Posts Tagged ‘Southeast Venture Conference’
Friday, March 1st, 2013
 The Internet of Things is quickly becoming a reality as manufacturers are increasingly linking “things”, such as smartphones, appliances, cars and machines, to the Internet and to each other.
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, today announced the results of a survey that gathered insights from more than 1,200 Facebook members, which includes engineers and technologists, on the future of the Internet of Things, the developing ecosystem of Internet-connected devices.
 Mark Rostick, Intel Capital’s director of East Coast investments, is participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14. Intel Capital’s Mark Rostick recently told The TechJournal in an interview that the Internet of Things is an investment area Intel is watching carefully.
Rostick is one of dozens of venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs and technology thought-leaders participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
Results from the IEEE survey include:
Work > Play
As the Internet of Things continues to develop and expand, much discussion revolves around the role that connected devices will play in users’ everyday lives. IEEE’s survey identified the ways in which consumers envision using connected devices.
A surprising65 percent of respondents said they are most interested in using connected devices to improve their work productivity, versus interest in managing their homes (14 percent), interest in improving their commutes (12 percent) or interest in improving their health (9 percent).
“As the Internet of Things evolves, we’re discovering the varied ways connected devices can improve every aspect of our lives,” said IEEE Senior Member Raul Colcher of Brazil.
Office use holds most interest
“People have always been most interested in technology that provides an immediate benefit, and connected devices can meet consumer need for instant, gratifying results that enhance quality of life.
While one might imagine that improving the quality of ones’ personal life would be most important, the overwhelming majority of survey respondents are most interested in using connected devices in the office. This statistic provides great insight about the types of devices that will be most well-received in the future.”
What does it really mean?
In light of its rapid development, the Internet of Things faces growing pains and has yet to be clearly defined within the industry. Leaders hold differing opinions as to what qualifies a device as connected.
According to IEEE’s survey, unity may be closer than it seems. Nearly 70 percent of respondents feel connected devices can be defined as those that are either directly connected to the Internet, or indirectly connected by way of another component within the ecosystem.
For example, a pulse counter wristband connected via Bluetooth to a cell phone. Only 30 percent of respondents feel that a device must be directly linked to the Internet to be considered connected; for example, a smart phone or laptop.
Pressing challenges must be overcome
“The Internet of Things is still new and people have varying perceptions of what the network entails,” said Roberto Saracco , an IEEE Senior Member and Director of the Italian Node of the EIT ICT LABS.
“As people become more used to interacting with connected objects, for example using a cell phone to read a bar code, the way they define connected devices will become more clear and universal.”
Beyond definitions, the Internet of Things faces pressing challenges that must be overcome to continue its path of growth.
Safe and sound
As devices and data become more intertwined, the opportunity for consequences grows, and people are acutely aware of these issues.
Nearly 46 percent of respondents feel that privacy concerns is the biggest challenge facing widespread adaptation of connected devices, followed closely by concerns about data security (40 percent).
The Internet of Things is a particularly easy target for privacy and data breaches because of visible vulnerabilities in its early development. Consider a health device that monitors the vital signs of someone who is chronically ill.
Privacy and security issues
The monitor will gather data points, such as heart rate and blood sugar level, but rather than send the information directly to the doctor’s office, the stats may first be routed to a local hub for processing and temporary storage.
The more transfer points along the path of travel, the more opportunity for data to be stolen or compromised.
“Overcoming the Internet of Things’ privacy and security issues will be a significant challenge for the industry,” Saracco said.
“However, worthwhile innovation does not come without obstacles. I believe that the great minds of technology and engineering can collaborate to find a solution that will alleviate some of these development concerns.”
For more information about IEEE’s latest research on connected devices and the Internet of Things, please visit:http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?newsearch=true&queryText=internet+of+things&x=0&y=0
Tags: 2013, connected devices, IEEE survey, Intel Capital, Internet of things, Mark Rostick, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech life/Culture | No Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
By Allan Maurer
 Carter Griffin Technology media has been raining coverage on the cloud services revolution, but Carter Griffin, general partner with Updata Partners, says, “The cloud is actually under-hyped.”
He means that there is still a sky full of growth to come for cloud services as they’re more widely adopted in the Enterprise space.
“Software as a service (SaaS) penetration of Enterprise customers is only 13 percent,” he says. He notes that the only areas with double-digit penetration are customer relationship management (pioneering SaaS firm salesforce.com) and collaboration.
Founded pioneering SaaS firm
“All other app tool sets are only single-digit penetration,” Griffin says.
Griffin joined Updata in 2005 and is a General Partner. Updata has $500 million in assets under management and invests from $5 million to $20 million per company in software, internet and business service firms.
Prior to Updata, Carter co-founded Brivo Systems in 1999 and served as Chairman and CEO until selling the company to a strategic acquirer. Brivo Systems pioneered the software-as-a-service model in the physical security market by introducing the first-ever on-demand system for facility access control.
Participating at the Southeast Venture Conference
 He’s one of more than two-dozen venture capitalists participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
Regarding cloud services being under-hyped, he adds, “Look at the consumer trends, the small and medium-sized business trends. Consumers are using Dropbox, iTunes, apps on smartphones, all touching the cloud to make them useful.”
SMBs, he points out, “Don’t have the legacy of an Oracle. With a clean slate to choose from, they pick a hosted cloud-based phone system, gmail, Webx for meetings, Dropbox for collaboration.”
Employees driving the trend in the Enterprise
 Those trends will ultimately influence Enterprises, “So you’re going to continue to see cloud adoption rise at a very fast rate,” Griffin says. “It’s penetrating the Enterprise because individual employees pull those mobile devices and work habits into the office. It’s truly a massive seachange.”
What makes the cloud model so interesting for startups and smaller firms?
“They’re much less expensive for a company (than buying and installing software and infrastructure) and allow a much shorter startup time. So you get time effectiveness at a lower cost.”
Mistake to “roll your own?”
He notes, however, “Over time you may wind up paying more with your cloud provider. Typically, you’ll use those tools on a recurring basis.”
Griffin says he thinks it may be a mistake even for larger companies with the luxury of big balance sheets to invest instead in the infrastructure to “roll their own.”
“It’s often wrong because the services required to maintain on premises apps can be five and ten times the cost of managed services.”
Griffin thinks we’ll see “across the board” adoption of cloud services by Enterprise firms. “The deepest penetration will be in firms with distributed employees – benefited by the mobile trend.”
He adds that he expects to see companies with heavy computing needs turn to the cloud as well. “In the past you needed your own data center with a lot of horsepower to crunch big data in house. It was the only way you could do it. Now look at genomics, oil and gas exploration – the thinking is to push all the computing to the cloud.”
