Good Gong: Vying for VC Face Time (What could you do in 2 minutes?)

During the era of half-baked Internet ideas that nonetheless generated millions in funding, an urgent desperation to be heard gave rise to a new kind of entrepreneur: the would-be Chuck Barris who produced true-to-form, Gong Show-style events.

By David Spark Wired.com

The concept was simple and cruel: Pitch your idea, and if we don’t like it, we’ll gong you away. It was a tech entrepreneur’s Fear Factor.

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The Asia-Silicon Valley Connection (ASVC), which supports entrepreneurship, staged its own Gong Show here on Thursday. Rather than millions in funding, however, first prize was a one-on-one mentoring session with a venture capitalist.

Porter Wong, ASVC president, said he added the gong solely to give the contest an Asian touch. Initially he knew nothing about the TV game show. Unlike the original, the purpose of the ASVC event’s gong was to act as a timekeeper — not an arbiter of taste.

Before the show night, the ASVC received dozens of business plans. With the help of volunteer VCs, the group narrowed the herd to 10 competitors. At the event, representatives from the 10 companies had a mere two minutes to pitch their business ideas to the panel of five VCs.

"It’s a little nerve-racking to try and condense high-level technical issues down into what amounts to about a minute and 50 seconds," said Jeff Aldrich of Mandala Solutions, who spent four hours rehearsing his pitch.

The VCs were looking for entrepreneurs with moxie.

"You’ll see sometimes silly antics," said Derek Blazensky of Cardinal Venture Capital, who has judged many similar events. "I don’t invest in silly antics, but it does tell me something about the entrepreneur…. They do that because they want to win. And we like to invest in guys who want to win."

But entrepreneurs also forget who their audience is.

"I think (the) biggest mistake is when they try to sell their products and goods to us as if we’re customers instead of selling the idea of investing in the company," said Phillipe Bouissou of Allegis Capital.

In narrowing the 10 contestants to a final three, who returned for another 10-minute presentation, the VCs used a process of elimination. They nixed the guy with the satellite antenna business, for example, because one VC had a bad experience in that area. The security and IP telephony companies also got the ax (too much competition in that arena).

In the end, the IT-focused VCs debated their top two choices: One, Genetastix, is a biotech firm whose unique technology can generate antibodies against any protein in one quarter the time required by the competition. The second, BioLuminate, developed a new technology for early detection of breast cancer.

The VCs chose Genetastix because, as one judge said, "Why not swing for the fence instead of getting a base hit?" They all agreed that if Genetastix’s technology works, it shows amazing promise.

Li Zhu, president and CEO of Genetastix, was visibly happy to get top honors. He said he didn’t think he had a chance since none of the VCs on the panel focus on biotech.

What Zhu really needs is funding. Too bad he wasn’t on the real Gong Show. First prize would have been a check for $516.32.

http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55340,00.html