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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Spytrdr who wrote (8462)	9/14/1999 5:33:00 AM
From: LABMAN	Respond to of 13953

etrade funds garage.com Tales from Startup Boot Camp Inside Upside September 14, 1999 by Richard L. Brandt OK, you're sitting around in your cubicle, frustrated as hell. Your boss is clueless, you're already working at your third startup, and now you're ready to be the Big Cheese. You know you could create a great company, if only you could figure out what the Next Big Thing will be. I've got it! Forget electronic commerce. Everyone's been there and done that. The real opportunity is the electronic garage. Think about it. The biggest business opportunity today has got to be company incubation. There are more entrepreneurs out there than hairdressers. They're looking for funding, but it's hard to meet with VCs without having proper connections. The VCs have a ton of cash, but they have trouble finding the best entrepreneurs. Each VC firm goes through thousands of business plans a year and funds about 12 of them. Voila! Faster than you can say "market maker" you can smell the next growth business--connecting VCs to entrepreneurs. But there's one problem. Someone has beat you to it. Several someones, in fact. One of the better known of such companies, Garage.com, is holding its "Bootcamp for Startups" through Tuesday in South San Francisco, where the conference facilities are relatively cheap, but still close enough to Silicon Valley and San Francisco to pretend it has cachet. I decided to check it out Monday. They charge $700--cheap enough for prefunded entrepreneurs to come in and listen to advice about launching a company. Earlier this year, the first boot camp drew about 500 entrepreneurs, a terrific showing for a first-time conference. Monday's show drew about 1,000 people. And this in an industry where there are so many conferences you probably see George Gilder more than you see your own kids. Garage.com has already raised $72 million in financing for 21 companies since January. The biggest deal--$12 million--went to Garage.com itself. The company used Monday's forum to announce that it had raised its own investment round from E-Trade, Advanced Technology Partners, Mayfield Fund and Credit Suisse First Boston. At least this shoemaker's kids aren't going barefoot. I have to admit that, at first, I was skeptical about Garage.com's business plan. The basic idea was to get people to send in business plans, weed out the worst ones (mostly those involving alien visitations or e-commerce strategies), then post them on a private Web site where VCs can browse around for new ideas or even new companies to fund. That seems like a sketchy benefit to an industry that is mostly centered on connections. But I could see where the motivation came from. Garage.com co-founders Guy Kawasaki and Rich Karlgaard (the publisher of Forbes magazine) started with a completely different model. They wanted to start a site called Boomtown.com, which would focus on individual cities around the globe and give people advice about how to do business in them. One aspect of the business was advising people how to find funding to start a company in that city. They took the idea to a friend, Craig Johnson, founder of Venture Law Group, for feedback. He didn't like it. But as someone who reads through a lot of business plans himself, referring potential clients to VCs, he focused on that funding aspect of the plan and suggested they redirect their efforts to create a business that would help VCs do that screening for a fee. Now Garage.com seems to be taking off. The main reason? Just as the founders were able to take Johnson's advice and redirect the company from the start, they are also refining their business model as time goes on. Next Page \| VC Money 101 Tales from Startup Boot Camp page 1: The Evolution of Garage.com page 2: VC Money 101 · · · Startup Therapy · Out of the Garage Top Stories · Vertical Revolution · Tech Stocks Vacillate · Cosmeticizing the Net · Death to E-cards! · Palm Set Free · Tales from Startup Boot Camp · Bash Before You Buy Top News · Cell Phone Changes · Watch Your Mouth · Free E-Mail Blues · Online Trading's August Swoon · Nortel Restates Results Financial Info EGRP quotes ratings Back to Yahoo

To: Spytrdr who wrote (8462)	9/14/1999 8:56:00 AM
From: Spytrdr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13953

Some ETrade Customers To Gain Access to Start-Ups By REBECCA BUCKMAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL September 14, 1999 interactive.wsj.com First, online investors got a crack at hot initial public stock offerings. Now, a small number of wealthy customers at ETrade Group could get their hands on even riskier investments: early-stage companies in search of venture capital. ETrade, of Menlo Park, Calif., said Monday that it had formed a strategic alliance with Garage.com, a Palo Alto, Calif., company that uses the Internet to connect qualified investors with fledgling start-up firms in need of funding. See more in-depth information on initial public offerings. Though only very sophisticated, wealthy investors would likely be eligible to participate, said Tom Bevilacqua, ETrade's executive vice president for corporate development and strategic investments, ETrade is "actively working to develop programs whereby our customers would have access to [Garage.com's] originated deals." So far this year, Garage.com says it has helped 20 start-ups raise about $60 million from venture-capital outfits, "angel" investors and corporations. Garage.com screens business plans and posts information about the best ones on its Web site (www.garage.com), allowing investors -- who have paid a fee to participate -- to get in on the action. Mr. Bevilacqua acknowledged that the vast majority of ETrade investors wouldn't qualify to participate, but said "more than a couple of hundred" could be eligible. And "from a regulatory standpoint, we've got some work to do," since securities regulators have strict rules about who can invest in such speculative deals, he added. By sitting on Garage.com's board and becoming involved in its operations, ETrade will also get an early look at new companies using cutting-edge technology that ETrade might use in its own business, Mr. Bevilacqua said. ETrade led a $12 million round of financing for Garage.com, contributing about half the funding, said Mr. Bevilacqua. Under terms of the deal, ETrade will take a stake of 5% to 10% in Garage.com and Mr. Bevilacqua will join the company's board. The other investors in the Garage.com financing are Mayfield Fund; Credit Suisse Group's Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group; and Advanced Technology Ventures, Garage.com said. Garage.com was founded two years ago by former Apple Computer executive Guy Kawasaki.