Strutta Visits LA to Promote White Label Service, Bootup Lays Down Strategy & Enthusiasm

Members of Vancouver start-up Strutta flew down for the Twiistup 4 event in Los Angeles last Friday. Twiistup's premise is similar to Vancouver's Launch Party: throw a big party and let local tech companies show off their apps. From the pictures, it's clear LA is able to throw a party like only LA can, with a red carpet, retro-gaming machines, and Scoble reporting. The Struttians were dressed in white, not for a wedding (yet), but to promote and solicit launch partners for a white-label version of their video competition site. This trip into the heart of the SoCal tech scene, along with Jevon Macdonald's "How Startups Will Save Venture Capital in Canada" post, inspired Danny Robinson to write a lengthy post entitled "Venture Capital is Broken, Let's Fix It". He echos what Jevon says about the traditional VC model being broken, and the need for smaller amounts of financing to earlier stage companies. Danny outlines the Bootup Labs strategy:

Break the catch 22

1. Create a facility that allows ideas to be tested and formed into fundable companies. - DONE
2. Raise money from angels, institutions and governments who benefit from such a facility. (Share in the risk.) - IN PROCESS

Start the perpetual motion machine

1. Assist first time founders with business model formulation, and basic business operation skills. - IN PROCESS
2. Test idea in the marketplace. Get customers. Prove it.
3. Introduce the company to the investor community for larger growth financing.
4. Distribute excess proceeds to shareholders.

repeat

Danny forwarded this post to a list of influential Vancouver entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Might be interesting to see where the post comments go. Danny, Jevon, I think you've both got the right idea. Old models are broken, change must be embraced. This country is full of talented young people with good ideas that could be fleshed out for even a five figure investment. Let's channel the enthusiasm in action. Supply the money and business guidance, and great things can happen, for cheap. Photo by Mike Macadaan, Twiistup - CC 2.0, By-NC-SA