Venture capital in Croatia

Scaling Up Start-up Communities: Engage Risk as Your Friend, not a Foe—to Impact Investor DNA—& Raise $ for Your Venture

The most frequent complaint I hear from entrepreneurs in the emerging markets is the lack of risk capital in their country; investors willing to finance start-ups and early stage companies.  Many founders travel to America seeking money and connections in the US venture ecosystem.  While a few are able to raise cash, most don’t—and return home empty handed—to face an unknown future. With trillions of dollars invested in food & beverage, fast moving consumer goods, retailing, wholesaling and construction to…

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Part IV: The Quest for Growth—the Startup of Start-up Communities

(Nastas note to readers:  From 6-22 August I was in Silicon Valley, mentoring 80 entrepreneurs from 36 countries on selecting, developing and shaping their business models to investors’ behavior to risk as I discuss in this blog series.  I was one of approximately 15-16 team project advisors selected from around the world to serve in this capacity at Singularity University, created by x-Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis and futurist Ray Kurzweil.  Click on the icon below to view the presentation.…

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Insider View, Twists & Turns in International Venture Capital

In January I delivered a lecture to MBA students, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. David Brophy, Director of the Office for the Study of Private Equity Finance & Associate Professor of Finance invited me to speak at his private equity class about my experiences in doing VC since 1986, with what he calls “Tom is 3 feet deep into VC, with mud on his boots.” If you don’t know David you should, as he was the…

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