Sunday, March 20, 2011

How Moonfruit Secured Investment from Smart Investor Dave McClure of 500Startups

David McClureNomination for Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2011, re-launch of the new Moonfruit website and receiver of investment by one of the hottest angel investors around: David McClure @davemcclure (see photo) of 500 startups @500startups.

Wendy Tan White is really executing her plans, she is not only a cool entrepreneur on paper! TheNextWomen talked with her.

Why take an angel investor on board when you have already secured investment from institutional investors?

Because Wendy was advised that angels on board make a difference, a difference in contacts. So she was advised: if at any time a really smart and networked angel investor wants to join, do it.

David McClure makes small investments in many companies. It?s not the money that Wendy was after but the contacts and the business development skills that come with his angel investment. David Mc Clure is more than well networked. His 500 mentors at 500Startups are a big asset for Wendy.

It started on stage at SXSW 2010. The conference was formative for Wendy: ?You experience what is going on in tecch consumer space when you are SXSW?.

moonfruitMike Butcher of Techcrunch Europe introduced Wendy on stage to David McClure, and he invited her shortly thereafter to the Founders event in Dublin.

There, Wendy had dinner with Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Michael Birch of Bebo and David McClure. The momentum was taking shape.

And then they saw each other again at LeWeb 2010. And by that time it was clear: David was going to be the perfect Smart Angel investor to have on board.

And now she is sponsoring drinks at SWSX 2011 with Eric Ries of Lean Startup Methodology and all the other startup heroes.

Why the relaunch of Moonfruit?

Apart from the funding, Moonfruit has relaunched: Better designs, more designs, better templates, and better websites that work on i-Pad and i-Phone.

65% of the SME?s that use Moonfruit come from the UK, 30% of the SME?s that use Moonfruit come from the US.

SME?s are the main customers of Moonfruit, and she has listened to them: they want better designs, but not the costs associated with it, so she offers it for free.

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