Massive opportunity for startups
The laggards, Griffin says, “are the financial institutions and heavily regulated industries.”
Cloud-based tools also offer “A massive opportunity for startups,” he says. “All the old traditional on-premise tools have SaaS counterparts now. The obvious ones are taken, but there are many, many opportunities within that for growth.”
Another important factor for startups is that the cloud is “An equalizer for geography. All these tools are available to everyone in the developed world. That’s fantastic news for entrepreneurs who don’t live in Silicon Valley. If you have access to enough engineering talent, it’s just as easy to build a great company using the cloud if you’re in Topeka, Kansas.”
Tags: Carter Griffin, cloud services, Enterprise, SaaS, SEVC 2013, SMBs, Southeast Venture Conference, Updata Partners
Posted in Cloud, entrepreneurship, Events, IT | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
 Justin Reger By Allan Maurer
While landing a round of venture financing can help drive a startup’s growth, the best venture firms bring more than money to the table when they make a deal.
Justin Reger, a principal at LLR Partners, a middle market private equity firm with more than $2 billion under management, says that the first step his firm takes following its investments – whether as a majority or minority investor – is set-up a strategic planning session.
Reger, who manages LLR’s technology practice and previously an investment banker with Citigroup focused on technology, about the added value investors provide their portfolio companies at the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
First: strategic planning
“Soon after we close a deal,” says Reger, we hold a two-day offsite strategic planning session, first for one-year and then for three. We hire a moderator who knows the industry.”
LLR starts by sharing its due diligence findings with the company and its management team. “We put that on the table and build the strategic plan with the team. We don’t say what they could do. It’s more to create a framework. Then we build up operations and tactics to support the plan.”
LLR then revisits the plan with the company each year. Some have accomplished their goals, some have not. The plan is updated annually.
Second: augment management teams
Next, LLR looks at a company’s management team. “Often, teams are incomplete,” says Reger. “They may have a solid CEO, a CFO, and maybe a head of sales. They may not have a product or marketing manager. We don’t look to replace senior management, but rather to augment the bench from our network.”
That is often guided by the results found by an outside assessment firm hired during LLR’s due diligence process. “They identify key areas that need to be upgraded or augmented to drive value.”
Third: Getting to $100 Million
Next, LLR looks at the company’s finance function, where infrastructure is “typically lacking,” says Reger. “The typical company we invest in has a strong product in a well defined market, but has to breakthrough from $10 million to $15 million in revenue to $100 million.”
Fourth: M&A possibilities
Reger says LLR also sometimes “Serves as an outsource M&A arm for the company. We canvas the network of adjacent players and make calls, qualify opportunities, work with management to see if it’s a fit and help with integration.”
Many companies in which LLR invests also benefit from channel partner development, Reger notes. “There is an ecosystem of larger players, resellers, OEM sales channels and a portfolio company’s ultimate acquirer might be in that system. The IBMs, SAPs, and HPs of the world. We have pretty good contacts at those organizations.”
Tags: 2013, added value, Allan Maurer, augmenting teams, Justin Reger, LLR Partners, M&A, Southeast Venture Conference, strategic planning, venture investments
Posted in Acquisitions, entrepreneurship, Events, Startups | No Comments »
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 »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
By Allan Maurer
 The mobile app economy is a big deal right now, with app developers commanding higher than average salaries and companies stumbling over each other to get on the mobile bandwagon. But, in five years, says Ron Shah, vice president at the Stripes Group venture firm, “many people will bypass apps altogether.”
By then, Shah says, “Just accessing the web on your phone will be so much better you won’t need 79 apps. Consumers will want to download apps less and less and just things on the open web.”
Also, he notes, “Two app stores now have a chokehold on user capabilities. That’s an unnatural place to be. Companies don’t want Apple or Google sitting between them and their customers.”
Shah is focused on sourcing and executing technology, software and internet investments as well as strategy and business development with portfolio companies at Stripes, which closed its current $350 million fund early in 2012.
Participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in March
Shah is actively involved with the firm’s investments in Kareo, Netbiscuits, eMarketer, Elance, MyWebGrocer, Art.com, Folica and Perimeter.
Prior to joining Stripes Group, Ron co-founded Endgame Capital, which focuses on land investment and development in the mid-Atlantic region.
 People networking at a previous Southeast Venture Conference. He’s one of more than two-dozen venture capitalists and investors participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
Shah will talk about the merger and acquisitions environment in areas where he has expertise at the event. “We’ve invested in several companies providing deep technologically integrated services in various industries,” he says.
He expects to see media companies, which made a round of acquisitions three or four years ago, to be looking to buy again. “They’re coming up on another cycle where they need to buy again to service their customers.”
Avoiding the Deathstar approach to software
He adds, “There’s a lot of pressure for those guys to figure out how to service existing relationships in a world that looks very different from ten years ago. They need to know what customers are consuming, how they consume and so on.”
 Another big trend he sees in M&A is in SaaS. “We’ve seen significant acquisitions of SaaS companies by the big guys – Oracle, IBM, SAP, Salesforce all bought several. They realize their clients are not in spending millions on the Deathstar approach to building software. People are coming from the bottom end and taking revenue from them, so they need to acquire to have cost effective offerings.”
He also notes that “In Enterprise technology, buyers have been aggressive with the evaluations they’ve been paying in core areas such as customer relationship and talent management and business intelligence.”
They can all be consolidated to some extent, he says. “We saw some of that in the marketing automation space. Then the larger players ended up getting bought: Buddy Media by Salesforce, Vitrue by Oracle.”
A process of consolidation
It’s a process, he explains. “Companies spring up in the venture space and rise to the forefront in a typical category. They buy smaller companies with innovative features. Then, if they’re playing in an interesting category, the big tech guys will buy them.”
Even after that big step in consolidation, three or four years later some of the big players realize they don’t have the right play in a category and “The cycle starts all over again,” says Shah.
 Next he says mobile device analytics is likely to see some consolidation. “A lot of the core tech companies feel the need to bolster their offerings,” Shah notes.
That interest is fanned by a couple of macro trends. “People are spending less time on print and more on the web, no one can deny that, and within that, they’re spending more time on mobile devices.”
The natural conclusion? “Ad dollars will slowly migrate there because that’s where the eyeballs are, on smartphones and tablets.”
Tags: Charlotte, CRM, digital media, IBM, M&A, mobile, NC, Oracle, Ron Shah, Salesforce, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Stripes Group
Posted in Acquisitions, Events, Internet/New Media, Mobile, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
By Allan Maurer
Mark Rostick What is the amount of accomplishment venture capitalists need to see these days to finance a true Series A r0und of a startup? The bar is higher than it used to be, says Mark Rostick, director of East Coast investments for Intel Capital.
