Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: VC (Page 6 of 10)

Angels and VCs Working More Closely? Signs of Hope…

In the technology startup world, angels and VCs have at best been seen as different camps, with separate perspectives, and even being at odds with each other many times. One is from Venus, the other’s from Mars. One tends to be a cocky MBA, the other’s an entrepreneur with real operational experience. Armwrestling_2

One pounds spreadsheets all day, the other’s a cowboy. As a minimum, they certainly don’t have a record of working closely together. They can compete for deal flow, they often distrust each another, and it’s frequently heard that angel investments can foul up the chance for later VC rounds because of unrealistic valuations or poor cap structure, or whatever.

There was a time when "venture capital" was synonymous with seed-stage investing. But, with the trend in recent years toward larger and larger funds, some approaching $1 billion, "You don’t have to do much math to realize that such firms are forced to make bigger and bigger investments to generate adequate returns for their limited partners," says Sramana Mitra in her recent column in Forbes: The Real VCs of Silicon Valley. (Mitra is an experienced technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley.) An excerpt from the column:

"…if you are an entrepreneur, especially a first-time entrepreneur,
you need to look for the ‘real’ VCs who are willing to take risks and
invest their time in mentoring you, not those big names that the term
venture capital normally conjures."

And who does Mitra say those real VCs are?

"So-called ‘angels.’ While VCs primarily invest other people’s money,
angels invest their own. An entrepreneur working on a fledgling idea
needs investors who not only provide valuable business advice but also
connect the dots to make business development partnerships happen, help
recruit key team members and help move the venture from concept to a
fundable company. Angels tend to have the operational background
necessary to play such a role."

Angels investing is no small phenomenon. One study found that that angels invested $25.6 billion in
2006 in the U.S. in 251,000 mostly early-stage deals (for an average investment of
about $100,000).

In her piece, Mitra seriously questions whether and how the gap created by VCs moving to larger and larger investments is being filled. Her closing line: "In capitalism, gaps generally get spotted and filled. This one–and the entrepreneurs in it–is still waiting."

Clarion Call
Mitra’s point comes early in her column: "we need to create a sort of microequity program for start-ups." It’s getting to be a common refrain; angels are clearly being expected to pick up more of the slack, as VCs leave early-stage investing behind and entrepreneurs get increasingly frustrated. Yet positive things are starting to happen, with more and more sophisticated, managed angel groups forming (or becoming more formalized), all across the country.

Note: this is not just a Silicon Valley phenomenon. That may be the epicenter of the VC industry, and where most of their money is invested, but not so for angel investors. Their is no epicenter. Sure, there are some notable angel groups in the Valley. But the distribution of these groups is much more even across the country. If anything, the Midwest rules. The Angel Capital Association is located in, are you ready? …Kansas. Of the organization’s approximately 150 member groups (see their directory), it’s the Midwest region that has the largest number of such groups (40), by a wide margin. So, yes, it’s fair to say that angel investing is more a heartland thing.

Reactions from Both Sides
Seeing the column in Forbes inspired me to do another blog post on angel investing. (See this category of my blog for lots more I’ve written on the topic; I also did a recent post on the new blog Minnov8.) After reading the Forbes piece, I reached out to three of my contacts whom I thought would have something to say in reaction.  First, from the angel side:

"I really think that linking the angel and VC markets really hurts both models," said Pete Birkeland, CFO of angel network management firm RAIN Source Capital, St. Paul. "The VCs get hammered for not investing early enough, and the angels get hammered for scattershot investing. These are two complementary but distinct activities. They’re both needed to continue to grow companies and innovate. As we run our angel groups, we want to be able to look at opportunities that are early and risky, and invest in those that have a potential for a return.  That return may be 3-5x, and we may be able to live on a seven-year horizon —  that (scenario) wouldn’t even get past a first screen by a VC. We need an ‘angel manifesto’ that breaks us away from VCs, and the mindset that we have to all become VCs.  However, with the view of limited partners and the dollars involved, it’s tough to escape the gravitational pull of the VC model."

