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Raising Capital: From VC to CEO
916_ 11/8/10- It's been over ten years since Larry first interviewed Rick Patch, while we were still on terrestrial radio, at KTLK. Rick has a wide and varied background. In 2004 LifePics was launched and Larry asked for a little background and overview. Today Rick is President and CEO of LifePics. "Well part of that of course, I was with Sequel Venture Partners and really wanted to get back into the operating side of the world instead of just advising and investing in it. And found this gem of a company, LifePics. It's been now over six years, I really thought it would take only three to leverage this thing and make it successful enough to sell or go public and as anyone who has started a business; it always takes longer than you think. But LifePics, I just love the company, I love what we do here. Folks like Office Depot, Mike's Camera, and Ritz Wolf Camera and many regional grocery, pharmacy and image related retailers come to us. We have over 535 brands that we now support/deliver their website and that represents about 12,000 store fronts around the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia. Actually Australia, we're taking over the whole continent down there. "What are some of the changes in the VC industry? Rick replied, "I think that everyone knows with the economy and the public markets not being as open to growth companies until they're really, really solid. Which is, in my opinion, appropriate. But the M&A markets, the exits for those kinds of businesses haven't come over the last few years which slows down the investments and it slows down commitment into the venture category. We're in a downhill slide here the last five years as far as investing capital and even the amount of capital that's available to invest, which is too bad. And, certainly Denver has been hit pretty hard."You were awarded the Duane Pearsall Award by the Rockies Venture Club four years ago. This is a special award, they don't give it out every year. On November 9th Jim Arkebauer, the founder of Rockies Venture Club [25 years ago] is the next recipient of this award and Rick will be there to share his thoughts during that presentation. Past recipients are Duane Pearsall, Gov. Roy Romer, John Elway, Bill Daniels, John Hickenlooper and Rick Patch. Listen for more interesting details...
Related Links: Lifepics Home || Shifting Sands of Venture Capital || Rockies Venture Club Home || w3w3.com Lifepics Photo Albums || VC Channel || Keywords: Rick Patch, Lifepics, Shifting Sands of Venture Capital, Rockies Venture
Club, RVC, Duane Pearsall, Sequel Venture Partners, Roy Romer, John Elway, Bill Daniels, John Hickenlooper - 11/8/10 bytes: 7142612
Listen to: Rick Patch, CEO, LifePics
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Brad Feld; Software Patent Tipping Point
901_ 9/27/10- Larry talked with Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Foundry Group. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. They discussed a very dicey topic, software patents. Brad started out with, "I want to make it clear that my point of view is only about software and business method patents. I really don't have a strong point of view about other types of patents. I think there is plenty of validity in the patent system, there's a role for the patent system, I think. For things outside of software and business methods, I haven't spent enough time intellectually working through them to have a strong point of view. On software patents specifically and business methods more broadly, I think they are invalid constructs. I think they are massive retardants on innovation; not things that protect and support, enhance or encourage innovation, which of course, is the point of the patent system in the first place. Brad has been very public and vocal about anti software patents for awhile, dating back to 1980's when he was in graduate school at MIT. It was the very beginning of the dynamics around business method patents and software patents just beginning to emerge - It was very loudly discussed that copyright and trade secret were more than adequate intellectual property protection and in fact viewed that software wasn't a valid construct to be patented, anymore than you can patent math or other algorithmic type things. About five years ago, especially as open source had become a mainstream thrust, and had demonstrated clearly that open source did not stifle innovation and that there were lots of different ways to monetize software even in the context of an open source universe. And then in fact, software that was not open source was even more protected without having to have any construct around patent. It's been very interesting over the past five years, to watch a number of people, both in the software industry and lawyers that have been in and around the patent system change their points of view to be anti software patent." Whether you are a leader or in the trenches, listen to this discussion...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || Venture Capital History || Channel Link to More || S Patent and Trademark Office || Keywords: Brad Feld, Patents, Entrepreneur, Venture Capital, Funding, Portfolio Companies, Investing, Foundry Group, Intellectual Property - 9/27/10 bytes: 9803026 Listen to: Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group
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553_ Environmental Policy and Economic Policy: Choices and Challenges
With 10 years of really solid industrial experience from the shop floor up plus 10 years of high tech, venture backed startups, David Moll, Founder and General Partner of Infield Capital, a Venture Capital firm targeting the Green Tech industry is well suited to do extraordinary things in the industry. David said, "Ask yourself what’s required now that the investment community is looking at new ways to capture and store energy, and revolutionize our energy picture. It’s got equal parts and that was the genesis of understanding how we wanted to approach Infield Capital. Infield has a little different model than the traditional venture capital model. I chose to raise capital from a set of limited partners that are largely strategic investors. They are companies with small vehicle platforms." David goes onto point out, "The reason I chose to raise capital from these guys was that as I looked at early stage companies, particularly in the transportation space, everybody knows that if we could have the best battery, we could sell that to all the automotive companies and make more Prius type vehicles and maybe full electrical vehicles, and wouldn’t that be great! Yes it would – but how hard is that?" Listen for more...
Related Links: Infield Capital || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Electrical Vehicles,
Clean Technology, Capital, Automotive Industry - Bytes: 8750710- LISTEN 9/15/08
557_ Different Choices and Immediately Available New Technologies
"As we look at statistics, peo
ple are making different choices today. They’re parking their cars. As a nation, we’re using less oil. They’re buying different products. As a nation we consumed fewer cars by maybe 4 million in 2008, projected over 2007, and it looks like China will actually sell more vehicles this year than we do in the US," said David Moll. David is Founder and General Partner of Infield Capital, a Venture Capital firm targeting the Green Tech industry is well suited to do extraordinary things in the industry. He goes on, "Scooter sales are up, it could be as high as 60% over prior the year, and that’s not for everybody. So, as we face higher gas prices people are making different choices. And now they can make decisions not to use gas at all. I’m concerned about our nation’s economy, I’m concerned about what scientists are beginning to understand in detail about global warming – and so I’m like you are, I can be down on these things and really concerned. The thing that buoys me right now is the hope and enthusiasm that I draw from so many entrepreneurs. The stuff I’m seeing just makes me believe all over again, in the entrepreneurial spirit. It makes me believe in the 'technological can-do- attitude' in this country." Listen for more...
Related Links: Infield Capital || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE || Venture Capital Channel || Find It || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Electrical Vehicles, Clean Technology, Capital, Scooter, Automotive Industry, > Bytes: 12071395 > LISTEN 9/22/08
New Perspective
on the "10 Immutable Laws
for Raising Capital"
538_ In 2005 when Larry interviewed David Moll he was the President and CEO of Webroot and still remains on the board. Today he is the Founder and General Partner of Infield Capital, a Venture Capital firm targeting the Green Tech industry. During that 2005 interview, David shared his "Ten Immutable Laws for Raising Capital". Now that David is on the other side of the isle, Larry and Pat wanted to ask him how he looked at those same 10 immutable laws for raising capital. Now that he is a venture capitalist, will his take on them be the same or is the new perspective changing his point of view? Infield Capital has built their fund around a model that really addresses some of the huge requirements of early stage clean technology companies. Recognize the nuances of commercialization of industrial products that wasn’t there for software and high tech. Infield Capital is built on the idea that they can provide unique assistance to the companies that are ready to move from the lab to the production floor. David's first immutable law is 'Make sure you need the cash'. The second, 'know what your options are' and the third, 'choose your investor like you choose your spouse' (David is a winner in both areas) and the forth 'check out the references of your investors'. Listen now in David's own words...
Related Links: Infield Capital || Conscious Economy Channel || CORE || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Venture Capital,
Clean Technology, Capital, 10 Immutable Laws - Bytes: 14370171 - 8/11/08
Venture Capital and the Boulder Dome Fire
921_ 11/1/10- Friday October 29, Larry & Pat were heading into Boulder from Denver. Once on the Turnpike they noticed smoke in 
the foothills over Boulder. "We were heading for the HRO Offices to meet and interview Catharine Merigold, moderator of a VC panel at RVC's "Shifting Sands of Venture Capital" program. Our worst fears were confirmed with smoke and ash in the air. Catherine called to say she was being evacuated from the area of the Dome fire in Boulder Canyon. Because we archive everything, we decided to run an interview w3w3.com had with Catharine in April 2007. We decided to do the same with a January 2006 interview with Jim Arkebauer who will be honored with the prestigious Dwane Pearsal award at the same RVC "Shifting Sands of Venture Capital" session on November 19th. Both Catharine and Jim offer excellent advice that is relevant in today's environment. We are happy to report this fire is expected to be fully contained as we write this article, Sunday October 31st, 2010.
293_ Entrepreneurial Advice from a Venture Capitalist
We asked Catharine Merigold, What are the three biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs? Full Story...4/2007 - Bytes:4906948 LISTEN to Catharine Merigold
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Access to Capital – Be Prepared the Right Way
Things are picking up. The challenging news for some is they're not ready to talk or to make a presentation for money. Jim Arkebauer, prolific author of business books and founder of Venture Associates reveals what it takes. Full Story here....
1/16/2006 LISTEN to Jim Arkebauer,
Related Links: Shifting Sands of Venture Capital || Vista Ventures || Venture Associates || Books written by Arkebauer || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital || Boulder Camera Dome fire ||
799_ Venture capital transformations 3/1/10 -
We're talking with Jason Mendelson, managing director with the Foundry Group here in Boulder, Colorado. Larry asked him about changes in the venture capital area over the past 3 to 10 years. "Two things come to mind when I think of transformation of our industry in the last ten years. One is the amount of money that's come into the industry, specifically how many venture capitalists have been able to raise money and fund companies in the last ten years. there was a huge boom and now there seems to be a time of bust and reining in. Many people predict the venture capital dollars available for companies will shrink between 30-50%. I actually think that isn't a bad thing. Over the past ten years we've seen a lot of companies get funded that shouldn't have been. The biggest thing that has changed in the last ten years is the amount of money VCs have. The second, that has completely changed is how much it costs to start a company. Ten years ago it was $1 Million for the price of entry to start a company. So if you wanted to quit your job and start a company, you had to raise venture capital funds. You had no choice unless you were independently wealthy. Now with cheap computers and cloud computing you can start a company for ten grand." Larry discussed with Jason the wrong ways to approach a VC...listen for his thoughts. Larry asked, "Looking at the future, what do you see on the horizon for both entrepreneurs and the venture capital community?" "If you look at venture capital returns, there's a pretty strong correlation to success of companies being funded in down periods. So I would say as long as the economy is challenged it is actually the best time to start a company. Part of that is cost, it's easier to hire people, it's easier to rent a place." Listen for more...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Mendelson's Musings Blog || Soul Patch || Economy Builders Channel || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group, Venture Capital, VC, Entrepreneurs,
Mendelson's Musings, Economy Builders, Soul Patch > 3/1/10 bytes: 5454265 Chnl: VC LISTEN to Jason Mendelson, Managing Director and
Cofounder, The Foundry Group
Mr. Feld Goes to Washington
- Leaving Boulder in State of Shock!
Bewildered... Confused.... Perplexed... Baffled...
Puzzled... Bemused... Mystified...
Brad Feld had an incredible experience November 9, 2009. His friend Phil Weiser, who is now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (I prefer to call him America’s Top Cop on Agriculture) invited Brad, his partner Jason Mendelson, and Brad’s wife Amy Batchelor to attend the Supreme Court Oral Arguments for re Bilski. A rare tie sighting ensued as a jacket and tie is required to attend.
Related Links: My Field Trip to the Supreme Court || More on that...
589_
Guy Kawasaki Talks About Innovation, Change and Entrepreneurs
Larry cornered Guy Kawasaki at the BioWest conference after his keynote address. Guy, author of the best selling book, The Art of the Start and Reality Check is also cofounder Alltop.com as well as Garage.com. Larry asked, "We are going through some tougher times, how do you see this playing out?" Guy, a champion for entrepreneurs replied, "Well, I’m not a visionary or an oracle, I’ll tell you what I would tell an entrepreneur, which is, ‘plug your ears and keep going!’ Of all the tech startups one out of 5000 go public so what difference does it make what the DOW Jones Industrial Average, especially tomorrows DJIA, maybe 5 years from now it’ll matter, but not tomorrow. If you just try to build a great business, hopefully that great business will make a ton of money. If you make a ton of money, maybe you’ll go public – still unlikely, but you might; and you might get acquired, also unlikely but we go from one out of 5000 to one out 500, something like that, so that helps. But even if none of those sort of dream things happen, you have a good business! If you only start businesses in good times, you may have to wait a few years – I really don’t see why it truly matters. You either believe or you don’t believe. If you’re an entrepreneur who says, ‘well, I’m not going to start a company because the stock market is too low and unemployment is too high’, I’ve got to tell you I would put those two items right at the bottom. You have to develop a good product, you have to make it, you have to sell it, collect the money and service your customers, pretty much the fundamentals." Listen for more insights...
