This January was the 78th Entrepreneur’s Roundtable. The latest installment in the monthly pitching series that continues to be an informal class of 101 in entrepreneurship, was held at the Microsoft headquarters in Times Square and this month’s VC was Joshua Siegel of Rubicon Ventures. In addition to the opportunity to get facetime with the VC, attendees were the first to know that the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator 2015 Summer program will start taking applications in two weeks.

So now you know, too.

There was a second guest this month as well. Charles Sacco from Drexel University’s Entrepreneurship program waxed poetic about the program’s virtues: it’s the first 4-year degree in entrepreneurship amongst leading universities, and this institute for higher learning happens to be only 90 minutes away. It also is dedicated to exposing students to more NYC VCs.

VC of the Month

Joshua Siegel took to the proverbial stage about his background being an investor back in the days when it was really “gritty” with “no business model of any kind.” He became an angel investor in 2007 with the formation of Georgetown Angels and then a professional venture capitalist in 2012.

Siegel wasn’t always a VC. He attended culinary school and intended to become a professional chef. Plans change and after a stint in historic real estate development – not to mention getting his MBA from Georgetown University, he moved into investing. His current fund, Rubicon, is located in NYC and San Francisco and includes 19 investors worldwide. They focus on getting revenue, and developing strategies for their portfolio companies, which included Today Tix, Navady, and NodePrime.

They don’t lead deals, instead partnering with the likes of Sequoia Capital. Rubicon doesn’t invest in LLCs, only C-corps formed in Delaware, Texas or California. Unlike some funds, they do allow their LP’s to invest beside them. They currently have a $25 million fund to be distributed to 40 to 50 companies.

The Investor in the Hot Seat

Next came the questions from the audience:

Question: At what point do they like to see companies be cash positive?

Answer: They’re not worried about profitability. VC funding is the revenue model and they’re more concerned with the startup building up engagement and user base.

Question: What are Rubicon’s requirements before they invest? That you’ve raised an initial friends and family round, you or your co-founder is a technical person, and your idea is unique and the company is gaining traction.

Another audience member asked about the pros and cons of convertible notes vs. equity rounds. (A quick primer on convertible notes not explained at the time: Money loaned to a startup that converts into stock after series A and later rounds of funding.)

Answer: “We like convertible notes,” when it’s done right, he said. When you raise money on a note, it doesn’t incur valuation; it’s flexible, in that you can change it. Equity rounds require board involvement, the IRS, and are more expensive to hire a lawyer to execute.

With Siegel’s glowing review of convertible notes another audience member astutely asked what are the downsides to convertible note. Answer? There are barely any, except for its misperceptions that you’re not in equity, which “you are if it’s written well enough.”

On to the startup pitches

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

Log My Vibe

Log My Vibe is a company that sells a digital diary in the form of a custom 3D printed necklace that knows when you’re happy, sad or in-between by capturing your speech and analyzing it through the accompanying app using highly developed linguist based-algorithms. Privacy buffs can rest assured that the mic only picks up the wearer’s voice and the voice recording is discarded after being processed by the app. The necklaces range from $80-$200, depending on the model.

Founder Michelle Cortes, UX designer and former art director (evidenced in her chunky white Jeffrey Campbell shoes), created the startup after noticing the breadth of quantitative information in the wearable market and the likes of FitBit, that failed to answer what such information really meant.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

Spare Stub 

When tickets to your favorite high school band of yore, Hoobastank, are available, you buy two tickets now, and ask who will go with you later. SpareStub is a marketplace where ticket buyer and seller go to the event together. Looking to create a more intimate experience than traditional ticket outlets – and less nebulous than Craig’s List – the marketplace has profiles and user reviews so that sellers can suss a potential buyer’s personality and likability. The nascent startup is looking to make an impact in the singles market, for people new to a city, and regular event goers.

They’re expecting to pull in gross revenue of $150k in the first year by charging both seller and buyers $5. Looking to raise $70,000 in an angel round, SpareStub launches this weekend.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

File Apartment

File Apartment is looking to capitalize on what they believe is a fragmented market -data storage – by focusing on small and medium sized businesses who need airtight collaboration tools. Users pay a flat fee based on the number of collaborators whom they invite to their “apartment” in the cloud. Overcoming a lackluster launch due to timing – right before Thanksgiving – CEO and founder Manish M. Shah persevered and has received great feedback from beta users so far.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

Green Hopping 

Instagram is a testament to the ever-growing presence of spornosexuals, belfies (that’s butt selfies, for the uninitiated), and cult-like health enthusiasts. Whether for health or vanity reasons, juicing has found a snug place in a growing number of people’s diets. Green Hopping App is an app to find juice bars and cut down on wait time for the freshly squeezed health nectars. Looking to raise $1 million – mainly for marketing initiatives – they’re looking to connect young, upwardly mobile healthy women with smaller health establishments that are not being properly addressed by the likes of Yelp, Seamless and Grubhub.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

Instapet

Before Uber and Lfyt, there was this method of transportation called a taxi cab and calling one in order to be able to take a pet somewhere was a nightmare. Individual drivers’ reluctance to transport pets still exists. Here’s some good news for pet owners: Instapet is a pet-friendly cab service that will provide urgent transport and concierge for four-legged pals, with TLC drivers whose cars are comfort kennel- enabled.

Targeted at “wealthy pet parents,” Instapet will eventually offer their services for strays and other animals, and non-profit causes. Their long-term plans are to save millions of pets lives over the course of 50 years. The app is set to premiere in a week.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.

Pitch on the Spot: Unicareer

After the five appointed startups have presented a founder is chosen from the audience to pitch on the spot. After a series of qualifying questions Barbara Ye was picked. Founder of Unicareer, the Princeton grad made an impression on the crowd with her career startup that’s already profitable (since day one), charging foreign-born (mainly Asian) US students per-hour access to online tutorials in their native language in order to acquire the street smarts necessary to find a job in the US.

Unicareer proved that profitability, while not necessary in the early stages of a startup in the VC-funded business model, can nonetheless make your startup standout.

For a full listing of upcoming events for the NYC startup and tech community, please visit the AlleyWatch NYC Tech and Startup Event Calendar.