And from an individual angel: "Founders, especially those without prior startup experience, need strong advisors, even operational advisors," said Doug Henrich, a former Microsoft executive and angel investor now living in the Twin Cities. "For an angel to be successful, I feel he or she needs to be active in the startup. The money of course is needed, but the experience and counsel are more valuable in successful startups. The experience has to come from somewhere…I wonder how large VCs can make money in the software space these days."  I read that last comment of Henrich’s to mean that, for software startups, angel investors are naturally a better fit — that such firms need the type of mentoring that comes from angels in their early stages. In other words, VCs’ big money isn’t the answer; it doesn’t tend to produce the desired result.

One Big Sign of Hope
From the VC side, I very much wanted to get a comment from a firm I know well — one that started in Minneapolis, still has close ties here, but has been headquartered in Palo Alto for several years: Crescendo Ventures. Davidspreng
David Spreng is the Managing General Partner of the firm, and has been on the board of the NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) since 2005. He recently launched a great blog called "Lightbulb," and here’s his About page there. But the most interesting thing is that David was recently tapped by the NVCA board to be the organization’s liaison to the angel community. That, to me, is very cool — a sure sign the two sides will be coming closer together in the future.

David was jumping on a plane when he I caught him, but pointed me to a recent blog post of his titled Angels and VCs Find Common Ground. In it, he reprints an article he co-wrote a couple of months ago with a board member of the Angel Capital Association. I had heard wind of this article before, and told him I bet I could get some good insights of his from it. I was right. I encourage you to read the full article, but here’s an excerpt:

While both angel groups and VCs have issues to improve in our relationships and processes, establishing strong relationships with quality angel groups can be extremely valuable to a venture firm’s deal flow and ultimate returns.

At $250,000 to $1 million, the average size round for an angel group is often below what most venture capitalists would consider investing in a Series A round. However, respected angel groups may well have the next generation of promising early stage companies that a venture capitalist is not ready to invest in but also doesn’t want to lose track of.

The ACA and the NVCA are both committed to working together to improve the relationships between angel groups and venture capitalists by sharing best practices and enhancing communications between the two associations.

Transitions from angel groups to venture capitalists should be seamless and considered a valued relationship for all the stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, co-investors and limited partners.

As I said, signs of hope. And it can all only be good for you entrepreneurs out there.

UPDATE (4/11/08): Well, maybe not as much hope as I thought. Just saw Sramana Mitra’s new column this morning in Forbes:  Fund Envy: Venture funds are getting bigger all the time. This is bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs. Yes, she says, taking a poke at the name of a well-known VC’s blog, "Greed, indeed, is infectious."

 

More on Best Buy VC News: Geek Squad Founder Speaks

As a followup to my previous post about Best Buy planning to step up its corporate VC activity, I thought it would be good to get some additional perspective on this news. So, I sought out a couple of my contacts inside the company. Robertstephensgeeksquad
I couldn’t think of anyone better than Robert Stephens, founder of the Geek Squad, which was acquired by Best Buy about five years ago. (He was out on vacation last week when the news broke.) Robert still heads the Geek Squad — in an environment much different from his early days, but one he says he very much enjoys. And the business has expanded significantly. Robert’s a great guy, an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. In fact, he was named the University of Minnesota’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007, and I blogged about the event where that was announced (the Minnesota Cup Awards), and about Robert’s excellent talk there.

I asked Robert two questions about the recent development at Best Buy:

Tech-Surf-Blog: What’s your take on the news about the formation of "Best Buy Capital"?   

Robert Stephens: This is just the most recent example of a trend that other companies like Intel, Google, and Yahoo have championed.  I think it offers another choice for the entrepreneur.  I chose not to take VC money or other investors because I did not want to see The Geek Squad bought and sold by people just looking for a financial transaction.  The Geek Squad chose to acquire Best Buy because we really help each other in a permanent way.  We help differentiate Best Buy, and we are able to use their size and resources in our quest for World Domination.