Related Links: Alltop.com || Garage Technology Ventures || BioWest 2008 || Guy Kawasaki Blog || w3w3.com Blog || Keywords: Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, Alltop.com,
BioWest, DOW Jones, Art of the Start, Reality Check, Entrepreneurs, Blog - Channels: Bio, VC,
Bytes: 9134814 - 11/17/08 LISTEN
711_ Big Changes in Raising Angel Capital: But there is Help
Change is in the air and it is having a major impact on entrepreneurs and their ability to raise capital. Larry corralled Kevin Johansen, Chairman & Executive VP of Business Development, Business Catapult, to talk about the changes in the 3rd annual Angel Capital Summit! Not only is it moving from a hotel to the Denver Convention Center, it is also adding more females to the entire mix along with numerous social networking tools that attract another crowd and that's the younger entrepreneurs. Kevin is quoted in Larry's book, Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos, "In business, change management more often takes the form of change avoidance or change denial. Scott Adams memorializes this fact daily in his Dilbert cartoons. So considering the larger reality, effective change management is what separates the winners from the losers – and thus helps them avoid becoming cartoons. As I personally don’t translate well to two dimensions, I’ve become a student of change and of change management. In fact, I work daily to drive change, and not be driven by it. To not do so might put me into the category of potential caricature, or worse, victim." We'll see you at the Summit.
Related Links: Angel Capital Summit || Business Catapult || Social Entrepreneurship Details || Mastering Change || Mastering Change Blog || Keywords: Angel Capital Summit, Kevin Johansen, Entrepreneurship, Business Catapult, RVC, Mastering Change, Channel: Change >>
Bytes= 4133932 > 8.31.09 LISTEN
699_ Hard Money: Where to go when the bank says no -
News from an expert
Larry sat down with Steve Replin, attorney and author of a new book, 'Hard Money: Where to go when the bank says no' and started out with this question, "I like that title, but can you define Hard Money?" Steve replied, "Hard money is a technical term for a type of lending that focuses on collateral as opposed to the borrower. You go to a conventional bank you'll notice they're going to ask for a credit report, income tax returns, financial statements and so on and so forth, that's all about you the borrower. Hard money lenders on the other hand, are going to want to know about your collateral, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, what the rental income is, how big the site is, how it's zoned, so on and so forth. It actually allows a loan to be analyzed and approved in a matter of days as opposed to a bank that will typically take 30 to 45 days to make a decision and most of time, these days they say no." Steve went onto addressing the three big typical concerns, traps, or challenges. "I would give this advice to borrowers looking into the hard money arena; The first thing I would look out for is what we affectionately call "loan to own" lenders. These are lenders that make the terms of the loan so difficult that if you miss a payment by 30 seconds, they're starting foreclosure which basically renders your property un-financeable. And they view it as way to own your property at a wholesale value. Lots and lots of those folks out there. Sadly it's a business methodology that has made a lot of lenders rich and lot of borrowers poor." More to listen to...
Related Links: Venture Capital Channel || Replin & Rhoads ||
Economy Builders || Podcast Directory || Mastering Change || Keywords: Steve Replin, Hard Money, Where to go when the bank says no, Banks, Venture Capital, Replin & Rhoads, Entrepreneurs >> Channel: News 6281511 bytes - 7/27/09 LISTEN
615_ Feld on Finance @ CU Wolf Law Building - Part 1 of 4
Readers of Brad's blog already appreciate that his insights and wit are not to be missed. Over the next year, Phil Weiser, Professor of Law and Exec. Director of Silicon Flatirons, will interview local venture capitalist Brad Feld. Their first interview focused on the basic questions around the state of corporate finance and what it means for start-ups, evaluating the role of angel financing, venture capital, private equity as well as the public debt and equity markets. This discussion touched on whether venture capital is now in trouble, whether the private equity model can come back from its bust (which Brad predicted), whether Wall Street's model of financial engineering was corrupt and unsustainable and when the current credit crisis will end. We encourage you to follow this four part series, Feld on Finance. Listen now to part 1 of this 4 part Series with Phil Weiser and Brad Feld... We'll add a section each week.
Related Links: Feld-Weiser One-on-One: Feld on Finance || Silicon Flatirons || Foundry Group || Feld Blog || Venture Capital || Event Photos || Keywords: Brad Feld, Phil Weiser, The Foundry Group, Silicon Flatirons,
Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Angel Investors, University of Colorado, Center for Law, Technology, Internet, Software
Channel:VC Bytes= 17438827 1 of 4 > 2.9.09 LISTEN LISTEN
One-on-One Part 2 of 4
“The good news and the other news about angel investors” Bytes: 14675699:
Brad Feld and Phil Weiser Go One-on-One:
Feld on Finance (Part 3) Institutional Investors, Venture Capital Fund, Lessons Learned and Outcomes
One-on-One Part 3 of 4 - Bytes: 15654977 >>> LISTEN
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Brad Feld and Phil Weiser Go One-on-One: Feld on Finance
Brad Feld explains what he means by 'convertible preferred equity’
Part 4 of 4 - Bytes: 15654977 >>> LISTEN
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592_ Brad Feld and the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box
Brad Feld was being drilled by Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson about the learning experiences of a new entrepreneur for the new NCWIT series, The Entrepreneurial Tool Box. And as Brad said, "Dave Jilk was a college friend. In 1987 we launched a company which we then grew, with no financing into a couple million dollar business and sold in 1993. So that was the first real success I had, after a couple of companies that went absolutely no where." When addressing the failures Brad said, "Well you go through this cycle of believing, sort of the optimism of the creation at inception of the company, some progress, whatever progress there is and then ultimately you start to have some problems and you either push through the problems or you don’t. I mean Feld Technologies had all kinds of things that could have caused us to fail. In fact, one of the first things we did was hire a half dozen college friends and part time people, and spent money we didn’t have and all of a sudden we were upside down $20,000 and we had no money, and we realized we couldn’t do that anymore because we didn’t have the money to pay the people and we had to get to a place where we’d make money. In the case of the other failures, I think it was pretty clear at some point we were not making real progress." said Brad Feld, Chairman of the NCWIT – also co-chair of the Governor’s Innovation Council. Listen for more insights...Brad also talks about what it takes to create winners.
Related Links: Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || NCWIT Channel || NCWIT Practice || w3w3.com Blog || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, NCWIT, Entrepreneurial Tool
Box, Dealing with Failing, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Governor’s Innovation Council, Blog > Channels: NCWIT, VC,
Bytes: 12940750 > 12/1/08 LISTEN
583_ Some of the Greatest Successes Started During the Downturns
At the October TiE Rockies meeting, the keynote speaker was Dinesh Patel, PhD, Managing Director, vSpring Capital. Dinesh said, "I believe personalized medicine has finally arrived and it’s going to revolutionize how we practice medicine and health care in this country.” vSpring Capital started in the year 2000, Dinesh is one of the founding partners. About 75% of their fund’s investments are in the technology sector and 25% in the life sciences sector, and they are early stage investors, generally the first institutional investor in a company. They are managing roughly $360 million today. They are always looking for deal flow, like to make investments in the $500K to $2 Mil investment range. "Times are very interesting now. I think times are more uncertain today than they were in 2000. Right now we are trying to figure out how to proceed in this climate. But every time there is a major problem of this kind you also find major opportunities, so we are very optimistic about this cycle. Startups happen all the time, you can never time that. In fact some of the greatest successes started during the down turns. Google is an example of that. So I think it is not the timing but the key today is to have enough money to take you 18 to 25 months, because you don’t know if you can raise the money in 6 months or 12 months. Cash is king, you’ve got to preserve the money, spend it wisely, stretch it out a little bit." Dinesh also talked about the Human Genome Project - fascinating....
Related Links: vSpring Capital || TiE Rockies Home || Venture Capital || Biosciences || Keywords: Dinesh Patel, vSpring Capital, Venture Capital,
Human Genome Project, TiE Rockies, Bioscience - Channels: News > Bytes: 9398546 - 11/10/08 LISTEN
578_ Times are Tough but Good Companies are Still Being Funded
Larry was talking to David Cohen, Founder of Colorado Startups and co-founder of TechStars about the impact of the economy on startups, the Expense Paid Job Fair held in Boulder, and the position of venture capital and angel funding in today's market place. About 17 companies put money into a pot, flew 81 candidates in to Boulder, for an expense paid job fair – worked out to about $60 an interview, a pretty good deal. TechStars Demo and Investor Day 2007 (i.e. first year TechStar Grad') Social Thing was there - who has been bought by AOL and now have opened offices here in Boulder - was one of the companies interviewing at the Job Fair. Since TechStars Demo & Investor Day, TechStars has done a similar event in Silicon Valley.. and at that event, 9/23/08, announced their second acquisition from the first class of 10 companies, a company called Intense Debate, acquired by Automatic, which is the company behind Word Press. So that’s very exciting. They’ll be integrating the blog comments that they were working on directly into the WordPress platform. That’s 100 million blogs that they’ll get distribution on. So the first class has been really amazing and there are other companies that are doing really well from that 2007 class including Event Theater, FiltrBox, BrightKite and other companies, we’re expecting more good things out of that first class. The second class, it’s a little early to tell, but a lot of them are getting funded. David offers some great funding advice...listen now...
Related Links: TechStars Home || Entrepreneur Channel || Colorado Startups || Expense Paid Job Fair || Blog ||
Keywords: TechStars, David Cohen, Colorado Startups, Social Thing,
Raising Capital, Entrepreneurs, Expense Paid Job Fair > Channels: VC > Bytes: 10349403 - LISTEN > 11/3/08
514_ Another Round of Tech Stars Winners Along with the Best
"What we learned from last year is, just focus on quality and get the best quality of passionate, excited, talented entrepreneurs in the program, and amazing stuff happens. We purposely didn’t change too much. We did add some new mentors into the program and got pretty good engagement from people outside of Colorado. That’s been really great to have - it gives us more diversity and ability to connect the companies with interesting business partners or investors and that’s really the goal." says David Cohen, cofounder of Tech Stars. David is also Founder of Colorado Startups, his Angel Fund. Colorado Startups has now invested in about 8 or 9 companies as well as TechStars. We’re speaking during week three of our 14 week program. The first weeks are pretty varied; we do a lot of what we call sessions. Those are all over the map in terms of what the topics are, but “Starting Your Startup” is a session we do. We had Google in for a day, and we had Microsoft in for a day, and Amazon in for a day, and Yahoo just completed a day. We spend a day with them and some of their top biz dev folks and some of their top technical folks come out. We’re really pretty lucky. They sent some amazing people out this year and have been very supportive of the program. Larry probed some more...listen...
Related Links: TechStars Home || TechStars Blog || Colorado Startups || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: David Cohen, TechStars, Entrepreneurs, Startups,
Mentoring, Investors, Venture Capital, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo - Bytes: 8940045 LISTEN 6/30/08
06/23/08511_ A Small Fund with a Team of Experienced Entrepreneurs
The CO Cap Group is a small fund, and they're a team of experienced entrepreneurs and executives. Their mission is to improve the efficiency of early stage investing and to produce a strategy to reduce risk. Marc Silverman, CEO and founder of the Colorado Capital Group went onto say, "Early stage investing can be very risky. It's difficult to manage the risk; it's difficult to find the right companies and do the proper diligence. But I think there is a better away and that's applying a better methodology, finding the right companies, looking for a higher batting average, a little bit lower risk and instead of looking for grand slams, look for base hits and I think you can manage the risk of finding good companies." Marc said, "It's also very important to keep in mind that we are active investors, we're not passive investors. So when we find a company that really fits, and we invest the money, we also come with the money. We get very involved and we don't take a management role in the company. From that perspective I'll work with and for the CEO. I have two great partners, Rob Geller and Larry Harms. Rob has been in the software business for years and years and also has been a leading clean tech advisor, so Rob is very interested in 'clean tech investing' and knows a lot about it. Larry Harms has been a software and manufacturing guy and has worked in DOD and really understands that process and that cycle. So between the three of us these are the areas we really cover; medical informatics, medical devices, software, clean tech and homeland security."
Related Links: Colorado Capital Group || Venture Capital Channel || Software Channel || Biotechnology || Keywords: Marc Silverman, Colorado Capital Group, Rob Geller, Larry Harms, Entrepreneurs, Clean Tech, Software, Medical Informatics, Medical Devices, DOD
Bytes: 11586145 LISTEN 6/23/08
502_ TiE Rockies Lively Panel: Getting Funding in Hard Times 505_ Do You Have a Great Business Idea or Winning Product...and? PART 2 497_ Keynote Address at the RVC 19th Annual Colorado Capital Conference Venture Capitalist, Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy Looks at the Future - Part 2 546_ Fast Start Program with Up to a Million Dollars in Early-Stage Funding 542_ Lots of Innovation and a 30 Billion Dollar Deal Flow on the Horizon 490_ Venture Capital Firm Targeting the Green Tech Industry 496_ The Do’s and Don’ts of Approaching a Venture Capitalist, Cold (Part 1 of 2) 482_ Money, Music and More: Bringing Balance - Your Soul Patch (Part 1 Below) 481_ Intellectual Property Can Save You or It Can Get Ugly Ambitious Companies Not Big Enough for an IPO 195_ In Search of the Angel Investment Capital in Colorado 60_
Closer Look at the Renewed CTEK - [Part 1 of 2]
Businesses the world over are experiencing a slowdown as the worst economic crisis since World War II unfolds. Not everyone agrees with that doom and gloom outlook. But what if you have a great business idea or winning product or service...or if your business is expanding? You need financing and you need it now! Now a few more agree with that challenging outlook. TiE Rockies put together a lively panel (and it was lively) to discuss and debate 'fundraising in hard times'. Catharine Merigold, General Partner of Vista Ventures, served as the Event Moderator. Panelists included Dan Caruso, CEO of Zayo Group, Mike Devery, Market Manager - Rocky Mountain Region, Silicon Valley Bank, Brad Feld, Managing Director of Foundry Group, and Vipanj Patel, Managing Director of iSherpa Capital. They covered: - How can you stand out from the pack so that you get the financing you need? - How can you get funding for expansion as the capital markets contract? - How can you get your business launched in these tough economic times? ...and much more. Listen to this part of the on-the-spot recording of this panel discussion. You will learn things about Brad, Dan, Mike, and Vipanj that you won't hear anywhere else.
