courthouse in reflection, originally uploaded by photos-by-sherm
There’s mixed feelings in the venture world about aggressive deal sourcing. For one, I think no one wants to describe their product as a commodity, but there’s no denying that a competitive financing landscape exists today, and in my opinion it’s likely to get worse before it gets better as the information asymmetries continue to erode. Sure, firms will syndicate with each other but increasingly capital efficient ventures and growing fund sizes are obviating the need. Venture investors are on the hunt.
With such thoughts and the allure of the coast in mind, I headed southeast this Monday to attend the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s “Opportunity ‘06” conference in Wilmington, NC. A little sister to CED’s gala spring get-together, Opportunity is really geared for angels and entrepreneurs. There’s “curbside consulting” for small businesses, financing advice (and 101), and inspirational talks by successful entrepreneurs. This year we heard from local hotshots Don deBethizy, President and CEO of Targacept, a biotech company that went public in April, and John McConnell, former Chairman and CEO of A4 Health Systems which sold to Allscripts in January. The two couldn’t have more distinct speaking styles. Don is “sales-y,” able to distill the complex topic of central nervous system pharmaceuticals into digestible bites for the layman, and John is disarmingly “blunt,” a say whatever he’s thinking type that comes across as eminently likeable. Descriptives aside, I thought I’d share a couple of their points which I found notable:
- Don compared entrepreneurship to the Pony Express. Ride a horse, or idea/product/service (drug line in his case), as fast and hard as possible and make sure you’ve got the next one lined up to hop onto as market conditions change (one’s horse tires - the Pony Express had horses at stations 10 miles apart to enable efficient transport). This topic came up in a board meeting today as well. Seeding new and complementary avenues of growth for a business is often worthwhile even, and perhaps especially, when the core is really cooking along. Don says, “don’t be a one-trick pony.”
- As for John, I thought I’d reprint his parting thoughts which fall in the common sense that’s worth reminding of category:
- “Don’t take yourself too seriously; nobody else will.
- Have fun each day of your life or it’s a day you’ve lost.
- Tough times don’t last; tough people do.”
Indeed. John’s words echoed my general takeaway from the event - a great booster for self-starters. But also a great event for a venture investor willing to not take himself so seriously as to ignore the little sister conference. There’s gold in them thar hills.
[...] Having handled the pay-per-click (PPC) marketing for a top 250 e-tailer, DrJays.com, I wondered shortly after joining Chrysalis whether venture firms practice similar forms of direct marketing. As I wrote earlier this week, aggressive deal sourcing still holds mixed feelings in the investor community. A few really “with it” firms are taking the search engine optimization route (i.e. optimize the firm’s website via text, page titles, static URLs vs dynamic ones, etc), but I hadn’t seen anyone doing straight PPC until I ran across the following today while editing my LinkedIn profile: [...]
[...] One of the more enjoyable panels at last week’s Opportunity 2006 conference in Wilmington, NC was titled, “Finding the First $1-2M - What Angels Think.” Donna Jensen-Madier, who raised money for her “venture accelerator,” Startups.com, during the bubble, recounted her steps in raising money from a combination of angel investors and a venture firm. And Marty Hackney and Tim Janke, both representing established angel funds in North Carolina, described what they look for and what the entrepreneur should expect in the way of process. The result wasn’t “What Angels Think,” which can be all over the board, but rather ”What Sophisticated Angel Groups Think” (i.e. much closer to standard institutional investors). If you’re interested in pitching angel investor groups, check out this great primer and ignore its title which includes “for Software Entrepreneurs.” The document is broadly applicable. [...]