Red Lizard Software Wins ANZA’s Tech23 Prize: Company Most Ready for US

by Viki Forrest, CEO ANZA Technology Network

It’s my pleasure to announce that Red Lizard Software has been chosen to receive ANZA’s Tech23 prize, which is awarded to the company we saw at Tech23 last month who demonstrates great potential for the US market.

Red Lizard Software’s Goanna product cleans up software bugs for developers, reducing the time programmers spend testing and debugging. Red Lizard estimates that software bugs are a $100 billion (USD) problem. And, they have a solution that can remedy this expense within minutes. The upshot is that higher quality software gets to market faster.

Read more about Goanna here.

Our prize for Red Lizard Software is a slot in our 2010 Gateway to the US program. Valued at $3,995 (USD), Red Lizard will have the option of taking part in a US market analysis workshop next year in Sydney, then working with a US-based coach who will get them ready to pitch in Silicon Valley to potential US investors, partners and others from the tech community who can further facilitate US market exploration and entry.

Congratulations to Red Lizard Software. We look forward to working with you!

Enter the Dragon: Shanghai, Sydney, Silicon Valley Venture Capital Forum, November 19/20

Is Shanghai the next Silicon Valley? Will China’s formidable economic presence on the world stage bring entrepreneurs and venture capitalists together to build solutions for the next generation?

Come find out the answers to these questions and more when Advance presents “Enter the Dragon”, a video conference linking Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Sydney, November 19/20. Click here for times and location in each city and to register now.

Learn more about: China’s emerging opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs in the global economy; the difference between Silicon Valley and China VC ecosystems; building your global networks for business opportunities; navigating a foreign market with trusted resources; China’s growing clean and green tech market opportunities; how Silicon Valley’s innovation and Australia’s unique blend of resources, clean fossil fuels, water and solar technologies will neatly fit in this vast market sector as the world reshapes itself in the next two decades.

Panelists include:

• Ford Tamer, Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures
• Matt Jones, Partner, Nth Power
• Ron Cao, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners, China
• Alison Leopold Tilley, Partner, Pillsbury, co-leader South East Asia team
• Darren Ho, Managing Partner, CMHJ China
• Tony Surtees, Executive Director, Prime Digitalworks Pty Ltd
• Dr. Mannie Liu, Director, Renmin University, Venture Capital Research Center
• Victor Westerlind, General Partner, RockPort Capital Partners

Moderated from Silicon Valley by Dr. Larry Marshall, Managing Director, Southern Cross Venture Partners and from Shanghai by Joseph W.K. Chan, Partner and Head of China VC & PE, Pillsbury.

This event is FREE to ANZA TechNet and Advance members. Sponsored by Advance, with support from ANZA TechNet, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Pillsbury. Click here to register as well as to get the locations and time for this event in Silicon Valley, Sydney and Shanghai.

Results of the 3Q Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index

Read the interpretation of the steady results revealed in University of San Francisco associate professor of entrepreneurship Mark Cannice’s quarterly study of nearly 40 Silicon Valley VCs byTechCrunch writer Sarah Lacey in “Venture Capital’s 3Q Temperature” .

On a scale of 0 to 5, VCs view the current climate for investing and economic recovery to be 3.37. This is the same figure Cannice derived in 2Q ‘09. The good news is VCs still feel there are a lot of good new companies out there, and they know that to make returns ten years from now, they have to keep the dollars flowing now.

But there’s a downside that keeps the score stagnant from 2Q to 3Q ‘09. According to Lacey, “if VCs can’t spin mature companies off to buyers or public market investors, they have to keep more reserves for them that can’t go to new deals. And without those exits—some firms may not be able to raise their next funds, which also hurts their ability to do new deals.” (Read more)

Note: To read the 3Q Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index in full, click here.

Tradeslot Wins ANZA Technology Network’s Gateway to US Guy Manson Award

The winner of the Guy Manson Award for Hottest Company at ANZA Gateway to US, Tradeslot. From left to right: John Dyson, Starfish Ventures; Jesco d'Alquen, CEO Tradeslot, Mark B. Johnson, Tradeslot' s Gateway coach and Viki Forrest, CEO ANZA. Photo by KazzaDrask Media.

Victorian-based B2B Auction Technology Company Takes Top Honors among Australian Companies at Silicon Valley Summit

Tradeslot was named the “Hottest Company” tonight at the conclusion of the 2009 ANZA Gateway to the US Summit at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, CA.

Pitching alongside 9 other Australian-founded companies taking part in an intensive three-day immersion in Silicon Valley, Tradeslot, from Melbourne, Victoria captured the Guy Manson Award for its real-time combinatorial auction platform that dramatically improves the efficiency and profitability of B2B transactions for both buyers and sellers. The award is given to the Australian or New Zealand company deemed “most ready” to do business in the US marketplace.

“Tradeslot was the clear winner among our judging panel,” said Viki Forrest, ANZA CEO. “The companies were rated on market opportunity, their solution to an existing problem or market need and their readiness to do business in the US. This company is ready to be here.”

The Guy Manson Award includes a 25 percent discount to the ANZA Fast Track to the US program. The mentoring program works with Australian and New Zealand entrepreneurs to significantly accelerate their company’s expansion into the US market.

Tradeslot CEO Jesco d’Alquen accepted the award from ANZA and Starfish Ventures. Starfish Ventures investment principal John Dyson took part in a Q&A judging panel session during the pitches along with Eliane Fiolet of Ubergizmo and Simon Anderson of Pictage.com.

“When you have a start-up there are as many reasons to believe as there are doubts,” said d’Alquen. “The Guy Manson Award definitely helps me know that I am on the right path.”

This year’s line-up of Gateway companies was particularly impressive in that it represented innovation at every level: technology, business models and customer acquisition.

Other presenting companies included: Earth Utility, iPOWOW!, myCaRMS, myownpad, Software Shortlist and Spinergy. Company bios are available at: http://www.anzatechnet.com/page-3/parent-1/section-1.html

Past winners of ANZA’s Guy Manson Award include Neuro Vision Technology, Buzka, Silenceair, cineSync, Digislide and In the Chair (now StarPlayit).

The State of Funding in the Valley

Angel investor Ron Conway’s name came up a few times in our Funding Business Forum at the ANZA Gateway to the US Summit this morning. It wouldn’t be a funding panel in Silicon Valley without a little name dropping and on the back of that we came across this interview with “the Grandaddy of Silicon Valley,” bv Mike Arrington at TechCrunch that took place just the other day.

Conway was asked what he thought of the state of funding in the Valley, one year after the global financial crisis (GFC) struck the tech hub, as well as the rest of the world.  Said Conway,

“We’ve seen an explosion of real time data startups which has helped offset the downturn in Silicon Valley. We still see 5-6 deals a day, which tells me the market is very vibrant. I feel like we’ve weathered the storm very nicely. Also, a lot of companies that needed money last year raised money quickly or cut costs and survived, so we had a lower failure rate than we thought we would.”

(Read more)