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| February 7, 2008 | Volume 12 Issue 6 |
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Editor: George Lipper | |
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The NetNews Archives Are Now Live Many NetNews readers have beseeched us to make the archnive, now 17,400 items long, searchable. Done! That database of the stories and studies that track back to 2001 is searchable by category, by state by date or even by key word. We hope you can make use of it. One caution: some of the links may have expired. Some others may take you to a newspaper's archive, where they ask for money before granting access. But try it; and tell us what you think: NetNews Achives (Please scroll down for the full story) -- Yahoo Sale: Will It Reduce Silicon Valley Exit Opportunities? -- IPO Market Dries Up in January -- Rebranding Michigan: Entrepreneurs Wanted -- Oregon State Treasury Invests $3 Million in Angel Fund -- Angel Fund Fills the Gap in New Mexico Seed-Stage Investments -- Seattle's Alliance of Angels Reaches New Heights with 2007 Investments -- Venture Capital Firm Grows Into Ohio -- Kickstarting Connecticut Startups -- An Old Bomb Range Could Stall Plans for Orlando's Innovation Way -- Drug Maker Outsourcing Helps Indiana Companies Grow -- 'Innovation index' Shows Uptick for Michigan -- An 'Unreal' Boost for Science -- Bush Admnistration, Tech Titans Split over Patent Bill -- Starting Up: University Incubators -- Florida Announces $80M Investment in University of Miami Genetic Institute -- Arizona's TGen Attracts California Money -- California Stem Cell Institute Wants to Make Loans -- VCs Navigate Cash vs. Carnage Scenario with Green Tech -- Baton Rouge Chamber Chief Joins Louisiana Department of Economic Development -- Northeast Ohio's Job Growth in High-Tech Industries Sees Slight Increase -- Government Help for Small-Business Owners (No Joke) -- Seminars & Conferences Yahoo Sale: Will It Reduce Silicon Valley Exit Opportunities? For decades, Silicon Valley has been the land of eternal optimism and high anxiety, traits that pitch into overdrive anytime a seismic business event washes across the corporate and entrepreneurial landscape here — like, for example, Microsoft's blockbuster $45 billion bid for Yahoo on Friday.The legions of high-tech entrepreneurs who have set up camp here with clever ideas, a willingness to scramble for financing and the energy to weather round-the-clock days have typically tethered their dreams to a singular outcome: getting fabulously rich by selling to one of the three Internet giants, Microsoft, Google or Yahoo: New York Times But Marc Andreeson, writing from his blog site, examines multiple reasons why that's just not so. Assume for the moment that Microsoft succeeds in its bid for Yahoo. What would a Microsoft/Yahoo merger mean for startups in Silicon Valley? Pmarca.com Microsoft's bold bid to acquire Yahoo reveals the Darwinian truth about Silicon Valley. The best place in the world to start a company is also the worst place to stumble. While Yahoo's ultimate fate has yet to be decided, its meteoric rise to success and now its descent into uncertainty is as familiar as the rise and fall of Netscape, another Internet-spawned colossus that once strutted its hour upon the stage and then was seen no more: San Francisco Chronicle IPO Market Dries Up in January The business of taking companies public, one of Wall Street's most important, profitable and--until recently--resilient activities is drying up. Seventeen initial public offerings were either postponed or withdrawn entirely last month, versus only three in January 2007, according to research firm Dealogic. That is the biggest monthly number logged in the United States since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. In all, only a dozen firms actually managed to go public in January: Crain's New York As if VCs need yet another signal that the exit environment is getting tougher, here's another: PE Hub Rebranding Michigan: Entrepreneurs Wanted Michigan once changed the world. Now it's the world that's changing, and Michigan needs to respond. Michigan was the entrepreneurial hotspot of the industrial revolution, leading technological advances in manufacturing for much of the 20th Century. But while Michigan was leading, the state's culture evolved into a risk-averse society that shied away from new ventures. Nathan Bomey for the Oakland Business Review begins a series of articles on how to get there again. Oakland Business Review Oregon State Treasury Invests $3 Million in Angel Fund A state treasury fund that invests lottery proceeds on behalf of Oregon's public schools will invest $1 million each of the next three years in the Oregon Angel Fund: Portland Business Journal After years of complaints that Oregon's angel investors had forgotten how to write checks, the heavens have opened, and cash is raining down at last. A host of new angels are bestowing much-needed money on