Related Links: TiE Rockies || Venture Capital || w3w3 Blog || w3w3 Community Calendar of Events || Keywords: Brad Feld,Foundry Group, Catharine Merigold,
Vista Ventures, Dan Caruso, Zayo Group, Mike Devery, Vipanj Patel, iSherpa Capital, Silicon Valley Bank,
Venture Capital, Funding- Bytes: 17303826 - 6/9/08
At the TiE Rockies event/discussion/debate/lively panel, Pat & I enjoyed Brad Feld's response to "There's not enogh capital," with "That's a total copout. Capital finds deserving companies...entrepreneurs with something great will get funded." There was some uneasiness with the entrepreneurs in the audience...but, they needed to hear it. During the Q&A, a person in the audience raised the assertion that he believed too much emphasis on preparing an extensive and polished business plan. He wanted the reaction of the panel as to whether the idea was far more important, and that it should be presented in a concise executive summary and a follow-up face to face meeting. Dan Caruso's response was, "That even more important was establishing a relationship and positive impression well in advance of presenting an idea. The investors need to conclude they want to fund you. Get over this hurdle first, and then selling the idea will be far easier." This panel discussion is loaded with ideas and hard advice from this first-class panel at the TiE Rockies event. Catharine Merigold, General Partner of Vista Ventures, served as the Event Moderator. Panelists included Dan Caruso, CEO of Zayo Group, Mike Devery, Market Manager - Rocky Mountain Region, Silicon Valley Bank, Brad Feld, Managing Director of Foundry Group, and Vipanj Patel, Managing Director of iSherpa Capital.
Related Links: iSherpa Capital || Zayo || Foundry Group || Silicon Valley Bank || Vista Ventures || TiE Rockies || Keywords: Vipanj Patel, iSherpa Capital, Mike Devery,
Silicon Valley Bank, Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Dan Caruso, Zayo, Catharine Merigold, Vista Ventures, Denver,
Colorado, Venture Capital, Funding, Business - Bytes: 16862461 LISTEN - 6/16/08
Marc Silverman, Managing Partner, Colorado Capital Group was the opening key-note speaker at the Rockies Venture Club 19th Annual Colorado Capital Conference. Colorado Capital Group invests in select companies in software, energy, medical device/healthcare and nanotechnology areas and they invest various amounts of money in their ventures, including a few in a smaller investment range. Marc Silverman is a successful serial entrepreneur. He is a founder and managing partner of Colorado Capital Group, a seed-stage fund providing capital and hands-on mentorship and discipline to early-stage Rocky Mountain region companies. Mr. Silverman is a seasoned corporate executive with over twenty-five years experience in technology product design, development, manufacturing, distribution, corporate management, governance, investor relations, and early-stage financing. He is a successful entrepreneur (two exits, incl. IPO), angel investor, and advisor. He is a savvy “bottom-line manager,” but is also highly regarded as a product design “visionary” and team builder. He has raised tens of millions in capital. ***Listen to this unedited keynote address*** it is loaded with excellent advice.
Related Links: Colorado Capital Group || 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference || Entrepreneurs Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Marc Silverman, Colorado Capital Group, Rockies Venture Club, Colorado Capital Conference, Capital, Bytes: 20031428 - 6/2/08
Stephanie McCoy, Venture Capitalist Addresses Entrepreneur’s Capital Challenges with Answers
341_The three deadly sins (most common mistakes) made by entrepreneurs seeking venture capital relate to introductions, timing, and the ability to change on a dime. Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy, managing partner at Meritage Funds lays it on the line when giving advice to entrepreneurs seeking money. Some of her ideas sound like common sense, however others are hard-hitting and can seem hard to gulp…but she is right on track. The “rules” have changed post 2004 and today 2-way due diligence will often make the difference. Stephanie has an interesting take on ‘commitment to your idea’. Listen carefully; this can help make the difference how a VC looks at the possibility of investing in your company.
Related Links: Meritage Funds || Venture Capital Channel || CTP Channel || Podcast Directory || Keywords:Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy, Meritage Funds, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurs, VC
Channels: Venture Capital > Part 1 of 2: Bytes: 11493358 > LISTEN 7/16/07
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343_ In part 1 of 2 Stephanie addresses "The three deadly sins (most common mistakes) made by entrepreneurs seeking venture capital". It relates to introductions, timing, and the ability to change on a dime along with some hard-hitting advice for entrepreneurs seeking venture capital. I
Today, in part 2 Stephanie makes some predictions, as she looks at the coming year. Some later stage deals can get in the way, but she feels it is a healthy market and the solid firms will get funding. Stephaie identifies some hot markets, some of the trends as well as some exit strategies.
Part 2 of 2: Bytes: 7919807 > LISTEN 7/23/07
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"The Fast Start Program has been a part of Meritage’s DNA from the beginning. The Fast Start Program allows us to invest up to $1 million in an early stage idea," pointed out Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy, Managing Partner of Meritage Funds.
The purpose for the fast start program is to deal with the risks; technology risks, market risks, and execution risks, faced by every company we view. Meritage does not take technology risks in our investments, we leverage proven technology. So what we’re really focused on is market risk and execution risks. "When an entrepreneur comes to us with a very innovative idea, often what we’re faced with is market risk and we use our Fast Start program to help both ourselves and the entrepreneur get their arms around that market risk. We combine operating expertise along with venture capitalist expertise. Every portfolio company has two partners on it, an operating partner and a venture capitalist partner. Our operating partners are highly successful entrepreneurs – combined they have founded, built, run and exited companies worth $25 billion." Listen to more in Stephanie's own words.
Related Links: Meritage Funds || Venture Capital Channel || CTP Channel || Find It || Keywords: Stephanie McCoy, Early-Stage Funding,
Meritage Funds, Venture Capital, Network-Enabled Service > Bytes: 5547052 - LISTEN > 9/2/08
The venture capital syndication environment is not working for some today, but for others it is taking center stage. Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy, Managing Partner at Meritage Funds discusses their new deal flow with Larry as Meritage Funds recently made two exciting new investments. One thing Stephanie feels sure of is now that evaluations are down compared to 2003 and 2004, it is a great time to invest. With the interesting deal flow today and the tremendous amount of innovation, some are comparing this period to the late 1990s. If the market does experience a significant downturn in the next couple years it will have not impact Meritage Funds' investment because they operate and invest with a five to seven year exit plan. By then, the market will be up. Their investments are in the hundreds of millions in US dollars. While the majority of venture capitalists are very cautious about fundraising, Meritage Funds is well on the way of raising its third fund...and a big one at that. They invest in network-enabled service companies, specifically those that leverage networks to enable communication, deliver content and facilitate commerce. Whether you are an investor or an entrepreneur seeking venture capital, you should listen to Stephanie in her own words. She shares some great insights.
Related Links: Meritage Funds || Venture Capital Channel || CTP Channel || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Stephanie McCoy, Venture Capital, Meritage Funds,
Capital Syndication, Exit Strategies, Network-Enabled Service > Bytes: 11281870 LISTEN 8/18/08
Here's a person who went from 10 years in the manufacturing industry, to President and CEO of Webroot Software and David Moll is now founder and partner of Infield Capital, a Venture Capital firm targeting the Green Tech industry. "Our specific target market is focused on the transportation industry specifically, with a tight orientation around what I'm calling future power train. Those innovations between the key and the wheel that are going to reduce the amount of energy we consume in transportation and the amount of pollution we do generate when we consume. So there are just a number of areas that jump out. Between the key and the wheel, we've got the transmission. There's some really neat companies doing things with 'continuous variable transmission'. There's the internal combustion engine, and I am stunned, to see how many university engine labs are spitting out tech transfer programs. And there are some very very promising concepts that are early, and not all of them are going to work. But there are some new engine technologies that I think are extremely viable and is going to cut gas consumption even, if we continue to burn gas in the near term, by potentially 30-60%." David also works with and suports other startups in unrelated sectors including Boulder Non-Linear Systems, Newton Running, University Parents and remains on the Webroot BOD. See David at the Colorado Capital Conference on the Building a Winning Team panel.
Related Links: 20th annual
Colorado Capital Conference || Conscious Economy Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Find It || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Rockies Venture Club,
Colorado Capital Conference, Teams -
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564_ Expense Paid Trip to Job Fair in Boulder, Colorado
Chris Wand, managing partner at Foundry Group here in Boulder, Colorado, had some startling news for the whole country... "A handful of us were talking about what is going on in Boulder – there is an amazing amount of activity going on here – a huge number of startups, a lot of them growing very rapidly. One of the pain points they’re all experiencing is finding enough technical talent, software developers, programmers, engineers. We have a lot of great talent here in Boulder; we just don’t have enough given how fast these companies are growing. We thought the right way to recruit out of state talent to Colorado, to Boulder, was to find a way to fly them out here where it was low cost or no cost to them, to experience Boulder for three days. We’re having a week long job fair at the end of October. Aiming to fly in about 100 folks and we’re giving them a day to experience Boulder, just get to know the town. Then in a 'speed dating fashion’, meeting with each one of the 20 sponsoring companies, and a third day to go deep on interviews with the companies they’re most interested in." Get the details, there's much more to this story.
Related Links: Expense Paid Job Fair || Foundry Group || TechStars || Colorado Startups || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: Boulder Startups, Boulder Job Fair, Foundry Group,
Chris Wand, Technology Developers, Engineers, Software Developers, Boulder Wants You > Bytes: 7505191 >
10/06/08 > Channels: VC, Software - LISTEN
"Every entrepreneur who has raised venture capital has heard it a thousand times — the best way to approach a venture capitalist is via a warm introduction," points out Chris Wand, Managing Director of the Foundary Group, a well known venture capital firm in Boulder. Chris goes onto explain to Larry, "The logic is that venture capitalists invest in people as much as they do in technology or business ideas, and having some connection (even if it’s indirect) is immensely helpful to the VC in determining if that entrepreneur is one the venture capitalist wants to back. The logic also continues that VCs are generally bombarded by requests for meetings, so a warm introduction helps an entrepreneur’s request get a quicker response. Unfortunately, as many entrepreneurs have realized, rarely do you have the luxury of relying only on warm introductions." Chris goes onto suggest, "Research the VC, his/her firm and their investments. If you’re asking a venture capitalist to take the time to read your business plan or take a meeting with you, then you owe it to him to take the time to understand who he is and what kinds of investments his firm makes. Reach out to the VC in a way that makes it easy for a VC to respond to your approach. Out of the three primary options—postal mail, phone and email — I think email is by far the best way to make the initial approach." There's much more...listen now
Related Links: Foundry Group || Private Equity Hub || Ask the VC Blog || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Chris Wand, Foundry Group, Venture Capital,
Entrepreneur, Funding - Bytes: 6363640 - 5/26/08
498_ Recognize That Successful Fundraising is a Series of Small Steps (Part 2 of 2)
VCs are notorious for their hectic travel schedules, packed calendars and odd working hours. The cold email approach saves you time and makes it easy for the VC to quickly assess whether your opportunity is one that merits pursuing. Regardless of how you decide to approach VCs, make sure they provide all of your contact info (including email and phone number) so they can re-connect with you in whatever way is best form for them. That's a recommendation from Chris Wand, Managing Director of the Foundary Group. "I really respect it when someone cuts straight to the chase and tells me what they’re looking for and why they think I’m the right person for them to reach out to. It not only tells me the entrepreneur knows what he wants and is confident enough to just ask for it, but it also gives me a sense of where that entrepreneur is coming from, whether he’s done his homework and whether his interpretation of the situation matches my interpretation. "I’ve been on the receiving end of emails and voicemails that say nothing more than... 'I have a really exciting idea for a company and would like to arrange a meeting with you at your office next Tuesday.' Rather than make me intrigued, this approach usually makes me suspicious." There's more...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Private Equity Hub || Ask the VC Blog || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Chris Wand, Foundry Group, Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, Funding
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Part one of the interview with Jason Mendelson and Ryan McIntyre, both Managing Directors with the Foundry Group was focused on intellectual property and the current 'copyright paradigm'. IP isuues are hot topics with their portfolio companies. Both men are dedicated to the success of the companies they work with. Larry had to ask, "How do you bring balance to your business and personal lives?" Jason's been playing the drums since he was 3, a percussionist, and actually supported himself playing music with big names like Aretha Franklin. Jason and Ryan met at Mobius in California. Ryan had built a recording studio in his home – 600 sq. ft of recording space, and had a band. Jason showed up one day, "..the idea was that I would be a consultant to the band." Things took off from there. Ryan said, "In general our lives are hectic with a thousand calls in the air, generally multi tasking, always thinking about the past, present and future, and the great thing about music... it’s then. When I’m playing music there’s no room in my head for anything other than the moment. That’s a liberating thing and it is great for bringing balance." BTW, the music at the beginning and end of this interview is a small part of the second album produced by Jason's and Ryan's band 'Soul Patch'. Enjoy!
