Startup Commons a global nonprofit association dedicated to making startup funding more understandable

About

Startup Commons Association

Startup Commons is a nonprofit association dedicated to making startup funding more understandable and cost effective and to make closing deals easier for entrepreneurs and investors alike, consistent with the rules of investing.

The aim is to build common terminology to categorize different types of startups by their growth potential and risk position, provide free documentation and tools for closing smaller deals. The focus is for deals below 1 Million, where the cost of "agreeing and building common understanding " is percentually high considering the size of the deal itself.

In addition to common "terminology and categories", if we are able to lower the costs of related processes in seed level deals, it will have great impact to all parties involved.

We are just getting started and will work to get people and organizations around the globe involved to help us develop this initiative for common good of growth entrepreneurship.

More details are listed in our bylaws.

We will focus on these three segments:

1. create categorizing model to identify different types of start-ups
2. find/build/attach high level sets of terms for different categories
3. develop efficient web tool to better manage the logistics and communication of the agreeing process (start with high level term sets by category with "blog style" commenting per each term)

In this interview by TheStartup.eu, Valto Loikkanen explains what Startup Commons is about and how did it all got started.

theStartup.eu - Valto Loikkanen interview from Stefano Bernardi on Vimeo.

Get involved! - you can start by tweeting about us, joining our Facebook & LinkedIn Groups and/or sharing your comments below.

If you are interested in more "hands on" role, please contact us directly.

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is an interim board. While we are working hard to see that the board will have a community voice, we think one of the board's primary missions will be to act as a search committee to find a permanent board of directors that brings representation from startup companies and investor communities such that all parties feel confident the board can fairly represent their views.

Valto Loikkanen, interim Chairman

He is a serial entrepreneur who has started several companies across Europe and the US in the web and mobile fields. Forward thinking and always seeking the next big web and mobile success, as a serial entrepreneur and startup advisor, Valto got fed up with the lack of transparency and openness in the startup funding process. He aims to bring a better, fairer environment for technology startups seeking funding. Valto is currently located in Finland.

Twitter: @valto

Carita Holmgren, Vice-Chairperson

M.Sc. (Econ) CEFA. She has 15 years of experience in various key roles in the financial management sector, among them wealth management, fund management, VC and private equity business, and financial management of international and publicly listed companies. Cerita is currently located in UK.

Stefano Bernardi, Member of the Board

An Italo-French student with a passion for internet startups and new business venturing. He currently blogs about the European startup scene at theStartup.eu, a weblog that covers the European startup scene, focused on technology companies, web applications, social media, growth entrepreneurship and venture capital. He also contributes to TechCrunch Europe, covering the italian startup scene.

In addition to BOD of Startup Commons, he's the Italian Ambassador for Startup School and collaborate with Mind The Bridge foundation. Stefano is currently located in Italy.

twitter: @stefanobernardi

Arlinda Sipilä, Member of the Board

In addition to more established companies like Tellabs, Arlinda is familiar with growth startups by having worked in several of those in her career, including SSH Communications, SEVEN Networks Inc., and Xtract. In her Senior Marketing positions she''s been responsible for overall marketing strategies, planning, execution and managing the marketing team for product launches, branding, public relations and event management.

In her blog, she love's writing about the use of technology in marketing, startup business, branding, design, traveling and culture. Arlinda is currently located in Finland.

twitter: @arlindas

Pham Thi Ngoc, Secretary

Business Address

PoBox 2, FI-00501 Helsinki, Finland

Email: info@startupcommons.org

Registration number: 202.404 - Official Association records by Finnish National Board of Patents and Registration

Business ID: 2288086-2 - Official Tax records by Finnish business information system of the National Board of Patents and Registration and the Tax Administration.