Southeast VC

Entrepreneurs' Series

Thanks to everyone that came out last week for Entrepreneurs' Series in Raleigh. As always, we put out a survey afterwards and the feedback was over the top positive. 98.1% rated the content/speakers we had as "excellent" or "above average" on a scale of excellent/above average/average/below average/poor. 

We had a packed lineup including 10 speakers that included VCs from Boston, Palo Alto and DC. And we had founders/CEOs from five different companies share their tips on building companies and raising capital.

Founders that participated were from Maxpoint, Netsertive, Bluestripe Software and Windsor Circle. These were all the guys that were responsible for raising their first round of capital from firms like Madrona, Trinity, Greycroft, RRE and Valhalla. 

The morning was capped with the founders of Canvas On Demand offering advice on building a startup. The two were funny, always offer great tips and gave everyone that attended a $100 gift certificate to Canvas On Demand. 

We will continue to think of other topics for more events in the future. If you have topics you think we should host, let me know.

And if you'd like to be added to the list to get emails about future events, go here. 

RDU to SFO

Great news for the region!

An announcement was made today about a direct flight to/from Raleigh to San Francisco.

From this, I think we will see a boost to:

• west coast VCs being more willing to invest in NC
• west coast companies being more interested in buying startups here
• easier for companies in NC and west coast to partner

I've been hoping and talking about this ever since I became a VC 11+ years ago. It will help reduce the friction of west coast companies/firms working with NC-based ones.

We're Getting More Attention

Not a lot of time to do a big post this morning, but here are two articles I read over the last few days that I liked and thought they would be worth sharing here. Continued great news for the region:

Where are the Angel Investors and How do They Invest?

A couple of important stats from this article:

1. Almost 80% of angel group investments were made outside of California

2. The Southeast is a very close #2 of total dollars invested by angel groups in 2011. This one surprised me too.

3. The size check angel groups are writing increased over 2010. 

 

The Triangle is the Hottest Spot for Tech Jobs in the US

Employers within a 30 mile radius of Raleigh are posting over 1,100 jobs a day with an average salary of $79,000. That is 50% higher than last year and up triple from March 2009.

Exciting Job Opportunity as a Controller

A company I have been involved with for a while is seeking to hire a controller to be in Durham, NC.

The reason why I think it is such an exciting opportunity is that I love the team and they are growing really fast. And this isn't the typical controller positon. The job comes with a lot of other responsibilities as well. More of a description below.

If you are interested or know someone we should be talking with, send me an email jason@southcap.com.

Responsibilities:

• Own the production of monthly/annual financial and KPI reports to Executive Management and Board
• Oversee and improve financial operations, including reporting, controls, policies, and risk management
• Manage and participate in day-to-day financial operations and processes, including AP, AR, cash, payroll, invoicing/billing, collections, and fixed asset records
• Manage day-to-day tax and HR activities
• Manage the company’s cash position, including oversight of the company’s transaction processing systems and interfaces to processing vendors
• Work with outside auditor, banks, insurers, lessors, and credit card companies
• Provide financial analysis and process improvement to other areas of the company as necessary, including Operations, Support, Product, and Marketing
• Provide tactical/operational support as necessary

Requirements:

• Undergraduate degree
• Strong preference for CPA
• 5+ years work experience, with 2+ managing financial operations or in public accounting
• Exposure to business areas outside of F&A a plus (HR, Tax, Legal)
• Workmanlike Attitude – Willingness to roll up sleeves and help wherever necessary
• Willingness and ability to learn new things – Enough general business experience and resourcefulness to quickly get up to speed on a new problem and address it with little to no guidance.
• Ability to synthesize and understand large volumes of data derived from online sales activity
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, performance-driven growing tech company

 

Startup Madness

Scott Kelly and a few others banded together last year to create Startup Madness in Durham. The purpose was to showcase technology companies being worked on by college students. He does this by creating a competition between the students where they pitch to a panel of judges and have a demo table.

I didn't make it last year, but I think the only participants were from North Carolina schools. This year is much different and bigger.