Related Links: Foundry Group || Ask the VC || Venture Capital Channel || Soul Patch || Keywords: Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group,
Venture Capital, Ask the VC, Trade Secrets, Intellectual Property, IP, Patents, Soul Patch -
Bytes: 24152505 - 5/5/08
Don't despair. The scary aspect, that a cheap patent lawsuit could cost $1 to $2 million to defend... Still, patents can make a difference when you are seeking an investor. Jason Mendelson, managing partner of the Foundry Group and Ryan McIntyre, also a managing partner of that Venture Capital firm go onto point out that a bigger patent case can cost $10 million and up. "Most are spurious with the intent to halt progress of a competitor, or put small startups out of business. The idea of a 7 or 8 figure legal bill, for a startup company to
defend your intellectual property will destroy most companies. Even venture backed startups do not have the resources to fight that. They typically end up settling and making some sort of agreement where they have to pay royalties to the plaintiff." They talked about 'patent trolls' and pointed out that prior to 2007, 92% of the cases that went to trial, the plaintiff won...ouch. They discussed other IP issues and Jason said “Trade Secrets" are the forgotten stepchild of IP. When you hear trade secrets you think of KFC recipes. You don’t find too much Trade Secret protection happening in the VC world – I think that’s a mistake.” We don’t like the ‘patent paradigm’ we’re in, but in order to have a defensive strategy you’ve got to have a shield. We do encourage our companies to get patents. If nothing else, as a bug spray to the patent world. BTW, the music at the beginning and end of this interview is a small part of a CD produced by Jason's and Ryan's 'Soul Patch' band. Enjoy!
Related Links: Foundry Group || Ask the VC || Venture Capital Channel || Soul Patch || BYTES:23115131 - 4/28/08 >
Keywords: Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group, Venture Capital, Ask the VC, Trade Secrets,
Intellectual Property, IP, Patents, Soul Patch
Have Another Alternative
537_ "Entrepreneurial companies tend to put in their financial plan that their first exit is that somebody will buy them out. And if they’re not going to be bought out, then surely they’ll do an IPO. Neither one of those really take into consideration what the real world is," states Leo Solomon, President and CEO of Premier Capital Alternatives. Our deal size is $2.5 M to $10 M. Our funding process is four steps. The first is to have the legal and accounting documents prepared for filing to the SEC for public trading. The second step is file to the SEC. The third step is to use a Private Investment in a Public Entity known as a PIPE to raise the cash. The final step is to secure stock volume through the market makers. Premier Capital Alternatives offers an innovative funding mechanism for the developmental or early commercialization companies. Their areas of expertise are medical devices, alternative fuel (not alternative energy), banks, and proven companies seeking to expand their business. This makes their business unique as they fill the capital requirements for ambitious companies who are not substantial enough to qualify for an IPO (usually $25 M) but who seek a capital infusion and want all the advantages of a public company. Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Premier Capital Alternatives || Venture Capital Channel || Blog || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Leon Solomon, Premier Capital Alternatives,
IPO, Private Investment, Venture Capital, SEC, PIPE > Bytes: 9770112 LISTEN 8/11/08
Making a pitch to an angel investor vs. a venture capitalist for funding has some similarities and some significant differences. Gary Held, president of CTEK, Nicole Glaros, VP Programs & Services and Christina James, Program Director of the CTEK Angels detail the nine absolutes that any entrepreneur must adhere to in order to get an angel's attention and eventually get an investment. In 2005 angel investments reached $24,000,000,000, the average investment round is $266,000, and about 0.5% - 1.0% of the hopefuls get the funding.> 10/23/06 LISTEN
Related Links: CTEK Angels || CTEK Home || CTEK Angel Photos || Venture Capital Home || Bytes 11765658 - Keywords: CTEK, Angel Investors, Investment Capital, Venture Funding, Startups, Gary Held, Nicole Glaros, Christina James
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Many people in Colorado have wondered what does the acronym CTEK stand for? Gary Held, president and Nicole Glaros, VP Programs & Services spell it all out. C = Capital - T = Technology - E = Entrepreneurship - K = Knowledge. Building off a strong heritage, CTEK has listened to experts around the state, researched entrepreneurial needs and has identified gaps where they can work with and support various organizations around the state. CTEK is forming a venture fund that will help fill the 500K to $3 million gap in the funding stream. There's more. > >
LISTEN 8/07/06
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163_ Can CTEK Change the Rate of Startup Failures?
It's more than just funding. But it is not a surprise what doesn't happen without money. That's one of the few essential dilemmas that CTEK wants to help solve for the entrepreneur. Gary Held, president and Nicole Glaros share a few of the resources investing in the CTEK Venture Fund such as high-networth individuals and banking institutions. New relationships with tech transfer organizations are helping establish the Center for Applied Entrepreneurship.Part 2 of 2
LISTEN 8/14/06
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Venture capital in the green-tech world
890_ 10/18/10- Larry sat down with David Moll, founder of Infield Capital, a 'green' venture capital company based in Boulder. David explained, "We're not backed by hedge funds or big pensions and so forth, those typical financial investors that are in a lot of venture players. Rather our money tends to come from strategic players, companies that have a real interest in the areas that we invest, and that area is a little different as well." Infield is extremely focused on the clean-tech sector, but even more focused on transportation - "where those two, clean tech and transportation bump into each other, is really our space." Stuff like bio-fuels, batteries, new engine technologies and those things that if one were to think about any kind of a vehicle "we would be in what we term, between the key and the wheel". Larry asked, "What is the viability of getting venture capital and how much does one need to start a green business?" David said, "It's tough with low cost energy, coming from our traditional fossil fuel orientation. I think it's the greatest challenge we have to clean tech right now. In the venture community people are scared to death to stroke the check for higher capital, longer range projects that still have technical uncertainty and don't have cost parity. There are countries in this world that have shown the real political fortitude to do it. I look with admiration at Brazil. I don't necessarily like sugarcane as the choice, but hey, they did it. They said we're getting off oil and they did it. It didn't' happen overnight and it took an absolute unified national effort." "We're fortunate here, those of us living in Boulder and trying never to escape the bubble, if I go to Denver, the best way to get there is the bus. I have an eco pass and I take the bus. There are increasing data sets that tell us small things mean a lot. Good examples are some of the things you can do to the car you're already driving. tire tread, what you put in your tires. Did you know if we all put nitrogen in our tires it would be like we've taken a couple million cars off the road in the net result in carbon reduction, some small things. In fact..." Listen for more great tips...
Related Links: Infield Capital || Green Garage || Venture Capital Panel || Venture Capital Channel || Conscious Economy || Venture Capital Panel || BCBR VC Investments Q3 || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Entrepreneurs, Green Garage, Venture Capital,
Startup, Energy Independence, Clean Technology, Rockies Venture Club - 10/18/10 bytes: 10609583
Listen to: David Moll, Infield Capital
IT enhances and accelerates the entrepreneurial spirit
913_ 10/18/10- Larry sat down with Brad Feld, managing partner of Foundry Group, to talk about the technology community that has developed here in Boulder and Denver. Larry noted that when he arrived in Boulder back in 1984 this community support didn't exist. Now of course, we have a very strong community with support to and from the University of Colorado and the exemplary Tech Transfer Office at CU, the University of Denver and organizations like TechStars, Boulder Innovation Center, and of course all of this enhances and accelerates the entrepreneurial spirit. The question is, "Can this be replicated in other cities?" If you know Brad at all, you know there was no hesitation in his reply. "Absolutely it can. It's been very interesting to me over the last three or four years reflecting on what drives entrepreneurial communities. I invest all over the country and spend time in different places and I've seen a lot of other entrepreneurial communities ebb and flow. So I see lots of excitement around entrepreneurship, reinvigoration around early stage investing and angel investing, and lots of new companies starting. Those tend to have 3 to 5 year cycles... you know something happened and the momentum stalls out. I've seen this across the U.S., in a number of places, time and time again. When I look at Boulder, I moved here in 1995 so I'm 15 years into living in Boulder. I really believe that Boulder is in a place today where it has a long term sustainable entrepreneurial system and culture." Larry asked, "What is necessary to create or develop this culture?" Brad replied, "You need to be willing to take a 20+ year view vs. Here's something I'm interested in doing for the next 3 or 4 years..." Listen now, there's much more...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || Venture Capital Channel || Amazon || Mastering Change || Do More Faster Book Home || Venture Capital Panel || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Author, Do More Faster, Entrepreneurs, Venture Capital, Angel Investors, CU Tech Transfer Office, University of Denver, TechStars, Boulder Innovation Center, Culture
10/18/10 bytes: 7340097
Listen to: Brad Feld, Foundry Group
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The Year 2020 and the Role of the Venture Capitalist
902_10/4/10- BioWEST 2010 Grand Finale Luncheon - The Year 2020 and the Role of the Venture Capitalist. Mark Heesen has advocated for the venture capital industry, entrepreneurship and innovation for nearly two decades, first as NVCA's head of public policy and since 1999 as the Association's president. Under Mark's leadership, the NVCA has grown in both scope and scale as it relates to its public policy agenda, research initiatives, and member programs. Mark is constantly engaged in legislative and regulatory issues surrounding information technology, life sciences and clean technology investing, providing strategic direction for the NVCA professional staff and managing a board of twenty-six venture capital practitioners. Mark's entire presentation was recorded. Here are a few notes. In the whole scheme of economics, the VC industry is a really tiny portion of what happens in the U.S. today; that small percentage of all transactions for the year involve venture capital. So it is a very small industry. There are only 7,000 venture capitalists in the country. We represent 410 venture capital firms. But it's also important to note that this is an extremely important industry. When we look at venture capital and what it has done to the U.S. economy as a whole, it's actually pretty dramatic. Eleven percent of all people who work in the private sector today, work for a company that was at one point or another, venture backed. One out of every ten Americans, that's pretty amazing, in the private sector. This is the sector that really creates jobs, that really keeps the economy humming. Mark talks about a number of industries, government legislation, Small Business Innovation Grants as well as the good news and the challenges. If you are considering getting venture capital investors, you must listen to this discussion...Thank you CBSA...
Related Links: BioWest Conference || Colorado BioScience Association || National Venture Capital Association || Mastering Change Blog || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Mark Heesen, National Venture Capital Association, Venture Capitalist, Holli Baumunk, BioWest Conference, Colorado BioScience Association
10/4/10 bytes: 27132241
Listen to: Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Assoc.
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Starting a business or expanding a business
904_ 10/4/10- David Moll first appeared on the w3w3.com radar a number of years ago. He'd just been appointed president of a small local software company. David took this company from their early Boulder offices (he describes as an original garage startup) with about a dozen people to one of the most successful, a huge, profitable security software company, everyone knows as Webroot. Today David is founder of the VC firm, Infield Capital. With his industrial, high-tech and venture capital background Larry decided to ask him two important questions in these tight economic times. "First, is this a good time to start a business?" David's answer might surprise, so listen carefully. Here we give you a few teasers... David said, "Nope! This is a terrible time to start a business. But, with that said, I think a lot of people don't necessarily have a choice. We know what the job climate is... a lot of people find themselves outside of the workforce and not voluntarily so. With your resume emailed to as many places as you can think of, what the heck do you do then? For somebody who finds themselves in that position it may be more necessity than choice to start a business, and just because it's a bad time doesn't mean it's the wrong time." David continues with challenges facing companies, consumers and job seekers. "Our second question, What about expansion, is it a good time for expansion?" David said, "It's a great time! Where companies need to be careful is that you want to be thoughtful about the risk you take on. Grow from your strength, not from speculation to make sure you're making good decisions. So this is not the time to bet the farm. But I do like this. You, Larry, gave me the really generous introduction and we talked about Webroot. Well, it was a really interesting phenomenon, I joined Webroot in 2002. You know 9/11 and the crash of the Internet bubble and all those things that kind of roiled about in 2001 were still very fresh upon us and venture capital spending didn't really return until about 2003ish... So the little company that I joined, Webroot, we were undergoing an expansion in 2002 and 2003... We thoughtfully increased our expense rate, thoughtfully endeavored into new product development, added staff in our sales, marketing and online channel growth - none of it foolish... But we positioned ourselves for growth when few companies were growing and as a result, when the good times came..." There's much more...
