If the 2006 Florida Venture Capital Conference is any indicator, the venture vibe is up in the sunshine state. The conference ran Mon-Wed of this week and was full of good presenters, networking and activities. I’ve jotted down a few thoughts from Day 1 of the conference below and will cover Days 2 and 3 [...]
Florida Venture Blog
by Dan Rua…just a VC, living vicariously thru entrepreneurs…
Monthly Archives: January 2006
Jan 26
Top 10 VC Guerrilla Marketing Stunts
While reading Guy Kawasaki’s post The Venture Capitalist Wishlist, detailing his top 10 list for attracting VC interest, it reminded me of some of the guerrilla ways entrepreneurs have made their presence known at past VC conferences. I miss a lot of these stunts post-bubble and hope we’ll see some creative ideas at next week’s [...]
Jan 24
Big University Foundations Yield Big Alt Returns
The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), together with TIAA-CREF, just announced a study of university foundation returns across the country. The big takeaway: large Foundations from $100M to $500M to $1B, got larger with good alternative asset allocations. While the smallest colleges relied upon low-risk/liquid Public Equities and Fixed Income investments, [...]
Jan 24
Another Day, Another Set of FL Venture Numbers
PWC/NVCA/VentureEconomics/[insert brand here] MoneyTree report came out just after E&Y/VOne with same Florida story, different numbers. Florida venture investing hit $361M for 2005, up from $318M in 2004 — not as big a jump as reported by E&Y. Deals were just a nudge down, with 55 in 2005 vs. 58 in 2004. It was the [...]
Jan 23
E&Y/VentureOne Shows 2005 Florida Boost
Interesting VC stats show 46% increase in FL venture investments, but in fewer deals. Likely cause: a couple more later/larger stage investments. We’re seeing good activity on the early-stage front, but institutional dollar supply still doesn’t meet demand. “Venture capital investment in Florida in 2005 soared 46 percent to $389 million versus the previous year [...]
Jan 19
Are the Dots Painting a Picture?
This article from the Miami Herald, about biotech/Scripps, makes another mention of legislative interest/support for more local venture capital: “Atwater believes legislation will be offered in the next 60 days to help remedy the problem. It will come in the form of state-supported venture capital, subsidized laboratory space or some modification of existing incentive programs, [...]
Jan 18
VC Guberteaser?
It looks like Jeb has something coming for entrepreneurs. In announcing a FL Space agenda, there was this VC snippet: “Not in today’s budget proposal but coming soon: a request to expand a current $10 million “closing fund” the governor has broad discretion to use to lure new business ventures to Florida, and a venture [...]
Jan 18
ClariFI clears $3.5M
Brad and his team over at ClariFI landed a quality finance-sector partner — who also brought some dollars. TL Ventures is putting in $3.5M and getting a couple board seats: William Guttman and Robert Keith. I’ve seen ClariFI’s ModelStation product for portfolio managers and it’s impressive. I wish I had it for my personal stock [...]
Jan 13
2006 Predictions, Part II: Entrepreneurial Vision
This is Part II of my 2006 Predictions series, with the spotlight falling on entrepreneurs this time. I asked some of Florida’s top entrepreneurs for their predictions and got some pretty bold ones. Here’s what they said: For starters, Jeff Gallino, the guy who owns more ebooks than anyone I know and CEO of speech [...]
Jan 09
2006 Predictions
What would a new year be without some wacky predictions? After twisting the arms of some of Florida’s top entrepreneurial minds, I got a number of bold (and not so bold) bets on what’s in store this year. Before sharing some of them, I’d like to thank all contributors for putting their mind and keyboard [...]
Jan 05
CES: Land of cables, tricked-out rides and home theaters…
Well, 2006 International CES has kicked off and executives from 64+ Florida companies are glad-handing, beaming business cards and generally playing with stuff in Las Vegas. Not only is Florida well represented with boothage, but a good number of local companies are out there with partners/customers and demo suites — for example, WiDeFi has a [...]
Jan 04
Florida: Center of the Feediverse?
Congratulations to Florida blogger Rogers Cadenhead and his blog Workbench for winning “Feed of the Year” in Feedster’s countdown. Read why Feedster was so impressed… Chalk up one for the home team! Let’s get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!
Jan 03
2006 Starts with a $14M Bang for SkyCross
Just off the wires, it looks like Chris (er, Dr. Morton) and his crew have cash to make smaller, better antennas. I’ve seen their products and like the expertise they’ve assembled. For those of you building or funding wireless companies, make sure you consider the Melbourne area. We’ve backed two wireless companies there (WiDeFi and [...]
