For the last 23 years, the Venture Capital in the Rockies conference has been the signature fund-raising conference in the Rocky Mountain region.  A full day of presentations from companies looking for venture capital (with the presenters mostly in suits – a rarity in this part of the country) followed by a day of legendary skiing (and – while I don’t ski – this year was phenomenal) makes for a great conference.  320 attended this year – 100 were investors including a number from out of state.

It was fun to look through the list of presenters since 1996 and see the following companies that I’ve been involved in:

1996: Mercury Mail – IPO as Exactis

1998: Email Publishing – acquired by MessageMedia
          Vstream – IPO as Raindance

1999: Service Metrics – acquired by Exodus
          Tellsoft – unsuccessful

2000: Finali – acquired by Convergys
          Service Magic – acquired by IAC

2001: Deuxo – unsuccessful
          Latis – now StillSecure – current portfolio company
          Prosavvy – acquired by eWork

2002: Dante Group – acquired by webMethods
          Npulse (Xaffire) – acquired by Quest
          Wideforce – unsuccessful

2003: F4 Technologies – now Rally Software
          Finali (again) – acquired by Convergys
          Newmerix – current portfolio company

2005: Oxlo – current portfolio company
          Rally (again) – current portfolio company

It was also interesting to see all the companies I haven’t invested in over the years that presented at this conference that have either been successful (oops – missed that one) or unsuccessful (sorry – but I’m glad I didn’t invest.)

Chris Onan from Appian Ventures did an awesome job hosting the conference this year.  He followed a tough act from Chris Wand of Mobius Venture Capital who hosted the preceding two years – and did great.  Maybe they should rename the conference “Venture Capital in the Rockies: By Chris.”

All the local papers have now written up their piece on the conference at this point.  The Boulder Daily Camera had a light weight piece on the conference in general.  The Rocky Mountain News ran two pieces – one that highlighted David Moll – CEO of Webroot (and the article said that he didn’t stay long because he had more important things to do – ouch) and one that announced ITU Ventures new $120 million fund.  The article in the Denver Post was the most substantive, actually highlighting several companies including Collective Intellect, Accucode, and Groople .

Given the lack of actual focus on the companies, I’ll write up a separate post talking about the ones I saw at the conference, offering feedback and (hopefully) constructive advice.