Related Links: Infield Capital || Green Garage || Venture Capital Panel || Venture Capital Channel || Conscious Economy || Keywords: David Moll, Infield Capital, Entrepreneurs, Green Garage, Venture Capital,
Startup, Webroot, Rockies Venture Club 10/4/10 bytes: 5072146
Listen to: David Moll, Founder, Infield Capital
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Venture Capital, awards, and a VC panel
925_ 11/8/10- The Duane Pearsall Award is being given to Jim Arkebauer, founder of Venture Associates, and founder of the Rockies Venture Club, (25 years ago). Past recipients are Bill Daniels, Gov. Roy Romer, John Elway, John Hickenlooper and Rick Patch. Larry discussed venture capital and angel investing with Jim. He started his business, Venture associates, in 1982. At that time he was looking for projects that he could get involved with, from a capital raising standpoint. He was doing a lot of small IPOs because that was the primary method of financing at that time. John Fitzgerald, a national health industry headhunter, with working connections all over the country came to Jim. John wanted to establish local ties and a way to give back to the community. Jim's interests were in working with and identifying new entrepreneurs. At the time, Jim was involved with the second venture capital group in the country, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, started by David Silver, and had agreed to go to their meetings. He shared that with John and they went to a meeting in Santa Fe. Back in Denver, initially they got about 20 people together who would have an interest and over a period of 3 to 4 months they outlined a program and started in June of 1985. They had their first meeting with 35 attending, by invitation only, at the Brown Palace Hotel. In September they had their first general meeting with about 65 attending and it's been going ever since. RVC went through ups and downs, had 700 members back in the 200 era. "We're probably at 300 members now, which has been steady throughout the years, said Jim."And we still subscribe to our original mission which is to support entrepreneurship in the form of networking for entrepreneurs with financing sources and professional consultants. Larry asked Jim about the history of angel investors. Jim pointed out, "That's an interesting topic that reflects on our social media time at this point. When we started in '82, angel investors were around and had been around for years and in fact, it was the angel investors who really started the formal venture capital industry in Colorado. They traditionally represent about one-third of the RVC attendees."
Related Links: RVC Celebrates 25 Years with a VC Panel || Venture Capital Channel || Venture Associates || Books written by Arkebauer || Rockies Venture Club || Duane Pearsall Award Photos 2003 || Keywords: Jim Arkebauer, Venture Associates, Angel Investors, Venture Capital,
Business Plan, Rockies Venture Club, Angel Investors, Duane Pearsall - 11/8/10 bytes: 6489341
Listen to: Jim Arkebauer Recipient of the Duane Pearsall Award, Rockies Venture Club
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862_ 6/28/10 - Changes in the angel investing landscape
Larry cornered Steve Murchie before he and his wife head out of the country for six months. Steve moved to Colorado four years ago. He started out by saying, "It's been a very interesting community to plug into. There's such a great entrepreneurial environment here. I think we still have a lot of challenges here in finding an ecosystem that works really well in all sectors. In fact the same ecosystem won't work in every sector. We're not as big as the coasts where there are so many people involved in various industries and have success and history in those industries that the ecosystems have evolved themselves. Here I think we have to build them intentionally. I think Boulder has a great model going. TechStars is a wonderful short term incubator. You add to that a couple of smaller, early stage funds that have started working around this, and there are angels working in conjunction with that, and the same people involved. So you've got organized money, you've got organized mentors, and you've got just a ton of enthusiasm around the entrepreneurial process. Steve also talked about the great news and the challenges. "I think there are a number of efforts to build a large scale angel network here in Colorado. There was one in the 90's it had probably a five year run, then CTEK had their Angel Network affiliated with the CTEK program - it probably ran for about five years as well. Then in 2007 I launched a chapter of the Kieretsu Forum. We had a three year run, probably got hit a little harder because of the 2008-09 crisis. And ultimately, last year I shut down the Kieretsu Forum, our membership had grown too small and it's really hard to find funding for companies. It's still hard to raise money today."
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Related Links: Steve's Blog || Podcast Directory || Mastering Change Blog || Raising Capital || Keywords: Steve Murchie, Entrepreneurs, Angel Investors, Capital, TechStars,
Ecosystem, CTEK, Boulder, Colorado, Funding, Kieretsu Forum 6/28/10 Chnl: Venture Capital bytes: 6415049 Listen to: Steve Murchie
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841_ 5/17/10 - Changes in market deals and capital availability
From the floor of the Colorado Capital Conference (CCC), Larry Nelson talks with Kelly Burton, founder and CEO of InvestorAvenue.com. RVC's Colorado Capital Conference is Kelly's favorite. The reason for that is she likes the educational aspect and this year RVC really executed well in delivering a variety of tracks, not to mention the names that they're attracting to deliver the content on some extremely valuable topics. Timely topics, things that I'm thinking about, things that I know my peers are thinking about, things that the entrepreneurs are definitely faced with. Larry asked, "What are some of the changes you've noticed in terms of market deals and capital availability?" Kelly replied, "Investors want to get to a more mature deal. For example in the last forum I looked at ten criteria that I had not looked at as closely and it had to do with maturity. Not only maturity of the opportunity, maturity of the financials, maturity of the product, the entrepreneur. The audience responded to that extremely well because it is what they are investing in. We're not seeing prototypes getting funded like we used to. It is more about how close are they to revenue and/or what are their revenue numbers, burn rates, cap rates, of course. Also looking at the entrepreneur's track record maturity and at the end of the day 'can I hang my hat on that team - the management team, the founder, the CEO'. So I've definitely seen a longer harder look by the investor to the team and also the maturity of the product. We're in the A+ Game now." There's more great advice...
Related Links: Investor Avenue || Colorado Capital Conference || Rockies Venture Club || Mastering Change || Colo Capital Conf Photos || Keywords: Kelly Burton, Investor Avenue, Colorado Capital Conference, Rockies Venture Club, Raising Capital, Entrepreneurs, Investing, Market Deals > 5/17/10 Bytes: 5603163 LISTEN to Kelly Burton, founder and CEO of InvestorAvenue.com
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674_ Feld-Weiser: One-on-One Feld on Work-Life Balance
For entrepreneurs, lawyers and other professionals, work-life balance is often a topic that individuals plan on thinking about when they have time. Phil Weiser, Professor of Law and Telecommunications engages in a discussion with Brad Feld, Managing Partner, Foundry Group, about a topic that is very elusive for many entrepreneurs. Brad said, "This topic took me 15 years, a failed first marriage, and my current wife (Amy Batchelor) almost calling it quits for me to realize that I had to figure out what 'work-life balance' meant to me." This recognition lead to Brad's commitment to a series of rules, which evolved into a set of habits that include: 1. Spend time away; 2. Life dinner; 3. Segment space; 4. Be present; 5. Meditate. Notably, Brad's view on life-work balance is not that working hard is not important; it's that "balance improves the quality/quantity of work that you can get done and you become more effective at accomplishing stuff." Listen to the entire Feld & Weiser, One-on-One on Work-Life Balance. LISTEN
Related Links: Photos || Silicon Flatirons Passing Baton Ceremony || Feld Blog || Foundry Group || Keywords: Brad Feld, Phil Weiser, Work-Life Balance, Entrepreneurs, Work-Life
Balance, Amy Batchelor 6/15/09 > Bytes: 44730621 LISTEN
640_ Obviously the growth in GPS, satellite & HD satellite TV figure highly here
The National Space Symposium is the premiere annual gathering of the entire global space community. It brings together all the different sectors, civil, commercial, security, entrepreneurs, finance - it is extraordinary all of the different sectors that come together. And over all these years it remains the premiere event. Over the last five years attendance has grown 16%, exhibits have grown 40%, in these difficult times this is a testament to an extraordinary event. Larry interviewed Lon Levin, a featured speaker at the National Space Symposium being held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs 3/30 - 4/2/09. Lon is an entrepreneur and executive with over 20 years experience in the space, new media, and telecommunications industries. He is the cofounder of XM Satellite Radio and also played an integral role in the formation and development of several mobile satellite companies including Mobile Satellite Ventures, Terrestar, and American Mobile Satellite Corporation. Before his corporate career, Levin was a partner in the law firm Gurman, Kurtis, Blask & Freedman, where he specialized in satellite, space, media, and wireless matters. Levin serves on the board of directors of the Space Foundation. Levin was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2002. Lon shared some statistics and insights with a broad view of the Space industry. "Space is now about 70% commercial, that we’ve had an emergence of private launch and private space travel capabilities. Global space economy has grown from about $180B to $257B. Satellites in orbit have grown from 582 active satellites to about 905 (443 US) operational satellites circling Earth." He also talked about the expanding international roles including China, India, Iran, etc...listen, there's more...
Related Links: Colorado Space Coalition || National Space Symposium || Aerospace History (2002) || Blog || Keywords: Lon Levin, SkySeven Ventures, (s7v), National Space Symposium, Space, New Media, and Telecommunications, GPS, satellite, HD TV Channel:News Bytes= 8567016 > 3.23.09 LISTEN
593_ Hickenlooper: From Geologist to Entrepreneur to Mayor of Denver
Twenty-one years ago when they were trying to start the Wynkoop Brewing Co, John Hickenlooper came to RVC, and it was kind of a similar time. The price of oil skyrocketed and then began a very rapid decline. One thing that creates is tremendous opportunity. Kevin Johansen, Chairman of the Business Catapult and Executive Director of the Rockies Venture Club Angel Capital Summit introduced the opening keynote speaker, Mayor John Hickenlooper. The mayor shared a number of insights about his entrepreneurial beginnings. He said, " I literally went to the library with a friend and got a book on how to write a business plan. I was a geologist; I didn’t know what the word ‘Performa’ meant. No matter how tight credit is now… I think you all recognize that economic framework follows perceived opportunity. The worse the public perceives opportunity, the lower your opportunity costs are – our rent was $1.00 per sq. ft. for a year in lower downtown. When I pitched to this group, Rockies Venture Club, it was a much smaller group, I will say nobody laughed out loud. I had two great angels I think are worth mentioning was a guy named Jim Owen. His father started Home Roberts & Owen, he was the managing partner there for many years, and he loved entrepreneurs and he loved helping businesses start. The second investor was my landlord, Jack Barton, he owned Kacey Fine Furniture, and our old building was their old warehouse. After long negotiations we worked out if I put $200,000 into this empty warehouse, I would get 12% ownership in the building." It's a great story. This is 25 minutes of his address...unedited.
Related Links: Angel Capital Summit || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital || Entrepreneurs || RVC Angel Capital Summit || Keywords: Mayor, John Hickenlooper, Rockies Venture Club Angel
Capital Summit, Kevin Johansen, Business Catapult, Wynkoop Brewing, Entrepreneur - Channels: VC Bytes: 23563601 >
12/1/08 LISTEN
09/22/08 558_ TechStars Winner Going Global - Australia, UK & Japan
The Wall Street Journal article highlighted this trend of group dating and featured Ignighters as one of the leaders in the market. They threw a party in New York recently which was a great success. Larry did a follow-up interview with the Ignighter cofounders Adam Sachs, Kevin Owocki and Dan Osit. They were one of the top ten TechStars 2008 startup companies. The guys were excited to point out, "It’s funny because group dating is actually a cultural phenomenon in different parts of the world and so we’re discovering there is a lot of interest in group dating in countries like Australia, the UK and other European countries as well as Japan. So right now, Australia is one of our fastest growing markets." Ignighter is group to group dating. What that means is you and your friends create a group profile and then search your area for another group with whom you plan an offline date. It works, in contrast to the conventional dating sites where those sites ask you to create your own one-on-one awkward blind date. With Ignighter you meet people the way you do in real life, which is with your good friends...listen now.
Related Links: Ignighter || TechStars Blog || Colorado Startups || Podcast Directory || Radio Blog || Ignighter Blog || WSJ Article "All Together Now" || Keywords: Ignighter, Tech Stars, Group Dating, Adam Sachs,
Kevin Owocki, Dan Osit, > Bytes: 9902605 > LISTEN 9/22/08
548_ Supporters of Techstars Come From California to Massachusetts
"TechStars has some great companies here including a hardware company, 
a software company, tools, and a wide range of different companies." Three ardent supporters from Microsoft commented on the Techstars Investor day and about what lessons were learned by all. Dave Drach, Managing Director, Business Development Team, Denver, CO; Don Dodge, Director, Emerging Business Team, Waltham, MA; Anand Iyer, Evangelist – San Francisco, CA were the three Microsoft champions interviewed by Larry. "There were 150 investors from across all the United States, to see the 10 companies." "So, it’s pretty interesting to see the innovation coming out of TechStars here in Boulder. It’s great to see the passion and sparkle in their eyes when they get up to demo their product and show something that’s never been seen before. So, it’s pretty interesting to see the innovation coming out of TechStars here in Boulder. One company started out with an optical recognition of receipts and evolved into their picture, mash-up, automated demo we witnessed today. So a significant evolution of blending the technology and team into something that’s very impressive now. Any startup company can engage with Microsoft. We have a website called the Microsoft Startup Zone. We're very active in the Boulder/Denver community. We’re active with some of the VCs in the area, like Brad Feld. At Microsoft in the Emerging Business Development Team, our total goal, we want to find startups, help them succeed, and build partnerships with Microsoft and get them the resources they need to succeed. What better place to do that than TechStars.
Related Links: Microsoft Startup Zone || Don Doge Blog || Tech Stras || TechStars Investor Day Photos || Keywords: Dave Drach, Don Dodge, Anand Iyer, Microsoft, TechStars, Investor Day, Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs,
Emerging Business Development > > Bytes: 10403320 > LISTEN 9/8/08
527_ Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Reporting in
From Homer Alaska
Entrepreneurial challenges started the the conversation Larry had with Brad Feld. Learning more from mistakes than entrepreneurial wins, Brad shares some great advice for all of us. The challenges and the choices he put it this way, "It's summarized in one word...'people'. Whether it was as an entrepreneur or as an investor, I realized at times that I was working with people that had different value systems than I did. Essentially the different value systems and perspectives are helpful, but a lot of times get in the way, especially when there’s stress on the system. Another big lesson I’ve learned is that I really want to spend my time with people I enjoy working with. Spending time, especially when you’re trying to create businesses with people, who get stuck in endless drama because they don’t like you, or you don’t like them, or you don’t like working together is kind of a pointless experience." Brad also adds on the people issue by talking about his partners. Larry asked him if we were heading for another 'Dot Bomb'. "I think there are always cycles of positive time and negative times. While I have no idea what the peaks and the troughs of the future will be, I think it doesn’t matter. What we know is there will be peaks and troughs." Brad went into a deeper discussion on this topic and then went onto share his thoughts on social media and Web 2.0...which are subsets to an overarching movement.
