The 2011 Pipeline Fund Fellowship Conference- A Recap
by Oi Yen Lam, Chief Blogger
On April 30 2011, the Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF) hosted the inaugural PFF Conference and launch event in New York City. Sponsored by Goodwin Procter, 85 Broads and In Good Company, the conference was a full-house event attended by over 50 participants. The all-day agenda featured panel discussions, workshops and case studies with a two-pronged goal: to empower women in becoming savvy angel investors while focusing on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits.
I was one of the lucky few selected to be an observer at the conference’s valuation exercise. Following a presentation on valuation techniques by Susan Preston, Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the participants were assigned to one of three groups. Led by a coach, each group was to determine a pre-money valuation for a case study company in the pharmaceutical industry. This should be straightforward, I thought as I flipped through the case study worksheets. All we need to do is to plug in a few numbers and presto!
The exercise turned out to be more complex than I had initially thought. Our group was instructed to divide into two smaller teams—the Investors and the Entrepreneurs. Each team had to establish a negotiating stance and bargain our way to a mutually agreeable pre-money valuation for our startup. My team, the Entrepreneurs, discussed furiously as we debated our stance. What kind of investment timelines were we considering? What are our projected revenues and costs? How should we mitigate the management and geographical risks faced by our company?
At the negotiations table, the Investors subjected our calculations to the acid test. As we responded to their rapid-fire queries, I realized that while careful due diligence was essential in a world of imperfect knowledge, the ability to instill confidence and trust was key to successful negotiations. Finally, we convinced the Investors that our startup could generate returns higher than their initial projections. The session concluded with a question from the Investors:
“So have we agreed on the pre-money valuation?”
Buoyed by our small victory, the room erupted in laughter as the Entrepreneurs’ spokesperson responded “Well, we will call you”
The exercise was capped with a debriefing led by Ms. Preston, where she revealed that our case study was based on a real-life example. As she shared the outcomes of the actual negotiations, we learned that our pre-valuation figure was almost double that of the USD2.12 million established in the real world.
Could we have arrived at a closer estimate, had we more time for analysis and access to better information? Perhaps. Nevertheless, I was less interested about the accuracy of our estimates than the confidence displayed by my team during the negotiations. It was truly a pleasure to work in a group of highly talented and diverse women from the financial, government, medical and social media sectors.
The final verdict? It was a Saturday well-spent in the presence of 50+ women passionate about socially responsible investments. We couldn't have asked for a more auspiscious kickoff to PFF's fellowship program!
About Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF)
The Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF) trains women philanthropists to become angel investors, by focusing on education, mentoring, and practice. PFF aims to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with investors who get them. At the end of the six-month program, the ten Pipeline Fund Fellows collectively choose which social enterprise will receive their $50,000 investment.
Founded by NYWSE director Natalia Oberti Noguera in 2010, PFF has attracted media coverage from Bloomberg Businessweek, Dowser, ForbesWoman, New Prosperity, TechCrunch, and The New York Times. Looking ahead, PFF will launch in Colombia later this year with plans to expand to San Francisco and L.A. in the pipeline (no pun intended!)