Intel Capital must be doing something right. It is number one of a list of the top 20 venture capital firms of 2012 based on how many private tech company exits each had.
Rostick is among more than two dozen venture capitalists and investors participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
With the availability of online tools, the ability to inexpensively write code to get something started, and the proliferation of accelerators such as Y Combinator, there has been “An explosion of startups that create a light or beta version of a product and get a few customers to buy it quickly,” Rostick says.
The bar has moved
The problem is, he adds, “That water tends to be very shallow, so what they’ve accomplished doesn’t tell you much about what their chances are. It’s so much easier to do all of that earlier, the bar has moved for what an investor needs to see.”
That, he notes, means that “Now it’s much harder to separate the wheat from the chaff and judge how much the company has de-risked by what it has done. There is an explosion of new companies you need to sift through. So we have to be more savvy about what the level of accomplishment for a Series A financing needs to be.”
It also means startup teams need to think about how they’re going to separate themselves from the pack, he says. “Have they thought through their road map? Do they know their next step? Do they know what the management team needs? There are ways to prove your game.
Hot tech sectors
Intel, Rostick says, sees several tech sectors it thinks are going to do well.
“There is a ton of upside in the Enterprise that people haven’t thought about much,” he says. “A lot of startups in the social and mobile world use the cloud, but Enterprises are still in the process of making that move. It’s a gigantic shift and we’ve made a lot of bets on that infrastructure.”
Intel is also spending a good deal of time looking at big databases and analytics. “How do we talk about this data? How do we visualize it? All of that is creating opportunities. And it’s starting to mature to the point where people are thinking its time to get some bets down.”
Always looking for local opportunities
He suggests, “Look at the M&A history in these areas. IBM is buying analytics companies. SAS is doing that. They’re looking at how to use cloud infrastructure to help their customers.”
Another “big thing,” he says, “is the Internet of things.” If a company deploys a lot of equipment in factories or the field, trucks, a wireless network, meters, monitoring and managing them centrally makes a lot of sense,” Rostick explains.
It lets companies know what’s happening right now with the ability to fix or tune operations.
Online video and video analytics are two other areas Intel finds interesting.
Rostick asked us to note that Intel is “Always looking for local opportunities here in North Carolina.”
Tags: analytics, cloud computing, Internet of things, Mark Rostic, online video, Series A financing, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference
Posted in Carolinas, Cloud, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, North Carolina, video | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
 Which venture capital firms had the most private tech company exits in 2012? PrivCo has just released rankings of the Top 20 Venture Capital firms, based on the number of exits their portfolio companies made last year.
Santa Clara-based Intel Capital tops the list. Ranked just behind it were Felicis Ventures (Ranked #2) & SV Angel (Ranked #3).
Mark Rostick, director of East Coast investments for Intel Capital is among the more than two-dozen venture capitalists and investors participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14. See our interview with Rostick.
The Top 20 Most Successful Tech Venture Capital Firms of 2012:
(Ranked By Number of Private Tech Company Exits)
1. Intel Capital
2. Felicis Ventures
3. SV Angel
4. Sequoia Capital
5. First Round Capital
6. Battery Ventures
7. Draper Fisher Jurvetson
8. Greylock Partners
9. Ignition Partners
10. Google Ventures
11. True Ventures
12. Benchmark Capital
13. Lerer Ventures
14. Menlo Ventures
15. Polaris Venture Partners
16. Accel Partners
17. Bain Capital Ventures
18. Redpoint Ventures
19. RRE Ventures
20. Focus Ventures
To access PrivCo’s 350 page 2012 Private Tech M&A Industry Report:
http://www.privco.com/products/2012-m-and-a-industry-overview-technology-sector-volume-I
Tags: CA, Charlotte, Intel, Mark Rostick, NC, Santa Clara, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, top venture firms, venture capital firms
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2013
By Allan Maurer
 Don Rainey Does price really matter in a venture financing deal? Can “small ideas” still get funded?
Don Rainey, a former entrepreneur, says his 12-years “on the dark side” as a venture capitalist, have taught him a handful of lessons that still serve him daily, among them, answers to those questions and others.
Rainey, a general partner with Grotech Ventures since 2007, was named to the Washingtonian’s “Tech Titans” list in 2011, and currently serves on the boards of Grotech portfolio companies Clarabridge, GramercyOne, HelloWallet, LivingSocial, Personal, SnappCloud, and Zenoss. He’s one of more than two-dozen venture capitalists and other investors participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
Price doesn’t matter
On his blog, VC in DC, Rainy outlined ten of the lessons about entrepreneurship that still guide him.
That business about price, for instance. “Price doesn’t really matter,” he says. “If you invest in something htat fails, it’s immaterial. If it wins, you might hope you had bought it a little cheaper, but you’ll always wish for that. The question is, is it something you believe in? If a deal works out, the price was right at some level. Get in good deals, and forget about getting the last dollar in a negotiation for that good deal.”
He adds, “We’re judged by whether the companies we invest in succeed, not the price.” Also, he notes, “Sometimes you do everything right and sill lose. Macro events can put real pressures on a company. Just think if you had gone into something aimed at financial services in 2007. Some things are beyond your control.”
Don’t pursue small ideas
Big ideas and small ideas are equally difficult, he says. But a venture capital firm has to have some multiple return on the capital it invests and can’t support small ideas, Rainey says. On his blog, he writes, ”What’s the point in trying to change the neighborhood when you can change the world.”
You’re not a rock star
“I’m very suspect of the venture capitalist who wants to be in front of the parade,” Rainey says. “That’s the role of the entrepreneur. We’re enablers, not the primary actors.”
Add value outside of board meetings
Portfolio company board meetings are not the place where a VC adds real value to the firm’s investment. “Private conversations over coffee, lunch, or late at night is when you really can influence the CEO,” Rainey says.
Don’t Invest in People who don’t take advice
Some entrepreneurs have a world class talent for ignoring good advice, Rainey notes on his blog. “I’ve done this 12 years and only had one CEO who ignored my advice and failed. He made a point of it. It wasn’t personal, he ignored everyone’s good advice. A good CEO listens to everyone.”
Then, he’ll let you know he heard you, saying something like, “I concur on these four items from your suggestions. “That’s what the smart ones do,” Rainey says. “They assimilate all that advice and incorporate it into their own perspective.”
Never Panic
Starting and running a business is often fraught with extreme ups and downs, more than one entrepreneur has told us. One day you land a really big customer, the next everyone you talk to says “No.” An entrepreneur has to be able to ride that roller coaster. “One of the great assets of an entrepreneur is confidence,” Rainey says.