With all of the new web technologies and speed of software development, there are some hardware and software products that might be a better fit through partnership with a Best Buy rather than a traditional VC path. Choice is always good.

Tech-Surf-Blog: What does the new Best Buy Capital say about the importance of startup innovation to the company?

Robert Stephens: Well, either you drive innovation inside your company, or it will get driven for you by external market forces.  This new arrangement gives all of us inside the company more choices in how we develop ideas.  Coming from a startup of one person to a 140,000-person strong global company, change never seems as fast as it used to.  I’m all for this if it helps us try more ideas. 

Best Buy is kind of like Madonna.  You may not like her music, but you have to respect the fact that she knows her business, and rarely do pop stars stay on top as long as she has.  It’s the same in retail.  You must constantly re-invent yourself.  I don’t think people realize how dynamic Best buy is.  It’s why I chose them.

They were the first major retailer to pioneer the "grab and go".  First major retailer to develop the gift card.  First major retailer to go commission-free.  On and on.  Best Buy is also smart enough to know that they have to re-invent faster and faster.  You have a lot of choices on where you buy your stuff.  Sure, you might think, "I’ll just buy everything online".  That’s fine, but it’s not that simple.  Some of those new flat screens have to be seen when choosing.  You buy laptops now based on "look and feel".  Did you ever think that Dell would allow themselves to be sold inside a Best Buy?  This means that there are always going to be choices on how you innovate. It also means that trying to predict the future in a linear fashion is futile.  The key to is try a lot of things and fail as fast as possible.

——-

For more on Robert, see this recent interview in Fortune Small Business: Geek Squad’s Second Act.  And, for insight into the latest with the VC business, check out this article published last week in Wired: VCs Adjust to Facing More Competitors for Fewer Companies. In addition, I recapped recent VC industry developments in this post about a series of Forbes articles back in late January. Finally, I wrote a post a while back about the New Face of Venture Investing.

——-

I also got this reaction on the Best Buy Capital news from a source within Best Buy who would prefer to remain anonymous: "I’m not surprised. I think it’s a natural outgrowth of Best Buy’s internal environment of encouraging innovation through this kind of de facto process of allowing people to move ideas as long as they can prove their idea’s worth along the way. Cultivating new ideas, iterating them, and learning fast is one of the things that Best Buy excels at, actually. So, it just makes sense they would take this outside the walls of the company to do it for direct profit."

Thanks to both contacts, and I hope their comments provide further perspective for you on this story.

(Postcsript: I mentioned the Minnesota Cup above. This is an annual competition for entrepreneurs throughout the state, and the organization just announced its 2008 program. Details are at www.MinnesotaCup.org.)

New Face of Venture Investing: the ‘Small’ Guys

The world of venture investing has changed….in case you haven’t noticed. Yes indeed, "small" is very much in — as in smaller investments — especially for startups having anything to do with the Internet. [And that would include most everything to do with IT and software today, not to speak of consumer services.]  The reason is simply that startups don’t require as much capital in this age of…whatever you want to call it: "Web 2.0" or "the Internet as platform."

A great article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal drove that point home again: VC’s New Math: Does Less = More?  The main subject of the article was Peter Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal, who now runs a small VC firm that’s become the talk of the Valley.  It invests "sometimes just a few hundred thousand dollars" in its deals, says the article, which also quotes him as saying that the venture-capital world "definitely needs to be shaken up." Thiel and his fellow founders and execs from his PayPal days have built quite a record of investing, including an early stake in Facebook. Last year, the NY Times also published an excellent article about Thiel and his "mafia": It Pays to Have Pals in Silicon Valley.