I am glad Scott put this one together and I know it takes a lot of coordinating. SCV is a proud supporter and I look forward to attending on March 14 in Durham.

Startups: Durham Wants You

This is a cool, creative idea.

The Durham Chamber put together a package to lure a startup to set up downtown Durham, NC. They are giving away the world's smallest office, which they are calling The Smoffice. It will be located in the front window of Beyu Caffe, which will get a ton of visibility and is a heavily trafficked restaurant and coffee shop. The winning startup gets the space for six months along with a free downtown condo at Mangum 506 and support from service providers.

Applications open Wednesday, February 29 and close on Friday, March 30. The winning company will be selected Friday, April 13 and the company will be in Durham starting on May 1.

Durham is quickly becoming a startup hub. By giving away the space for this length of time and giving away a free condo with it, it looks like they are trying to encourage a startup from outside the Triangle to relocate.

And check out the Techcrunch story.

 

Triangle Startup Factory Re-Launched

The RTP area got another boost with last night's announcement that Triangle Startup Factory will be re-launched. The North Carolina-based accelerator will be run by Chris Heivly and Dave Neal.

Chris is a good friend, is very passionate about startups running both Triangle Tech Talk and Big Top. He is also no stranger to the accelerator model being the former Director of LaunchBox Digital here in North Carolina.

Startups get 50k once accepted into the program and $20K-$150K as a convertible note once they complete it.

The first session will begin this March and interested entrepreneurs should email them  app@trianglestartupfactory.com.

I think its great to see another funding option for entrepreneurs and thanks to Chris and Dave for putting in the work to make this happen.

Entrepreneurial Resources

We've been handing out our list of Entreprneurial Resources during our Entrepreneur's Breakfasts that we've hosted at our office.

But I am including it here -> Download SCV Entrepreneurial Resources - Jan 2012.

It lists out regional events, funding sources and news sites to keep an eye on.

I hope it helps.

Venture Outlook 2012

My partner David Jones and I launched Entrepreneur's Series earlier this year and based on its initial success, we ended up hosting 7 events throughout the year.

Topics and speakers varied. We brought in some of the region's most successful entrepreneurs to share their success stories, we had VCs fly in from all over the country and heard from bankers and analysts. We covered topics like SaaS, Heath IT, bootstrapping and M&A/IPOs.

Based on the feedback from our regular survey, attendees are getting a lot out of Entrepreneur's Series. But I have to say that we're having fun hosting them as well.

Our intial event was back in February and titled Venture Outlook 2011. That was a big hit. So, its appropriate that for the next one we host in 2012 goes back to that and we got really creative and titled it Venture Outlook 2012.:)

Panelists include Matt Fates from Ascent Venture Partners, Pat Kerins from NEA, Scott Kupor from Andreessen Horowitz and Dan Marriott from Stripes Group. We've known all these guys for years so we know the panel will be awesome.

You can learn more and register here. If you haven't been to Entrepreneur's Series before, we hope you come out and join us. We think it is a good opportunity to hear from great speakers and network with both the panelists and your peers.

If you can't make it, but want to be added to our email list for future events, go here.

Build a Software Company Without Capital. These Guys Will Tell You How

Good article in today's News & Observer titled Good Time to Start a Software Company. I enjoyed participating. With all the celebration by the press and blogs around companies that raise piles of cash, its great to see attention on those that are successful and creatively found ways to start and build a thriving business without outside capital. 

To talk more and expand on this column, we asked David Ranii, Business Reporter at the News & Observer to come moderate the next Entrepreneur's Series on Monday morning December 12. One of the goals is we have in hosting is that we hope this will offer inspiration and tips for other entrepreneurs.

Panelists include: Joe Colopy, CEO at Bronto; Kent Hudson, CEO at SchoolDude; Jesse Lipson, CEO at ShareFile (just sold to Citrix) and Troy McConnell, CEO at Clever On Demand.

If you haven't joined us for our Entrepreneur's Series before, come out. They are informal and we save a lot of time for Q&A and networking.