Listen to Brad's thoughts...they're right on.
Related Links: Foundry Group || Feld Thoughts || Venture Capital Channel || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Venture
Capital, Dot Bomb, Web 2.0, Social Media > Bytes: 9307013 LISTEN 7/21/08
528_ Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Talks About the 'Change' in the Air
(Part 2 of 2) With all the changes occurring at the fast pace, Larry asked Brad Feld, Managing Director and co-founder of the Foundry Group in Boulder, "If you were giving advice to a roundtable of business leaders and entrepreneurs, what would you have them do to better prepare for change?" Brad was very straight forward and said, "I would tell them not to fight change, to recognize there are a whole bunch of things you can't control and are going to happen, regardless of what you do. My father gave me great advice when I was a kid. He said, 'Find your 2% of the world that you can impact and spend all your time there.' Obviously the 2% is metaphorical. Picture your tiny part of the universe. Try to create something that dominates that area that's your favorite, rather than try to control all of the things that you cannot impact." Brad also talked about the disappearing age breakdown on the Internet, including mobile devices. He also has some interesting views about Google and today's changing search strategies. Brad is a master at entrepreneurial strategies and how innovation impacts business development. Brad said, "Well the way innovation works, especially with information products, is the newer innovation just constantly supersedes the older innovation. So, it's natural that they are popular and critically important for relatively short periods of time. Whenever I hear people talking about innovation slowing in the software/ hardware business, I just chuckle." Obviously, change is in the air. Listen for more insights.
Related Links: Foundry Group || Feld Thoughts || Venture Capital Channel || Blog || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Venture
Capital, Dot Bomb, Web 2.0, Social Media - Bytes: 9307013 LISTEN 7/28/08
509_ Is an Advisory Board or Advisors Really Necessary?
A board of advisors for a startup can be critical for some, and situational for others. Seth Levine, Managing Director, Foundry Group discusses the needs, uses and the role of an advisory board. Seth is 'pro advisory board' if the selection process is done the right way. It is very important to try to get at least one advisor from each category necessary to start and run the business. Then add additional advisors to the mix as needed. An overlooked factor in an advisor and startup relationship is compatibility. Startups should work with advisors that share their communication styles, work ethics, interests, and curiosities. It is extremely important to work with people you like and respect. Yet include some who are challenging when it comes to innovation and strategic planning. Seth, in part 1 of his interview talked about what it is like to work with his partners at the Foundry Group...they would be Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, and Chris Wand. Listen and you'll get some personal insights. He also poked a hole in the bubble and comments on Google and a bunch more. Seth gives some great advice that will help you reduce or eliminate the risks associated with building your company and selecting your advisory board. He defines the Role of Company Advisors; answers the question, "Is an Advisory Board or Advisors necessary?" and "What do good Advisors do?" Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Seth Levine Blog || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Seth Levine, Foundry Group, Advisory
Board, Compatibility, Funding, Startup, Entrepreneurs > Bytes: 10052652 LISTEN 6/23/08
508_ "People like to say we're in a bubble right now, and I don't even know what that means. I think 'bubbles' are overrated. We have a cyclic economy - maybe it's an up cycle and maybe it's a down cycle. But I think people like to speak too much in superlatives." 476_ Learn what Actually Goes Through a Venture Capitalist’s Head 507_ What Are the Essential Ingredients for Building a Winning Team? 500_ Why Colorado is a Statement and
Not Merely a Question 469_ Brad Feld, The Foundry Group - Why am I Passing? 504_ Leveraging Technology to Increase Deal Flow, 430_ Keys to Growth: Balance of Being Honest, Hungry, Humble, Happy 443_ Venture Capital, Angel Investors and Getting Involved
375_ Successful IPO in 2007 Just 14 Months After Investing 316_ If You Want Venture Capital, Listen Up and Be Careful 238 Jared Polis and Brad Feld Square Off on the Future 240 Feld and Polis Make Economic Predictions for 2007 225 Brad Feld, Mobius Venture Capital - Predictions in December 2005
Seth Levine, Managing Director, Foundry Group - with Insights
Let's get back to the bubbles later. Larry asked Seth, what's the difference between managing directors and managing partners? (On a personal note, I remember when Larry was 'the' managing director of our European firm, 191.. he was the only managing director.) You'll have to listen to Seth's explanation of why they have five managing directors.
More interesting (to me) Larry asked, "What's it like working out of the same office with those guys?" Well, they've worked together for at least seven years (Seth being the new guy and he's been around for 7 years). Chris and Brad have worked together for over ten years! While the Foundry Group itself is new, the five of them have relationships dating back up to a decade or slightly longer. Seth said, "This is a great group to work with. We started out as colleagues and became very good friends. In part, it's because of that friendship and the level of comfort we have with each other that we decided to form the investing end of it."
A lot of people read Brad's blog or Ryan's blog and Jason's blog, Ask the VC or Seth Levine's blog as well as the Foundry blog; but they don't necessarily see the personal side of my partners. I do get this question a lot, particularly around Brad because he has a 'little-bit-larger-than-life' personality. It's a little hard to describe.. Listen, there's more....Related Links: Foundry Group || Seth Levine Blog || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Seth Levine, Foundry Group, Advisory Board, Compatibility, Funding, Startup, Entrepreneurs
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Have you ever wanted to learn firsthand what actually goes through a venture capitalist’s head while doing deals. Jason Mendelson, Managing Partner of the Foundry Group levels with Larry as he is asked some probing questions about how Venture capitalists think. Larry wanted to know answers (and opinions) about: Whether it be the initial funding, later rounds, time of acquisition or IPO, what are the incentives that drive a VC’s behavior? How are valuations arrived at? Why do some companies get “better deals” than others? What exactly makes up a “good” deal? Join Jason Mendelson, who has over 10 years experience in the venture world and has structured more than 500 deals in excess of $8 billion dollars. Check this out: Assume a VC decides to invest in a company. What do they REALLY care about when negotiating a deal? There are so many terms to keep track of? How on earth do VCs value private companies? Why do some companies get higher valuations and some lower? What are the terms that can really matter? To the point that I lose control of my company? (Hint: Control and Return). Jason also shares the three key issues when VCs consider investing in a startup.
Related Links: Foundry Group || Ask the VC || Venture Capital Channel || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group, Venture Capital,
Ask the VC, Valuations, Funding, IPO, Acquisition - Bytes: 25253410 - 4/21/08
362_ Heidi Roizen : Living in the 
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Heidi Roizen has spent her entire life in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Silicon Valley, first as an entrepreneur and ultimately as a venture capitalist helping other entrepreneurs build the great companies of tomorrow. She is currently a Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital, a venture fund with over $2 billion under management. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy with Larry Nelson, co-founder of w3w3.com explore the 'legend behind the lady entrepreneur'. They got some great advice for all who want to build a substantial company. Heidi's father continues to be influential in her thoughts and actions. Heidi's definition of common sense networking is an understanding of what to give in return and to ask for help when it is appropriate. Her long-time friendship with Bill and Melinda Gates is very inspiring and explains why she considers passion, tenacity and learning new things key to building the future. A day before this interview, Heidi funded a new company...there will be news here. LISTEN
Related Links: Mobius Venture Capital || NCWIT Heroes || NCWIT Blog || CO Coalition for Gender and IT || NCWIT Practice|| NCWIT Channel || Keywords: Heidi Roizen, Mobius Venture Capital, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes >Bytes: 16585563>8/20/07
Whether your organization is a startup or an enterprise size company, whether you are in the public or private sector, whether you are in products or services, building and maintaining a 'winning team' is the key to most everything. Founders, executives and leaders might each have their own definition of a winning team, Catharine Merigold and Lisa Reeves, both General Partners with Vista Ventures shared their views from a venture capitalist's perspective. Catharine suggested that the two essential ingredients for building a winning team were respect and fun. Lisa emphasized that a successful CEO will hire individuals that don't look exactly as he looks. Another common mistake is made when people will choose individuals they know, friends, people who agree with them because it feels faster, it's easier to get things done. In building a team, people who think like you aren't creating additional value. Respect is critical because there are going to be some differences of opinions and if you don't respect each other it can be difficult to get through these challenges. You don't necessarily even have to like the people; it is respect that becomes important. Respect builds trust. If I respect someone's expertise, their talent, their values we can get through a whole lot of things. Here is a timely comment, "You don't have time for politics." They went onto discuss diversity, passion and other essentials for building a winning team.
Related Links: Vista Ventures || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Find It || Keywords: Catharine Merigold, Lisa Reeves, Vista Ventures,
Winning Team, Respect, Fun, Diverse - Bytes: 12075993 LISTEN - 6/16/08
Moving from the US to Europe to Silicon Valley and then onto wonderful Colorado. Why Colorado is a new series being launced by w3w3.com. Catharine Merigold and Lisa Reeves, both General Partners with Vista Ventures are the first two people to be interviewed by Larry for this new series. In addition to a little background, both Catharine and Lisa were asked, "Why did you choose to live in Colorado and grow your business here?" They were then asked, "What needs to improve in Colorado to make it even better?" The overall physical environment was important to both, but for very different reasons. Catharine actually did a national search to find the area she wanted to live and work in, and then chose Colorado...Lisa did much the same. Catharine said, "Also technology and entrepreneurship matters, I'm an engineer and I love technology and I wanted a place where there was an abundance of that, so those were two of my important criteria." Lisa pointed out, "what I would like to see, especially within the venture community, for the VCs and the entrepreneurs as well, to really drive some of those relationships with the large corporates that are aggressive acquirers." Improving the University System was a top priority for both. They feel that Colorado's Universities are premiere institutions in many ways, and are delighted with the collaboration but feel there are some important strides to be taken. Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Vista Ventures || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || PodCast Directory || Keywords: Catharine Merigold, Lisa Reeves, Vista Ventures, Colorado,
Universities, - Bytes: 6901240 - 6/2/08
"Over the years - I've come up with a set of filters to quickly turn 
down deals. This is an important process as I want to limit the time I spent investigating companies that I don't investment in. Rather - I want to maximize my time working with my existing portfolio companies and quickly / deeply evaluating new companies that have a high chance of us funding them. Every day I tell at least one entrepreneur that I am passing on investment in their company. Sometimes I tell 10. I don't know what the most in one day is, but it's probably more than 25. I try to respond to all emails so a lot of these are in the 'never were appropriate to pursue' category, but at least one each day is someone that I've actually engaged with beyond a cold email that was randomly sent to me. My first pass filter has three parts to it. The top level filter is 'Is this in a theme that I'm currently interested in?' If yes, then I try to determine whether or not I think the people involved can create a huge company. If yes, then I often at least spend some time going deeper." Larry asks Brad to expand on this and more. Brad also explains what it takes to stay on the positive road to funding. Listen in his own words.
Related Links: Brad Feld Blog || Why Am I Passig? || Lijit Search || Foundry Group || Venture Capital || Keywords: Brad Feld, Entrepreneur, Venture Capital, Funding, Portfolio Companies, Investing Bytes: 21760107 - 4/7/08
470_ RVC Capital Conference - Lessons from the Start !!!
Are you looking for investors? Sharpen the old proverbial pencil; Check in with RVC and do it now! Times-a-wasting! The application process is amazing. Take a 'benchmark survey' and you'll get an executive report that is a 'gap analysis' for entrepreneurs, says Kevin Johansen, one of the folks putting this thing together. He reminded us, "last November at the RVC Angel Capital Summit, they had 40 'deal screeners' working in four US time zones and Europe." Kevin encourages every entrepreneur listening to apply simply because of the learning that comes with it. And the 'deal screeners' - it's a web based, collaborative environment. They're all over the map, their primary focus is financial and most are conduits to capital, or have capital. The progarm appears to be phenomenal. Larry Nelson will be moderating a panel on building an effective team for an entrepreneurial organization. With 3 VC's on that panel you'll definitely get a feel for what you need. And Kevin plans to 'rock the house' with a Marketing 2.0 conversation. It'll be fun, informative and you'll get to learn a little 'VC speak'.
Related Links: Capital Conference || Rockie Venture Club || The Business Catapult || Venture Capital || Keywords: Rockies Venture Club, Colorado Capital Conference,
The Business Catapult, Kevin Johansen, Gap Analysis, Deal Screeners, capital >>
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Efficiency and Visibility
The reality of finding quality investments is a quantity game. And the reality of investing is a quality game. So the investor has to combine quality and quantity, in turn the entrepreneur has to be visible enough to get those quantity views and then ultimately be able to deliver the quality to the investor. And that can be a very time consuming and arduous process without some technology and some tools, explains Kelly Burton, Founder, Investor Avenue.com. InvestorAvenue.com is the private equity and real estate investment community's web portal where accredited investors, entrepreneurs and service providers can present opportunities, capital sources and services to other members of the community.
