Venture Capital Pitches Going The Video Route

The stories entrepreneurs tell of their fundraising efforts are tediously familiar: They send out dozens of business plans, sign up for venture fairs, zigzag across the country meeting with potential investors and hear the word "no" more times than they can count.

Dave Gardy has been doing that since last July.

But when he couldn’t show up in person, Gardy sometimes sent potential investors a link to a video clip of his pitch. After all, his company, TVWorldwide.com http://tvworldwide.com/ , is in the Internet broadcasting business, and if the venture capitalists weren’t interested in Web content, they weren’t likely to hand him millions of dollars, he reasoned.

Gardy’s presentation met with varying levels of interest but also an intriguing suggestion: "You should really do a channel for what you’re doing — a venture show," he recalls hearing several times.

So at the end of April, Gardy’s firm will launch VentureCapitalTV.com, an Internet site with streaming video broadcasts of entrepreneurs giving their quick-hit "elevator" pitches alongside related material.

By Ellen McCarthy

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14491-2005Mar30.html