Americas Venture Capital Conference

Hosted as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week

2012 Americas Venture Capital Conference
Presenting Company Criteria

Companies seeking investors are welcomed to apply
for an opportunity to present at the
2012 Americas Venture Capital Conference.

Presenting companies will represent two categories:

Top Global Innovative Ventures
and
Top Global Emerging Ventures

Companies from the following industry sectors:

Agriculture, natural resources, and water quality

Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health

Consumer products

Energy and green technologies

Entertainment

Information, communication and web technologies

Education

Real Estate

Top Global Innovative Ventures

Presenting Company Criteria:

Application & Presentation must be done in English

"Market Fit" - proven market adoption & significant established user base

In one of the growing industries sectors listed above

Minimum viable product or service, with significant existing revenues

Excellent management team in place

Proven business model with existing positive gross margins

Significant business in Latin America, Caribbean or South Florida, regardless of headquarters

Top Global Emerging Ventures

Presenting Company Criteria:

Application & Presentation must be done in English

"Market Fit" - proven market adoption and established user base

In one of the growing industries sectors listed above

Minimum viable product or service (Pre-revenue acceptable)

Excellent management team in place

Proven business model with potential positive gross margins

Significant business in Latin America, Caribbean or South Florida, regardless of headquarters

Companies are Required to Submit:

2-minute dynamic video, pitching your company

Power Point Presentation (11 slides) in the following outline:

Business overview (Introductory Slide)

Briefly describe the company and its value proposition(s).
Explain how, why and when the company was formed, location(s), and number of employees.
State how the company is organized (i.e., LLC, C-Corp).
This slide should be the basis of your elevator pitch in bullet format. The remaining slides will elaborate on each bullet point outlined on this slide.

Your product/technology/service

Describe your company’s product/technology/service (using non-technical terms).
Describe the problem it solves and how it works.
Discuss its current stage of development.
Describe how it has been validated and by what organization(s).
Describe the status of your intellectual property and explain how it is protected.

Your team(s) (management & advisory)

List CEO and key management by name (only list those who are full-time or have committed to join on a full-time basis).
Highlight their accomplishments and years of experience in this field to illustrate their record of success.
Identify vacant positions and discuss how and when they will be filled, if any.
List Advisory Board members and Board of Directors, if any.

Market opportunity

Summarize your business model.
Target customer and quantify the market size.
Describe your go-to-market strategy.
Sales and distribution channels
Explain pricing rationales and compare them to the current market.

Benefits and competitive advantages

Highlight your company’s competitive strengths.
Candidly discuss your competition.
Describe how/why your company’s technology/ product/service is unique to its competitors and how/why it is an improvement over current state of the art.
Describe how you plan to sustain your advantage over the competitors.

Product development

Describe your product development process, along with project costs, lead times, and capital requirements (a time-line is a helpful way to illustrate this).
Identify remaining critical steps required to launch the product/technology/service.

Financial plan

Provide a non-confidential, high-level, financial plan that defines your revenue model and pricing assumptions.
Include expected annual revenues, expenditures and profits for the next 3 years.
Describe how your company has been capitalized to date and discuss your current cash position.
Discuss anticipated breakeven and profitability points.
Identify the amount of funding you are seeking and how those funds will be spent.

Growth strategy

Amount raised already

number of shares and price per share

Current investors and owners – numbers and composition
Amount to be raised in this round
Valuation
Future funding rounds

Use of Proceeds

Descriptions, amounts and timing
Product development, operations, marketing
Significant upcoming milestones

Exit Strategy

Exit strategy

Summary

Summarize 3-5 points from your presentation.
Refrain from introducing new information on this slide.
Emphasize the points you want the audience to remember and take away.

Important Dates:

Monday, July 16th
Companies that submit their 2-minute video and PowerPoint presentation by this date will have opportunity to receive feedback from the selection committee prior to
the final deadline.

Friday, September 14th
Final deadline for companies to submit their 2-minute video and PowerPoint presentation. No feedback will be given at that point.

Click here to download criteria for the 2012 Top Global Innovative Ventures and
2012 Top Global Emerging Ventures

Please submit PowerPoint presentation and
your 2-minute video to
FIU’s Eugenio Pino and Family
Global Entrepreneurship Center at:
entrepreneurship@fiu.edu

For additional questions or concerns please contact the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at (305) 348 – 7156 or via email at: entrepreneurship@fiu.edu.