Valuing a tech startup is one of those ‘how long is a piece of string‘ questions (which is no help at all), but it’s still an important factor in trying to raise money for your early stage venture… Naturally, both sides will look at valuation in opposite ways. The plucky founder will want to give...Read More

In the recent Business News corporate finance report for calendar year 2018, I added up over $9.58B worth of equity capital raisings for WA companies, across 548 deals. That’s $17M+ per deal. And this does not count another $41B+ in M&A (merger and acquisition) activity. How much of the capital raising money went to early...Read More

This week it was revealed that local tech business, HealthEngine, had raised $26 million from global venture capitalist Sequoia Capital. This is notable for a few reasons: it’s the largest private sector investment in a local tech startup the first such investment from this Silicon Valley VC in Western Australia, and their second in Australia...Read More

On Friday I attended an Economic Outlook breakfast, hosted by RSM, with NAB chief economist, Alan Oster. Here are my notes… it’s more positive than you might have guessed (which was the main take away.) The headline is that there will be no recession in Australia in 2016, continuing an amazing 24 year run for our economy. Basically,...Read More

I’ve had to pitch in my time, and I’ve seen a few pitches (real and for competitions), and occasionally someone comes to pitch their startup business idea to me. When judging the value of a pitch, here’s what I look for… 1. Solves an existing/large customer problem The first thing I look for – is...Read More

Last week’s federal budget axed the Commercialisation Australia (CA) program (and a few others), saving $847 million from the public purse. It is to be replaced with a new $484 million scheme, the Entrepreneur’s Infrastructure Program (EIP), of which there is scant detail. Hundreds of Aussie companies will be affected by the closure of Commercialisation Australia. (Over 500 have received funding...Read More

[tweetmeme source=”ChazGunningham” only_single=false] Beware those telling you “it’s a new paradigm” or talking “paradigm shift” – it rarely is. In fact, such talk is so fanciful that you should pretty much discount everything the ‘paradigm shifter’ is telling you and assume the opposite. Paradigms don’t shift that much. They are invariably here to stay. Aristotle...Read More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo] A poll last year asked people for their favourite comedy song of all time – way ahead atop the pack was Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from the Life of Brian movie. Legend has it that the Python crew were holed up in Tripoli shooting the movie and...Read More