local startup companies. And people who invested years ago are once again opening their checkbooks to fund new startups: Portland Business Journal Angel Fund Fills the Gap in New Mexico Seed-Stage Investments Yogi Berra once famously said about his favorite restaurant: "It's so crowded, no one goes there anymore." The same could be said about seed-stage investing and today's venture capital investors: Carlsbad Current-Argus Among other angels observed across the country, the Women's Capital Connection is up and running as the first women's angel investor group in the Kansas City area Kansas City Business Journal The Winter Park Angels, a group of local well-heeled and well-known names trying to get in on the venture-capital game, still has yet to make its first investment. But they say they're getting close and recently got a boost when Kirstie Chadwick, director of the Orange County/UCF Venture Lab, agreed to come on board as an executive on loan: Orlando Sentinel Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania has agreed to house and provide investment and administrative support for the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group Fund I LP, the two entities said Monday: Philadelphia Business Journal Seattle's Alliance of Angels Reaches New Heights with 2007 Investments The Alliance of Angels, the Pacific Northwest's premier non–profit angel investor organization, announced today that its membership invested a total of $3.9 million in 44 early stage companies during 2007, setting a new record for the number of deals completed in the program's 10–year history. Companies also secured $3.3 million in funding from additional sources facilitated by AoA, bringing the program's total impact on early stage investment last year to $7.2 million. Alliance of Angels Venture Capital Firm Grows Into Ohio The newest entry into the Cincinnati area's venture capital scene has started catching up quickly, with two major investments in the past month. Pittsburgh-based Draper Triangle Ventures, an offshoot of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is pushing new funds into two Hamilton County companies: Cincinnati Enquirer As venture investors increasingly prowl for bioscience deals, the Kansas City region has a growing chance of attracting their attention. Last year offered reason for optimism. A healthy dose of bioscience deals drove Kansas to $76.8 million in venture-capital investments in 2007. Missouri also had some notable bioscience transactions, but financial services and other high-tech ventures were the prime drivers behind $91 million in venture-capital investments that MoneyTree tallied in that state last year: Kansas City Star Kickstarting Connecticut Startups For the second consecutive legislative session, the Connecticut Technology Council and Connecticut Innovations will be asking lawmakers to adopt a bill that would give tax credits to angel investors, members of the private sector that fund entrepreneurial dreams: Hartford Business Journal An Old Bomb Range Could Stall Plans for Orlando's Innovation Way Innovation Way, a proposed high-tech job and housing corridor in southeast Orange County, could face higher costs and delays because it is so close to a former World War II-era bomb range where more old rocket and bomb parts were dug up during the weekend: Orlando Sentinel Drug Maker Outsourcing Helps Indiana Companies Grow More outsourcing by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies is creating opportunities for the growth of Indiana's contract service providers, BioCrossroads says in a new report. The report released Monday lists more than 40 such businesses in the state that provide services identified as crucial in the advancement of the drug-development process -- from discovery of a compound to commercialization of a drug: Indianapolis Star-News 'Innovation index' Shows Uptick for Michigan Innovative economic activity in Michigan increased 2.8 percent from the middle of 2006 to the middle of 2007, according to a new “innovation index” developed by scholars at the University of Michigan-Dearborn School of Management: Great Lakes IT Report Leading proponents of the "creative class" economic theory convene in downtown Detroit this October, in part to determine whether the Motor City is sufficiently hip to attract a young and entrepreneurial work force. Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to announce the Creative Cities Summit later this week. It's the latest effort by established institutions to transform the region's image from ruined rust belt to hip hangout: Detroit News An 'Unreal' Boost for Science President Bush's proposed budget for basic research and development in the 2009 fiscal year seeks a record $147 billion, a 3 percent increase over 2008 that would elevate the physical sciences and engineering, in particular, while keeping funding for the National Institutes of Health flat and scaling back or cutting other domestic programs, including for financial aid: Inside HigherEd There's also a plate full of grim news facing state governments this year. Many states are greeting 2008 with a major budget hangover and are looking for relief from falling home sales, higher energy prices and reduced sales-tax collections after two years of overflowing coffers. Red ink was showing up in as many as 20 state ledgers as the year began, not encouraging for those state policy makers intent on economic transition initiatives: Stateline Bush Admnistration, Tech Titans Split over Patent Bill The Bush administration said Monday that it opposes a key provision of a patent reform bill that has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting a floor vote in the Senate, taking sides in an intellectual war over how best to promote innovation. The position puts the administration at odds with big technology firms like Intel, IBM, Apple, Google, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard that have banded together to push the bill, and squarely on the side of the biotech and venture capital industries, which say the proposed change would significantly weaken patents: San Francisco Chronicle We'd prefer to speak for ourselves claims higher educattion. A memorandum circulated on Capitol Hill last week sought to reassure U.S. senators that higher education leaders, who have opposed certain aspects of a patent reform bill approved last fall by the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been dealt with satisfactorily. Unfortunately, the document had been prepared not by any university or group of institutions, which have had consistently mixed feelings about the Patent Reform Act (S. 1145), but by the Coalition for Patent Fairness, an advocacy group representing major technology companies and businesses. Inside HigherEd Starting Up: University Incubators Entrepreneurship studies have long been a focal point at graduate business schools. Now, a growing number of colleges and universities are offering classes, degrees and support to undergraduates with big entrepreneurial dreams. In particular, school-sponsored "incubators" or "hatcheries," once the domain of business schools, are giving budding entrepreneurs like those at Belmont a taste for ownership and a testing ground to grow their businesses: Wall Street Journal (subscription required) Many liberal arts colleges have long struggled to balance increasing emphases on professional preparation with a core curriculum. Business, in particular, has been blooming. But not without significant discussions at administrative and faculty levels about what that business education should look like — and not without some aversion to calling the final products “business” programs: Inside HigherEd As humans, we want to believe that creativity and innovation come in flashes of pure brilliance, with great thunderclaps and echoing Eureka!. Innovators and other creative types, we believe, stand apart from the crowd, wielding secrets and magical talents beyond the rest of us. Balderdash. Epiphany has little to do with either creativity or innovation. Instead, innovation is a slow process of accretion, building small insight upon interesting fact upon tried-and-true process: New York Times Florida Announces $80M Investment in University of Miami Genetic Institute The University of Miami received $80 million in a state grant to expand its nascent genetic research institute, Gov. Charlie Crist announced Friday in South Florida's latest move to expand its biotech research hub. The institute, established last year, focuses on using human genome research to prevent, detect and treat human diseases. The money from the state's Innovation Incentive Fund will enable the university's Miller School of Medicine to add an estimated 300 research and technology jobs, 120 to be filled by the end of the year: South Florida Sun Sentinel Arizona's TGen Attracts California Money A Los Angeles biotech company plans to spend $21.5 million on two TGen-related programs that aim to make Arizona the base of a personalized-medicine initiative that tests and develops targeted cancer treatments: Arizona Republic Arizona technology and business leaders have established a $20 million venture-capital fund that will target early-stage bioscience companies seeking a financial boost to develop their ideas. The new fund, called the Translational Accelerator LLC, aims to bridge a money gap that many Arizona leaders believe has slowed the flow of successful startups: Arizona Republic California Stem Cell Institute Wants to Make Loans California's taxpayer-funded stem cell institute wants to do something a lot of banks won't: make loans to biotechnology companies with no cash flow, very little collateral and a high risk of failure. The idea is that loans would not pay for basic scientific research, but rather help fund the translation of research into clinical therapies, helping to push therapies closer to market and traditional investors, such as venture capital or public