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.

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.

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’ve just made a modest investment in Slice of Lime. We’re excited – but Kevin Menzie, Jeff Rodanski, and their team are “extremely excited.” Before you say “hey Brad – why are you making an investment in a small, local, web design and development firm”, stay with me for a second. Put your Warren Buffett “I invest in great people that I like in businesses I understand that can make money over a long period of time’” hat on, and try to remember a little about my past.

On 8/8/06, while in excellent shape (I ran the New Mexico Marathon on 9/3/06), I somehow convinced myself that it would be a fun idea to run the North Pole Marathon. By the end of December, I realized that there was no way I’d be able to maintain the level of training necessary to do it. I also realized that I’d taken leave of my senses in August when I signed up for this.

My dad (Stan Feld) has been talking about the electronic medical record for as long as I can remember (probably 30+ years.) As a kid, some of my early computer projects were trying to write a program that had some semblance of addressing this – well before I had any grounding in (or understanding of) databases, user-centric data entry (um – the “web” anyone?), or distributed data (um – the “Internet” anyone?)

Last night at dinner Howard, Jason, Amy, Elizabeth, and I were discussing the JetBlue meltdown from last week (that continues today.) The most bizarre thing to me was the relatively weak response from David Neeleman – the CEO – who is known for being outspoken, direct, and clear minded even in a difficult situation. This morning’s New York Times finally has a strong quote from him in which he says he is mortified after fliers are stranded.