Victoria Duff

Crowdfunding Campaign

2022-12-13

Created a WeFunder crowdfunding campaign for Aerobloom that attracted several Venture Capital firms, one of which funded the company with the others expressing continued interest.

Venture Capital Funding and Equity Event

2021-02-13

Aerobloom came to me without a viable business plan. I structured their business model, wrote the business plan, structured a separate cannabis company that would use the technology to fund the development of Aerobloom, found strategic partnerships, built a WeFunder campaign that attracted interest from several Venture Capital firms, and advised on the funding agreement and an anticipated equity event.

U.C. Berkeley

Bachelor's

Public Administration

1972

Cal in the Capitol - internship with the Congressional Research Service, Washington DC

Intern, Senator Alan Cranston, San Francisco office

Oski Dolls - Campus hostess organization at Berkeley

Alumni House - Student representative

Kappa Alpha Theta sorority

How to Write a Killer Business Plan

How to write a business plan and promote your startup to investors in a way that gets you funding. Learn what friends & family, bankers, angel investors and venture capitalists want to see and hear from you. Laugh a lot, and take away skills you can really use.

Your Startup's Value Proposition For Investors

Victoria Duff

2022-12-16

A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It is an essential part of any business, as it is used to attract and retain customers -- and for your purposes, investors.

Value propositions come in many forms, but all share the same goal: to convince people that they will get more value from your product or service than they would from any of your competitors.

Value propositions must be carefully crafted to appeal to your target market (potential investors) and to address their specific needs and wants. Your value proposition should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. It should also be exciting enough to convince a potential investor to invest in your product or service.

Value propositions are crucial for startups, which often have less financial resources available to devote to marketing campaigns. Small businesses also can benefit from value propositions that offer unique benefits not found in their competitors' products or services.

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How to Reduce Startup Risk

Victoria Duff

2017-04-21

I am proposing a new approach to helping startups survive their development and early growth stages. I have worked as a startup consultant for 20 years and have owned a startup incubator in Southern California. My proposal is based on my experience and conversations with my investor and incubator/accelerator associates.

The Problem
Some characteristics of typical startup:

· No income – Entrepreneurs often have little experience in managing business money and can spend down the investment on things that don’t always contribute to the successful launch of their companies and return on investment – Things such as living expenses, networking parties, team bonding events, and such. My proposal provides income.

· No business management experience –Inexperience can result in spending the investment on learning from mistakes. My proposal provides a way to develop business management thinking that doesn’t cost the entire investment.

· No “Plan B” – Not every outstanding idea becomes a success in the real world. My proposal provides a revenue-generator that could prove more successful than the original business idea.

· Little or no liquidation value created – Often, a lot of time and money is spent on creating corporate names, logos, marketing materials, subscriptions, proofs of concept, and other things that have little or no liquidation value. My proposal provides for an asset that might actually have liquidation value.

Proposal
Consider how the acquisition of a complementary, established and profitable web-based business might benefit your startup investments:

· Income – Monthly income can range from $1000 to more than $100,000, depending on the web-based business chosen.

· Learning opportunity – Most entrepreneurs have the technical knowledge to manage an online business. Online businesses often require minimal attention to operate successfully, they can be excellent real-time practice in evaluating performance, designing marketing, planning expansion, managing money, and decision making.

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AgTech Drought Solutions

Victoria Duff

2022-08-30

California’s Central Valley normally supplies half of the nation’s produce, and it is running out of water. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that California farmers fallowed more than 395,000 acres of California cropland in 2021 and couldn’t harvest thousands more acres of growing crops damaged by the lack of water. The U.S. Drought Monitor, operated by the University of Nebraska, shows that more than a dozen states in the U.S. West face the same problem, and consumers all over the country are finding the effects in their local supermarkets and restaurants.
Agriculture technology is capable of solving the drought-imposed cultivation problems by using controlled environment agriculture (CEA). This approach grows plants using water-conserving methods, such as hydroponics or aeroponics, in huge greenhouses or entirely indoors under LED lighting. These indoor facilities often take the form of vertical stacks of cultivation chambers that rise a dozen feet in large warehouses. A good example of one of the newest entries in this sector is AeroBloom, a developer of aeroponic cultivation systems and food production facilities.

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