“It does ebb and flow. There are days when you’re driving to work thinking there is no way you could be more screwed than you are at that moment, but when you get to work, you find out you were wrong, there are ways it can be worse. It’s hard. People don’t always appreciate how challenging it can be to be able to swing above your weight in the face of weeks or months of bad news. But you have to keep on fighting, even with a strong headwind.”
Be nice to people, it pays well
“In a business like ours,” Rainey says, “You have to say ‘no’ to 99 of 100 people who come to you for money. If you’re not nice to people, even when you have to say ‘no,’ they remember. They also remember if you were nice about it. None of knows where we’ll be in five years or what we’ll be doing.”
Tags: Charlotte, DC, Don Rainey, entrepreneurs, Grotech, investing, lessons, NC, Southeast Venture Conference, the dark side, Washington
Posted in Carolinas, Events, North Carolina, Viewpoint, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
The Southeast Venture Conference has named the first round of companies selected to present at the upcoming conference scheduled for March 13-14th at the Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, NC.
Over 50 of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic’s most outstanding high-growth firms will present at SEVC 2013. Showcase companies will range from pre-IPO to earlier stage series-A.
These companies are the present and future of the region’s innovation economy, representing some of the most promising technologies from a diverse range of industries, including software, mobile, education, health, security and Internet among others.
The first round of announced presenting companies include:
- AirSage - Atlanta, GA
- Badgy - Atlanta, GA
- BoomTown - Charleston, SC
- BrightContext - Arlington, VA
- Buystand - Durham, NC
- CanDiag - Waxhaw, NC
- Clearleap - Duluth, GA
- deja mi - Raleigh, NC
- Digitalsmiths - Durham, NC
- Distil - Arlington, VA
- Entigral - Raleigh, NC
- Fitsistant - Durham, NC
- flomio - Miami, Florida
- Fotopigeon - Tampa, Florida
- Freebeepay - Atlanta, GA
- Hinge - Washington, DC
- HireIQ - Atlanta, GA
- KnowledgeTree - Raleigh, NC
- Koupon Media - Frisco, TX
- Mindgrub - Baltimore, MD
- nContact - Morrisville, NC
- PatientPay - Durham, NC
- PopUp - Raleigh, NC
- Respirion - Winston Salem, NC
- ReverbNation - Durham, NC
- Savveo - Charlotte, NC
- Sensory Analytics - Greensboro, NC
- Spanning Cloud Apps - Austin, TX
- Sweet Relish - Charlotte, NC
- Tales2Go - Washington, DC
- The Targeted Group - Charlotte, NC
- Valencell - Raleigh, NC
- WealthEngine - Bethesda, MD
Additional presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.
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. 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.
Register today to guarantee your space. The event sells out.
Wait…there’s more
In addition to the showcase presenters and hours of networking – SEVC 2013 will feature current market relevant panel and presentation topics for investors and executive entrepreneurs.
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
Tags: 2013, Charlotte, first round, March, NC, presenting companies, Southeast Venture Conference
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Brian Rich, managing director, co-founder, Catalyst Ventures.He’s participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14. By Allan Maurer
What’s the best way to contact a potential investor in your startup company? Venture capitalists see so many business plans come through the door that the way you contact them is important, says Brian Rich, managing partner and co-founder of Catalyst Ventures.
Since the mid-1990s, New York-based Catalyst has invested in more than 50 portfolio companies and completed 100+ consolidating acquisitions. Prior to co-founding Catalyst, Rich founded and managed TD Capital, the entity that made Toronto Dominion Bank’s U.S.-based equity, mezzanine, and limited partnership investments from 1995 to 1999. As group head, he oversaw approximately 40 investments totaling more than $600 million.
Rich will join two-dozen other venture capitalists participating in the upcoming Southeast East Venture Conference March 13-14 at the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, NC. The Seventh Annual SEVC includes presentations from more than 50 high growth technology companies from the region, and insights into fund-raising from industry experts, and many networking opportunities.
SEVC has named the first round of presenting companies.
Best way to approach VCs
The best way to approach a venture capital firm, Rich says, “Is through a warm introduction. Email me referencing someone I know or trust. Things like LinkedIn make that easier. ‘Brian, I know so-and-so and he recommended that I write to you.’ That’s a warm introduction, and I’ll pay more attention to that.”
Before you approach any VC with a pitch, however, you should do your homework thoroughly, he adds. “We’re sort of like doctors in our business – very specialized,” he explains. “There are investors who are geographically focused, some who are stage (of fund raising) focused, and some industry focused.”
Those specializations break down even further to things such as early-stage healthcare, or social media and so on.
“You need to do your homework directly or through an intermediary because there is no point in talking to someone with no interest in what you do.”
Should you use an intermediary?
That brings up another question. Should you use an intermediary when fund-raising?
Bankers are not like consultants, he says. They don’t get paid for the time they spend on a deal, so they want bigger deals. If you’re only raising a million or two, Rich says, “I’d have to question whether or not you’re likely to be more successful with them or without them.”
If you do choose to go with an intermediary, however, Rich says you should make sure it’s with someone who has demonstrated that they raised money for other companies and can provide references. “Talk to four or five CEOs of companies they worked with,” he suggests, “and ask how they performed. Did they do what they said they would? Of the money raised, how much did they raise? Were you happy with the results?”
Once you make that decision, then decide on which VC you’ll approach – preferably with that warm introduction.
What sort of email should you send?
“Don’t send me a diatribe in email,” he warns. “I’m not going to read it. I get a hundred a day. Get to the point. This is my company, this is our size and scale, how much we intend to raise, the key merits of the deal and who you are. Keep it short enough to read in a minute or less.” Attach a one-page pdf with more details and if the deal interests the VC, it will get read.
It is essentially a written version of the elevator speech an entrepreneur should be able to deliver between floors.
Once you get into see a VC, “Don’t be too rigid in your presentation,” says Rich. “Allow the investor to ask questions. If you’re in the right place, he’ll have a good knowledge of the space you’re in. If the questions take you off track, you should be strong enough to pull the meeting back on track.”
If you don’t get funding and you come back to the same venture firm in a couple of years time, “Rest assured we will pull out your old set of projections. We save everything,” says Rich. “So be careful of what you say you’re going to do.”
If you’re lucky enough to interest a couple of investors, he says, “Don’t dilly-dally. Close with one of them. Go and get it done.”
Tags: 2013, Allan Maurer, approaching a VC, Brian Rich, fund raising, intermediaries, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Startups, warm introductions
Posted in Best Practices, entrepreneurship, Events, Startups | No Comments »
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
Looking for a way to make lasting connections with hundreds of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs? Register before Friday (February 1) and you can still get the Early-Bird rate for the 7th Annual Southeast Venture Conference at the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
You’ll hear from 50 of Southeast’s most innovative growth firms from 11 states and network with hundreds of private equity investors.