Newfaceofvc_2

But Peter Thiel and his gang are hardly the only ones leveraging this new model. I present here six more that have it figured out pretty well, too, with most already reaping rewards, as firms they have backed have either been acquired or achieved big paper valuations. [There are surely other "new VCs" I could feature here, but these six are the ones I know best, from reading and commenting on their blogs, hearing them speak at conferences, or actually meeting some of them in person.] Note that most of these guys began by investing their own money as angels, which they gained from successful careers as tech entrepreneurs or traditional VCs, but all those that did start that way have morphed into the new breed VC, because they’re now investing other people’s money as well. That is, they’ve raised traditional VC funds, but tend to focus those funds on smaller, Internet/Web 2.0 type investments. (Thiel’s new career even goes beyond this, however, as he also manages a hedge fund, as noted in the Journal article.)

Breeding Winners
Who are the others pictured above? Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital is based in the most unlikely of places, suburban Philadelphia, but calls himself the "Redeye VC" (which is the name of his blog) because he’s flying to the Valley so often. His entrepreneurial background includes Half.com, which was acquired by Ebay. Josh was the subject of a feature just published by Fortune on people to keep an eye on in 2008, as the traditional media continues to discover these guys we know, because it’s realizing how much wealth they’re helping create behind the scenes. Josh’s portfolio will impress you.

Fred Wilson is the reigning godfather of Web 2.0 investors from his perch in NYC at Union Square Ventures. And that’s largely on the strength of his blogging — he blogs on his firm’s site, and at his personal blog, AVC. Check out his firm’s portfolio of Internet investments. Fred is hands-down the most prolific of the VC bloggers (with more readers than only Guy Kawasaki). I actually don’t know how he has time for much else with all the blogging and Twittering he does. (He’s an investor in Twitter.) But then, he’ll tell you he actually learns about many of his deals through his blogging. He considers it an unfair advantage, and has caused many other VCs to catch on to the benefits of writing in the blogosphere. For more on Fred, who’s actually a pretty private and low-profile guy (for example, he doesn’t show up at too many conferences), see this profile that appeared on a Wired blog earlier this year. 

Jeff Clavier is one of only two of this group based in the Valley — Palo Alto in this case. [Note that two of the others are in SF, but three are elsewhere.] Jeff has an extremely interesting and eclectic background, starting in France, where he did an IT startup, acquired by Reuters, where he later served as a corporate VC. There, he managed early investments in such firms as Yahoo! and Verisign. He later migrated to the Valley and become one of the early investors in Web 2.0. His blog, Software Only, was an early and influential voice in this new world of venture capital. Just a few months ago, Jeff announced on his blog his new $12 million seed fund.

Brad Feld is based in Boulder, CO, and is one of five partners in The Foundry Group. He’s a prolific blogger, at both Feld Thoughts and Ask the VC. The latter is one of the best resources I know of for enterpreneurs seeking advice online. Brad is an amazing, high energy guy. A marathoner and an inveterate entrepreneur with a masters from MIT, he’s lived the entrepreneur’s life as founder of a
software firm that was acquired by AmeriData Technologies (later acquired by GE Capital), where he served as CTO. Brad was a driving force behind the launch this past summer of the TechStars competition in Boulder, and his firm has already funded some of the winners.

Dave Hornik is a very well known member of this new breed of VC, for two reasons — he was an early player, and he’s based in the Valley. His firm, from its cool digs on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, invests in more than just Internet services, however. Some of the names you would know in its Internet portfolio are Six Apart, Technorati, Evite (acquired), Shopping.com/Epinions (acquired), Postini (acquired), and Tumbleweed. Dave’s VentureBlog was one of the earliest VC blogs, which certainly contributed to his popularity, though he’s posting much less frequently there of late.

Aydin Senkut, by contrast, is probably the newest and least known of the group. An early Google manager, he left in 2005 and now runs Felicis Ventures in SF. You say you’ve never heard of it?  Well, check out his portfolio. He was one of the subjects of a NY Times article a few days ago entitled A Post-Google Fraternity of Investors. While the ex-Googlers now investing in startups (most as angels, some as VCs) are not as tight-knit a group as the ex-PayPal founders and execs, there are potentially many more of them.

