Evan Vitale

Accounting Professional

Evan Vitale – What’s New in VC News?

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By Evan Vitale

Good news is coming out of Washington, DC as venture capital deals have hit their highest point since 2001.

According to the Washington Post, a few large deals during the fourth quarter, helped 2015 become a big year for investors and startups. In all, 29 DC firms received over $550 million in venture capital last quarter, a 53% increase from 2014, according to a report released recently by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

During 2015, DC companies were able to secure 169 deals totaling $1.41 billion – up from 197 deals totaling $1.09 billion in 2014.

You can read the full Washington Post article here: bit.ly/1WqBC6B

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Meanwhile, companies in Wisconsin raised $87.8 million of venture capital in 2015, according to a national report printed recently by the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

In all, 23 Wisconsin companies pulled in $87.8 million, which is only a fraction of the $58.8 billion in venture capital that went into high-potential companies across the United States.

While Wisconsin’s numbers were better last year than in 2014, the state’s share of the national venture capital continues to remain low.

Biotech and medical device companies raised a combine $56.8 million, or 64% of all the state’s venture funding in 2015.

You can read the story here: bit.ly/1ZJHo8V

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According to The Seattle Times, the state of Washington – which generally ranks among the top five states in venture capital investments – dropped to No. 12 during the fourth quarter of 2015.

Startups in Washington raised $167.7 million with 25 deals during the quarter – a 57% drop from the same period a year ago, when $389.6 million was invested in 29 deals, according to the MoneyTree report released recently from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

You can read the full article here: bit.ly/1U9csYQ

Evan Vitale – Utilizing Business Trends

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By Evan Vitale

While you don’t need to be on the cutting edge of every trend, your business can experience some short-term and long-term success by watching and following recent business trends.

Trend watching is especially important in making sure your business doesn’t suffer or go obsolete while your competitors move forward because they took full advantage of a trend.

Take for example, Blockbuster Video. Once a dominate player in video cassette tape rental, Blockbuster didn’t make the switch to DVDs in time and suffered a painful death. By the time Blockbuster jumped on the DVD trend, Netflix and other companies were already offering DVD rentals to your door.

When was the last time you observed at trends in your industry?

Again, you don’t have to be on top of every industry-based news story, but you should be aware of what’s going on in your industry and where and how things are moving. Some of the best ways to do this include:

  • Reading online industry news.
  • Subscribe to online industry newsletters and other publications.
  • Creating Google Alerts based on targeted keywords in your industry.
  • Attending and participating in annual industry conferences. Here, you should be meeting with and talking to vendors; sales reps; media and others in your industry. Be a sponge at conference.
  • Keep an eye on your competition and see how they are reacting to trends. Don’t copy them. Instead, develop your own ideas for services and products based on trends.
  • Become more active in social media and read the industry buzz.
  • What’s everyone talking about? Don’t watch from the sidelines.
  • Get involved in the social media conversation.

Many trends move quickly. Some catch on right away, while others take time. Start now by catching up on recent trends and try to generate some ideas to help grow your business based on recent trends.

Evan Vitale – 2016 Housing Market Forecast

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By Evan Vitale

Are you looking to buy or sell a home in 2016? If so, what will the market be like during the upcoming year? Will it be a buyer’s market with deals aplenty, or are the sellers in charge over the next 12 months?

As with any prediction story, there will always be two sides.

However, according to most housing experts:

Current homeowners should expect another good year of solid gains in housing prices. After the housing bust four years ago, prices have been moving steadily higher. Most are predicting another gain in the middle single digits, while there are some expectations that prices nationwide could be close to the all-time high reached a decade ago.

If you’re looking to sell your home, the market conditions should be good. Due to the historically low number of new and existing homes for sale, it will create more of a seller’s market this year.

While this might cause homeowner prices to rise, potential buyers are benefiting from an improving job market, continued low mortgage rates and easier credit. Note: fixed mortgage rates are probably not going to stay below 4% much longer in 2016, but they don’t appear to rise sharply either.

The Federal Housing Administration, which helps first-time buyers get mortgages, cut its fees last year and it may do so again soon as its finances continue to improve. This will allow more first-time home-buyers a better opportunity to get into a new home in 2016.