Investors need deal flow; entrepreneurs need visibility, and both need service providers to execute successful transactions. Post, find, and view opportunities and resources quickly and efficiently at your convenience 24/7 on InvestorAvenue.com.
Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Investor Avenue || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Kelly Burton, Investors Avenue, Quality Investments, Deal Flow, Efficiency, Visibility, Entrepreneurs - Bytes: 10075222 - 6/9/08
Learn the lessons that Jim Franklin has learned the hard way about growing technology businesses in Colorado.
As the former CEO of Decisioneering and now a VP with Oracle, with Jim it is always about People First.
Learn the ‘secret sauce’ of his 4H formula that makes his teams effective. Also, learn how Focus is the key
to growth and learn about the Paradox of Focus. He stresses we should always be learning. Jim expands on his
4H Formula and also shares some interviewing tips around the 4Hs. For example how do you interview for Honesty?
Watch the behavior. Ask Questions like: Tell me of a time where you’ve bent the rules… if the reply is,
‘I never bend the rules’, I think they’re not being very honest here. You know the key is to trust first and we
like to see people who trust first, even in that interview process. When the interview is focused on Hunger,
we look for what you do with your free time, we like to see them...listen now... LISTENRelated Links: Crystal Ball || Rockies Venture Club || w3w3.com Blog || Find It || Keywords: Jim Franklin, Crystal Ball, Decisioneering,
Oracle, Keys to Growth, Honest, Hungry, Humble, Happy, Technology >> Bytes: 19108574 LISTEN
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The Rockies Venture Club annual meeting has been the place to connect with others creating Colorado success stories. For nearly twenty years, through many market cycles, the CCC has been a great place to connect with others starting and growing Colorado-based technology businesses. Jim Franklin started with RVC in 1992 with no contacts and is now the President of RVC and has a robust Colorado technology network. Hear Jim Franklin tell his story of how the contacts he made at RVC -- and the CCC in particular -- have resulted in 100x return to shareholders, 100+ jobs in Colorado and an economic impact of over $100M to the state of Colorado. Jim feels the key is to get involved. When I first showed up and didn’t know anyone, I just raised my hand and said, ‘how can I help?’. I started off on the government affairs committee where I met Eric Weissmann, who is the founder of Decisioneering. About two years later, I became the CFO of Decisioneering and that was the company that I ultimately became CEO of and we sold to Oracle with a very successful exit. RVC has the Colorado Capital Conference coming up on May 22, 2008 – a true showcase event. Jim shares some great networking advice... Related Links: Colorado Capital Conference|| Crystal Ball || Rockies Venture Club || Entrepreneur Channel || Keywords: Jim Franklin, Crystal Ball,Decisioneering, Colorado Capital Summit, Oracle, Entrepreneurs, Rockies Venture Club, Technology > Bytes: 12860084 2/18/08 LISTEN
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385_
Colorado BioBusiness Ecosystem is Breaking New Ground
Rick Silva, acting Director of the Fitzsimons BioBusiness Partners (FBBp) says, "It takes broad and incredibly specialized skills to build a biomedical product. Ours is the most regulated industry on Earth, our products are among the most complex to develop, and the least likely to have a customer. Getting it right takes a village." Larry asked Rick, "How can entrepreneurs hedge their bets? "Build an experienced and capable team that has a record of getting things done. Ask for help! Find advisors (many willing to help a little for free) with relevant experience in your industry and product area. They will have the contacts and experience to help you with your commercial roadmap. If you have a credible plan, have talked to your customers and partners, you will be prepared to answer questions VCs will have. FBBp is central in this ecosystem and can bring domain advisors." 5. Is FBBp an incubator? "Not really, we are a venture development organization. Let me explain." Related Links: Fitz BioBusiness Partners || Colorado Life Science Blog || BioScience Channel || Find It || Keywords: Fitzsimons BioBusiness Partners, FBBp, Rick Silva, Entrepreneurs, Venture Capital, CUTTO, BioScience > Channel: In the News > Bytes: 14716241 > 10/1/07 LISTEN
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With $8 million under management, US Capital is a newly formed private equity investment company, founded and based in Cherry Creek, Colorado. The two founders, Craig Harrison and Ryan Boykin are Colorado natives and have structured their business around strategic relationships with the most successful venture capital firms in the country. Over the past one and a half years, US Capital has focused on identifying late stage venture capital investment opportunities, typically between 1 and 3 years outfrom potential exit (IPO or Acquisition). US Capital realized its first portfolio investment exit in June of 2007, 14 months after US Capital made the investment. Returns far exceeded expectations. In addition to late stage private equity opportunities, US Capital has begun to identify promising investment opportunities with water in Colorado. Craig and Ryan discuss with Larry the various types of investors and their differences. They shared some insights that we could all learn from. LISTENRelated Links: US Capital || Venture Capital Channel || Entrepreneur Channel || Conscious Economy Channel || Podcast Directory || > Keywords: Craig Harrison, Ryan Boykin, US Capital, Private Equity, Late Stage, Venture Capital, Investment >> Channel: VC
Bytes: 14093482 LISTEN 9/17/07 LISTEN
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487_ Winning Teams, Relationships and the Connection Engine
What keywords will produce relevant search results? Who are the innovators in a crowd and what are they saying? What new liabilities are emerging? Answering these difficult questions results in great rewards. However, with only search and unstructured text mining tools, people have limited success in capturing those rewards. Michael Webb, Aubice Co-Founder, Executive Vice President of Global Development was interviewed by Jim Franklin, President of the Rockies Venture Club and the former CEO of Decisioneering and now a VP with Oracle. Michael is also on the "Winning Team" panel at the 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference, being moderated by Larry. Michael pointed out that all about relationships. They with the right people with the right values to basically grow Aubice. He points out that when it comes to search there is this deluge of information...too data, very little relevancy. Another challenge is Understanding how to connect unstructured data to drive totally unexpected high value insights leading to breakthrough discoveries. "Aubice is a connection engine and can operate on the long tail of information where n=1 for advanced sensing of change and trend foreshadowing. Michael has built successful teams over the years, and that's what it is all about. Related Links: Aubice || 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference || Crystal Ball || Rockies Venture Club || BYTES: 20583970 - 5/12/08 >
Keywords: Michael Webb, Aubice, Jim Franklin, Decisioneering, Oracle, Rockies Venture Club,
Colorado Capital Conference, Teams
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563_ The 2nd Annual Angel Capital Summit is Heading Our Way
This year they’re scripting it to be twice the size because it sold out last year. They have room for at least 1000 people; and billions of dollars in investments made, represented on the executive committee at the Rockies Venture Club 2nd Annual Angel Capital Summit. This is a state wide networking event, pulling together on the platform each group providing deals to the event. Kevin Johansen said, “Our groupware has a deal flow management system embedded in it. By example Grand Junction Incubator is recruiting advisors to their group to help them screen their deals and submit the best of the best up to the Angel Capital Summit executive committee. That's the semi finals.” From there the executive committee (representing lots of money actively seeking deals) will screen and select the top 40 to be presented on November 21st – all day. At the end of the day we’re pulling together a ‘town hall meeting’ with thought leaders from up and down the front range, to basically sit down and talk about how to make sense of what’s happening in the economy. We’re trying to open up the conversation and address these problems. It’s a scary thing to be out there all by yourself, we don’t want anybody to think they’re all by themselves. Everybody in the room wants everybody else in the room to be successful. The focus isn’t only on raising money but also getting help, mentorship and so on.
Related Links: Angel Capital Summit || Rockies Venture Club || Business Catapult || Venture Capital || Keywords: RVC, Angel Capital Summit, Angel Funding,
Venture Capital, Kevin Johansen, Business Catapult > Bytes: 7950736 > 10/06/08
Channels: VC LISTEN
Database marketing and angel investor
928_ 11/22/10- Larry sat down with Jon Wilkins who is putting his skills in database marketing to work for the RVC Angel Capital Summit. Larry asked Jon to define database marketing. Jon said, "In its simplest form, it is marketing with the use of a data base to gain intelligence, so that you know you are marketing correctly and tracking results. You can find out a great deal of information from data and the key is to turn that information that helps your company grow and thrive. This could be with customers, a business to business environment and business to consumer environment, basically anywhere you collect data and there are a tremendous amount of sources these days with all the social media outlets, newsletters, promotions, sweepstakes, acquiring data through third party data sources. There are ways to enhance data. If you have data, even if it's a spread sheet of 100 people, you can find out more information about that, there's a lot of power in data. The key is turning it into information you can use. Larry asked, "What are the most important steps when you're creating a marketing data base?" Jon replied, "The first step is to make sure you have a good place to put it, I use Excel which is not a data base but you can look at the data in different ways, and clean it up. Consistency is the key when you're dealing with a lot of different data sources. Taking basic information and meshing it with transactional information, combining it with different sources, that might not technically be marketing sources - anything you can get data out of that you can mesh in together is important. There is a way to tie that back to something that's real for analysis purposes or even marketing purposes, if they opt in for marketing." Jon went onto point out, "Right now we've found a group of 10,000 accredited investors here in Colorado. I think, from what I've gathered from different conversations, it wasn't assumed there were that many accredited investors in Colorado. We've decided..." Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Angel Capital Summit || JW Consulting || Rockies Venture Club || Venture Capital Channel || Keywords: Jon Wilkins, Angel Capital Summit, JW Consulting, Rockies
Venture Club, Database Marketing, Accredited Investors, Marketing Correctly, Tracking Results - 11/22/10 bytes: 6023526
Chnl: VC LISTEN to Jon Wilkins,
Database Marketing
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Everything has changed and there is no exception when it come to raising capital for a new venture. Entrepreneurs know the routine. Credit cards, second mortgages and then onto friends, family and fools. Here's some advice from a top VC, Bill Reichert, Managing Partner at Garage Technology Ventures that might have you wondering. Here are few musts from Bill: Small is beautiful; Lean & scrappy; Focus on customers; Don't follow the conventional business plan. Related Links: Garage Technology Ventures ||
Colorado Capital Conference || Colorado BIZ - VC Article ||
Venture Capital Channel || Channels: Venture Capital > Keywords: Venture Capital, Bill Reichert, Garage Technology Ventures, Rockies Venture Club, Colorado Capital Conference
Bytes: 8312897> LISTEN. 5/21/07
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LISTEN 1/8/07
Before asking Brad Feld and Jared Polis to make some forecasts for 2007, Larry asked them, "What must the Colorado legislature and the new Governor focus on in order to best support the business and tech community?" Education at all levels was loudly expressed, but some other issues are going to be a challenge for us all. How do you attract and maintain a qualified workforce while maintaining our famous quality of life standard? They had some answers. In the middle of all this, aquaculture came up. Related Links: Mobius Venture Capital || Jared Polis Foundation || Brad Feld Blog || Venture Capital || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jared Polis, Aquaculture, Mobius Venture Capital, IPO, Investment Capital || Bytes: 9661025>
Powered by Podbean.com LISTEN 1/15/07
In Part 2 of 2, Brad and Jared went from giving our state politicians some business advice, to describing the lay-of-the-land for venture capital, economic growth and much more. Listen Now: Part 1of 2 and Part 2of 2 - Learn about Aquaculture, look for Jared at the Startup Junkie Underground 1/22/07- Check w3w3 Save-the-Dates Community Calendar for times and further details. Jared's Live Talk about Aquaculture ||
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Here's some candid straight talk about access to VC capital in Colorado. Brad Feld, Managing Partner of Mobius Venture Capital didn't have much good news to talk about when w3w3.com interviewed him two and three years ago. Brad gives some specific examples and offers some interesting advice for the coming year. For some, it is going to be a very good year and for others will struggle. Reviewing Access to Capital- Past, Present and Future - 12/12/05 and a few years prior. Related Links: Mobius VC || Brad Feld Blog ||
Venture Capital Channel || Find It || Keywords: Venture Capital, Brad Feld, Mobius Venture Capital, Access to Capital|| Bytes: 6096042 > LISTEN 12/11/06
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Contents:
2011
2010-07 Venture Capitalists
Arkebauer, Jim Be Prepared 1/29/07
Arkebauer, Jim Venture Capital Awards 11/08/10
Bibbens, TerrySmall Business = BIG New Jobs 5/07
Boykin & Harrison, Successful IPO in 2007 09/07
Burton, Kelly, Leveraging Technology 06/09/08
Burton, Kelly, Changes in market deals.. 05/17/10
Caruso, Devery, Feld, Merigold, Patel, RVC Panel
Caruso, Devery, Feld, Merigold, Patel,RVC Panel
Cohen, David, TechStars Another Round 06/30/08
Cohen, David, Times are tough... 11/03/08
Cohen, Brown, Holes in High Tech StartUp Model 2/07
Drach, Dave, Support TechStars CA to MA 09/08/08
Feld - Weiser, One-on-One (4 part series) 02/09/09
Feld - Weiser, Work-Life-Balance 06/15/09
Feld, Brad, Why am I passing? 04/07/08
Feld, Brad, Reporting from Homer, Alaska 07/21/08
Feld, Brad, Change in the Air from Homer 07/28/08
Feld, Brad, NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box 12/01/08
Feld, Brad, Mr. Feld Goes to Washington 11/09/09
Feld, Brad, Software Patent Tipping Point 09/27/10
Feld, Brad, IT enhances/accelerates entrp 10/18/10
Feld, Brad, New Name, Office, Outlook 7/30/07
Feld, Brad, iPhone Hooray or Horrific 1/8/07
Feld, Polis, Square Off on Future 1/8/07
Feld, Brad, Economic Predictions 1/15/07
Franklin, Jim, Keys to Growth.. 1/28/08
Franklin, Jim, VC's, Investors, Get Involved...