What do you think of this new breed of venture investor?  Are they really changing the game, or are they simply more of the same-old Vulture Capitalists, just dressed in tee-shirts and jeans?  🙂  And, how early do you think entrepreneurs with new ideas should approach these guys?  Will you?

UPDATE (1/7/08): For more on this trend in venture capital, no one says it better than Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of the DEMO Conferences. Check this out, from a series of recent DEMOblog posts on 2008 predictions: Venture Capital Feels a Pinch[And, by the way, look for me at DEMO ’08 in Palm Desert, CA, January 28-30.]

Minnedemo – Hot Damn!

Oh, was the joint a-jumpin’ Thursday night, gang. For those of you who weren’t there, that joint was O’Gara’s Garage in St. Paul. For those of you who were — lucky you (especially if you were smart enough to get there early). The crowd had to be 350 or 400 — it was basically shoulder-to-shoulder at its peak. Minnedemoogarasmichaellehmkuhl
The schmoozin’ was in high gear, the kegs were flowing (7 kinds!), and there wasn’t even any entertainment!  Well, I guess we were our own entertainment — and six of our community’s latest, hot startups got up on stage halfway into the evening to pitch their wares. [Photo of O’Gara’s courtesy of Minnedemo attendee Michael Lehmkuhl.]

Don’t let anyone tell you the Minnesota tech community isn’t hotter than a pistol! You could feel the energy, the entrepreneurial juices flowing.  You know we have something special going on here in Minnesota when you experience one of these BarCamp events (which we call Minnebar and Minnedemo) — and when you see how we keep attracting more and more of the important players from the community with every meeting.Minnedemocrowdstefanhartwig
And it’s not just the Twin Cities — we had people there from Sioux Falls, Fargo, St. Cloud, Wisconsin, and more.  [Photo of the crowd early-on courtesy of Minnedemo attendee Stefan Hartwig, of sponsor Electric Pulp — one of those dudes from Sioux Falls! Yes, this is the outfit Guy Kawasaki has made famous.]

What was the coolest thing I heard at the event? That was from Robert Stephens, the illustrious founder of Minnesota’s own Geek Squad (acquired by Best Buy in 2002). See my recent coverage of Robert being named MN Entrepreneur of the Year. And, yes, he was just interviewed on 60 Minutes, too! I had a great chat with Robert, during which I mentioned that I’d heard Best Buy was hosting an event that very day in Silicon Valley, just for VCs.  He said, yeah, that he was supposed to be speaking there. I asked why he wasn’t. "Because I’d rather be here. I really believe in the Minnesota tech community."  Now, is that freaking cool, or what?  Screw the Valley, he’s more interested in the action here! Robert is a major supporter of our state’s entrepreneurs — a hero in our midst, for sure.

What else really impressed me?  Well, besides the great startups that pitched and just the huge energy of our collective developer/entrepreneur/interactive/marketing community, I have to say that I continue to be really pumped about the quality of new players we keep drawing to these events. We had partners from at least two major VCs firms (and three more I knew really wanted to be there but had schedule conflicts), another from the largest "network of angel networks" in the country, an investment banker whom I know is currently raising a large chunk for a local startup, and more major, local angel investors than I’ve seen at any of our previous meetings. Yes, that’s right, the guy (or lady) you were standing next to could be one — so, don’t spill beer on ’em!  🙂  Seriously, they were there to catch the buzz on what’s new, who’s starting up what, and to schmooze with their colleagues about the latest deals circulating. [Unfortunately, some of the newer ones didn’t realize how noisy these gatherings get, and how hard it can be to hear the presenters, unless you move right up near the stage. But, hopefully they’ll follow up with individual entrepreneurs for one-on-ones — that’s really the intended outcome, anyway, for the startups pitching at these events.] And there were major dudes present as well from some of our state’s largest Internet-related businesses — trust me, I know these people! And I brokered at least two key introductions of local startups to some of these guys. They definitely wanted to know more about some of the technologies pitched. And, there’s more — we even had an NBA player, formerly of the Timberwolves (and a serious geek), in our midst! Not to forget our local media people — I know the Business Journal was present. Not sure if the Trib or the Pioneer Press made it (I was just too busy to see everyone I wanted to).  And, you just know that Minnesota’s best and brightest tech bloggers were there — Steve Borsch, Ed Kohler, Ben Higginbotham, and….well, you know. And so many of the developer attendees have great blogs of their own as well!  (See the links in the list of attendees on the Minnedemo site for those.)