Top industry leaders will share insights on M&A, fund raising strategies, IPOs, valuations, hot investment secotrs, and early-stage trends.
Outstanding speakers
Speakers lined up for this year’s event include Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP; Bob Hower of Advanced Technology Ventures, Scott Maxwell of OpenView Venture Partners, Larry Bettino of StarVest Partners, Adrian Wilson of Square 1 Ventures, Sean Cantwell of Volition Capital, Brian Rich of Catalyst Investors, Roland Reynolds of Industry Ventures, Janet Yang of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Mark Rostic of Intel Capital, Don Rainey of Grotech Ventures, Lenard Marcus of Edison Ventures, Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures, David Jones, CEO of Peak 10; John Lawrence of Longworth Venture Partners, Matt Shapiro of Second Market,; Cater Griffin of Updata Partners, an Ron Shah of the Stripes Group, among others.
Tags: angel investors, apply to present, Charlotte, innovative tech firms, March, NC, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Venture Capitalists
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
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. If you’re a high growth innovative company looking for funding, you still have a chance to present your business plan in front of top national venture capitalists and private equity professionals at the 2013 Southeast Venture Conference March 13th and 14th at the Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, NC.
Applications to present at the event are still being accepted.
The event seeks high growth, innovative companies from diverse technology industries including Software-as-a-Service, New Media, Bio-IT, Clean-Tech, Medical Devices, Mobile, Security, among others.
You’ll meet hundreds of the region’s leading entrepreneurs and high growth company executives (from startups to pre-IPO), National Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Professionals, M&A facilitators and other leading professionals serving the high growth technology community.
SEVC highlights both early and later stage investment opportunities from: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC.
Last year’s SEVC Average Presenter Profile:
- Average Annual Revenue: $5.9 million
- Average Capital Raised to Date: $6.7 million
- Average Number of Employees: 35
While the presenting companies are from the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, the investors fly in from all parts of the country, including California, New York, and Massachusetts, as well as those that are regionally focused.
Exclusive panels, speakers, programming
The SEVC features market relevant investor and executive panels, exclusive networking opportunities, featured speakers and dozens of the region’s top private technology firms presenting to a national audience of venture capitalists, investment bankers and private equity investors.
As a TechMedia company and sponsor of the event, the TechJournal has reported on many firms that subsequently landed angel or venture backing. Venture capitalists tell us, they find new firms to put on their radar and track at each year’s event and many have returned year after year to spot hot Southeast opportunities.
SEVC is also an unparalleled networking event in which innovative firms meet potential partners, customers, and employees, in addition to making invaluable contacts within the venture and angel funding community.
Additional information on presenting and registration can be found at seventure.org andyou can view a list of past presenters here.
Tags: 2013, angel investors, Charlotte, financing, fund raising, March, NC, networking, pre-IPO, presenting companies sought, Southeast Venture Conference, Startups, Venture Capitalists
Posted in Alabama, Arkansas, Carolinas, entrepreneurship, Events, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Money, North Carolina, Other SE, Potomac, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, DC, West Virginia | No Comments »
Friday, December 7th, 2012
By Allan Maurer
 Joe Davy, CEO of Buystand, which lets buyers set a price for active lifestyle products they want to buy. Deals, deals, deals: discounts are the byword of online shopping these days, but usually, sellers are deciding how much the discounts should be. A Durham, NC-based startup, Buystand, wants to change that.
Buystand, says CEO Joe Davy, “Is the world’s first completely buyer-driven marketplace for active lifestyle clothing, equipment and footwear.” That includes everything from boots to mountain bikes and skis.
“Originally the brainchild of Ted Kraus and commercialized by Ted Kraus and Bill Brown at 8 Rivers Capital, which Davy says “works like an incubator for ideas, going through the patent process and funding them,” Buystand launched in beta about a month ago and already has hundreds of retailers, 250 brands, and thousands of customers signed up.
Davy, who joined the company after taking a course Brown, who is managing partner at 8 Rivers, taught at Duke University Law School, presented the company’s business plan at the Startup Summit that preceded this year’s Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC in November.
Innovative companies from early stage to pre-IPO looking for funding may want to apply to present at TechMedia’s next event, The Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, in March. SEVC is now accepting applications.
Davy explains that at Buystand retailers let the buyer tell them what they want pay for certain products. That lets retailers see what their products are worth to buyers and lets brands see what they’re worth compared to their competitors’ products.
The retailer can decide at what price it wants to sell.
Control in the hands of buyers
“It puts control back into the hands of buyers,” says Davy. “There has never been a company before that let buyers come in and say what they’re willing to pay for a physical product, although it does happen in the hotel and travel markets. We’re inventing that model for products.”
Davy says this startup differs from many others – including the last one he ran – solve “What amounts to a big problem for a small number of people. They’re building a better widget or solving a very niche problem. What we’re doing appeals to a universal desire. It’s a much better way to shop, not just for a few people, for 90 percent.”
Customers already seem to like it. “People are using this multiple times a month. They’re not only happier when they pay the price they want to pay, but it translates into them spending substantially more money,” he says.
The firm has lots of room to grow. “It’s an $83 billion market,” Davy says. “And no one else is being innovative in the space right now. A lot of people are doing daily deal sites, but those crush brand equity and undermine the future sales of retailers.”
There are plenty of places to buy used products, he notes, including eBay and Craig’s List. “Buystand is for people who want a brand new product from retailer but don’t want to pay full price,” he says.
People have adopted it quickly, he adds. “We saw traction in just a few weeks,” Davy says.
Tags: 8 Rivers Capital, Bill Brown, Buystand, Charlotte, Durham, Internet Summit, Joe Davy, NC, Raleigh, Southeast Venture Conference, Startups, Ted Krouse
Posted in Company Profile, Events, Internet/New Media, Startups | No Comments »
Thursday, December 6th, 2012
 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. High growth innovative technology companies from young firms to the pre-IPO stage have an opportunity to present in front of top national venture capitalists and private equity professionals at the 2013 Southeast Venture Conference March 13th and 14th at the Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, NC. Applications to present at the event are now being accepted.
The event seeks high growth, innovative companies from diverse technology industries including Software-as-a-Service, New Media, Bio-IT, Clean-Tech, Medical Devices, Mobile, Security, among others.
Hundreds of the region’s leading Entrepreneurs and High Growth Company Executives (from Startups to pre-IPO), National Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Professionals, M&A facilitators and other leading professionals serving the high growth technology community.
SEVC highlights both early and later stage investment opportunities from: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC.
Last year’s SEVC Average Presenter Profile:
- Average Annual Revenue: $5.9 million
- Average Capital Raised to Date: $6.7 million
- Average Number of Employees: 35
While the presenting companies are from the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, the investors fly in from all parts of the country, including California, New York, and Massachusetts, as well as those that are regionally focused.
