Private Equity Solutions

Conference will focus on financing of early-stage ventures

Private Equity Fund Of Funds By Eric Kleefeld • 09/02/05 Madison, Wis. - Startup entrepreneurs throughout the Upper Midwest will have the chance to network and get tips about securing venture capital at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.

Curve Equity Exposed Fund The event, to be held at the Monona Terrace in Madison, will run from Oct. 19-20. It is being organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council, the Wisconsin Innovation Network, the Wisconsin Angel Network and the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network.

New York, NY (May 9, 2007) Tutor.com, a leader in live, on demand tutoring services, today announced new venture investments of $13.5 million to fund expansion of Tutor.com Direct, the company's on demand tutoring service for students and families. The equity growth funding of $9.5 million was led by Intel Capital and included investments from Ascend Venture Group, Kidron Opportunity Fund and previous investor Dawntreader Ventures. Tutor.com also secured $4 million in venture debt financing from MMV Financial based on the strength of its established institutional business.

Equity Income Funds "When you think about it, our business plan contest, the Entrepreneurs' Conference, the Angel Network, it's all about early-stage," said Wisconsin Technology Council president Tom Still. "To have, then, a conference that we think can pull all of these strings together and then allow an instructional session for early-stage companies so they can think about moving to that next level in terms of financing, that's really a core reason why we did this."

Board Member Back to Overview Frank, a founder and Managing Director of Zone Ventures, is an experienced venture capitalist and finance executive who has raised funds in both debt and equity for privately held companies. He has worked in management consulting for small to medium size technology businesses and has also placed financing for a diverse range of real estate developments. generation power projects.

Capital Casebook Equity The conference is a successor to the Wisconsin Life Sciences & Venture Conference, which had run for 20 years. Still said that the change in format occurred for several reasons, chiefly the desire to expand coverage to other technology sectors such as IT, manufacturing or nanotechnology. Additionally, there will be a sharper focus on personalized instruction as well as on seeking angel investment of SBIR and STTR grants.

Building a business plan

The symposium will offer panel discussions and coaching sessions on how upper Midwestern technology companies can better attract capital from both inside and outside the region and to work harder on their own business plans.

Prior to joining 3i, founder and COO of Exygy, a business focused on new applications of GPS and wireless technology. Before this, David worked for four years in the $3.5 billion private equity group at GE Asset Management, where he specialized in late stage venture and growth capital opportunities. He also held a position managing investment portfolios for the Bank of Boston and began his career in investment management at State Street Bank, with GE Asset Management as his client. David also has experience as a strategy consultant with both the Parthenon Group and with Citizen's Energy.

Private Investment In Public In the morning, attendees will take a software test to help them self-evaluate their own strengths and weakness. Following will be an overview session on the problems encountered by startups and the various myths they must avoid following. They will then split off into separate workshops depending on their current status early-stage, proof of concept, and those close to market in which they can focus on who they are and what they need to do.

By design, SAP Ventures is a small worldwide team. Our five investment professionals focus an intense level of attention on our investment portfolio, which comprises companies in Europe, the United States and Israel. We invest selectively in emerging technology that combines large market potential with high growth opportunity. With a venture capital partnership model and the autonomy to pursue investment areas not immediately connected with SAP's core business, SAP Ventures has invested in more than 50 direct equity deals, building a track record of success throughout our history.

Equity Mutual Funds "Oftentimes, companies think that they are ready to go to market when they really don't have a customer prototype that's been proved," said Courtney Price, CEO of VentureQuest, a consulting firm based in Denver.

Birmingham Contact Equity Price will be leading a seminar, "Venture-Readiness Tools For Commercialization Success," on what companies can do to assess and improve their business plans, whether it involves courting capital sources or simply determining their own product plans and overall direction.

Private Equity Investment Firm Price said that many early-stage companies in search of capital will draw up blueprints for their businesses that are really made for wooing capital, relying on various optimistic assumptions about how successful their products would be and just how quickly those products could be adopted by the marketplace. When some of those assumptions don't come to fruition, a company can be caught flat-footed.

Complying Deal Equity Funds "We have a saying: You want to crawl, then walk, then run," Price said. "Many times you find these entrepreneurs that discover a new marketplace, a new technology, and they're ready to run to the marketplace, and they aren't ready and they crash and burn."

Seeking capital for the Midwest

While Wisconsin and the rest of the region have a strong record in science, it is not one without some flaws, according to Trevor D'Souza, a managing director with the private equity investment firm Mason Wells and a board member of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Equity Msn Private Wyoming D'Souza said that while the overall economic picture for the state is a good one, there is still not enough money coming in. That is due partly to some lack of awareness among capital sources as well as the state's strength in getting money for scientific research rather than the end technologies that develop from that research. That situation poses barriers in addition to the normal questions about the track record of startups in the region that grow into successful firms.

American Equity Investment "The other question that we get is, how much opportunity really is there?" D'Souza said. "And it usually comes from people out of the region that are not familiar with the amount of technology that bubbles up around here," he added, noting that while there can be strong technological development in the state, those companies tend to be overshadowed due to a focus on licensing deals to larger companies instead of becoming household name businesses in their own right.

Equity Index Funds Eric Kleefeld is a writer for WTN in Madison. He can be reached at eric@wistechnology.com.

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]