So, who were the startup founders that pitched?  Well, it was an awesome combination of really smart developers, serial entrepreneurs, a major ad-agency producer, a female entrepreneur with a company just coming out of stealth, even a former Silicon Valley researcher that holds a patent on the technology he was pitching.  Minnedemoadaptiveave
People, you would be amazed if you drilled into the backgrounds of these folks — I can say that because I know many of them. There was a huge amount of experience and expertise represented on that stage on Thursday night — a proud moment for Minnesota entrepreneurship. Here’s a quick rundown on who got 10 minutes each to pitch to this raucous crowd:

CrashPlan (Matthew Dornquast) – a virtual appliance for automatic, off-site backup
FanChatter (Marty Wetherall) – mobile sports fan chat, photos, more (see news release)
SOTAcomm (Gary Doan) – plug-and-play appliances integrating best-of-breed open-source "unified communications" apps for running a small business
Wonderfile (David Carnes) – tag-based file management and collaboration
Pokeware (Maryse Thomas) – monetizing video streams by giving consumers extensive access to products and information within them (see news release)
Adaptive Avenue (David Quimby) – distributed commerce, "site within a banner," enabling a whole new category of clicks ("engagement" clicks)

[Photo of David Quimby presenting courtesy of Ben Wallace.]

But did you think we only have six startups here in Minnesota worthy of presenting?  Wrong, bucko! There were sixteen more — count ’em, 16!! — who were stacked up on the waiting list in case someone dropped out. They’re definitely worth a look, too….and they’re all listed here on the Minnedemo site, with links so you can learn more.

Remember to say thank you! (My daddy taught me that!) What an awesome event — and we owe it all to the event co-organizers, who donate a huge amount of their time to these things: developers Dan Grigsby, a successful entrepreneur who really knows how to give back to the community, and Luke Francl, a developer at local hot shop Slantwise Design. And the sponsors who pay the freight to make these events happen. We love ’em!  Read about ’em and support ’em. They keep coming back, too — all are repeat sponsors:
Kinetic Data
Split Rock Partners
New Counsel
ipHouse
Electric Pulp

What’s the takeaway? Minnesota’s startup and Internet community is a one exciting place to be! You like it here, and I know the vast majority of you want to stay here. I’m proud to be a part of the community, and each and every one of you out there should be, too. It’s great to know that if you can work hard, think big, and make good stuff that improves people’s lives or work, or just helps them have more fun online — whatever! — that you can make a real contribution to our economy, and advance your own lot in life as well.

I can’t wait for our next Minnedemo or Minnebar event.  Meantime, keep building on the energy…and keep on networking!  🙂

Big Week for Tech in Minnesota

UPDATE (10/11, 10:00 am): To add links to news about two of the companies pitching at Minnedemo tonight. Be there or be square, dudes! (and dudettes, of course). Here’s some lowdown on FanChatter and Pokeware….and four other startups are presenting as well, as you can see at the Minnedemo web page.

——

Lots of things happening here in the Twin Cities technology community this second week in October. The IPO of local tech darling Compellent Technologies is expected to price tomorrow and start trading on Wednesday. I caught the news as soon as the Wall Street Journal hit my front step at 6 a.m. this morning (page C7): Offerings Rejuvenate IPO Market – Compellent Technologies, Virgin Mobile Will Debut; Heavy Buzz, But Any Pop? (subscription required, but soon Rupert Murdoch may change all that!). Compellentlogo
For those who can’t click through to the story, here are a couple of excerpts:

A computer-network-storage company and a provider of
cellular-phone service will be the focus of the market for initial
public offerings this week.

