Southeast VC

Calling All Entrepreneurs - Charlotte

Over the last 9 months, Southern Capitol Ventures has held Calling All Entrepreneurs in RTP (twice), Atlanta and in Reston, VA. The turnout has always been great and we have enjoyed meeting so many new entrepreneurs in the process.

Next, on February 13, thanks to help from Terry Cox from BIG, we will be holding Calling All Entrepreneurs in Charlotte, NC.

The goal is to give ANY entrepreneur that fits into one of these industries (software, e-commerce, digital media, healthcare IT or wireless) the opportunity to meet with us for 15 minutes and to be heard. The entrepreneur can share their idea or company with us and get instant feedback. Just like past formats, we promise that no one will get screened out.

For additional background the media has followed Calling All Entrepreneurs for a while too. Here is a story about it. Here is another.

Anyway, if you'd like to meet with us on February 13 and are in Charlotte or close by to Charlotte, email me. I will follow up with you to let you know the location and email you some times that morning that are still available.

Chris Klaus, founder of ISS and current CEO of Kaneva offers Prediction for 2008

I asked 4 entrepreneurs to provide their tech predictions for 2008. Chris Klaus, founder and former CTO of ISS is the 4th and final one that I will post here. ISS sold to IBM back in '06 for $1.3 billion and now Chris is the CEO of Kaneva.

Chris, thanks for taking the time.

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Just as web browsers and web sites were in 1994, 3D browsers and virtual worlds are now manifesting as a viable platform for explosive growth. 

Along with the convergence of high speed Internet, graphics cards, personal avatars and a deep desire for people to connect face-to-face on the Internet, virtual worlds will provide the nexus of bringing all those elements together.

Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist, Shares Predictions for '08

This is the 3rd in a series of predictions for '08 from entrepreneurs. I asked Craig Newmark, founder of the wildly popular site Craigslist to provide his input for '08. Thanks Craig.

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Ordinary people are starting to use the Net to create grassroots movements in ways in ways that will change the nature of society and government.

There have always been many people of good who will have some clue regarding positive change. However, there has never been a medium which allows a lot of people to organize in large numbers, until the widespread use of the Net.

We're now seeing that happen, with power flowing from very small groups of privileged people to much larger groups. In politics, the Dean campaign got that going and now we're seeing lots of participation in efforts like those of Ron Paul and Barack Obama. On Wikipedia, we're seeing that ordinary people with voice and vision who are writing the history of our times. People in Palestine and Israel are uniting, in large numbers, at OneVoiceMovement.org to tell their leaders to make a deal.

One counter trend has traditionally damaged grassroots efforts, which we're seeing on the Net. That is, so called "front groups" pretend to be grassroots efforts but are actually run by shady politicians or corporations. (This is documented elsewhere.) However, investigating reporters, both professional and citizen, are now exposing such groups and neutralizing their effectiveness.

I think we're seeing massive grassroots-driven change this year, unlike anything in history.

Southeast Venture Conference - Discount Code for SoutheastVC Readers

I will continue with the '08 predictions next week. ....I just wanted to remind everyone that the Southeast Venture Conference is next month, which will be held Feb 27 & 28 at the Ritz in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Speakers include Jim Steele, president of Salesforce.com, Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and John Sculley, former CEO of Apple.

The folks at the SEVC just sent me a discount code to give out to SoutheastVC readers. Thanks Scott and Eric! Use this code SCV100 when you register and that will save you $100 off.

Hope to see you there!

Adam Reyer, XM Radio - 2008 Predictions

Thanks to Adam Reyer, SVP of Business Develpment at XM Radio for giving me a couple of his digital media predictions for 2008 and beyond. I will continue with a couple of additional predictions from others over the next week.

1. Internet video on TV finally makes headway

Now that home networks and HDTVs are commonplace in the living room, people are actually going to start watching internet video on the big screen. The driving factors will be:

• Content: It isn't bad watching, say, Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First" routine - or, virtually any other great scene from TV or movie history when you're in lean back/TV mode - and wait until YouTube has a good 8' UI!
• CyberSecurity: For those of us with kids, the thought process will go something like this: "...we need a PC for the kids to use; hmmm...all the cyber security experts at our kids' schools tell us that problems don't occur if the PC is located in the common area of the home vs. tucked away in the home office; wow, those small powerful multimedia PCs (incl. Macs) are pretty cheap...wait, that's because they're priced without monitors...oh, I get it, I'm supposed to hook it up to that HDTV I just bought...bingo."

2. Placeshifting becomes the norm

A proliferation in free applications that enable you to access your photos, music and videos remotely over the wired and wireless Internet (e.g. Orb Networks, Simplify Networks), combined with the demand for sharing such media via social networks and other means, will get people to see placeshifting as a free God-given right, as opposed to some kind of magic. Unfortunately, the outlook is not as bright for the business models of the enabling application providers.

3. Social networking fragmentation

New vertical/niche social networks will take hold by leveraging content and widgets from established vertical/community sites and the social networking toolset.

Jud Bowman - Entrepreneur's Predictions for 2008

I asked some top technology entrepreneurs for their 2008 predictions. Over the next week, I will post them here on my blog.

Jud Bowman, CTO at Motricity leads this off. Motricity is a SCV portfolio company and had the largest round of financing of any company in the US in 2007 raising $185m which was announced in December. They also recently closed the acquisition of InfoSpace Mobile. Here are Jud's 8 predictions for '08.

1. Advertising on mobile phones hits mainstream in the US.

2. Apple's second generation iPhone sells 1M units in 30 days, and total iPhone sales cross 10M.

3. Facebook passes MySpace to become the largest social networking site and files S-1 to go public.

4. Google crosses $1,000 per share and challenges Microsoft for the title of "Most Valuable Tech Company."

5. Yahoo gets acquired by either Microsoft or private equity firms, or merges with eBay or AOL.

6. The Wall Street Journal becomes completely free online, supported entirely by advertising.

7. Google does NOT launch a wireless network in the 700 MHz spectrum.

8. Fueled by the debates leading up to the Presidential Election, the US finally ratifies the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions!

2007 Internet & Technology Acquisitions

This is a pretty good wrap-up- highlighting acquisitions in 2007 and covers the following industries:

• web/internet
• social networking
• internet advertising
• software
• hardware
• gaming

It includes the acquisition price (when disclosed) and links to the press release and other blogs commenting on the story. This provides some good data points for those looking to exit or even acquire in 2008.