Strong demand after successfully running the FastTrac TechVenture program in the Fall of 2009, has prompted TECworks to offer the program again starting March 18th. Some comments from previous participants: “The FastTrac TechVenture course with TECworks is a wonderful opportunity, not only to learn the basics of entrepreneurship but to form relationships with both businessmen and investors. ...

For a new startup, the journey from an idea to a working, successful business is a confusing and dangerous one. Real, practical advice from objective outsiders can make all the difference in helping a fledgling venture reach its goal. LaunchMemphis is hosting the Business Plan Boot Camp: a two session experience where entrepreneurs will be given the tools they need for success. Experts from sever...

Starting September 3rd, TECworks will offer the nationally recognized FastTrac TechVenture program developed by The Kauffman Foundation. The program will be offered in partnership with The FedEx Institute of Technology and The Leadership Academy. Click here for more information: More information ...

Pretty simple, liquidation preference means that in a liquidity event, the VCs get preferential treatment. An example of the most common scenario is the easiest way to explain: Say you’ve raised $7 million from VCs for 40% of your company. Down the road, you sell the company for $35 million. The shares the VCs got were Convertible Participating Preferred Series A shares, with a 1x liquidatio...

This past weekend was Memphis Startup Weekend 2.0, or lovingly known as MSUW2, organized by our friends at LaunchMemphis. It all started at 6PM on Friday and went for 48 hours straight. I thought it’d be a good event to go to and network with other entrepreneurial folks in Memphis. There probably was about a crowd of 60, all with different backgrounds: programmers, designers, marketers, sale...

If you’re involved in startups, you hear about pre-money all the time: “…what was the pre-money of your last round?”, “The pre-money of your last round was a little rich…” But if you’re new to all this (or you’re not, but don’t want to show your ignorance) this post will hopefully clarify the term a little. What is Pre-Money? What it real...

A new section of the website show a map of the Memphis area with pins for locations of startup companies. Although a work in progress, the map will show all the entrepreneurial activities in Memphis and give a quick visual overview of where the different hotbeds are. You can find the map by clicking Memphis Startups in the main menu bar or go there directly by clicking this link. The list of compa...

You can now follow what’s happening on the TECworks website by subscribing to our Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/TECworks ...

When you’re raising money from a venture capitalist and you’re fortunate enough to get one or more to the point where they want to invest, they’ll issue you what is called a term sheet. The content will depend on your company as wel as the VC firm issueing the terms, but there is an industry-wide jargon that is important to understand, as you will likely not have come across it i...

The natural way to process information is to work your way forward in time, ie. you deal with what you need to do next first: left to right. I learned from a very successful entrepreneur, Larry Wilson, that sometimes it’s a good exercise to work the other way around: right-to-left. Look at what you want achieve in the future, or at the end of a project and work your way backwards. What speci...