Our regional event – Venture Capital in the Rockies – was excellent this year. I’m usually good for a half a day at something like this – I managed to last almost 30 hours. I started off by participating in a press roundtable, had a few meetings, enjoyed a packed cocktail party, and then had an outstanding dinner at Anderson’s Cabin with the folks from Square 1 Bank.
I woke up early the next day and sat through most of the presentations in one of the software / IT / Internet tracks. David Cohen has an excellent summary of many of them – so I’ll be lazy and just link to him. Dan Primack also put up a post of the cliffnotes of who is raising what along with his explanation that VCIR isn’t a skiing boondoggle – really – it isn’t – really!
David Cohen also has a nice summary of his experience as this is the first VCIR he has been to. David is an active angel investor and co-founder / CEO of TechStars – we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the past year and I loved his conclusion.
“Above all, my biggest takeaway was simply the fact that I met a great number of amazing people. Sure, it was cool to network with these very talented VCs from Colorado, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and elsewhere. But it was fantastic to meet many of the great entrepreneurs in the area that I had not met in person before, as well as the people supporting and encouraging them. It was said several times at VCIR that the VCs simply go where the entrepreneurs are. Luckily for all of us, entrepreneurs and therefore the ecosystem that develops around them, are alive and well in Colorado.”
As the climax, Tracy Kerr – a partner at Meritage Funds and the Chairman of the Colorado Venture Capital Association (CVCA) announced that the CVCA was becoming the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association which now includes Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. I’ve always viewed this area as the “Rocky Mountain West” (as evidenced by my investment in New West) and am delighted that there is more integration between the various VC firms in this region. Of course, I’m the guy that used to think that “New England” was a state before I moved to Boston.
Ah – growth is good. A number of my portfolio companies have recently increased the pace at which they are hiring, especially on the technical side. StillSecure is working on an exciting new “convergence product” and also expanding its Safe Access team. Mitchell Ashley – who is running the convergence product – has a brief note up on his blog about the type of folks StillSecure is looking for. If you fit the bill and are interested, send an email to careers@stillsecure.com.
Hema Oza at TheStreet.com wrote an article after an email interview with me titled Tech Tips for Small Business. She captured the interview well – my current favorites are my T-Mobile Dash, Lenovo X60 Laptop with Vista and EVDO, FeedDemon, Trillian/Skype, and Firefox. Of course, I have a much longer list of things use all the time – including some non-business ones (e.g. my Slingbox and Guitar Hero), but these seemed like the current “if I am running a small business and I wanted to get some new toys (hardware and software please), which ones would I get.”
My partner Jason just told me about a Google Local search experience he and Ryan McIntyre just had. They were out last weekend guitar shopping. Jason is looking for a custom shop Gibson ES-335 and can’t find one anywhere. (If you know where to find one, please email me.) They had planned a day of hitting every guitar store in Denver. On Google local, they found a listing for Cadillac Guitars. It was near the Denver Guitar Center, so they decided to visit it.
They went to the address, but instead of a guitar shop, they found Rupps Drums. They figured that they must have made a mistake, because clearly this store had been around a while. After driving around the block and checking the web again, they were clueless and decided to go into the drum store. They asked about Cadillac Guitars and were informed that they moved out over 15 years ago.
15 years ago? Bad data – oops. Now – I can’t bash Google because Judy’s Book shows the same listing, as does Yahoo, as does Yelp, as does … Someone needs to run a dedupe algorithm on addresses – oh – and fix the underlying data that everyone is using to seed their databases.
Coming out of the Venture Capital in the Rockies conference, I was pleasantly surprised with how solid most of the presentations were. There was plenty of pre-conference preparation, practice, and iteration from the companies presenting – and it showed.
A few weeks ago, one of my portfolio companies met with a prospective investor. The company isn’t raising money – they are doing very well – but will be in the market at some point. The VC they met with has expressed interest in the company several times in the past, is a long time friend of mine, and is a smart, thoughtful guy.
I spent five minutes with the CEO of my portfolio company preparing him for the meeting. Our time was spent entirely on the background of the prospective VC and some suggestions about how to approach the meeting. I spent 0 minutes looking at the company “fundraising presentation” (since we weren’t fundraising – it didn’t really cross my mind) and I took the meeting casually assuming the VC would be also be viewing this as a casual meeting.
The meeting was a disaster. I saw the presentation after the fact – it was a “C” – not horrible, but not very good, and certainly not “VC pitch friendly.” The VC immediately formed a negative opinion based on being presented with data and a bottoms up corporate presentation (rather than a clear presentation that lead him through the business systematically.) The result – no interest in having any further conversations.
My assessment of the problem was that we approached things casually. Even thought this wasn’t a real “decision meeting”, we should have either declined taking it now since we aren’t fundraising (my normal approach), or should have prepared and not been casual. I wasn’t paying attention because the prospective investor was a long time friend that has consistently expressed interest in the company. The result – the door is shut for a real conversation in the future.
Simple message – in all fundraising situations – don’t be casual. The first impression counts a huge amount and sets the tone. This is obvious, but even after doing hundreds of financings, I blew it this time.
Email addicts now have a 12 step process to help them.