The market for such deals still is coming back to life
after its late-summer break, with six offerings that together could
raise as much as $1.39 billion scheduled to debut over the next five
days. If all actually make it that far, they will top the
companies that went public in all of September. ….

Compellent Technologies Inc., an unprofitable but
fast-growing computer-network-storage company, is getting much of the
buzz. It is scheduled to begin trading Wednesday on the NYSE Arca under
the symbol CML. Research firm Gartner Inc. named Compellent the world’s
fastest-growing disk-storage company last year, just four years after
it was formed …. Compellent…revenue
doubled in the first six months to $20.9 million, compared with a year
earlier. The company is selling 12 million shares between $10 and $12.

That’s a big IPO, folks — but 12 million shares is a typo. [I love it when I can catch typos in the venerable Wall Street Journal 🙂 ] An accompanying chart (not in the online version) says 6.9 million, which sounds more like it. That will still put the amount raised somewhere in the range of $69-83 million, which makes it the largest tech IPO in this town in quite some time.  Compellent has raised more than $50 million in venture capital, beginning in 2002 with investments by Crescendo Ventures and El Dorado Ventures, both Silicon Valley firms populated by former Minneapolitans I know. [Watch for more from me on Compellent on Wednesday.]

The MN Startup Schmoozin’ Event of the Season
The day after watching the big IPO pop or not, we switch our emphasis to the new, upcoming success stories in the MN startup community! The long-awaited periodic gathering of our local tech entrepreneurs and developers, playfully called Minnedemo, fires up at 6:30 pm on Thursday. Minnedemo
It’s a free event, and is at St.Paul’s legendary Irish bar and restaurant, O’Gara’s (actually, we’ll be in the large, attached venue called O’Gara’s Garage.) This organization is part of the very popular grass-roots BarCamp phenomenon, which is international in scope. The last event we had for our local group, an all-day Saturday event in the spring (see my coverage), was the largest Barcamp event to that date ever in the U.S., with close to 400 in attendance! So, don’t let anyone tell you the Twin Cities isn’t a hot tech market!!  I’m betting this event will pull close to 300, and the first 200 to show up get two free beers or sodas — can you beat that?  That’s courtesy of our illustrious sponsors (see site).  And I’m betting there’ll be some good munchies, too. After an hour of networking, six local startups will demo their offerings [note: no Powerpoint allowed — yeah!]:  Adaptive Avenue, FanChatter, Pokeware, PROserver Virtual Appliance, SOTAcomm, and Wonderfile. (See Minnedemo site for more info and links to those demoing companies.)

The Company That Started It All
I owe a lot to Control Data. I may have been only a mere neophyte when I worked there, but, wow, did they put a lot of trust in me, and did I ever learn a lot.  They actually gave me some rope to do stuff, and they just kept promoting me!  How cool is that?  And I kept stepping up to the challenge. It was a fun, fun ride, and I will forever be grateful to this technology pioneer, this unbelievable cauldron of innovation and entrepreneurship to which our entire state’s IT community owes a huge debt of gratitude — if not its very existence. Cdc50yrceleb_2
Do you realize how many thousands of companies were spawned by Control Data?
I cannot miss this event on Friday, and I invite anyone who’s involved in the local information technology to attend. You’ll be in some very great company! It’s the Control Data 50 Year Celebration at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Friday afternoon, and it’s even free. One of my favorite all-time entrepreneurs will be speaking, a guy I admire tremendously: Larry Jodsaas.  He was a Control Data executive who later risked it all to lead VTC Inc., a Control Data semiconductor spinout, which was a huge success and became a 15-year client relationship for me before it was acquired by Lucent (Agere) in 1999. It’s a great story.  There’s a cocktail reception following this event and, for those who sign up separately, a dinner after that, with U.S. Senator Norm Coleman speaking. I’m really excited about this event, and I hope you’ll join me!

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