Southeast VC

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!

Looking for a Job? Being Prepared Helps.

Like a lot of VCs, we get a lot of people contacting us looking for jobs and I am really thankful for that. We are so focused on helping our companies recruit and find the best people we possibly can. But I also feel an alarmingly high percentage of the meetings go nowhere for the job seeker. And this disappoints me.

These meetings are usually the job seeker meeting with us and hoping to be spoon fed information about where we think that person would best fit. That's really hard for us when we have so many companies going through our minds... not just the ones we have funded. We need direction! I've never been able to connect someone who doesn't know what they want to do or what kind of company they want to work for.  :)

So, if you fall into this bucket that I'm describing, here are some very simple tips to potentially help make your experience more productive:

1) Do your homework BEFORE the meeting. Find out a list of companies that are in the region and narrow it down to the ones that interest you most. Need help finding a good list? Start with my list of companies hiring or check out the portfolio companies of all the VCs in your region.

2) Now that you have a focused list of companies you are interested in, is the person you are meeting with connected to one of those companies? Hopefully the answer is yes!

3) Be aware in detail of what the company does that you are targeting well beyond "they are a software company." Know their business cold, what position(s) interest you and be ready to talk about how you might be able to have a positive impact.

4) Always keep the meetings short, focused and to the point.

5) Kind of expected, but bring a notepad and pen and take notes in the meeting of leads the person you are meeting with gives you. I was blown away when I met with someone last month and gave him a bunch of companies and people to connect with and he didn't jot down a single note. He must have thought my ideas were garbage or have a REALLY good memory! :)

6) ALWAYS follow up and THANK the person you met with! A simple email later that day is a good idea.

Calling All Entrepreneurs - Northern Virginia

David and I will be up in Northern Virginia, DC and Baltimore next week and will host Calling All Entrepreneurs in Reston, Virginia on Monday night, December 3rd from 8pm to midnight.  I know that is late at night, but we're trying really hard to accomodate all the people that may want to meet after work.

If you're not familiar with the Calling All Entrepreneurs format that we have done in the past, we welcome ANY entrepreneur to meet with us for 15 minutes. No one gets screened out.  It is your chance to present your company or idea to us for 10 minutes and at the end, we leave 5 minutes for Q&A. However, your company or idea needs to be in one of the 5 industries we focus on: software, digital media, e-commerce, wireless or healthcare IT. That helps us be able to give better feedback and of course makes it more relevant for us as well.

We continuously hear entrepreneurs complain that VCs don't return calls or emails. This is just 1 thing we do to make sure we are always accessible to entrepreneurs that want to meet with a VC.

This is not our typical format for meetings btw, but is something we have tried here in NC several times and we did it in Atlanta as well. So, based on all the positive feedback we have received, we hope it makes sense to try this in Northern VA.

As additional background, entrepreneurs that have presented to us in past formats included entrepreneurs at current venture backed companies, college students, university professors and and software developers from large companies. We welcome everyone! The meetings are private and are held with just me and David. And, we always promise to follow up with everyone that meets with us.

Here is a story WRAL Local Tech Wire did on the event and here is one TechJournal South did.

To reserve a time to meet with us next week, just email me with your preferred time and I will email you back with a confirmation and location at Reston Town Center.

Entrepreneurship Week at Duke University

I was talking with Howie Rhee over at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business yesterday and he was telling me about the inaugural Entrepreneurship Week at Duke. It looks like it will be a great event. The goal of the week is to encourage entrepreneurship at Duke in many different industries - life sciences, web 2.0, social, environmental, etc.

They are having about 10 events in six days, starting December 3rd. Howie expects up to 500 people to attend throughout the week.

While the event is mainly targeted at Duke students, the venture and entrepreneurial communities are invited. You can attend the entire week for $89.

Events include:

Mon, 12/3, 4-5:30pm, Duke Technology Showcase
Mon, 5:30-6:30pm, Technology Entrepreneurship Speaker (Aerie Pharmaceuticals, a Duke spin-out)
Mon, 6:30-8:30pm, The Kickoff Party
Tues, 12/4, 3:30-5pm, Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Panel
Tues, 5:30-8pm, Entrepreneurship Mixer at Tyler's Taproom
Wed, 12/5, 11am-1pm, High School Entrepreneurship Pitch Session
Wed, 2-3:30pm MBA Entrepreneurship Panel (Web 2.0 and Life Sciences)
Wed, 4-5pm, VC Speed Dating (Students and Investors only)
Wed, 5-6:30pm, Keynote Speaker and Reception
Thurs, 12/6, 1-4pm, Duke Start-Up Job Fair
Thurs, 6-8:30pm, Undergraduate Entrepreneurs Pitch Session
Fri, 12/7, 3:45-5:00pm, Social Entrepreneurship Speaker
Sat, 12/8, 9:30-10:30pm, International Entrepreneurship Speaker
Sat, 10:45-11:45pm, Environmental Entrepreneurship Speaker
Sat, 12:00-2:00pm, Lunch and Closing Ceremonies

Check it out and you can also join the group on Facebook.

RTP Developers Fleeing For Opportunities in Silicon Valley? Not So Much.

I was meeting with a young entrepreneur this morning who launched his web 2.0 company in Durham. The company is still really early with 1,500 registered users.

