Back in 2004 we attended and presented at the ANZATech Conference. One of the main benefits that we got out of that was an introduction to Silicon Valley Bank. If you are seeking funding in the US then SVB has to be on the top of your list to engage to assist. They have a division called Venture Exchange Services which, within 1 week, had put together a preliminary target list of VC’s for us and starting introducing us.
We worked through their SVB Venture Exchange program and we agreed to grant SVB the right to invest and warrants on a successful fundraise basis. SVB introduced us to 17 VC’s. The SVB Venture Exchange leads came through their network of 27 offices across the US, with approx 100 relationship managers serving more than 9,000 tech and life science companies. The Success Fee Agreement was signed and executed. We now have a strong partnership with SVB and to date we are impressed not only with their services but also breath of services SVB offers.
More info on the Venture Exchange Program at: http://www.svbank.com/svbcapital/pegroup.asp
P.S. We did not get funding through VC’s in the end. Because we were self funded, profitable and had no debt we were able to grow out of cashflow. All the same it was a good experience.