Posts Tagged ‘Catalyst Ventures’
Thursday, February 21st, 2013
Need a reason why you should attend the Seventh Annual Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14? Here’s five:
First, you’ll make connections with the region’s top technology entrepreneurs and executives.
More than 50 presenting companies and hundreds of high growth company C-suite execs attending, you’ll have an unsurpassed opportunity to build partnerships and hear about the latest startup trends.
Second, you’ll have an unparalleled opportunity to network with investors and venture firms from throughout the United States, not just regional firms.
Whether you’re in venture fundraising mode or an investor looking to further relationships with fellow investors for deal flow, SEVC is the vehicle to make those connections.
We’ve interviewed several of the participating venture capitalists at the TechJournal, with more to come. Here’s a sample:
 Brian Rich, managing director, co-founder, Catalyst Ventures.He’s participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
How to pitch a venture capitalist (interview with Brian Rich of Catalyst Ventures).
SecondMarket turns dead equity into productive equity (interview with SecondMarket’s Matt Shapiro).
The bar is higher for startups seeking first round financing (interview with Intel Capital’s East Coast Director, Mark Rostick).
Will there be an app economy in five years? (interview with Ron Shah of the Stripes Group).
Seven lessons from the dark side (interview with Grotech’s Don Rainey).
What does it take to build a startup to successful IPO? (interview with Bob Hower, general partner at Advanced Technology Ventures).
Also see: Startups aim to put Charlotte on the map (Charlotte Observer story focused on Terry Cox, founder and CEO of BIG (Business Innovation Growth) in Charlotte. It includes background on how Charlotte was chosen to host the event.
And three more reasons SEVC can kick up your chances for success:

3. You’ll gain market insight and success strategies from innovation and technology community’s brightest starts.
From the CEO of SAP to the Publisher of Forbes - SEVC will feature over 40 speakers discussing the latest trends, best practices and strategies relating to technology and entrepreneurial growth. You’ll learn from them not just during roundtable discussions, but in one on one situations through hours of networking.
 The Southeast Venture Conference is headed to Charlotte, NC, in March 2013. The event offers firms a chance to present to top national venture capitalists and angel investors.
Panel & Presentation topics include:
- State of Venture Capital
- Early Stage Fundraising
- Value Creation: Company/Investor Relationship
- Growth Stage Funding
- M&A Outlook and Strategies
- LP Viewpoint
- SaaS Investment Trends
- Getting to Market
- IPO & Secondary Market Outlook
- Entrepreneur’s Roundtable
- International Health Care Trends
4. To make networking and private meetings even easier, there is an online pre-event networking platform for attendees.
At SEVC, the online networking platform allows attendees to connect with one another prior, during and after the conference. Attendees can see other attendee’s interests, request and setup meetings and connect helping to maximize the lasting connections you’ll make at this year’s conference.
5. Even more CXO and Venture Partner networking to create relationships that can last your entire career.
Networking is center stage at SEVC. Over one and a half days there are 3 separate open bar networking receptions, a networking breakfast, lunch networking and 7 additional networking breaks.
The event sells out, so it’s a good idea to Register today.
Tags: 2013, Advanced Technology Ventures, Bob Hower, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, Don Rainey, Events, Grotech, Intel Capital, Mark Rostick, Ron Shah, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Startups, The Stripes Group, venture funds Posted in Arkansas, Carolinas, Ecommerce, entrepreneurship, Events, Georgia, Internet/New Media, IPOs, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Other SE, Potomac, social media, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
By Joe Procopio
 Joe Procopio
Two weeks ago, I moderated a panel on Internet Entrepreneurship at Raleigh’s Internet Summit. It was an intimidating experience as, although I’ve been on panels of all kinds, this was my first time moderating.
My panel was comprised of two founders – CEO Andy Beal from Trackur, a social media monitoring solution company in Raleigh, and COO Alexandre Douzet from The Ladders, the well-known online job matching service.
There were also two investors – Co-Founder/General Partner Brian Rich from New York-based Calatyst Investors and Co-Founder/General Partner Jason Caplain from Raleigh’s Southern Capitol Ventures.
Not to say that entrepreneurs and investors disagree all the time, but this panel agreed on quite a lot. Now, if you’ve ever seen a conference panel where all the panelists agree on everything, you know that can be the dead boring. But in this case it was actually helpful, because some really smart advice came out of it.
Regardless, I know what you want. Here’s where they disagreed
VC investment is down. Is this a hiccup or a trend?