Where are the hot real estate markets in 2016?

According to Zillow.com, low unemployment, rising home appreciation and strong income growth, Denver will be the hottest residential real estate market in the United States this year.

Following Denver, according to Zillow, will be Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, Richmond, Virginia and Boise, Idaho.

Zillow predicts Denver homes will appreciate by 5% in 2016 and expects income to grow 1.1% along with an annual unemployment rate of 3.1%. Those three factors, says Zillow, make Denver the hottest real estate market this year.

Evan Vitale – Asking For A Raise

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By Evan Vitale

At times we all probably feel that we’re under-appreciated – and under-valued when it comes to working a part-time or full-time job. We put in the hours, do what we’re asked to do, arrive early, leave late and go the extra mile for the company.

However, a good performance review doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be guaranteed the kind of raise in salary that you’re looking for (or hoping for) in 2016. At best, most only expect a cost of living raise. But can you ask for more?

The best way to get that well-deserved raise is to know how to properly ask for it. Here are some basic strategic steps you can take before you ask for a raise:

Do some research around the company as it pertains to pay raises. Refer to the company handbook or ask older employees their experiences when it comes to seeking a pay increase.

Keep track of your work accomplishments and job performance and have it handy when it comes time to asking for a raise. If necessary, create charts or graphs to help prove your case. If you can show that you’ve save the company time and/or helped the company improve sales, increase profits or cut expenses, then it will be easier for them to answer “yes” to your raise request.

Keep in mind what the local market will bear. If the cost of living is 3% and the current market value for someone of your job status is $50,000 per year, don’t expect  – or ask – for a $10,000 pay increase. Be reasonable.

Ask for a meeting with your boss and let them know ahead of time what the meeting entails. Be confident in your request and have your facts ready when it comes time to let your boss know why you’re an asset to the company and deserving of a raise.

Evan Vitale – Venture Capital News

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By Evan Vitale

Let’s take a look at recent Venture Capital (VC) news!

According to GeekWire.com, there was good news and bad news for venture capital activity in the Pacific Northwest. Here, venture capital activity was down 59% in the fourth quarter. However, overall, VC activity was up for 2015.

Last year, a record $2.4 billion was invested in 374 Pacific Northwest startup firms – up from $2.3 billion in 2014 and $1.4 billion invested in 2013.

Not bad!

From the Wall Street Journal, Healthline Media Inc. has raised $95 million from Summit Partners to compete with WebMD.com in the market for consumer-health information. Healthline.com was launched 2006 and provides health information to users through content licensed from third parties. The company was relaunched in 2012 with original content.

Also from WJS, a wine app called “Vivino” has raised $25 million in a Series B round of venture funding. Vivino Inc. is a mobile app for wine reviews and shopping. It lets users scan the label on a bottle of wine using their smartphones and access user-generated ratings and reviews. The new round of funding was led by SCP Neptune International. Other investors included Balderton Capital and Melo7 Tech Partners.

From the Houston Business Journal, a new venture capital fund has launched in Houston, Texas. Digitech is a crowdfunding-meets-private-equity style of venture capital where unaccredited investors will invest $50 to $100 per month. Digitech is targeting both software and technology-based companies, as well as biotech and healthcare. You can read the full article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/2016/01/exclusive-new-venture-capital-fund-launches-in.html

KidPass, Inc., according to the Wall Street Journal, has started to sell $49 monthly subscriptions that give families access to many children’s activities, including sports, music classes, indoor play spaces, museums, and more. The idea, says co-founder and chief executive Solomon Liou is to give parents a “starting point whenever they are looking for any kind of activity for their children.”

You can check out KidPass here: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2016/01/11/seed-funded-kidpass-launches-childrens-activity-subscription-service/

Evan Vitale – Ignoring Gloom and Doom Predictions

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By Evan Vitale

At the conclusion of every year – and the start of a new year – the gloom, doom and boom stories start to appear with business predictions for the next 12 months.

As a business owner, investor, manager or even a staff employee, it can be difficult to sort out what’s good and what’s bad when it comes to reading news involving industry forecasts for the upcoming year.

