Co-investor Chad Harder sweated it out alone earlier this month while his business partner, Ty Stober, was in New Zealand.
Their Vancouver-based company, a web-based start-up called My Home Details, was still in the running for a $25,000 grant from Oregon Entrepreneur Network's Angel Investor Program as Harder prepared to make his final pitch at the all-day event on March 5.
The business partners stood to receive a big boost for a plan to create a website that would help consumers navigate the custom-home building and remodeling process. Stober had come up with the idea for an online social network and information management service while building his own home in Vancouver between 2005 and 2007.
"There are lots of trials and tribulations that go into building and lots of things people would do differently if they had access to good information," said Harder, a Washington state native.
With Stober more than 6,000 miles away, it was Harder who had the high-pressure trial of making a solo bid for a seed grant. Eight finalists, including Harder, presented their concepts for judging by OEN investors during the day-long March 5 conference at The Nines Hotel in Portland. "I hope to win, but the competition is pretty fierce," Harder said during the event.
The company, the only start-up in the competition from Clark County, had an idea that impressed some conference attendees. "Even if My Home Details doesn't win the grant, they've gotten on stage in front of hundreds of potential investors," said Willamette University student Kelly Intile, whose MBA program contributed to the event through the endowed Willamette University Angel Fund.
Regardless of winning the large check from OEN, My Home Details' Harder said the company planned to launch by the end of 2010 and show positive cash flow by 2011.
"There's some real drama here, because this money will allow the winning company to go to the next step with their product," said Angel Oregon seed-stage finalists' moderator Ernie Bootsma from the Portland office of law firm Ater Wynne.
If My Home Details won the money, the partners would be able to build a better website and invest in more marketing, according to Harder. "This money would help get our site launched and get it into the hands of local businesses," he said, seeming less nervous as he went in front of the crowd to make his case for start-up capital. "On the back end, the site would allow users to mine that information for reasons why certain products are more popular than others."
Harder focused on how My Home Details users would flock to the free site because they would be able to "capture, refine, create and track" information. Because he sees the remodeling market switching to more specialty markets, he said he planned to seek out smaller advertising clients, naming Eugene, Ore.-based Jerry's Home Improvement as one potential target.
"Most people build their home only once," Harder said, "and this allows you to get to the end product without all those missed opportunities."
To spare the suspense, in the end, My Home Details did not take home the $25,000 prize. "Just participating is quite an honor," Harder said. "Angel Oregon gave us input through their vetting process that was very helpful. Plus we had to attract attention and develop a viable business plan just to get here."
The winning company, wine maker Enjoy Life of Portland, boasted 12 years of marketing experience and 16 years of manufacturing experience, comparable to the experience and background of My Home Details' partners. The most important factor in awarding the grant, experience of the management team, comprised seven out of the 20 points in OEN judges' evaluation/scoring matrix for seed-stage companies.
"We both understand that consumer market," said Harder, who has five years of contracting experience in Washington and 20 years of construction marketing experience, including at the Associated Builders and Contractors in Washington state, the Oregon Remodelers Association and ECC Remodeling in Oregon. Stober brings several years of professional voice-over IP experience to My Home Details.
As the two wine distributors joked about having combined more than "100 years of wine-drinking experience," Harder struck a slightly fatalistic tone. "While Enjoy Life deserved to win, it's hard to go up against any company with alcohol," he said.