Over coffee at Starbucks, he was bitching about how hard it is to compete with Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc for development talent here in NC. His arguement was that they (west coast companies) are raising the cost for developers and a lot of the better developers are fleeing NC for the riches in Silicon Valley.

I had a really hard time understanding this. Let me explain:

1) The tech companies that are truly competing head to head with Google are the companies on the west coast where Google is right down the street. I spoke with one Silicon Valley CTO today and he said there was a drought of developers in Silicon Valley. He also felt it was harder to find developers on the west coast than it is on the east coast.

2) The great entrepreneurs, with the great ideas and the ones that are willing to part with the right amount of equity shouldn't have a hard time attracting development talent. There is a ton of tech talent here with the local universities (NC State, UNC and Duke) and larger companies like Cisco, Red Hat, IBM and SAS right in our backyard.

3) There is a huge cost of living advantage to being here in NC compared to Silicon Valley. The average cost in '07 for a house in Saratoga is $1.75m, Palo Alto is $1.65m and Mountain View is $950k. In fact, Silicon Valley Leadership Group calls Silicon Valley "one of the least affordable places to live" and the Raleigh area as one of the most affordable tech hubs in the country.

4) More importantly, the cost for development talent here in NC is a lot cheaper than Silicon Valley. What this means is that it can be cheaper to build a company here.

I am not saying that RTP crushes Silicon Valley or Boston with the development talent here. But what I am saying is that for folks that are here in NC and looking to staff up on the development side, they shouldn't be blaming companies in other regions for their misfortunes.

Entrepreneur & Social Entrepreneur Meetup #9

If you haven't heard, Ryan Allis, CEO of Durham, NC-based iContact hosts a gathering for area entrepreneurs every 2 weeks at his house in Chapel Hill. The "Meetups" are very informal and a good way for regional entrepreneurs to get connected.

If you're an entrepreneur here in the Triangle, I'd recommend going, but be prepared for a late night!

"Entrepreneur & Social Entrepreneur Meetup #9" will be held this Thursday night from 9pm-12:30am. All area entrepreneurs are welcome to attend. Here is Ryan's home address: 102 Millingport Court, Chapel Hill, NC.

The full agenda a couple of weeks ago included informal networking, intros, 3 company presentations, book reviews and a few elevator pitches.

I attended 2 weeks ago and Ryan gave me an opportunity to present an overview of our firm to the 50-75 people that attended. I really enjoyed meeting so many new people and saw some familiar faces too.

Thanks to Ryan for doing something different in the Triangle and pulling so many entrepreneurs together.

Click here to RSVP.

Helping the New Wave of Entrepreneurs in NC

We held Calling All Entrepreneurs at ChannelAdvisor's office on Friday. Thanks to all the entrepreneurs that were part of it. I hope they all found it helpful. Scot and I received a lot of positive emails afterwards so if the current feedback is any indication, the event was a success.

Anyway, Rick Smith at WRAL Local Tech Wire wrote a story about it and posted it here.

I hope everyone is having a good week.

Calling All Entrepreneurs in RTP

Calling All Entrepreneurs is back on Friday, September 28. And it promises to be even better for the entrepreneurs presenting. This is an opportunity for ANY technology entrepreneur to meet and get feedback on their company or idea.

This is the third time we've done this. Here is the post on the first one we did in Raleigh in April and here is info on the second one in Atlanta this past May.

As a reminder on the format, we are inviting any technology entrepreneur to come by and meet for 15 minutes (10 presentation and 5 minutes of Q&A).

To match our firm's interests, the industry focus needs to be either software, e-commerce, digital media, wireless or healthcare IT.

Scot Wingo, president and CEO of ChannelAdvisor will be participating with me this time. I think this addition is important because now the entrepreneur will get feedback from both a VC and from one of the most experienced entrepreneurs in our market.

ChannelAdvisor has become one of the largest SaaS companies in our region and has 6 offices worldwide. Scot also has a lot of experience raising venture capital from firms like ours, NEA, ATV, Kodiak and eBay. He has an impressive background having sold 2 companies (Stingray for $18m and AuctionRover for $180m).

Scot and I have teamed up together in the past helping entrepreneurs and I really like his style... very entrepreneurial friendly. So, we both look forward to working together on this.

This is for the entrepreneurs that may be in hiding or the people with rapidly scaling companies or students or faculty or former/current entrepreneurs or people dreaming of an idea or people working in one of those "big companies" locally.... or anyone in between. My point is that everyone is welcome!

All meetings on September 28 will be held at ChannelAdvisor's office.

Out of the companies that present that day, Scot and I will pick one company out of the group. He and I will carve out a morning with that company at a later date to help them refine their pitch and help them think through their idea or business even more.

Please email me in advance to schedule a time and we will make this happen. First come, first serve.

Of course, if you have any questions or comments, let me know.

Mountain View Mayor Reaches out to Startup Community

I think it is really important for the local politicians to be in touch with, to understand and to be very supportive of the startup technology community.

If you agree, you should read this post by Meebo's CEO, Seth Sternberg.

It talks about how the Mayor of Mountain View, Laura Macias reached out to Meebo and spent time with the startup, which is based in her own backyard.