the multi billion dollar idea

Filed in archive Venture Capital on November 25, 2003

I was always wondering why VCs do so little for their marketing and sales. Sure they can build paper towers with incoming business plans every day, but the point is getting the best entrepreneurs. Also entrepreneurs sending out business plans do so to reach many VCs in parallel. So it might get better leads with less competition before the big road show goes on. It's much less common nowadays, although it's so easy to screen universities and entrepreneur networks for good deals.

I was reporting a couple of weeks back about Tim Drapers pitch at AlwaysOn. Cnet now tells us about the outcome.

"I'm amazed. I was just expecting I'd have an interesting afternoon. But we got five ideas that we'll take a closer look at," said Draper, who noted he was surprised to find more than just one idea worth pursuing."

"Craig Elias, founder of InnerSell in Canada, captured strong interest from Draper. InnerSell signs up online sales referral agents, who provide sales leads to suppliers that subscribe to its service. For example, if an agent's company cannot provide a product or service to a potential customer, that sales agent can tap into InnerSell's list of vendors and forward the lead on. If a sale is made, InnerSell keeps 30 percent of the vendor's commission and the remainder goes to the agent."

"Draper, who noted that the contest idea began after an angry reader of his blog characterized venture capitalists as a clubby group when choosing investments to fund, said his firm will likely hold similar contests every quarter via videoconferencing."

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