday morning and then will hang out for the Idea Xchange on Wednesday afternoon. If you’d like to meet the young entrepreneurs from PREE Corp, make sure you stop by the Idea Xchange on Wednesday Afternoon.

The Idea Finishing School currently has a major investor actively looking for Health Care, Technology and Green Energy companies to invest in.

They are looking for Health Care, Technology and Green Energy companies that are established and have a history of at least six months. No revenue is required.  They are offering a cash incentive to just look at your company to see if it could be a good fit for them. They would sign a non disclosure agreement of course so you don’t have to worry about them running off with all your information. They are looking to invest from $300,000 to $1 million dollars in local companies. That’s some serious cash.

If your company is interested in raising equity capital from an accredited investor and meet the requirements above, come along to the next Idea Xchange on May 26th to learn more about the Idea Finishing School and how we can help you.
Rudy De La Garza will be the speaker this month. He’s also the CFO of the Idea Finishing School, so he’s your best source of information about all things IFS and VC.

RSVP HERE! before someone says, Can I buy a vowel?

For this month’s Idea Xchange, we’re going to have Rudy De La Garza give the presentation.

Personally, I find Rudy fascinating. Like me, he says what’s on his mind, he doesn’t beat around the bush, he’s smart and knows what works and what doesn’t. He’s been toughing it out in the business world for longer than I’ve been alive and I can only hope that some of his business savvy rubs off on me while I’m hanging out here.

Rudy De La Garza was once a US Marine and exudes that same no nonsence attitude of my favourite TV character, Gibbs from NCIS. Maybe it’s a Marine thing, maybe it’s a grey hair thing. But I like it.

Rudy De La Garza is the CFO of the Idea Finishing School. He is the President of First Dominion Financial and sits on the board of 2 public and 3 private companies. His specialty and his passion is in taking companies public.

Rudy De La Garza knows all the ins and outs of writing a business plan, making it pretty for investors so that they will want to part with their money and how to make sure you retain control of your company once other people have a piece of it. That’s most people’s biggest fear with getting bigger and needing other people’s money. It could also mean losing control of all your hard work. If you’ve spent years growing and nurturing something and have a clear vision of where you want it to go in the future, you don’t want to see all your hard work wiped out by the people who are giving you that money to grow.

Rudy De La Garza will talk about how to make sure that as you get to that point that you don’t give up all your hard work. He’ll talk about getting that much needed Venture Capital and still retaining control of your company.

The May Idea Xchange will be on:

Wednesday May 26th from 4-6pm

at

Idea Finishing School
3463 Magic Drive, Suite 245
San Antonio, TX 78229

RSVP HERE to secure your seat!

Today was exciting. I got to meet 4 super smart people who are going to be the next students for the Idea Finishing School.

Amanda DeKay, Matthew Jackson, Joshua Sellers and Matthew Ellison have just graduated from UTSA. They started the company PREE, Corp.  Providing Reliable Energy Everywhere.

Amanda, Matthew Jackson and Joshua were business students, and they hooked up with Matthew Ellison, an engineering student, during a class exercise where business students have to pick out the engineering students ideas and try to form a business around them. Joshua said he knew straight away he liked Matt’s invention, and they made sure they got in ahead of the pack and got their selection. Apparently, the professor puts up a list of all the gadgets a week before. Joshua, Amanda and Matthew were smart enough to actually go through the list and then pre-contact Matt to let him know they were interested in him. Come Monday morning, they sealed the deal while everyone else was still umming and ahhing over all the engineering students ideas. Joshua said some of the other kids were upset that they pushed ahead of the pack, but I admired the fact that they took what was publicly available and had the initiative to move quickly and get what they wanted. You’ll never get anywhere in the business world if you just sit back and let everyone else grab up all the good ideas first!

The four of them all had very different personalities, but worked together as a team very well. They had worked out each others strengths, and assigned roles appropriately.

Amanda is the matron of the group. She looks at the bigger picture and was interested in making sure everything was taken care of. So, they made her the CEO. Amanda graduated with Honors in Business Management, Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Joshua, who was originally studying Theater at another college and had transferred to UTSA, was definitely the sociable one of the group. He is very articulate and is very good at speaking for the group. So, naturally he was put in charge of Marketing. Apart from his BBA in Business Management, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Joshua is currently in charge of the social media campaign for Chef Dady’s fine dining restaurants in San Antonio.

Matthew Jackson was more reserved. He’s good with finances, and into making sure everything is in writing, so they made him the Chief Financial Officer. Matthew is a member of the UTSA Honors College and received his Bachelors Degree in Business Management with a concentration in Small Business and Entrepreneurship with a Business Honors Distinction.

Matthew Ellison is the Engineer. Truly gifted and obviously very into what he does, he managed to talk and listen during our meeting while sitting there drawing sketches, trying to work out a new layout for the design. He was the one who’s idea the Business students really liked. I’m always fascinated by techno geeks who can even dream up these kind of ideas. Matt managed to actually explain the concept to me in plain English, which I find most techie people cannot do, so I was even more endeared to him. Matthew has a B.S Electrical Engineering, Systems and Controls. His students activities are extensive and gives him the skills needed to work as the liaison between the engineers and the business group.

Rudy De La Garza had met the four while they were presenting their business idea at the New Technology Venture Competition at UTSA where he was one of the judges. While they didn’t win the first prize, (they came third) they were the ones that Rudy came back to the office raving about.

So now they’ve been inducted into the Idea Finishing School. They’ve already got some Venture Capitalists offering them money. Rudy De La Garza talked to them this morning about the process of what happens when a company goes public and how stocks and shares are divided up and how you pick members of the board and how to vote each other in and out. All fascinating stuff.

So now I can’t wait to see these guys each week and follow their progress through the school. I’m also anxiously awaiting to get one of their designs. It’s a wireless charger for an iPhone. Not just any any charger either. It’s mounted onto the phone and it converts wi-fi into power. It also has a solar charger built in. So whether you’re out in the sun, or somewhere where you’ll pick up wi-fi signals, you can be actively charging your iPhone. Pretty neat since the iPhone drains battery power pretty quickly. It’s also a great concept, since I’m sure I’m not the only one who would run out to buy such a product.

So watch this space as I keep you up to date on the fabulous foursome. I’m sure they’ve all got bright futures ahead of them.

The April Idea Xchange was a great success. We had a smaller number of people this time but it gave everyone the opportunity to have their questions answered by John Bray and Court Allen from Cox Smith. In fact, people were so interested in the two, we had to cut the meeting off at 6:15, or we thought nobody would ever go home!

We’re already starting to plan the May Idea Xchange. As it gets closer, we’ll let you know which industry expert we’ll have to answer questions at the next gathering.

Make sure you tell your friends who are looking for Venture Capital for their start up, or people who just need some help with their small business start up to come along and check us out.

The May Idea Xchange will be on the last Wednesday in May.