 Jason Caplain
The disagreement here was over the underlying causes of the downturn. Rich pointed to the ever-declining return on venture capital. Douzet noted the emergence of super angels, entrepreneurs who successfully exit their startup and use the proceeds to begin investing, have begun to replace early-stage, first-round VC money. Caplain offered that his firm has always made two new investments every year and is still doing that.
“Regardless of the overall trends,” Caplain said, “Great entrepreneurs always get capital.”
Everyone agreed with that. Aggressively.
Bootstrap or raise money?
Mostly there was agreement on why a startup should raise venture investment. Big, game-changing ideas in capital-intensive markets are obviously better candidates for VC money. Also, everyone agreed that an entrepreneur shouldn’t seek outside investment until they’ve determined that it’s absolutely necessary.
 Andy Beal, a successful serial entrepreneur.
Andy Beal has built several companies without funding. He’s a big fan of keeping equity and control in his pocket, and noted that without investor backing, he’s been able to take on big ideas, work with new sciences and technologies, and make quicker decisions that he would have been able to otherwise.
Douzet stated that The Ladders raised its only outside money early on, and has been running on revenues for eight years. He didn’t see any negatives to using that initial funding as a launch pad.
Everyone agreed that it all depends on the investor. Choose wisely.
What sectors are hot in entrepreneurship?
Different investors have different theses – methodologies they use to determine which markets and which types of companies to invest in. Overall however, Rich noted that any company that can automate manual processes and compete on price was going to get attention.
Douzet spoke to his interest lying not so much in new sectors, but in applying new technologies to The Ladders, namely by making a big push into mobile.
Caplain and Beal felt that the sector didn’t matter much if the product and the company were solid. Talented entrepreneurs with great ideas who can execute on those ideas were the most important aspects of determining a successful company.
Everyone agreed with that. Including me.
Joe Procopio (@jproco) is a serial entrepreneur who currently heads up product engineering for startup Automated Insights. He also founded and runs startup network ExitEvent. You can read him at http://joeprocopio.com.
Tags: Alexandre Douzet, Andy Beal, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, funding a startup, Jason Caplain, Joe Procopio, Southern Capitol Ventures, talent attracts capital, The Ladders, Trackur Posted in Carolinas, entrepreneurship, Events, Money, North Carolina, Startups | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Make connections with 60 showcase high growth technology companies from the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic as they present to hundreds of executives from the region’s innovation, entrepreneurial and venture communities, at the Southeast Venture Conference February 29th – March 1st at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
In addition to presenting companies and hours of executive networking – the conference will feature a speaker line up including Netflix co-founder and former CEO, Marc Randolphand includes dozens of leading venture capital investors from groups like Lightbank and NEA; industry insiders from organizations including Bloomberg, Motley Fool and theNational Venture Capital Association; and other successful entrepreneurs such asOpenTable founder, Chuck Templeton.
This year’s presenting company line-up includes:
- 3CLogic - Rockville, MD; www.3clogic.com
- App47 - Reston, VA; www.app47.com
- ArcMail Technology - Shreveport, LA; www.arcmail.com
- beBetter Health - Atlanta, GA; www.bebetterhealth.com
- Benzinga - Dover, DE; www.benzinga.com
- Bion - Atlanta, GA; www.bioncorp.com
- BrazenCareerist - McLean, VA; www.brazencareerist.com
- Cardagin Networks - Charlottesville, VA; www.cardagin.com
- Careerminds Group - Newark, DE; www.careerminds.com
- CodeGuard - Atlanta, GA; www.codeguard.com
- CoupTessa - Miami, FL; www.couptessa.com
- cVidya Networks - Plantation, FL; www.cvidya.com
- DineTouch - Knoxville, TN; www.dinetouch.com
- Geosteller - Martinsburg, WV; www.geostellar.com
- Grab Networks - Dulles, VA; www.grabnetworks.com
- Green Wizard - Mount Pleasant, SC; www.greenwizard.com
- GreenCloud - Greenville, SC; www.gogreencloud.com
- GreenTec - Reston, VA; www.greentec-usa.com
- HemoSonics - Charlottesville, VA; www.hemosonics.com
- Kabbage - Atlanta, GA; www.kabbage.com
- Katharos - Raleigh, NC
- Koofers - Reston, VA; www.koofers.com
