Southeast VC

Cloud Computing Update

We hosted a SCV Entrepreneurs' Breakfast yesterday exclusively for the local software companies. I invited Laura Lederman from William Blair to fly down from Chicago & speak and give a Cloud Computing Update. I've known Laura for a couple of years. A few things about her:

1. She knows SaaS cold and has a TON of experience as a stock analyst

2. She is filled with energy (even without Starbucks)

3. She is very very honest and gets right to the point and I love that part

We had about 25 different companies represented. Almost all were CEOs and all the major SaaS companies locally had someone there. For those that couldn't make it or we forgot to invite (sorry), I attached the presentation Download Cloud Computing Update 2009.

We saved a lot of time for people to chat with their peers before and after, which was good. The questions and answers that flew back and forth was great and from all the feedback since yesterday, I know we will do this again soon.

Thanks to Laura and to everyone that attended, including the companies that drove from Charlotte and the Triad.

Two Must Attend Events in NC in the Next 30 Days

We get asked a lot for ways to plug into the local tech scence here in North Carolina. Here are two ways to do that in the next 30 days:

1. CED's 25th Birthday Party. Friday, 9/25 to Bay 7 at American Tobbaco from 3-7pm. Come out for food & drinks, listen to good music and celebrate CED's 25th year of operations with hundreds of others in the Triangle. Southern Capitol Ventures is on the host committee and all my partners and I will all be there! The cost is $25 per ticket and that price includes a guest.

2.  TechJournal South Deck Party. This is a regular event and the next one is 10/8 from 5:30-9pm also in Durham. Drink beer, eat good food. Usually 500+ people show up for this. I know a lot of our portfolio companies usually send a few people. Investors are always there. I like the mix of people and its a very relaxed environment. These are free, but you need to register in advance.

Hope to see you at both!

Local Tech Tour - Expanding and Now Including Carolina & Duke Students

Last year along with NC State University, we launched a program to showcase some of the most successful technology companies to mostly undergrad students. You can read more about the launch, the reasoning behind it and some of the companies we have visited here.

Students get the chance to go to visit 5-7 local companies in a day and meet with some of that company's management team. It gives students a way to learn more about the company's history, strategy and better understand the technology. The student group is kept small. Also, students are made aware of opportunities that may exist for them when they graduate.

My opinion, is the program has been a success and together with NC State, we are doing it again on October 16th. The lineup of companies participating next month include:

• Capitol Broadcasting

• Hosted Solutions

• Red Hat

• RivalHealth

• Bandwidth.com

And we are making a BIG change. We are inviting 2 current Duke and 2 Carolina students to participate in this program with the NC State students. This was done as a small step to encourage collaboration with students at the local universities.

I will make the selections along with Autumn Mauney and Tom Miller at NC State. If you'd like to apply, please email me ([email protected]) 1 brief paragraph about who you are and why you'd like to participate in this program. Please also attach your resume. Decisions will be made and people will be notified no later than 10/9.