Exclusive panels, speakers, programming
The SEVC features market relevant investor and executive panels, exclusive networking opportunities, featured speakers and dozens of the region’s top private technology firms presenting to a national audience of venture capitalists, investment bankers and private equity investors.
As a TechMedia company and sponsor of the event, the TechJournal has reported on many firms that subsequently landed angel or venture backing. Venture capitalists tell us, they find new firms to put on their radar and track at each year’s event and many have returned year after year to spot hot Southeast opportunities.
SEVC is also an unparalleled networking event in which innovative firms meet potential partners, customers, and employees, in addition to making invaluable contacts within the venture and angel funding community.
Additional information on presenting and registration can be found at seventure.org andyou can view a list of past presenters here.
Tags: angel investors, apply to present, Charlotte, innovative tech firms, March, NC, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Venture Capitalists
Posted in Events, Money | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
The Southeast Venture Conference is headed to Charlotte, NC, in March 2013. The seventh annual Southeast Venture Conference, a major event for investors and entrepreneurs, is headed to Charlotte, NC, March 13-14 at the Riz-Carlton.
The conference features presentations by 60 of the region’s high growth investment opportunities.
They will include both early and later stage companies from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC.
The conference offers an unparalleled opportunity to Network with hundreds of the region’s leading Entrepreneurs and High Growth Company Executives, National Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Professionals, M&A facilitators and other leading professionals serving the technology community.
We’ve covered many startup and later stage firms that presented at previous SEVC’s and later landed multiple financing rounds.
SEVC is also teaming with the Internet Summit in Raleigh Nov. 6-8 this year to present the two-day Startup Summit focused on entrepreneurs.
ttendees and speakers include leading incubators, venture capital firms, and innovative companies. We’ll feature 16 presenting startups that will showcase their companies and concepts. You’ll have the opportunity to meet them one-on-one in our demo pit.
Speakers at the Startup Summit include influential entrepreneurs and leaders from the investment community:
- Angus Davis, Founder & CEO, Swipely
- Paul Singh, Partner & Master of the Hustle, 500Startups
- Sarah Lacy, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, PandoDaily
- Scott Maxwell, Founder, OpenView Venture Partners
- Michael Doernberg, CEO and Co-founder, Reverbnation
- Laura Witt, General Partner, ABS Capital
- Rob Go, Partner, NextView Ventures
- David Morken, Founder & CEO, Bandwidth.com
- Jonathan Perrelli, Founding Partner, Fortify.vc
- Dayna Grayson, North Bridge Venture Partners
- Neil Kataria, Founder & Chairman, newBrandAnalytics
- Greg Cangialosi, Managing Dir, Nucleus Venture Partners
- Jason Caplain, General Partner, Southern Capital Ventures
- Robbie Allen, Founder & CEO, Automated Insights
- John Burke, Founder and General Partner, True Ventures
- Joe Velk, Contender Capital
- Chris Heivly, Managing Partner, Triangle Startup Factory
- David Jones, Partner, Southern Capital Ventures
- Joe Schmidt, CMO, Cafepress
- Tom Lotrecchiano, Sr Vice President, Cafepress
- Matt Williamson, Founder & CEO, Windsor Circle
Tags: Charlotte, entrepreneurs, Internet Summit, investors, NC, Raleigh, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Startup Summit, Startups
Posted in Alabama, Carolinas, entrepreneurship, Events, Florida, Georgia, Internet/New Media, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
 By Joe Procopio
Last night at dinner, Windsor Circle’s Matt Williamson was a busy man. In between bites and drinks, he filled pages in a notebook with research on a number of investors who introduced themselves after his pitch. The beautiful thing was there was a veritable cornucopia of information to be had among the six of us at dinner, and by the time it was over, he was armed.
Williamson says, “It’s been an incredible experience being in such a tight concentration of venture capitalists. The overwhelming response is that we’re a compelling story for such a short amount of time that Windsor Circle has been around. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how helpful the VCs are.”
He said a lot more than that, but I blacked out. It was late.
He’s not alone. Several startups are making that upward swing from the pitches into meetings, and if yesterday was an explosion of activity, then this morning and afternoon should be buzzing with follow up.
Not Just Digital
PodPonics is an Atlanta based high tech agriculture startup, converting shipping containers into high tech controlled growing environments producing fresher, urban, weather-safe produce — in other words better and faster with incredible yield. These containers can be stacked 10 high to produce 150x yield per acre.
That’s a game changer.
CEO Matt Liotta will present this afternoon. But they’ve been networking and meeting people in preparation. They say it’s a good setup, allowing mass concentration of conversation is short periods of time and they’ve been able to generate interest before they even take the stage.
Not Just Deals
It isn’t just the dealmaking though. This year, I’ve met more entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs who are here just to get the lay of the land and figure out how to take the next steps with their idea or fledgling company.
The panels have also been refreshingly honest. The first sentence I heard in the Venture Capital Outlook session was that “the wheels fell off on August 15th.” Having been out in the field raising money at that point, I absolutely agree with that. It’s like the mirage vanished.
Overall, there seems to be a lot of activity in the $1 billion plus range, and a lot in the under $100 million range, with a big black hole in the sweet spot. This is troubling for those early-stage graduates, but with such an emphasis on customers and revenue over the last four years, it’s certainly not a shocker.
Crowd-funding
There is a lot of visceral reaction to crowd-funding, and you’re going to see a lot more in this space in the near future, and it will probably be volatile and filled with argument.
It’s tricky, to say the least. There was a lot of talk about how it can and should be done, not only from a legal perspective but also making sure that you can get follow on money and that there are no surprises going into your next round.
However it can’t be ignored. Kickstarter, though not technically crowd-funding but more beta-product pre-purchase (or free T-shirt), has done three $1 million plus deals already this year.
So while Groupon, Facebook, and Zynga dominate the exit talk, crowd funding made up a large portion of the entry talk.
Undercover Angel
But it wasn’t the only talk. Angels are making more noise these days, and a common theme, the lack of organization in the Angel community that makes it hard to get started, is still an issue, even post AngelList. One of the questions was “where do I find Angels” and the first answer was “LinkedIn.”
Coincidentally, TechCrunch did a post last night on AngelList potentially creating a common pitch-deck template. And while I don’t agree that that’s the right next step, it should be about more robust ways to build relationships between the entrepreneurs and the angels, it’s at least a step.
