Yesterday, I wrote a high level summary of this year’s Venture Capital in the Rockies conference. I thought I’d give the local press one more day to see if anyone was going to write something substantive about some of the companies presenting. I haven’t seen anything, so here are my thoughts on the companies I saw. 24 companies presented in two tracks so the most I could see was 12. I had a couple of conference calls during the day so I only managed to see 7 of them: Collective Intellect, Confio Software, HomeSphere, Solidware Technologies, iPosi, CreekPath Systems, and XAware. The only company on this list that I directly have an investment in is Collective Intellect, although I have indirect investments (through VC funds that I’m an LP in) in XAware as well as Collective Intellect. I’ve listed the companies in rank order starting with the one that I thought was most interesting / did the best job.

I love stats (also know to serious people as “analytics.”) In the past, I’ve written about the variety of stats packages I use and track regularly (e.g. at least daily.) Today, FeedBurner came out with an upgrade to its stats that add a number of new things, including uncommon uses, the concept of “reach”, and item popularity. Mike Arrington at Techcrunch has a comprehensive post up with screen shots – rather than repeat this here, I’ll simply point you there to take a look.

Edgar Stiles, Curtis, Chloe, and even Jack has a MySpace page. I didn’t realize Chloe was an Aquarius.

After watching 24 last night, I have to remind myself that it’s just not real. However, this morning, on my ill-fated effort to get to Chicago, I got to listen uninterrupted to NPR’s Morning Edition (I have no one to call between 5am – 6am Mountain Time.) I got to hear some great stuff, including: Anne Nicole Smith’s Supreme Court Case – hysterical Port Takeover By Dubai-based Firm – laws, what laws, why bother – we’ve got terrorism under control U.S. Confusion Over Darfur Conflict – those dudes creating the atrocities – they aren’t so bad Red Cross Is Incompetent – aw, c’mon, let’s keep the focus on FEMA Violence In Iraq – 1,300 dead recently Danny and Annie Perasa Letters – heartwarming – Amy, I love you Oh, and did you notice the volatility in Google’s stock today – the day’s range so far is 397 down to 338 back up to 351 on comments by George Reyes, Google’s CFO, about “overall growth slowing” which I’m sure lots of blogs will comment on today. Kind of as volatile as my emotions have been so far today and it’s only 9:15am. Maybe Apple will announce it is buying Disney today and make the world a happier place.

I’m sitting at my office in Colorado writing this (yes – you surmised correctly – that means that I did not get to Chicago today.) Even though my early morning ticketing experience online went well, my drive to the airport at 5am was pleasant (e.g. no speeding ticket), and my experience with TSA was uneventful (e.g. no strip search by a guy named Joe), imagine my disappointment when I showed up at Gate B26 at 6am – five minutes before we were supposed to board – and saw no airplane.

Most people that live in the general vicinity of Denver International Airport (including me) like to bash on our favorite formerly bankrupt airline – United. Now that they are out of bankruptcy, we’ve lost one dimension on which to kick them around (e.g. no more liquidation jokes.) I’m usually profoundly disappointed by airline websites for some reason. United’s is no different – I go on the site all bright eyed expecting to be able to do what I need to do and 15 minutes later say to myself “fuck it – I’ll just deal with it at the airport.” Today, however, was a success.

My long time friend Jenny Lawton has recently put up a web site for the bookstore – Just Books – that she runs in Old Greenwich, CT. As part of the site, she has regular book reviews which can be subscribed to via a feed. They aren’t all by Jenny – she asked if she could put my review up on Max Barry’s hysterical book “Company.” If you love books, this feed will guarantee that you’ll end up with a bigger stack to read.

I received the following question last week. It’s a good one – very chewy – and my answer is given from my frame of reference (e.g. a managing partner in a large VC fund). Consequently, I’m not sure that my answer is either generally correct or abstractable to all situations. How’s that for a hedge? The question is: Do you agree or disagree with the following scenario as a firm basis for Web 2.0 ventures: Raise $2 to $6 million to be spent over a two to three year period, with an exit of a $20 to $50 million sale to one of the GEMAYANI’s. Would you adjust those numbers significantly, as a general thesis? Is such a venture model an attractive VC proposition, by definition, or maybe merely acceptable in the absence of a more traditional, larger-scale exit (say, raising $4 to $16 million with a $80 to $300 million exit after 4 to 7 years)? What model has the most appeal to you these days? Ultimately, it’s a question of what entrepreneurs should be shooting for. Implicit here is the question of whether Web 2.0 is a short-term window which may close in less than two to three years.

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.