Dexrex co-founder Derek Lyman
Can you imagine? Just as you're about to start your presentation to an angel group, the projector burns out! That would stress me out! That's how things began for Derek Lyman, co-founder of Dexrex, the universal adapter for text.
I met Derek through a referral from Paul G. Silva, co-founder of the UMASS Amherst's Entrepreneurship Initiative, at my alma mater. Paul introduced these young entrepreneurs (age 22 at the time) to some individual angels and later to the River Valley Angels.
Show #169 (35:14)
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Comments
Wow! I received your reply yesterday and immediately immersed myself in your podcasts for many hours... and Wow!
I've been in business for myself since the early Seventies (yeah I'm a old "geezer") and have not been involved with podcasts etc. - but that has changed! After hearing several of your shows I am really affected in a very positive way. I've always been associated with smaller business ventures and have always been under capitalized. My Zeus Project is my and perhaps America's power future and I now see how to unshackle my "local roof truss manufacturing company" thought process. Thanks for your message and I'm certainly putting together an Executive Summary for you and others who have expressed interest. (My old CFO in the truss business did all the communications with financial institutions in the past, but now I'm up to the challenge).
I'll be listening in from now on...
Posted by: Bob R. | August 28, 2008 11:52 AM
wow, are angel investors still funding companies without any clear idea of a revenue model and no sales traction? I thought that line of thinking died off after the last dot-com boom. Sure dexrex has some interesting technology, but how are they going to sell? They are gearing up to raise another round, move to Boston and hire more people but can't paint a picture of their revenue model. Sounds like a company that's burning through cash if you ask me.
Posted by: Deep Patel | August 28, 2008 01:01 PM
I've spoken to a Dexrex competitor, a company called Simkl ( http://simkl.com ). They seem to have a more clear idea about monetizing their service. They've also pointed some of the features they have not done (but those features are in Dexrex) just because implementing them would cause a major problem for monetization.
And it was funny enough when I've found out that Simkl was the only company on the market with such kind of service that actually making money already, versus just burning through cash.
Posted by: Peter Dening | August 29, 2008 10:55 AM
Just heard your blog with Dexrex. Excellent! Please keep me updated with regard to future interviews and thoughts. Great show!
Posted by: Ellen Bemben | September 8, 2008 03:02 PM