Tags: angel investors, AngelList, Atlanta, crowd funding, facebook, Google, Kickstarter, LinkedIn, Matt Liotta, PodPonics, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, TechCrunch, Tysons Corner, VA, venture funding, Winsor Circle, Zynga
Posted in Columns, Events, Facebook, Google, Internet/New Media, IT, LinkedIn, Money, Viewpoint | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
 Sean Glass By Allan Maurer
Low interest rates don’t do much for a bank account, and that has had one good effect, says Sean Glass, partner with Novak Biddle Venture Partners. “There is more early stage capital around than ever because of the rate environment,” he says.
“When you have really low interest rates, people will take more risk with their portfolio. So there are a lot of angel investors who wouldn’t be in other times. More money available means more investors get a shot at it (creating a successful startup).”
That view contrasts somewhat with those of Jim Jaffe, president and CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Captialists (NASVF), who told us that the seed level funding of $100,000 to about $1.5 million can still be the “Valley of Death,” for many startups needing outside backing.
At SEVC this week
Both Glass and Jaffe are among the dozens of investors, entrepreneurs and 60 presenting companies participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Wednesday and Thursday (Feb. 29-March 1).
Glass, who is also founder and CEO of Employ Insight, and a founder and executive board member of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, says that while more early stage capital may be available, the flipside is that “We’re seeing a consolidation of late Series A rounds to mezzanine money”(often the final large round before an IPO or other exit).
“So,” says Glass, “We’re seeing a lot of entrepreneurs get started, but it’s getting harder to land that next round. They have to show traction a bit faster.” That contrasts with several years ago when companies that got seeded were fairly sure of a next round, he adds.
Glass says that signs the economy is getting better may not be such great news for entrepreneurs. “You would think it would be good for them, but it’s bad, because all of a sudden investors have alternatives with equal returns and less risk. It will take money away from the process.”
Glass says other changes are at work in the venture-backed startup economy.
Americane Entrepreneurs building a company now, for instance, “Will probably have to compete with someone outside the U.S., not just from firms in Boston and Silicon Valley. They may see competition from London, Rio, Santiago, and maybe Beijing. That’s why Groupon had to start going international early on, making sure it could win those markets.”
Pinterest could have done without so much early press
That means getting attention early on may not be the best thing for some companies. “My friend, the founder and CEO of Pinterest (Ben Silbermann) says he wishes the press hand’t started writing about them for another 12 to 18 months,” because the competition comes out of the global arena so quickly. “That makes it harder to build a new Facebook or Twitter,” says Glass.
Glass also says that many tech entrepreneurs don’t understand that many businesses may have good but limited potential. “A lot of tech startups can build nice $10 million to $15 million businesses but will never hit the scale needed to impact a venture firm’s portfolio.”
Businesses that do interest venture firms, he notes, “Need a large amount of capital to produce lots of profits quickly.”
Glass says entrepreneurs who can find a niche and build a company in a way larger firms can’t because they’re not geared to doing new things are going to “Get paid, because those big companies have cash and they want to buy growth.”
So, he says, “There will be options for exits and expect to see a lot of merger and acquisition opportunities.”
Interviewed by phone while in the Florida Keys, Glass says he sees evidence of an improving economy there. “There are people on the streets, restaurants are full, and the marina is full of boats – and they’re big boats.”
Glass says he’s looking forward to attending the SEVC, one of, if not the largest Mid-Atlantic venture event, this week. ”
Tags: angel investors, Ben Silbermann, early stage capital, Novak Biddle, Pinterest, rate environment, Sean Glass, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, venture funding trends
Posted in entrepreneurship, Events, Maryland, Money, Potomac, Tech Culture, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Monday, February 27th, 2012
 By Allan Maurer
Entrepreneurs keep coming up with new technologies, new web sites, new ideas, but what they really should be thinking about is evolving some new business models, says Eric Bleeker, Motley Fool tech analyst who oversees the site’s editorial team.
Bleeker joins tech luminaries such as Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton, National Venture Capital Association president Mark Heesen, National Seed and Venture Funds CEO Jim Jaffe, and NEA general partner Harry Weller, among many others participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA Wednesday and Thursday.
Right now, Bleeker says, “So many platforms are coming out that are dependent upon advertising. Yeah, they can get users, but what sort of platform lets you extract revenue from them?”
Zynga piggybacks on Facebook and other ironies
It’s ironic, he says, that game company Zynga can piggyback on a platform like Facebooks and monetize it at twice the rate Facebook does itself.
Similarly, the New York Times recently ran a piece on data mining that another news site picked up, put a more salacious headline on, and “Gets 50 times the pageviews,” says Bleeker.
The online music service Pandora, “is used on mobile 70 percent of the time, but only gets one percent of its revenue from mobile.” So new business models are necessary.
Bleeker believes quality journalism can still do well – pointing to “The Economist,” which is still managing to grow its subscriber base (and advertises widely online). Many local news venues may get squeezed out of the revenue streams if they don’t find new ways to make money, though, he suspects.
If it can’t command a premium, bye, bye
“If in the end, your product can’t command a premium, I’m sorry, but you’re going under.”
Quite a few companies are bridging that gap – along with many not doing it so well, he says. Companies with what appear to be successful models?
LinkedIn, he says has found a route: “Advertising is now a much smaller piece of their revenue than packaging business data,” he says.
OpenTable is another great example of an online firm that’s working, he suggests.
One problem he sees with many startups in the digital space – including mobile and hyper local, is that if they are ad dependent, the only exit solution they may have is to be acquired by the large tech firms sitting on billions in cash: Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
Apple, in fact, sits right at the top of the heap. “Apple is the big dog with the most money, but they don’t buy much,” Bleeker says. “They buy some intellectual property, but it’s not in their culture to bolt stuff on.”
That presents a difficulty if “The dominant player isn’t willing to buy.”
Apple, though, could be boxing itself in a bit with its emphasis on great design, the chunk of fees it takes for apps sold in its store, and its past DNA unless it finds ways to keep its customers. “They’re thinking about ways to lock folks in,” says Bleeker.
On the other hand, some estimates say that up to a mind-blowing third of global IT spending could be for computers (including tablets and Macs) in three years,” Bleeker says.
Sectors where Bleeker sees relatively unsung innovation is in networking and security, particularly from smaller firms. Catch what he has to say at SEVC later this week.
Tags: Apple Inc., Chuck Templeton, digital business models, Eric Bleeker, facebook, Google, Harry Weller, Jim Jaffe, Marc Randolph, Microsoft, NASVF, NEA, Netflix, Open Table, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool, Zynga
Posted in Apple, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Marketing, Potomac, social media, Virginia, Washington, DC, Zynga | No Comments »
Monday, February 27th, 2012
By Allan Maurer
 Jim Jaffe, president, CEO, NASVF, is participating in the Southeast Venture Conference this week in Tysons Corner, VA. While state and private incubators and accelerators help, funding for startups is still really tight in the so-called “Valley of Death,” says Jim Jaffe, president and CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.
