Southeast VC

Calling All Atlanta Entrepreneurs

David Jones and I have a trip to Atlanta coming up in mid May. So, based on the overwhelming interest we've been getting from Atlanta entrepreneurs lately, we have decided to follow a similar format to the Calling All Entrepreneurs format we did here in Raleigh last week.

So, we are inviting ANY tech entrepreneur that wants to meet on May 17, to email me and we will reserve 15 minutes (10 minute presentation + 5 minutes of Q&A). In that meeting you should be prepared to talk about your idea or company, what makes it unique and talk about your background.

We will hold all the meetings at the ATDC. Thanks to Lance and Charles Ross for giving us the space. And it is important to note, that Lance is willing to meet any company after us if you'd like to learn more about the ATDC, which I highly recommend.

There will be one slight change to help improve this for everyone. As a firm, we focus on e-commerce, software, wireless, digital media and healthcare IT. Out of respect to the entrepreneurs presenting, we are focusing on companies in these industries. We had a few companies last week that were way out of our sweet spot and we're just not able to provide the same level of feedback to a company outside of our core expertise.

Calling All Entrepreneurs - RTP Wrap-Up

The interest level after I posted Calling All Entrepreneurs exceeded expectations. Not only did we have a record 29 meetings on Friday here at our office in Raleigh, but we had 20 meetings even before Friday! The 49 meetings were from entrepreneurs from 9 different states so there was strong geographic diversity.

Entrepreneurs that came in ranged from people with just an idea to companies that did over $1 million in revenue last year and growing rapidly. We met a lot of new, smart entrepreneurs and almost all of the people that we met with were new to us.  There are definitely a few people we want to get to know better.

Here are some key thoughts from Friday:

1. Although I'm not a big fan of 15 minute meetings, it does force the entrepreneur to consolidate all their thoughts. This is an extreme, but can you even tell me what you do in 1 sentence?

2.  What makes your company unique? Saying you want to be "like Google for the X industry," probably isn't the answer. Everyone wants to be Google. :)

3. We still see a lot of people spend way too much time on their business plan when we feel they should be channeling a lot of that time into building their company.

I appreciated all the people locally and out of state that blogged about it - Ryan, Lance, Scott, Robert, CED; people like Dan Allred at SVB that blasted it out to all his clients and the folks at TechJournal South for spreading the word. Thanks to my partners Ben Brooks, Dave Murray and David Jones and our intern Eric Johnson for jumping in on Friday, actively participating in the meetings, giving such great feedback to the entrepreneurs and helping keep me sane! :)  On Friday night, I didn't leave here until 7:30pm. But MOST importantly, thanks to all the entrepreneurs for taking the time to go over their idea or business with us.

Angel Group Confidence Report

I just finished reviewing the March '07 Angel Group Confidence Report Download angel_group_confidence_report_results.pdf . The report presents survey results from angel groups throughout the country. There is a lot of data here and you should read through the full report - its a quick read, but here are some of the highlights.

• On average, the angel groups surveyed invested $241k when they made a new investment and on average invested a total of $1.78 million in '07.
• This is a lot higher than I expected, but 98.2% of the groups surveyed thought that they would co-invest with another angel group in '07 and 82.5% thought they would invest with an early stage VC firm. 1.8% said they wouldn't invest with anyone else. Is that the same 1.8% that said they thought all their companies would be acquired or go public in '07?  :)
• I think it is positive to see that 72% see the size of their group (membership) has been increasing.

It will also be really good to hear what Jeffrey Sohl says this week about angel investing trends at Venture '07.

Anyway, thanks to David Spitz for forwarding this over to me. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Job Opportunities in RTP

I spoke with Rick Smith this morning at WRAL Local Tech Wire and he told me that Lenovo is cutting 350 jobs in RTP and 1,400 company wide.

Just as a reminder, if you look at the right hand side of my blog you will see I keep an updated list of companies hiring in our market. It also includes a list of local recruiters that I have worked with and some other valuable career resources.

I don't know a lot of the Lenovo folks, but hope this helps them and others looking, find jobs here in NC.

Venture 2007 - Next Week!

I hope to see many of you at Venture 07 next week in Durham, NC. The conference will showcase over 50 of the most promising technology and life science companies in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. We're also excited to have ChannelAdvisor (one of our portfolio companies), selected as one of the four "Showcase Companies."

If you are an investor, check out the list of companies presenting. And, if you're an entrepreneur looking to connect with VCs, here is a full list of registered investors.

Companies that present at the conference have a high success rate of raising capital. Since 2001, they have raised over $1.2 billion in venture capital.