markets: San Diego Union Tribune VCs Navigate Cash vs. Carnage Scenario with Green Tech Over the past four years, venture capitalists have tossed huge amounts of cash at "green-tech" startups. The green, er, field has become saturated with speculative funding, rivaling even the two mainstays of Valley vulture capitalists: IT and life sciences. What was once the domain of well meaning, but ultimately dirt poor entrepreneurs is oh so hot right now. Some predict green tech funding will even out pace internet startup funding in 2008: The Register The sun is starting to grow jobs. While interest in alternative energy is climbing across the United States, solar power especially is rising in California, the product of billions of dollars in investment and mountains of enthusiasm: New York Times Baton Rouge Chamber Chief Joins Louisiana Department of Economic Development Louisiana's new economic development secretary, Stephen Moret, tapped two former colleagues and a state executive Friday to fill out his senior management staff. The appointment of Steven Grissom as deputy LED secretary leaves a void atop the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, which Grissom now serves as interim chief executive after Moret left the chamber's top position earlier this month to lead Gov. Bobby Jindal's economic development efforts. In a separate development, Jindal will ask the Legislature to pay Moret $320,000 a year — a pay cut from Moret's previous job but a salary that would make him among the highest-paid officials in state history: The Advocate Northeast Ohio's Job Growth in High-Tech Industries Sees Slight Increase After several years of decline, Northeast Ohio is starting to produce more high-paying jobs in high-tech industries. That's the optimistic interpretation of research that NorTech released yesterday. The Northeast Ohio economic development organization worked with Cleveland State University to update a report it released last year. That report showed a huge downturn in the number of high-tech sector jobs after the dot-com bubble burst around 2001: Cleveland Plain Dealer Government Help for Small-Business Owners (No Joke) For years, a good way to guarantee a laugh was to walk into a room of small business owners and announce, “I'm from the government and I am here to help you.” Entrepreneurs were more used to dealing with red tape, endless delays in getting an answer to a question and federal employees who were frequently less than helpful. But there are some government agencies worth your time. Consider: New York Times Investor and Entrepreneur Seminars & Conferences Detroit, MI Sept. 10-12, 2008 - 15th Annual Conference of the National Association of Seed & Venture Funds Registration Not Yet Open Offered by Our Friends: Chicago,IL February 21, 2008 - NASBIC Midwest Private Equity Conference NASBIC Midwest Tysons Corner,VA February 27-28, 2008 - Southeast Venture Conference Conference Southeast Venture Conference Chicago, IL March 17-18, 2008 - Annual Midwest Venture Summit Midwest Venture Summit New York, NY March 27-28, 2008 - San Antonio, TXL May 4-7, 2008 - Community Development Venture Capital Alliance Annual Conference CDVCA Annual Conference Las Vegas, NV May 4-7, 2008 - Consumer Health World Summit Health 3.0 Summit San Antonio, TX May 4-7, 2008 - NBIA's 22nd International Conference on Incubation National Business Incubation Association San Diego, CA May 7-9, 2008 - Angel Capital Association Summit Conference Angel Capital Association Ann Arbor (Ypsilanti), MI May 14-15, 2008 - 27th Annual Michigan Growth Capital Symposium Michigan Growth Capital Symposium Subscribe to NASVF NetNews Unsubscribe from NASVF NetNews 
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   Places that invest in innovation, that stroke the creativity of people, that market their ideas most effectively will become the home to the most rewarding jobs, to the strongest economies and to the best quality of life. We want Ontario to be that place where innovation is inevitable. The Ministry of Research and Innovation was created to focus on the government's commitment to innovation as the driver of growth across all sectors of the economy. The Ministry's mandate is to: Develop an integrated innovation strategy and guide its delivery; Invest in both policies and programs to deliver on the innovation strategy; and Foster a culture of innovation and showcase Ontario's innovative culture, nationally and internationally.  NASVF is accepting membership inquiries from organizations and individuals who build their local economies through investment and facilitation of investment in entrepreneurial ventures. Review our Member Benefits and submit your Inquiry Form today! Members Have a tough seed/venture capital question? Let NASVF provide the answers! Check out the newest member-only feature, "AskNASVF". This member exclusive email service is provided to help our members network and learn among the industry's top innovation capital leaders.   |