First off, please allow me to thank John Chow for offering this opportunity to his readers and to help launch MyMicroFund.com.
As a result of this contest, three recipients from three different countries will receive total funding of US $3,600. These entrepreneurs all have several traits in common. They present their plans in detail and with enthusiasm, they demonstrate a willingness to think through worse case scenarios and they understand the need for patience in answering multiple rounds of questions.
Quite a few other proposals caught my attention and would have easily been worthwhile to invest in. The reasons I chose the 3 ventures that I did will be revealed in my upcoming posts on MyMicroFund.com. The decision was more difficult than I had initially expected but the answer was quite clear to me in the end. Without further ado, here are the three funding recipients:
Emanuele Feronato » italian geek and PROgrammer
Italy
$500
Contribution to development and hosting of a Flash version of Sokoban with Facebook API to let users play, compare solutions, create new levels and compete for world ranking. Emanuele Feronato is a Krav Maga instructor, winner of multiple Worms Armageddon world leagues, seasoned web developer, creator of several blockbuster flash games and an authority in flash game monetization.
Cavalcade Games
Philippines
$2,000
Funding of hardware and working capital for development of iPhone and iPod Touch apps. Cavalcade Games follows a principle of user-friendliness, familiarity and visually easy to understand apps. Two very unique and fun applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch will be launched by mid-summer as a result of this funding.
YummThemes.com
United Kingdom
$1,100
Complete funding for the development of premium WordPress themes and marketing initiatives. YummThemes.com will offer very unique designs to tap the growing premium WordPress themes market. JohnChow.com readers will receive a free theme and 25% off premium themes at launch. To get your free theme or to qualify for a discount, please visit www.YummThemes.com and pre-register NOW.
I hope you join me in congratulating all three funding recipients. You are all invited to follow their progress on MyMicroFund.com over the next 6 months. It will be a journey with ups and downs and their experiences will offer all of us great insight in starting an internet business. I have no doubt they will all succeed, the only question remains is by how much.
The MyMicroFund.com fund is an experimental fund that provides capital to entrepreneurs with a good plan. Funding is provided in good faith and recipients pay back what they can. No legal work or loss of ownership. Your word is good enough. If I like it, I will fund it.
The MyMicroFund.com blog tracks the progress of funding recipients and also regularly publishes exclusive interviews and insightful feature articles to show you how others are successfully running their own online businesses. Learn what product is consistantly providing an eBay seller several hundred dollars of cash flow each month. Or how domaineering is pulling in tens of thousands of dollars for some. Stay subscribed to get ideas for your own online business! raking in several hundred per month to domain squatters that make tens of thousands per month.