Heesen, Mark, 2020 & the Role of V Capital 10/04/10
Hickenlooper, John, Geologist > Entrepreneur > Mayor
Ignighters, TechStars Winner 09/22/08
Johansen, Kevin, Capital Conf, Lessons 04/09/08
Johansen, Kevin, 2nd Angel Capital Summit 10/06/08
Johansen, Kevin, Big Changes Angel Capital 08/31/09
Kawasaki, Guy, Talks about innovation 11/17/08
Levin, Lon, Growth in GPS, satellite & HD... 03/23/09
Levine, Seth ... with Insights 06/16/08
Levine, Seth, Board/Advisors - Necessary? 06/23/08
McCoy, Stephanie, Capital Challenges, Answers 7/07
McCoy, Stephanie, Look at the Future [Part 2] 7/23/07
McCoy, Stephanie, $30 Billion Deal Flow 08/18/08
McCoy, Stephanie, Fast Start Program 09/02/08
McIntyre & Mendelson, IP save you or get ugly...
McIntyre & Mendelson, Money, Music & More Balance
Mendelson, Jason, Learn VCs head 04/21/08
Mendelson, Jason, V captial transformations 03/01/10
Merigold, Catharine, V C & Boulder Fire 11/01/10
Merigold, Catherine,Why Colorado is a Statement
Merigold, Catherine, Ingredients Winning Team
Moll, David, Infield targeting Green Tech Industry
Moll, David, 10 Immutable Laws for Raising Capital
Moll, David, Different Choices... New Technologies
Moll, David, Environmental Policy 09/15/08
Moll, David, Starting a business or expanding...
Moll, David, Venture capital in the green-tech world
Murchee, Steve, Changes in angel investing landscape
Patch, Rick, Raising Capital: VC to CEO 11/18/10
Patel, Dinesh, Great Successes Started... 11/10/08
Pope, John, Joys & Perils of Entrepreneurship 6/07
Reichert, Bill, Big Money for Clean Tech 6/4/07
Reichert, Bill, Clean Tech Community 5/07
Reichert, Bill, If you capital-Listen Up 5/07
Replin, Steve, Hard Money.. News from an expert
Roizen, Heidi, Living in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Silva, Rick, CO BioBusiness Ecosystem 10/01/07
Silverman, Marc, Keynote, CO Capital Conf 06/02/08
Silverman, Marc, Small Fund - Experienced Team
Solomon, Leon, Ambitious not big enough for an IPO...
Wand, Chris, Approaching a VC cold... 5/26/08
Wand, Chris, Part 2 ... a series of small steps
Wand, Chris, Job Fair 10/06/08
Webb, Michael, Winning Teams, Connection Engine
Wilkins, Jon, Database marketing & angel investor
Weakley, Mark, What Angels Look for... 09/13/07
Weakley, Mark, Term Sheets Valuation & Control
358_ Angel Investors, Term Sheets, Valuation and Control
A good target audience, vetting system, for your business plan or executive summary would be your corporate or business or finance lawyer. Because if they are not getting it after the first two sentences, it’s likely the angel investor isn’t going to do any better points out Mark Weakley , Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder as he addressed questions about getting healthy financing from angel investors. Mark brought up some poignant thoughts about term sheets and evaluation. Valuation is often looked at by the entrepreneur only in terms of ‘how much of the company am I going to have to give up?’ They’re not thinking about the return that the angle wants to have. The entrepreneur is thinking if my valuation of the company is $4 mil and I have to raise $2 mil, then I have to give up ½ of the company. There you see the entrepreneur’s interest is control, management, other issues; and they’re not really thinking ‘What makes sense for the angel?’
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690_ Changing Rules for Raising Capital
Whether you talk to Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors or Lending Institutions they will all tell you the ‘The rules have changed for raising capital’. There are numerous factors in this changing equation. It’s not just the bumpy economy. It’s not just the lessons learned by VCs in the past 10 years. It’s not just the transparent environment created by technology and the Internet. It’s all these and more. Rockies Venture Club presents Moderator, Larry Nelson, Serial Entrepreneur & Author; with Steve Baker, Serial Entrepreneur & Author; Sue Kunz, American Bio Resources; Kelly Manning, State Director, SBDC Network; and Catharine Merigold, Vista Ventures. Check this out - Tuesday evening 7/14/09.
Related Links: Rockies Venture Club || Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos || Catharine Merigold || Steve Baker || Kelly Manning || Sue Kunz || Keywords: Chaninging Rules for Raising Capital; Larry Nelson, Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos; Steve Baker, Pushing Water Uphill with a Rake; Kelly Manning, CO SBDC Network; Sue Kunz, American BioResources; Catharine Merigold, Vista Ventures; Rockies Venture Club -7/6/2009
350_Brad Feld: Venture Capitalist; New Name, New Office, New Outlook
Getting the latest scoop about venture backed companies in Colorado from Brad Feld, was more fun for Pat and Larry than going to an over-the-top Sci-Fi movie…in fact, some of what they heard sounded over-the-top and with a Sci-Fi flavor but steeped in exciting reality. Brad talked about the Web resurgence the past 24 months and cited a number of companies. Those Colorado companies included FeedBurner, Postini, PhotoBucket, Me.dium, NewsGator, Dogster, and more (none of which are liked in spell-check).| Brad also talked about the successes and challenges of TechStars. We reflected on the 2003 investor perspective where words like "cautiously optimistic" were commonly voiced, and Brad joked about that oxymoron. That's not him, he says he prefers, "encouragingly pessimistic". Brad is managing partner of the Foundry Group which has opened a new office in the middle of Boulder. Brad had Larry sit next to a 1980s Donkey Kong game. There is a bunch of valuable information packed in with the humor..
Related Links: Foundry Group || Mobius Venture Capital || TechStars || Brad's Blog ||
w3w3.com Blog || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital, TechStars, FeedBurner, Postini, PhotoBucket, Me.dium, NewsGator, Dogster > Channels: VCs, Entrepreneurs > Bytes: 9763007> LISTEN 7/30/07
323_ Big Money for Photovoltaics, Solar Cells, 
Clean Tech
Garage.com decided it was important to invest in emerging technologies that could have a lot of potential for investment. Bill Reichert, Managing Partner at Garage Technology Ventures said, "We saw lots of activity, in universities and government labs, around a wide variety of ‘materials science’ that had applicability across business and the economy that struck Bill as having significant global implications. Many had an orientation toward energy technology, subsequently called ‘clean technologies’. Here's more...
Related Links: Garage Technology Ventures || Colorado Capital Conference || Event Photos || Venture Capital Channel || >Channels: Venture Capital; Conscious Economy >
Keywords: Venture Capital, Bill Reichert, Garage Technology Ventures, Rockies Venture Club, Clean Tech > Bytes: 5398154 LISTEN 6/4/07
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326_ ‘Clean Tech Community’ on the Good Side and the Bad
It’s interesting to see what’s going on in the ‘clean tech community’ on the good side and the bad. There has been a bit of a bubble in the area. A lot of us in the community and the popular press have gotten a little over excited about the pace of technological innovation. The venture community in the US hasn’t jumped heavily into ‘wind power’ and that ironically has one of the best economics in terms of its efficiency and cost per watts produced. There has been huge public market investment and private equity investment in that area. Bill Reichert, Managing Partner at Garage Technology Ventures shares his insights. Related Links: Garage Technology Ventures || Colorado Capital Conference || Event Photos || Venture Capital Channel
> Keywords: Venture Capital, Bill Reichert, Garage Technology Ventures, Rockies Venture Club, Clean Tech> Bytes: 5398154 LISTEN 6/11/07
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338_ iPhone - Hyperbole, Hoopla, Hooray or Horrific
Do you have your iPhone yet? Brad Feld, Managing Director of The Foundry Group writes in his Blog, “I’ve had an entertaining series of problems. I’m still amused, but getting closer to annoyed. I picked up my phone last night at the Flatiron Apple Store on the way home from the airport. It took me 45 seconds to purchase it (no line.) I tried to activate it when I got home. iTunes went through its upgrade cycle to 7.3 and then gave me errors that I didn’t have the right version to work with the iPhone so I had to deinstall / install iTunes 7.3. I did that and tried to activate. It got hung up trying to check my credit and told me I had to go to an AT&T store to get a pre-authorization code.”
Related Links: Brad's Blog || The Foundry Group || iBrick = iPhone || Apple iPhone (in all fairness) || iLaunch || Keywords: Brad Feld, The Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital, iPhone, AT&T, Apple > Brad's Blog - Read More ||
LISTEN to 2007 Predictions by Brad Feld and Jared Polis: Interview 1/8/07
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324_ The Joys and the Perils of Entrepreneurship
John Pope, President and CEO of The Blue Sky Group (an active investor in a broad range of startups as well as those organizations need an extra boost) shares their 'dashboard' that includes the other side of the story. Three key metrics chosen were 1) active projects 2) employees 3) revenues. On the personal dashboard John chose and tracked 1) Salary (that he was paid) 2) Credit Card Debt and 3) Body Weight (looking for something that summarized the sacrifice in terms of your day-to-day activities, health, friends, etc. life). Get the scoop here... Related Links: The Blue Sky Group || Colorado Capital Conference || Event Photos || Venture Capital Channel || >Channels: Venture Capital > Keywords: Keywords: The Blue Sky Group, John Pope, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, RVC, > Bytes: 4924711 > LISTEN 6/4/07
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311_ Small Businesses are BIG when it comes to New Jobs
Keynote speaker at the SBIR regional conference in Denver, Terry Bibbens, Managing Director of Homeland Venture Partners, laid out the facts facing ‘small businesses’ this coming year. Small businesses created over 92% of the net new jobs in the US based on data collected starting in 1989. Businesses with fewer than 20 employees created 85% of all new net jobs during the 14 –year period. The developments of small businesses along with SBIR grant funding have a tremendous impact on ‘Economic Development’ in Colorado. Then enters the federal congressional leaders: Most don’t even have a clue about SBIR grants for small businesses and as a result could likely be dropping the SBIR program. We need to let them know so they do the right thing.
Related Links: Small Business Technology Counsel || SBA Research || National Science Foundation || PBC, Inc. || SBIR Colorado ||Keywords: Terry Bibbens, SBA, SBIR, Economic Development, Homeland Venture Partners >>
Channels: Looking for Money || Venture Capital >>
Best way to Secure a Federal Grant! - Looking for Money Video Clip
Bytes: 8257518 LISTEN 5/14/07
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258 Filling Huge Holes in the Traditional Hi-tech Startup Model
There are common and critical things that are overlooked when starting a new business. The founders of TechStars suggest that stealth modes are out and stress tests are in. Brad Feld, investor in many innovative high-tech companies, is always interested in new investment ideas. Brad and Jared Polis have joined David Cohen and David Brown, co-founders of Zoll Data Systems in their newest venture,TechStars which will provide angel funding and mentoring to young entrepreneurs.
Related Links: TechStars || TechStars Blog || Brad Feld Blog || w3w3.com Blog ||
Keywords: TechStars, Startup, David Cohen, David Brown, Zoll Data Systems, Brad Feld, Jared Polis
> Bytes 6779405 || LISTEN 2/12/07
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248 Access to Capital – Be Prepared the Right Way
Things are picking up. For some, the exciting news is that access to venture capital and angel investors is very positive right now. The challenging news for some is they're not ready to talk or to make a presentation for money. Jim Arkebauer, co-founder of the Rockies Venture Club, prolific author of business books and founder of Venture Associates reveals what it takes. Jim gives some sage advice for the future, takes an experts view of 2005 and before. This interview was conducted 1.16.2006. Related Links: Venture Capital Channel || Venture Associates || Books written by Arkebauer ||
Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: SVenture Capital, Jim Arkebauer, Angel Investors, Business Plan, Rockies Venture Club || > LISTEN 1/29/07
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142_
From Part-time Pitchman and Harvard to Old Chicago Pizza
Yes there was an IPO, but you have to hear Frank Day share the rest of the story. Frank's parents, his experience as a 'pitch man' and his Harvard degrees all had a tremendous influence on the founder of Old Chicago Pizza, Rock Bottom Brewery, ChopHouse as well as owner of the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder. You might be surprised what else Frank has his hands in. This Colorado native claims the key to building any successful business is people. 5/29/06
LISTEN [Part 1 of 2]
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[Part 2] 6/5/06 144_
Deal Inked - Is There More Than Food in Frank Day's Life?
Frank Day shares the rest of the story and points out lesson number one with IPOs. When you tell people you are going to slow down they desert you, points out Frank as he shares his wounds (learning lessons). The stock tanked and then he took it private in 1999. This addicted entrepreneur is proud to point out that by the end of 2006 there will be a total of 135+ restarants including franchises. This Colorado native claims the key to building any successful business is people. [Part 2] 6 /5/06
LISTEN
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