Jaffe, who is participating at this weeks Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, where 60 innovative startup firms will present their business plans to venture and seed investors representing billions in capital, says those firms are lucky to have such a well-heeled audience.
Jaffe notes that “Even getting in front of funders is enormously difficult. They’re inundated by people with interesting ideas and its not unusual for them to have hundreds of contacts a week.”
The most important issue
“That’s the most important issue, what can people do in this environment to get money in that space between $100,000 and $1.5 million, Jaffe says.
There are a couple of places where the money is, however. “Many states realized they need to help. So you’ll find many organizations (many of them members of NASVW) funded by state and regional economic development organizations such as TEDCO in Maryland and the Ben Franklin program in Pennsylvania.
“They frequently work with entrepreneurs providing soup to nuts services, mentoring and $25,000 to $100,000 in funding. Their chances of getting money after working with these organizations is better.”
Trying to raise money on their own, on the other hand, “Can be enormously difficult,” says Jaffe. Often, he adds, “New entrepreneurs think it (their firm) is about the technology, not about money, cash flow and scalability in two years.”
Instead, he says, they often think their technology is so great the world will beat a path to their door. It doesn’t work that way.
Compelling business plan necessary
“Among other things, they need a compelling business plan that solves a problem and fits a need. It’s not about having great tech. It’s about who’s pain you can do something about and how the tech eases that pain, compelling customers to buy something. It’s a focus many who develop technology do not understand.”
That is a sentiment echoed by Sean Glass, partner at Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Glass, who will be on a panel about entrepreneurship at the SEVC this week, told us in an interview today that “A lot of nice small businesses making $10 million to $15 million with good margins can be built on tech. But they will never hit a scale that would impact a venture firm’s portfolio. Being a tech business doen’t automatically make it a venture capital business.”
Those, Glass explains, “Need a large amount of capital to produce a lot of profit quickly.”
Jaffe suggests that tech startup founders should “Get yourself a business partner.” By that, he means one who understands running a business. “If you’re reluctant to find one on your own, hook up with one of the state-sponsored incubators.” He notes that many colleges and universities offer entrepreneurship courses. “They’re really valuable. The reality is that you won’t get to first base without someone who has business expertise.”
Jaffe himself was president/CEO of six different public and private companies. He has managed a private equity fund and spent nine years in Eastern Europe and Asiainvesting in small businesses in emerging economies.
Tags: early stage funding gap, Jim Jaffe, NASVF, Novak Biddle, Sean Glass, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, state economic development, tech incubators, Valley of Death
Posted in Economic Development, entrepreneurship, Events, Money | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
By Joe Procopio
 Joe Procopio A week from today, I’ll be waking up with a hangover in a fabulously appointed room at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, wondering if I have enough time for a shower before the pre-networking-breakfast networking.
And I’ll view that as a success.
There are conferences and there are conferences. As someone who invented a social event based upon removing everything from a conference except the reception at the end (and lay off, I’ve got the patent), I can tell you that every conference has its place and time, but it’s usually what happens around the conference that’s worth the price of admission.
If you’re an entrepreneur or want to invest in, support, or provide services for entrepreneurs, next week’s Southeast Venture Conference is the one you’ll want to be around.
This year’s installment will be my fifth. Each time I’ve gone for a different reason, and usually, it winds up being a combination of the following:
Reason #1: Networking
People network in groups large and small at SEVC. There are hundreds of ways to land investment in your startup but they all really come down to this: Find someone with a lot of money who believes in your idea and your team. This doesn’t come overnight. There isn’t a single introductory letter, business plan summary, elevator pitch, or quirky attached trinket that is going to produce a term sheet.
Although, while judging a startup competition last week, I was handed beef jerky, and let me tell you, that’s as close to a guaranteed vote as you’re going to get. Still, unless you’re starting a beef jerky company, that won’t get you seed money.
Relationships, or rather, previously cultivated relationships garnered through hustling, hard work, and a boatload of rejection, are the stepping-stones to getting funded. SEVC is one opportunity to create new relationships, nurture existing relationships, or evolve relationships into interest and eventual investment.
And yeah, there’s something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. But without the proper context, how the hell are you supposed to figure out where and when that is?
Reason #2: Networking
The phenomenon of startups helping startups in mutual partnership, or even as paying customers, is just starting to take hold as common practice. In other words, Startup A uses the eCommerce platform from Startup B, who uses the ad engine of Startup C, who uses the marketing services of Startup A. The symbiotic inclusion of other startups into a beta adds to the robustness of said beta, and usually the pricing is beneficial to both sides.
For every investor at SEVC there are probably three people who can also help you in other ways. And it’s not just the entrepreneurs that are good to know. I’ve made a hosting deal at a venture conference, a funding deal at a gaming conference, and hired a guy at a technology conference.
Wait, that last one totally made sense. My bad.
Reason #3: Networking
SEVC draws a sellout crowd every year. Yeah, you’ve been to pitch parties and pitch contests and hopefully not pitch seminars, but maybe you’ve even pitched one or a hundred times privately.
This is the major leagues of pitching. And what I mean is it’s rampant with steroid use.
Of the 60 startups that will be publicly pitching at SEVC, all of them are asking for big time money and all of them are deserving of big time money (sure, at various levels of deserving, but you get the idea). Your time will not be wasted taking in as many of these pitches as possible and learning from them.
Even the bad ones.
Especially the bad ones.
But entrepreneurs are also usually very open to answering questions from other entrepreneurs. It’s one thing to watch a pitch, it’s another to have a conversation based around where that pitch came from, especially if you get them to remove the elevator-speak.
“Hockey-stick.”
Reason #4: Networking
Startups remain on the cutting edge of technology, not just in terms of which technologies are in vogue, but also where the business of technology is heading. A lot of last year’s presentations and panels focused on discussing these possibilities, but it’s in the trenches, so to speak, where you’ll find the real conversations about adoption.
Example: No one had a Pinterest strategy last year, but everyone knew about them, and more than a few were talking about them. Now, under a year later, they’re old like Microsoft.
Just kidding.
Maybe.
Reason#5: Networking
 Yeah, the running Networking gag probably wasn’t an awesome joke.
But at the end of the day, literally, there’s a lot to be said for just meeting new people who share the same vision and passion as you. It may seem like these opportunities are out there all the time, but let’s face it, this is the Lollapalooza of startups. There’s an energy around the open bar that you’re not going to find at a meetup.
So on Thursday morning when I wake up in my suit on top of the blankets, I’ll know I got a lot done. And I’ll have a pocket full of business cards and a handful of new friends to prove it.
Tags: Joe Procopio, networking, reasons to attend SEVC, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference
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