Beyond IQ and EQ, there’s XQ!

What is a better way of spending the afternoon of February 22, 2012? Entrepreneurs, techies, experts and students were treated to an Innovation Forum on raising capital, a common problem shared by all   at the Tech Portal, UP-AyalaLand TechnoHub, Commonwealth Ave., Diliman, Quezon City.

Due to growing concerns on technology commercialization and even more so, funding sources for start-ups, Maoi Arroyo, President & CEO of Hybridigm Consulting Inc. along with Liz Fumar,  Associate Consultant, gave their take on Raising Capital The Hybridigm Way.  Maoi Arroyo started off by reminding the audience  that innovation does not stop with their inventions but   with commercialization. She gave emphasis that with innovations looking as though the business’ “porn”, innovators should actually take into account what is desirable to users, what is possible with technology and what is viable to the marketplace. She  also noted that the process by which  Filipinos follow in doing business actually differs from the norm.  A number of teams and start up companies she encountered, source out funds by first doing the pitch, followed by making the executive summary, then having the business plan. There is greater success rate when from the get go, start ups deal with commercialization goal.

Her  talk  included insights from her own experience  on funding milestones  of tapping friends, family, founders, and fools for seed capital, and of bootstrapping using your credit cards. She  mentioned that venture capitalists’ game theory is that you only have to get one and it will create a domino effect. She was more than steadfast in reminding the forum guests that they should never fall into the trap of thinking that there is no competition. More importantly,  it is  not a matter of what you know in the long run but who knows you. A critical element in the success equation for start ups and entrepreneurs is the fact that funders will go beyond your IQ and EQ and will peer closely at the teams’  XQ, which is the  execution quotient. In closing, she gave an important reminder to all that giving a great pitch is like going on a first date where you leave the other party wanting more.

The afternoon session continued with  Liz Fumar and  her presentation on valuation methods and valuation of IP for licensing and technology for start-ups. A quick introduction was made on how business  looks at how much the technology / IP / product is worth. The audience went through valuation exercises to familiarize themselves with  the process and the common tools applied.

A very engaging Q and A ensued where the audience was more than happy to bombard the speakers with questions. Amongst them were questions such as “How big the market should be?”, “What should their go-to-strategy be?”, “How much of their business’ equity should go to the investor?” The event came to a close in networking.