Southeast VC

Calling All Entrepreneurs in Greensboro & PWC MoneyTree Breakfast

A few different comments from my day yesterday. I hope everyone is having a great week!

I had Calling All Entrepreneurs yesterday in Greensboro at the Nussbaum Center. It got good regional pickup in the Triad including here. I love putting the spotlight on the Nussbaum Center because this is where Batanga was headquartered when we first invested. The incubator is running pretty close to capacity. Yeah, its not all tech companies, but I like the office space with all its character and history and always enjoy the people.

So, I had a lot of fun today. Sam (heads up the place) did all the heavy lifting recruiting all the entrepreneurs. And he recommended a different format to me. He suggested that all the entrepreneurs sit through all the pitches. I was VERY skeptical walking into it. But what happened is a few positive things: a) Everyone got the benefit of hearing how other entrepreneurs pitch. And there are a lot of good things to be learned out of that (what to do/not to do). b) Everyone heard some of my feedback which applied to several of the companies. c) Some of the best feedback came from other entrepreneurs in the room  d) I think there are some potential partnership opportunities that were discovered there and some folks swapped contact info. At the end, we saved about 20 minutes for just general VC Q&A. So, thanks to Sam and all the entrepreneurs that participated. There was even a group from Orlando that came up for this. Anyway, there was a lot of positive energy in the room and I really enjoyed spending time with you guys! Invite me back sometime. And I may try that new format again!

Hopefully you are following me on Twitter. But if not, you missed seeing this morning my tweet from the PWC MoneyTree breakfast - North Carolina was ranked #7 last quarter for states grabbing venture capital. The Southeast was ranked #3 behind Silicon Valley and New England. Good numbers when ranked against other regions/states. It was also very interesting to see the growing trends for capital getting invested in NC into biotech companies. I think it was something like 60% of the capital invested in NC last quarter. I know almost nothing about biotech investing (it all looks interesting), but from what all my peers tell me on that side, that percentage should only grow.

Btw, this morning's quarterly breakfast was by far the most packed I have EVER seen for a PWC MoneyTree breakfast. Most of the regional firms were represented and a bunch of entrepreneurs. You should attend the next one. Free breakfast and a good place to meet a bunch of people. And if you go, give me heads up so we can at least meet. I'll try and remember to post the next one here.

Speaking of PWC MoneyTree.... I usually recommend entrepreneurs that are raising capital to look at the back of the quarterly presentation that PWC presents locally. It gives a BIG list of all the "active VCs" in North Carolina. This is typically a good starting point since it identifies the investors that are either located in NC or out of state firms that have invested here. Once a firm invests here, they usually want to find more in the same region. But looking at the list today, it is VERY dated. I think many of the firms haven't made a new investment for over 12 months. Another group probably hasn't invested here in NC for a couple of years. So, if you are looking to raise capital, you may use the list and could be potentially approaching a firm that is either a) no longer in existance or b) out of capital.

Would you be useful to publish a different version? Maybe I can work with PWC and put something together that shows the more active VCs. Let me know if that would be useful to you and I'll work on it.

Kiva.org co-founder Jessica Jackley's talk at UNC, hosted by Nourish International

Guest Blogger: Jud Bowman, CEO, Pocketgear

 

Nourish International hosted its annual Summer Institute banquet at UNC last night, and the keynote speaker was Kiva.org co-founder Jessica Jackley.  I personally didn't know as much about Kiva.org before hearing Jessica speak, and wanted to share some of the metrics of this pretty incredible venture that is only 3-years old:

• Kiva has originated over $85M in microfinance loans to date to entrepreneurs in over 50 countries (mostly 3rd world)
• Average loan size is $412, with a term of 9-12 months
• Over 200K people have received a loan so far from Kiva
• The average repayment rate is 98.6% (this is perhaps the most shocking statistic to me)
• 540K people have loaned money to others through Kiva, average loan size per lender is $160
• Last week, Kiva loaned 2,372 entrepreneurs around the world $806,225
• That works out to 1 loan every 25 seconds, and is a run-rate of $42M annualized in microfinance loans to the 3rd world

A huge thanks to Nourish International for bringing such an incredible social entrepreneur to Chapel Hill!  For more on Nourish International, check out www.nourishinternational.organd for more on Kiva.org, check out www.kiva.org/about/facts (the cumulative loan volume graph is pretty staggering).

Promising New Technology Companies in NC

With all the travel we have done lately to Atlanta, Northern Virginia and Maryland, I wanted to focus on some new companies that we are seeing here in North Carolina. Here are three new companies locally that caught my eye and are on my list of ones to watch.

These companies made this list because I like the people involved, I really like their business models, they operate in big markets and they all have a low cost needed to ramp up. And they are all making it happen without venture money.

1. Rival Health. This company is focused on creating healthy lifestyles through effective programs, education, proper nutrition and exercise. Pete Durand, former CEO of Integrian is the founder & CEO.

So, there is A LOT of competition out there right? Google "weight loss" and you will find tons of companies screaming for your wallet. What differentiates Rival Health is that it is a subscription service with no advertising. This is all about losing weight with exercise and sensible nutrition. Pete says this is more about a lifestyle change than just a 90 day program.

Here is what the offering looks like:

• web based platform
• best in class video content
• targeting insurance companies, schools, corporations

They are playing in a big market. $40  billion is spent on the diet industry each year. I love the recurring revenue model with this business and the fact that it doesn't take a lot of capital to accelerate growth.

Pete hopes to have the company's site live sometime later this summer.

2. Original Projects. The company is "the social network for ideas." Its where they say people can bring their ideas or projects to get them developed faster. Nathan Wieler heads this one up. He is the founder and original CEO behind Zoom Culture. People can go to the OP site, colloborate with other users and create real products or services to make money from their efforts.

The site is live and in beta. Nathan said the company will add a lot more functionality within the next 90 days. He shared a lot of those plans with me and I walked away really impressed.

The thinking behind Original Projects is that many great ideas never become a reality because of time and resource constraints. This connects the person/people with the idea to others (entrepreneurs, consultants, investors, lawyers, accountants, job seekers) that can help develop the idea.

3. Spreedly. Led by founder Nathaniel Talbott, Spreedly a billing system that helps companies sell and manage subscriptions on their site. This is good for initial signups and free trials, cancellations, upgrades, etc. They also set it up so it works with multiple currencies. Current customers include: gaming companies, SaaS companies and content providers.

With the growing focus companies are making to get recrurring revenue, this is an interesting software tool to manage it all. Have 2,000 customers that you need to bill every month? Spreedly can handle it.