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Venture Northwest application process & guidelines

To apply for Venture Northwest, please submit the following elements for consideration the Venture Northwest Screening committee.

Application deadline: Friday, September 5, 2008 – 5:00 pm

  1. Complete the application form
  2. Upload your 5-page executive summary via the online form.
  3. Upload a 10-slide powerpoint presentation via the online form. Not the final draft for the actual conference but rather additional information for the screening committee.
  4. Upload a word document that has a 25 word and 50 word description of your company for use on the OEN website and in the program.
  5. Upload a one page company summary pdf or word format (half inch margins)
  6. Submit payment for applying and your conference registration via the online payment form. Payment must be received for the screening committee to review your application.
  7. If selected to present you will be expected to meet the following requirements 

Please read carefully below the description of everything you need to submit to help make your Venture Northwest experience go smoothly.

Description of required elements for applying

Executive Summary

  • Executive summary may not exceed five (5) pages.
  • No attachments to your summary will be allowed.

Your summary should tell potential investors why your company will succeed. Investors want to know about your "unfair advantage." You must have a cover page complete with name, address, phone and fax numbers, and contact person. (Note: Your cover page does not count toward the five-page limit for this document.) Your opening paragraph should contain a brief summary description of your business. In general, it is a good idea for your summary to mirror, as much as possible, the categories used by the selection committee. Those categories are:

  • Management Team: Executive team’s track record.
  • Product: Clear description of product or service, including versus competition.
  • Served Market: Description, size, and growth.
  • Sales/Marketing Strategy: Target market and how you will reach prospective customers.
  • Core Competency or Competitive Position: Your Company’s unfair advantage.
  • Scalability/Liquidity Opportunity: How investors will make money.
  • Financial: Financial plan and financing strategy.

In our experience, investors find the marketing strategy and management sections of particular importance: they will want to know how you are going to make money, and the track record of those who will make it happen. In your financing section, be sure to discuss how much money you are seeking to raise and roughly what you think your pre-money valuation will be.

PowerPoint Presentation

  • Presentation shall not exceed 10 (ten) slides
  • Should be a serviceable but not final draft of the presentation the CEO would give to investors from the Venture Northwest stage

Your draft presentation should adhere to the story you tell potential investors in your executive summary. Pay particular attention to the categories used by the selection committee that are listed above. Use only those graphics and charts that reinforce your summary's claims or show market opportunities.

25 & 50 word description for the OEN website and the Venture Northwest program guide

Please create a word doc named [Insert company name] description.doc. This doc needs to contain both a 25 word description that OEN can use on its website (if your company is chosen to present) as well as a 50 word company description. Please also provide the contact information for the company that you would want a potential investor to use. The 50 word description is intended for OEN to use to produce the program for Venture Northwest that will be given to all the attendees

Recap: The word doc needs the following.

  1. 25 word company description
  2. 50 word company description
  3. Contact information for potential investors

One page company summary

Submit a company description page that represents what you want to share with potential investors. The document must be one-sided and one-page with a minimum of half inch margins on all sides. It will be used instead of the 50 word description in the program in the event your company is chosen to present.
 

Application Pricing, Benefits & Payment

Member price: $350
Non-member price: $545 (includes small company membership)

Application price includes review by selection committee and one Venture Northwest conference registration regardless of selection. We encourage all applicants to attend and to fully leverage the exceptional networking opportunities Venture Northwest offers.

Submit payment for application including your single conference registration via the online payment form. Payment must be received for the screening committee to review your application.

Judging for Venture Northwest

In past years, submitters have been curious about how the plans are judged. The evaluation process occurs in two steps.

In the first step, the 50 - 100 received plans are evaluated by several selection committee members for a "yes," "maybe," or "no" decision. The resulting scores are entered into a spreadsheet (yes =2, maybe = 1, no = 0). The spreadsheet is sorted so that the proposals are ranked in descending order. Then the selection committee meets to discuss the spreadsheet, which is used as a starting point for the conversation, not as a mechanical decision-making tool. The goal of this step is to select the top plans for greater scrutiny.

In the second step, the top plans are evaluated on both qualitative and quantitative criteria. The quantitative evaluation puts heavy emphasis on the management team and the sales and marketing elements of the plan. The qualitative check is designed to be a "gut check" for evaluators to find those plans where the elements don't look good individually, but the sum total feels like it could be hot (or vice versa).
 
We reserve the right to change the criteria or the weighting or both, but this will give you a good idea of how we will approach the selection process.

Presenting company requirements

If you company is among those selected to present at Venture Northwest, you will be expected to agree to the following time commitments as you prepare for the conference.

1) Mandatory orientation and rehearsal meeting (2hours) – Early October, date TBA

2) Prepare a tabletop exhibit for conference – Wednesday, October 30.

3) Present and attend the conference and reception – Wednesday, October 30.

Special pricing exists for additional employees from presenting companies. If selected to present you will be informed how to take advantage of that opportunity.