Here’s the best approach one can take when “experts” make their good-news, bad-news predictions:

  • Ignore them.
  • If you must read prediction articles, use it for informational (and entertainment) purposes only.
  • Remember, you – and you alone – drive your business. If you read “it’s going to be a bad year for your industry” articles and then spend all day wringing your hands and rubbing a worry stone then, yes, it’s going to be a bad year for your business.
  • Prove forecasters are wrong. Clip or print the article and use it for motivation. Use it as a blog post. Tell everyone you’re going to prove that business is good, etc.
  • Be positive, especially in front of your employees, customers and clients. If you feel negative industry news is affecting your staff, have a meeting or staff lunch. Tell them your plan to keep things moving in the right direction, despite industry “predictions” from an online magazine writer who doesn’t know anything about your company and the customers/client you serve every day.

At the end of the year, no one will remember whether industry predictions were right or wrong. The gloom-and-doom article writer has moved on (perhaps to another company) and will be  writing a new article about the positives and negatives for other business industries for 2017.

One of my business friends always tells me “onward” whether his business is growing, when he celebrates earning new business or if he loses a customer.

Keep your head up and stay positive. Ignore the pundits.

Evan Vitale – VC Money Tight in 2016?

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By Evan Vitale

The venture crystal ball, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, reveals that investors are predicting fewer unicorns and tighter purse strings for the upcoming year.

TechFlash Editor Cromwell Schubarth says most of the investors he interviewed at the conclusion of 2015, says the booming trend of venture capital funding is slowing down. Perhaps, we’ve been on a good ride for such a long time, that it’s likely things are going to calm down a bit.

You can read the entire article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/blog/techflash/2015/12/vc-crystal-ball-investors-predict-fewer-unicorns.html

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal says the Federal Reserve’s quarter-point rate increase will have very little immediate impact on the startup fundraising environment. However, gradual tightening is expected over the next 12 months. Will this leave companies short of startup cash before they start to see a profit?

Check out what capital investors are saying about this potential cash crunch here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/12/17/vc-mailbag-startup-funding-crunch-is-likely-in-2016/

However, once you dig down far enough, you’ll always be able to find some positive news from a venture capitalist.

According to CNBC, New Enterprise Associations general manager Rick Yang says 2016 will be a big year for companies working in virtual reality, edtech and e-commerce.

VC money might be tight, he says, in the first part of 2016 as compared to 2015, but he doesn’t see early-stage companies slowing down. Facebook and Apple, he predicts will look to “acquire more startups to maintain growth and obtain new technologies,” Yang says.

“I don’t think that any of the big tech companies are scared of acquiring companies right now, they still have quite a bit of cash on the balance sheets. And as I kind of mentioned in one of the previous questions, I do think they’re looking to other services outside of their core products for growth in the next year,” he said.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/31/one-venture-capitalists-predictions-for-2016.html

Evan Vitale – Latest VC Headlines

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By Evan Vitale

Here’s some of the latest venture capital news being discussed and shared online:

According to the OC Register, Irvine, California is a quite the “mecca” in Orange County when it comes to winning venture capital funds. A recent report says Irving-based companies raised more money than any of the county’s other 33 cities combined.

The Register went on to say that during the first nine months of 2015, Irving-based companies raised nearly $278 million in venture capital. Newport Beach was next in line with $57 in venture capital funds raised. The report was released by Jones Lang LaSalle Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/million-698761-capital-companies.html

Recently, Indiegogo unveiled a new service that could “prove to be controversial among its core users by giving an edge to large corporations engaged in crowdfunding.”

In a blog post by the Wall Street Journal, “Goliaths have long since infiltrated crowdfunding sites, trotting out new products and promotional campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. But Indiegogo’s new Enterprise Crowdfunding service aims to help increase their chances of success on the platform.”

The blog post is here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2016/01/06/indiegogo-courts-corporate-crowdfunders-with-new-services/

Monsanto Growth Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Monsanto Company announced for the first time its growing investment portfolio; nearly a dozen independent companies that are active in key areas of agricultural productivity, digital agriculture and biologicals.

