Blog Entry 7
It surely was an exciting day for team Refetch, as we were allowed to hear the experiences from the US ambassador of Finland (Bruce Oreck), as well as one of the most active angel investors in Finland, Ari Korhonen.
There were numerous things we learned about Angel’s, and how they chose their potential groups of interest. One of the points we heard today again, like we heard yesterday from Juha, was that in the early stages of investment, the investment made by an investor is on the team itself and the competences it has. Secondly, there was discussion of several terms. Dilution is when adding new investors; each current investor must give out a percentage of their shares in exchange for equity. Third, ambitious goals by the team members was something they looked for, as it would lead the team to be more successful, providing a more ambitious investment return. Fourth, investments by angels were usually long term (8-10) years perhaps, or shorter if their investment was bought out by a VC or if the team invested in managed an exit. Fifth, if an angel says no, it doesn’t mean he will not invest in later stages.
With regards to the ambassador’s presentation, other than being highly intrigued and delighted by the story of the people who developed the flip video camera after a failure, we learnt that the true reason we were here was to develop our ideas, which in essence was developing our creativity.
However, with reference to Refetch, more work on the application occurred, as well as on the business prospect. At the current moment, we have begun thinking of who the exact users of GTD are, and what kind of layout we could want for the application website. However, more on that tomorrow! Cheers!
