First Tuesday, the global marketplace for entrepreneurs, and Yazam, leaders in international seed-stage investing and business development have merged. First Tuesday will maintain its brand and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Yazam, run by First Tuesday CEO Reade Fahs.
Yazam`s expertise in evaluating, investing and building early stage Internet companies worldwide will be complemented by First Tuesday`s community, global network and marketplace.
Mike Wright, executive organiser, First Tuesday SA (www.firsttuesday.co.za) said, "The deal furthers the objectives for First Tuesday around the world to assist entrepreneurs in growing their business and finding the right capital partners for their ideas". Yazam compliments First Tuesday`s existing matchmaking service by offering extensive research on potential investment opportunities.
From London, First Tuesday manages a network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors that stretches across 85 cities and 42 countries, including Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa. Says Wright, "We have over 6000 members in SA, making us a large part of the 80000 members worldwide. The numbers are growing every month with over 1000 people booking for the Johannesburg event and over 400 for Cape Town.
The company which results from the merger will continue to use both the First Tuesday and Yazam brand names, with Reade Fahs joining the board of Yazam.
Reade Fahs, First Tuesday`s CEO said, "This merger is great news for the First Tuesday community with tangible benefits for all its members. Investors will benefit from new alliances that help create more successful investments. Entrepreneurs will have more fertile ground on which to learn, grow, network, and create substantive relationships that will aid their success.
Yazam has a scalable and unique business plan evaluation process that leverages its network of global research analysts to provide speedy and accurate analysis of business opportunities.
"Our upcoming Focus on Funding event, where 10 entrepreneurs meet 10 Venture Capitalists, is a microcosm of what will now be available to the network worldwide, say Mike Wright of First Tuesday South Africa.
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Yazam
Yazam (www.yazam.com), provides seed-stage funding and business development services to emerging Internet and technology start-ups. Yazam offers entrepreneurs a model that targets a closing within 45 days of initial contact for accepted projects.
Yazam also provides its portfolio companies with entree to the YAN - the Yazam Alliance Network of leading industry expertise and service providers. Yazam enables its seed-stage start-ups to attain a global leadership position via its business development arm.
Yazam was launched in July 1999 and has offices in New York, Jerusalem, London, Tokyo, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Due to regulatory restrictions, Yazam does not yet provide all services in all countries in which it operates.
First Tuesday
First Tuesday (www.firsttuesday.com) is the global meeting place and market place, connecting people, ideas, money and services in the new economy. Founded in October 1998 it swiftly grew through the European grassroots network to 17 cities by September 1999. It has now grown to over 85 cities globally.
First Tuesday club brings together the Internet community. It`s a meeting place for entrepreneurs and funders where, ideas, money and talent can realise full potential.
The First Tuesday club now has over 20,000 members in London alone and a further 50,000 scattered in more than 60 countries around the world, with South Africa currently sitting at over 4000 members. The club aims to help high tech entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, senior management and other staff, potential alliance partners and other resources South African businesses have taken First Tuesday seriously with Andersen Consulting, Archway Venture Partners, IBM Software Group, Intel Corporation, and Rock-IT being major sponsors.
Event sponsors for First Tuesday Johannesburg include Aqua Online, Acceleration Media, CorpCapital, TribeOne Capital, I.S Dimension Data i-Commerce Internet Services, Microsoft. and Discovery Health.
The Pan-European sponsors include AOL Europe, Excite, Spencer Stuart, Russell Reynolds, Oracle, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Sun Microsystems and McKinsey & Co.
First Tuesday contact Michael Wright - Executive organiser Tel: 011 887 0072 E-mail: mikew@emailco.co.za or visit http://www.emailco.co.za