- LSN Mobile - Atlanta, GA; www.lsnmobile.com
- ExactCost - Hallandale Beach, FL; www.exactcost.com
- meet.com - Orlando, FL; www.meet.com
- MissionMode - Winston-Salem, NC; www.missionmode.com
- MobiBucks - Louisville, KY; www.mobibucks.com
- Netsertive - Research Triangle Park, NC; www.netsertive.com
- newBrandAnalytics - Washington, DC; www.newbrandanalytics.com
- Notable Solutions - Rockville, MD; www.nsiautostore.com
- Oversight Systems - Atlanta, GA;
- Payright Health - Hockessin, DE; www.payrighthealth.com
- Phymedica - Richmond, VA
- Pixelligent Technologies - Baltimore, MD; www.pixelligent.com
- Podponics - Atlanta, GA; www.podponics.com
- Preparis - Atlanta, GA; www.preparis.com
- SemaConnect - Annapolis, MD; www.semaconnect.com
- Sensiotec - Atlanta, GA; www.sensiotec.com
- Sparkfly - Atlanta, GA; www.sparkfly.com
- Sparkpad - Sterling, VA; www.sparkpad.com
- Sponto - Washington, DC; www.sponto.com
- Spring Metrics - Durham, NC; www.springmetrics.com
- StrikeIron - Cary, NC; www.strikeiron.com
- Tantalus - Morrisville, NC; www.tantalus.com
- Unrabble - Ft. Lauderdale, FL; www.unrabble.com
- Verdeeco - Atlanta, GA; www.verdeeco.com
- Vertical Acuity - Atlanta, GA; www.verticalacuity.com
- VoteIt - New Orleans, LA; www.voteit.com
- WeddingWire - Bethesda, MD; www.weddingwire.com
- Windsor Circle - Durham, NC; www.windsorcircle.com
- ZAP - Alpharetta, GA; www.zap-t.com
- Zephyr Technology - Annapolis,MD; www.zephyr-technology.com
- Zipit Wireless - Greenville, SC; www.zipitwireless.com
Register today to guarantee your space at the region’s premiere venture forum!
Tags: Ali Byrd, Bloomberg, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, Chuck Templeton, Edison Ventures, Eric Bleeker, Harry Weller, Howstuffworks, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Jalak Jobanputra, Karin Klein, Lenard Marcus, Lightbank, Luke Burns, Marc Randolph, Mark Gorenberg, Mark Heesen, Marshall Brain, NEA, New Venture Partners, OpenTable, Paul Lee, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Roland Reynolds, Sean Marsh, SecondMarket, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool Com Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, Maryland, Potomac, Uncategorized, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Monday, February 6th, 2012
People who have attended previous Southeast Venture Conference events tell us they are a great way to grab a spot on the radar of top venture capital firms, but also to make lasting connections with potential customers, partners and executives.
Here are six of the reasons the SEVC sells out year after year:
- You’ll make connections with the region’s top tech entrepreneurs and executivesWith 60 presenting companies and hundreds of high growth company C-level executives in attendance, SEVC lets you build partnerships with the region’s leading tech firms..At the 2009 SEVC, attendees had the chance to connect with the founder and CEO of an up and coming startup called, LivingSocial. At the time LivingSocial was the typical SEVC presenter, having recently raising their Series A round and looking to grow revenue. Since presenting at SEVC, LivingSocial has rocketed by raising well over $600 million in capital and has over $1 billion in annual revenue. Connect and partner with tomorrow’s LivingSocial at this year’s SEVC.
You’ll network with leading venture capitalists and investors from around the USSEVC hosts leading investors and venture funds from around the US, not just the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, who come to network with fellow investors and the region’s leading innovation talent.Whether you’re in venture fundraising mode or an investor looking to further relationships with fellow investors for deal flow, SEVC is the vehicle to make those connections.
You’ll get market insight and success strategies from the innovation and venture community’s brightest starsFrom the founder of Netflix to thePresident of the National Venture Capital Association - SEVC will feature over 40 speakers discussing the latest trends, best practices and strategies relating to venture investing and entrepreneurial growth. You’ll learn from them not just during roundtable discussions, but in one on one situations as well through the hours of networking.
To make networking and private meetings even easier, we’ve added a pre-event networking platform for attendeesNew this year at SEVC is our online networking platform which allows attendees to connect with one another prior, during or after the conference. Attendees can see other attendee’s interests, request and setup meetings and connect helping to maximize the lasting connections you’ll make at this year’s conference.