Five of my Boulder / Denver based portfolio companies (Rally Software, StillSecure, Me.dium, NewsGator, and Gold Systems) are holding a joint recruiting even on March 7th. They are each looking for a variety of people across Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Services and Support. If you are interested in a new job at a young, rapidly growing software / Internet company, this is a great way to check out some of the hottest companies in the area.
Event Logistics
Wednesday, March 7
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Westin Westminster
Process and Questions
Arrive anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on March 7. Tables will be set up to meet with representatives from Rally, StillSecure, Me.dium, NewsGator and Gold Systems. Please bring plenty of copies of your resume and any other relevant work samples; registration in not required. Business attire is recommended, and tea, coffee and light snacks will be provided.
Participating Companies:
Rally Software – Voted the best tech company to work for in Colorado, Rally leads its industry by providing tools and coaching services for Agile software development – one of the fastest-growing trends in the technology space. Search open positions at Rally.
StillSecure – Ranked #12 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Rising Star list, StillSecure creates network security software products covering network access control, vulnerability management and intrusion detection/prevention. Search open positions at StillSecure.
Me.dium– One of the most blogged about Colorado tech start-ups, Me.dium has developed a window that reveals the hidden world of activity behind a browser, allowing people to see their online world for the first time. Search open positions at Me.dium
NewsGator – Headquartered in Denver, NewsGator is the world’s leading RSS company and develops and markets its RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises and online content providers. Search open positions at NewsGator.
Gold Systems – Since its founding in 1991, Gold Systems has been hailed as one of Colorado’s biggest high-tech successes, and its software has helped automate more than 1 billion telephone calls around the world. Search open positions at Gold Systems.
For additional questions, email jobs@rallydev.com.
I participated in the press roundtable at the Venture Capital in the Rockies conference that the National Venture Capital Association put together today. David Cohen sat in and recorded it – the podcast is up on the ColoradoStartups.com site. We hung in there for almost 90 minutes and covered a lot of ground – if you are interested the show notes (per David) follow.
5:00 – What does Colorado have to offer from a venture capital perspective?
8:45 – Where do Colorado companies get “serious capital”? Do they tend to need to move to get access to that kind of capital?
10:00 – Good discussion of why Colorado is a great tech startup region.
11:25 – Out of staters are surprised by the depth of technology present here in certain segments.
12:30 – Out of state VCs trust Colorado VCs to “look after the shop” and it may be attractive for B rounds.
14:05 – What are the staple industries that are being invested here, and what are the ones which may be emerging?
18:45 – Surprising number of life science companies being funded (30+ in Colorado last year)
20:30 – Less “follow the leader” in Colorado than elsewhere.
21:30 – Are VCs here stringent in terms of business plans, revenue models, etc?
24:45 – Renewable energy, CleanTech discussion.
27:45 – What role can the government play in promoting energy and CleanTech?
29:50 – How strong is the local market for venture debt?
31:45 – Consumer products (natural foods, beverage, restaurant chains, LOHAS, etc).
36:00 – How does globalization affect Colorado?
39:55 – VC industry in general is much smaller than it was a few years ago.
40:40 – Where is the money going if it’s not going into VC funds?
44:40 – Does every VC firm in Colorado see every funded deal here?
47:25 – How have Colorado VCs done in comparison to the rest of the country?
50:45 – Has your mindset changes regarding exits and how you think about them lately? IPOs, strategic acquisitions, etc?
56:10 – Is there an appetite for foreign IPOs (e.g. AIM)?
58:00 – Is it rhetoric that companies may go public overseas because of Sarbanes-Oxley?
59:20 – Should startups/small companies have different Sarbanes-Oxley rules?
1:03:50 – Discussion of the history of the accounting industry – Books that Brad references (and couldn’t recall) are here and here.
1:04:30 How generous are you all feeling with your checkbooks in 2007?
1:06:35 (2 minute drop in audio due to technical problem)
1:07:20 The best things the state of Colorado can do for entrepreneurs? Brad and John say focus on education.
1:10:30 What few things would you like to see if Ritter could make one or two key moves?
1:11:30 The most underestimated thing about Colorado is simply that people want to live here.
1:14:15 What Cleantech technologies look most interesting?
1:15:30 Thoughts of VCs on recent Union bill veto by Ritter.
1:17:00 What keeps VCs up at night these days?
1:20:30 Energy/aerospace collaboration with government?
1:23:45 Are Colorado Springs and Fort Collins second fiddle to Denver/Boulder/CU?
It happens all the time. You do something, don’t think hard about the implications of it, and then realize that you’ve “stepped in shit.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve done this in business over the last 20+ years – at least I know how to clean my sneakers off quickly and efficiently.
Earlier today I had a phone call with an exec from one of my portfolio companies. He did something recently that could only be characterized as stepping in shit. It ultimately came back around to me because of the various people involved. It wasn’t a major thing (stepping in shit never is), but it was unpleasant, a little messy, and smelled bad. My reaction – when I heard about it – was similar to the one I have after the aforementioned physical event.
We had a great, short talk. He quickly got the implications of what he did, realized it wasn’t appropriate, and took corrective action. But – more importantly – I think he learned from it.
Stepping in shit doesn’t hurt, isn’t life or death, but is unpleasant. Learning how to walk a little more carefully through a field that is regularly visited by dogs is a healthy thing.