2. www.StratticaCapital.com
Mike
Experience starting, growing
investing in companies
Who Is This Guy?
Founded investment firm Strattica Group.
Successful investor by age 30
Serial Entrepreneur
Business Owner
Investor
Masters : Strategy & Finance
Electronic Engineer : First Class Honors, Top Student
Cert. Tech. Entrep. : Selected as one of 15 International Entrepreneurs
University Scriptwriting Prize
Australia's 30 Most Inspiring Young Engineers
Mike Kyriacou
3. www.StratticaCapital.com
… inventing flow of ideas since 15 - realized I needed to overcome barriers ….
Engineering
Business
Experience
Capital
Location
Insider
Insider
Top Graduate
Masters Finance & Strategy
New products and startups
President ITEE
Right first time? Burn Cash
Isolated, poor chances
Immersion Program
Property Acquisition
Passive Income Company Acquisition: Model * Negotiation * Acquisition
Passive Income High debt
R.E. Sale: Debt free
Lo-tech, service-based
Tech product-based
Scale, high take-up
Move to center of tech world
Commercial Brain-PC InterfaceElected President
Cofounder ICT ICC Founder Com Tech NetLecturer
…or continual stream? Invest Cash Flow
SV mindset Rockstars, NetworksVC consulting
The story so far…
4. www.StratticaCapital.com
The Graduate
Early
Entrepreneur
Leveraging
Capital & IP
Silicon Valley
Robotics
First
venture
Passive
Income &
Capital
from Real
Estate
Rotary
Network
Company Acquisition
& Product Development
Silicon Valley Ventures
Engineering Experience
Obsessive
investment
selection
Obsession with
being top student
110-hour weeks Genuine friendships
Obsessive business selection. Harsh life lessons & triumphs.
R&D
DSP, Virtual World, ITS
Great Big Enterprises
Silicon Valley TVLP.co
Strattica Capital
Skills,
achievement
Capital
Ideas,
Insight
Key
Silicon Valley Immersion Program
6. www.StratticaCapital.com 6
Robotic Steel Fabrication
Venture
• Exclusive rights to robotic fabrication technology for
Iron Ore industry
• $2M fab work ready to go about $.5-$1M/yr in fab work
• Lawyer Tennis -- $24,000 legal bills
• “Trust Us” – money never arrived
• Reputation damage
• … and that Iron Ore about to explode…
7. www.StratticaCapital.com 7
• State gov. lost $24.6M in telco infra. Quietly trying to sell off
before election.
• Launched bid team: Original consultants and first COO.
• Analysis – numbers not work.
• Intro to another network – modelled how much neg and still be
profitable. Proposed network and customer share. So
incredibly generous it was a no-brainer. Signed agreement –
30,000 customers
• Deal backing of $6.9M by strategic investor
• Delay … gov. withdraw sale. Quietly sold behind the scenes.
• Triggered Anti-Corruption Investigation. “Highly unethical”
• Lesson: Don’t deal with gov, no more deals in Perth
Telecommunications
Infrastructure Buyout Bid
8. www.StratticaCapital.com 8
• An established Co with many new ventures
• Analyzed it –not work, but business solid. Re-neg. terms
• LBO structure. High debt.
• Services –into-> Product business (higher valuation)
• High customization for 0 cost, plug compatible
• Terrible CEO choice
• Property under bus. skyrocketed – sold it. Now owned debt-free.
• Sold position – “Aussie” size exit
• Spin-off – dividends
Electrical Engineering Co.
Services -> Products
9. www.StratticaCapital.com 9
• Selby Ventures – endorsed AR-based real-world civ-game
• Coder of Sims 1.0
• World’s first mobile MMO producer
• Hollywood game composers, known actor
• Proprietary algorithm to parse entire city map
• About 30 devs, 3 artists involved over development.
• Deep tech tree creation and live content management
• Live now … UX not ready … investment appetite moved on
• Invest more or wait for next cycle?
12. www.StratticaCapital.com
In A Nutshell: The Most Important Message
What’s important?
Being Happy
Doing things that you feel are important and
meaningful.
Being appreciated, respected and admired by people
you respect and admire.
• A Good Guide: Work to learn : Build up the
skills you need to do what you feel is
important.
• Ultimately: We work for endorphins and
adrenaline. IE:
“Our aim is for a life
fun, meaningful and interesting.”
13. www.StratticaCapital.com
Receptive to Possibility
• Opportunities are really *everywhere*
• Most are average … some (very few) are fantastic
• Entrepreneurs need to hone their skills in spotting and then
analyzing to seek out those that are truly excellent… then EXCECUTE ;)
“The deal of a lifetime comes around about twice a month”
– Dolf De Roos
14. www.StratticaCapital.com
The Nature of Entrepreneurship
This is the norm for early ventures:
Exciting, but with obstacles everywhere!
IMAGE: Entrepreneurs must be strong minded.
Get back up. Keep advancing.
Go find your Sarah Connor.
MOST –nearly ALL - entrepreneurial ventures fail.
Fortunately, this isn’t a game of dice
– we can arm ourselves with skills and resilience.
15. www.StratticaCapital.com
Beware of Fortresses
Important Note:
Resemblance is entirely coincidental.
Niccolo Machiavelli: The dangers of
retreating behind the ‘walls’ of a ‘fortress’.
Rather than just getting your work done,
ALSO seek out more and more people.
Meet, greet and know everyone.
Network. Regardless of if or how they can
help you.
The world is governed by people:
The more People We Know…
…the more we Enjoy Life…
…and the more Options we HAVE in life.
Amoral Political Conspirator
No Relation …
ENGINEEREVIL GENIUS
Of course, Machiavelli also advocated deceit massive cruelty
and wrote the definitive ‘How To’ book for dictators.
16. www.StratticaCapital.com
What is Our Attitude?
“what can I get from this conversation”
“let’s chat and meet interesting people”
“How can I help advance their aims?”
18. www.StratticaCapital.com
1. Until Product-Market fit, everything you do is an experiment
whether you realize it or not
2. Recognize some of your critical assumptions will be incorrect
FIND THEM! (Get out of the building!)
3. Learn quickly
Don’t waste your resources charging down the wrong direction
4. Steer your venture towards sustainable competitive advantage
This. Is. Everything. Think like your competitor. How to attack?
Your team, and This Approach is
more important than your initial idea.
Idea -> Venture -> Company