Entrepreneurs can benchmark your pitch and strategiesUp and coming entrepreneurs can benchmark their pitches from the over 60 presentations from leading innovators in the region. These are companies that for the most part have already been successful in venture fundraising and are well on their way to success. You’ll not find another single forum on the east coast with this many funded companies presenting.
Even more CXO and Venture Partner networking to create relationships that can last your entire careerNetworking is center stage at SEVC. Over one and a half days there are 3 separate open bar networking receptions, a networking breakfast, lunch networking and 7 additional networking breaks.
Showcase companies will present to a national audience of venture capitalists, private equity investors, angel investors and senior technology executives. Attendees will have additional opportunities to network and connect with these showcase companies throughout the conference – as well as prior to the conference with the online attendee networking platform.
You’ll need to register before Feb. 10 to get the conference rate at the Tysons Corner, VA, Ritz Carleton:
Register today to guarantee your space at the region’s premiere venture forum.
Tags: Ali Byrd, Bloomberg, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, Chuck Templeton, Edison Ventures, entrepreneurship, Eric Bleeker, Harry Weller, Howstuffworks, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Jalak Jobanputra, Karin Klein, Lenard Marcus, Lightbank, Luke Burns, Marc Randolph, Mark Gorenberg, Mark Heesen, Marshall Brain, NEA, New Venture Partners, OpenTable, Paul Lee, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Roland Reynolds, Sean Marsh, SecondMarket, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool, venture fund raising Posted in Events, Internet/New Media | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
 Speakers headed to the 6th Annual Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29=March 1
Early, discounted regsitrations for the Southeast Venture Conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1 end Friday, Jan. 20. This year the SEVC features Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, Chuck Templeton, founder of OpenTable, Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, top venture capital firms and innovative tech startups.
Randolph is a leading Silicon Valley investor in addition to being co-founder and former CEO of Netflix. Randolph and Templeton are just two of the hundreds of leading venture investors and entrepreneurs headed to this year’s event.
VCS representing $50B in capital attending
Venture capital firms at the event represent $50 billion in investment money.
The 6th Annual Southeast Venture Conference also features presentations from more than 60 of the hottest Southeast and Mid-Atlantic high growth tech companies. Companies that presented at the 2011 SEVC had average revenues of $6 million.
Also on the agenda: Paul Lee, partner, Lightbank, Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com, Jalak Jobanputra, venture investor, New Venture Partners, Harry Weller, general partner, NEA, Sean Marsh, co-founder, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Toronto Stock Exchange, and Roland Reynolds, managing director, Industry Ventures.
New this year
New this year is a pre-event networking platform, which will allow attendees to connect ahead of the event, increasing the opportunities to make it even more productive.
The Southeast Venture Conference is the premiere venture forum in the region and has sold out every year. Register here.
Tags: 2012, Ali Byrd, Bloomberg, Brian Rich, Catalyst Ventures, Chuck Templeton, Edison Ventures, Eric Bleeker, Harry Weller, Howstuffworks, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Jalak Jobanputra, Karin Klein, Lenard Marcus, Lightbank, Luke Burns, Marc Randolph, Mark Gorenberg, Mark Heesen, Marshall Brain, NEA, New Venture Partners, OpenTable, Paul Lee, Point Judith Capital, Robert Peterman, Roland Reynolds, Sean Marsh, SecondMarket, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool Posted in entrepreneurship, Events, Maryland, Potomac, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
ALEXANDRIA, VA -InSite Wireless Group, an owner, operator and manager of wireless communication tower site facilities and distributed antenna systems, has raised a $15 million first round from New York-based Catalyst Investors.
InSite plans to use the capital to expand the company through acquisitions and construction of new towers and DAS projects. Although the company did not disclose the funding amount in its press release, Venture Wire pegged the round at $15 million.
Catalyst partners Chris Shipman and Todd Clapp will join InSite’s board.
“Our team has been investing in the wireless tower sector for 15 years and we recognize the opportunities that InSite has to grow and thrive,” said Shipman. “Wireless carriers continue to expand their networks as usage increases rapidly, driven in particular by the mass adoption of smart phones.
“In addition to the company’s success in wireless towers, InSite’s strong DAS business is in a high-growth area that gives the company an enormous opportunity for continued expansion,” said Clapp.
For more details on InSite, see our earlier story: InSite Wireless
Tags: Catalyst Ventures, cellular towers, funding, InSite Wireless, telecom Posted in Money, Potomac, Telecommunications, Virginia | No Comments »
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