StreetInsider.com has the news here:

http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Monsanto+%28MON%29+Venture+Capital+Arm+Launches+First+Investment+Portfolio/11197249.html

From Bloomberg Business, growing peer-to-peer lending and online money transfer services helped raise a record $3.6 billion in venture capital funding for the UK technology sector last year.

The largest single investment in the industry was attracted by London-based small-business lending platform Funding Circle, which raised $150 million in April. London continues to have an expanding financial technology sector, which had a record year in 2015.

The full article is here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-06/u-k-tech-startups-raise-record-venture-capital-in-2015

Evan Vitale – Non-Tech Firm Raises $13.5 Million

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By Evan Vitale

A Chattanooga, Tennessee startup has raised $13.5 million in venture capital – the largest one-time VC capital investment of any Chattanooga startup company.

And it has nothing to do with technology; medical; devices or apps.

“Bellhops” uses approximately 8,000 college students, who are employed as independent contractors, to help consumers move household goods and furniture in 88 cities across the United States. About 4,500 of those students are working activity as moves are ordered through a web-based, on-demand service.

The company is the brainchild of Auburn University grads Stephen Vlahos and Cameron Doody who started Bellhops in 2011.

Bellhops gained initial funding of $6 million in November 2014 from the Lamp Post Group in Chattanooga. Recently, Canaan Partners, a Westport, Conn.-based investment fund helped arrange the most recent round of venture funding to help the growing company add more staff and enter more markets. The recent funding including Lowercase Capital, Bullet Time Capital and Binary Capital.

Currently, Bellhops employs approximately 65 employees at its 12,000-square-foot rented headquarters in Warehouse Row in Chattanooga and provides a unique, lower-cost moving option.

While revenue numbers weren’t disclosed, Doody says Bellhops has been growing five-fold every year. The two original owners will maintain majority ownership and the company plans to stay and grow in Chattanooga.

Bellhops offers a variety of moving services and charges an hourly rate. The firm doesn’t own any trucks, but supplies the labor to help others move with their own or rented trucks.

Bellhops won the Chattanooga “Spirit of Innovation” award in 2014 from the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. You can visit its website at https://getbellhops.com/.

Evan Vitale – 2016 Business Predictions

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By Evan Vitale

Everyone, it seems, has a business prediction for 2016.

Here a few of my favorites.

From http://nerdwallet.com:

  • More online small-business loans.
  • More women-owned businesses.
  • More loan dollars guaranteed by the United States Small Business Administration.
  • Entrepreneurs will use more business credit cards to make purchases for their companies.

From http://forbes.com:

  • Expect gradually increasing interest rates and tougher credit for business.
  • Lower oil prices into mid-year followed by gradual increases.
  • This will be a big year in terms of mega-mergers.
  • It will be a challenging growth year for middle-market companies.
  • Politics as usual.

From http://businessnewsdaily.com (who has 50 small business trends and predictions for 2016):

  • Small business growth will continue.
  • Same-day delivery and cross-border selling will expand.
  • More businesses will come up for sale as Baby Boomers look to retire.
  • Small businesses can expect more scrutiny from customers
  • Despite increasing internet connections, human connections remain the most important.

Here are some other notable predictions for the new year:

  • Security experts are expecting there to be new cyberattacks and hacks. This will include attacks through apps. Source: http://www.inc.com.
  • For businesses who utilize Google Adwords and other Pay-Per-Click (also known as “PPC”), ad targeting will be awesome in 2016. Social media ads are quickly becoming a favorite for many businesses. Bing Ads are expected to make a strong comeback. Source: http://wordstream.com.
  • Store front businesses that did well in 2015 (small grocers, hair salons, coffee shops, restaurants, fitness centers, home improvement contracts, retail boutiques and other “strong fronts”), should continue to have a good year in 2016 with, perhaps, some modest growth. Source: http://pymnts.com.
  • The impact of climate change and new technologies (such as the ability to check pricing on smartphones) means 2016 could be a good year for the wine industry, although craft beer and craft cider continue to earn a lot of attention. Source: http://bloomberg.com.

Do you have a business or industry prediction for 2016?