Author: Zack Miller

Zack’s App of The Week: OfficeAutoPilot

Zack’s App of The Week: OfficeAutoPilot

Feb 9, 2014 |

At OurCrowd, most of the communications we do with our investors is over email. Our deal launches, our event notifications, our messaging — is primarily driven by email. So, early on, when it came time to determine which CRM solution we were going to use, we spent a lot of time researching the different options out there. There’s absolutely been a proliferation of great CRM tools, with tons of choices for businesses like ours. We had a few requirements: that the CRM be easy enough to use that non-technical people could set it up and run it it wouldn’t break the bank — we didn’t want to spend $20,000 per year for a CRM that it tied into our website, so we could analyze the efficacy of our messaging and marketing campaigns that it have some basic workflow associated with it (for example, after someone makes an investment, some tracking to ensure we communicate properly with the right documentation) We chose this week’s App of the Week, OfficeAutoPilot (soon to be re-branded, Ontraport). Though no solution is perfect, we’ve been...

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Zack’s App of the Week: StartupDigest

Zack’s App of the Week: StartupDigest

Feb 3, 2014 |

We like to say that investing in startups is a team sport. Truth is, it actually requires an entire support community — lawyers, accountants, investors, universities — to help nurture successful startups. So, a great place for investors to start their search for investment candidates is to begin locally. This week’s app of the week is StartupDigest: a (free) newsletter of all things startup in your local area. Essentially, it’s a great curated event calendar. From networking events to technology hackathons to investor meetings, this newsletter is published in close to 100 cities worldwide (see the Israel edition here). You can also subscribe to events in a specific industry — very useful for entrepreneurs or investors who are very focused in their activities. The newsletter works like this: People sign up to curate local or industry-specific newsletters These curators identify important events or receive submissions for them periodically, these events are rolled together into an email newsletter you can subscribe to What do you use to stay current on local tech events?   [xyz-ihs...

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Zack’s App of the Week: Mattermark

Zack’s App of the Week: Mattermark

Jan 29, 2014 |

When I was an analyst at a hedge fund, we were Bloomberg addicts. Our research, stock quotes, financial deep-diving — even our chat messaging system, everything ran through a Bloomberg terminal. If you’re investing in public companies, there isn’t anything close for a researcher. As an angel investor, though, I’ve found that coverage of the startup industry is well… let’s just say it’s nothing near to Bloomberg. Mattermark is trying to change all that. Mattermark bills itself as where “big data meets venture capital”. The company (which has a must-read free newsletter, by the way) tracks 200,000 startups around the world by profiling them, tracking millions of data points including location, stage, investment history + the more valuable traction metrics (web traffic, mobile downloads, social media following and engagement). It’s not cheap — at $500/month/seat, it’s a tool for very active and larger investors in startups. What do you use to research startups? [xyz-ihs...

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Zack’s App of the Week: Crunchbase

Zack’s App of the Week: Crunchbase

Jan 20, 2014 | ,

At OurCrowd, our investor community runs the gamut — we have extremely experienced investors who have had a lot of exposure to investing in startups. We also have investors new to the asset class. Regardless of what type of investor you are, you’re probably looking for tools to help you identify new investment opportunities and manage them better (or, you’re happy to work with a firm that does this for you…) Crunchbase is one of those tools. Owned by TechCrunch parent, AOL, Crunchbase has become almost a de-facto open database of startups and the people who invest in them. The site is run like a wiki, where anyone can add or edit the information. As you can see from the image above, this is a listing for OurCrowd portfolio company, Argo Medical Technologies. You can read corporate information about the maker of the ReWalk device, view some videos about the technology helping paraplegics walk again, and see who’s invested in the company. Crunchbase has its own API that interested and motivated investors can use to feed larger apps to...

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The past, present, and future of crowdfunding — Harvard Business School style

The past, present, and future of crowdfunding — Harvard Business School style

Dec 18, 2013 | ,

It’s been almost 20 years since the last time I was  at Harvard. I had spent most of my undergraduate degree running up and down the campus trying to make it in time to my economics classes. Earlier this month, through my role at OurCrowd, I had the opportunity to revisit the campus and go back to school, so to say. On December 4th 2013, I participated in a crowdfunding panel at the Harvard Business School Association of Boston (see the event link here). In light of recent developments int he crowdfunding field, HBS has organized a series of events to discuss the various aspects, implications and issues concerning the crowdfunding market today. The panel was moderated by Daniel Gorfine of the Milken Institute. The slides below are his and were presented at the event. Daniel is one of the foremost analysts on the ecosystem evolving around crowdfunding and the great discussion that ensued was evidence of his expertise. Crowdfunding Panel at Harvard Business School (Dec 4, 2013) from OurCrowd Represented on the crowdfunding panel were OurCrowd (equity crowdfunding), Fundrise...

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