Yesterday I had the honor of
moderating the plenary panel on Funding Innovation in Indiana at
the TechPoint Innovation Summit. This was just a great
event.
The panel members included Michael Brown of Battery Ventures -
Boston, Michael Arpey of Credit Suisse - New York, Steve Hourigan
of the 21st Century Fund, Mathias Schilling of BV Capital - San
Francisco, and Bob Compton, a serial entrepreneur most recently
founding Vontoo, LLC. I want to thank the members once again
for their participation....
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Next
week is the
TechPoint Innovation
Summit. This will be an exciting event for Indiana-based
technology leaders.
This year I am pleased to moderate the
plenary panel discussion on "Funding Innovation".
As an Indiana tech lawyer / SaaS law attorney who helps
clients set capital structures and meet capital goals, this is a
topic I live and breath and am always striving to see fulfilled.
Thus, I am thrilled to take part in this
discussion.
The panel consists of venture capital and private...
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I read an interesting post
yesterday on
Small Business Trends by Professor Scott Shane,
Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve
University. It is a good read for current entrepreneurs and
those daring to dream of starting their own company.
Here is the post:
Most entrepreneurs believe a bunch of myths about financing new
companies that hinder their efforts to raise money. Here are a
few:
Myth 1: It takes a lot of money to finance a new
business. Not true. The typical...
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I read an
interesting
blog
post by Thomas Klein of
Sand Hill Group this week on
the evolution and future of enterprise software.
Klein states that a new wave of enterprise software has emerged and
is “pulsating through the economy” and venture capital will soon
take notice. The new platform is marked principally by SaaS
and cloud computing. The industry visionaries are referring
to this new era of enterprise software as Enterprise 3.0.
I found Klein's summary of the history of enterprise...
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I have met with private
equity firms, angel investor groups, and venture capitalists all
over the nation about tying into private equity investments in
Indianapolis – primarily with SaaS businesses. I am always
amazed by the cultural differences of investors in different areas
of the country.
In Indianapolis, for instance, investors typically want to consider
investment opportuntities by looking at aspects of the business
plan in the following order: (1) Management Team; (2) Market
Opportunity,...
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I read an interesting article on
the
Seeing Both Sides blog last week which addressed
valuation terms considered by private equity investors when
negotiating deals. The article primarily addresses how an
entrepreneur’s misunderstanding of valuation terms could harm the
entrepreneur’s ultimate equity position following the equity
raise.
Among other topics addressed, the article discusses the impact of
management option pools on business valuations as considered by
venture capitalists or other...
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This ticks me off. I
understand that in a struggling economy the State needs to make
budget cuts, but instead of cutting spending in areas that
ultimately do not lead to economic improvement, our State
representatives are
considering cutting spending in an area that
have been the lifeblood of the State for the last quarter century –
technology.
This may have a huge impact on my clients as my law practice
centers on Indiana technology businesses – helping technology
businesses get innovations to...
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For my first foray into the world of blogging,
I think the important first step is to answer the standard
journalism questions necessary for any good story, namely, the who,
what, when, where, and why. Sorry for
the length. I promise that future blogs will be
shorter. Without further adieu, here we
go . . . .
Who: This one is easy because I
know a lot about me. My name is Chris
Stephen and I consider myself first and foremost a
litigator. Some people in my field like
to classify themselves...
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I just returned back
from another trip to Southern California. This time I met
with two investment teams – one angel investor group and a venture
capital group. My firm has built a good relationship with
each team. The investment world is getting smaller and
smaller.
I took a portfolio of sixteen Alerding Castor clients’ equity deals
to share with these teams. As every investment group has
their leanings of types of deals they like to see (e.g., real
estate, emerging tech, SaaS and Internet,...
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I am leaving today for Orange
County, CA once again. I have meetings scheduled this
week with two clients, one venture capital firm and one angel
investor group in Southern California. Regarding the later
two, we are working on securing capital funding for several
business clients of our firm.
When heading out to the East or West coast, I find it interesting
how different the investment community cultures are from the
culture of the Midwest. When presenting to most Midwest angel
investor...
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The National Association of Seed
and Venture Funds (NASVF), a national organization of public and
private equity firms and private equity investors, released a study
this week of 5,000 early stage funds and providers that support
young entrepreneurial companies and found that State level funding
for these companies is dire.
According to NASVF’s press release:
The survey found that the vast
majority of young innovative companies across the United States –
the emerging Microsofts, Ciscos, Apples...
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I am back in
Irvine, California this week visiting with
two angel investor
groups. One of which invited me and my colleague, Sam
Schmutte, to attend their investors meeting this morning.
Yesterday, we had lunch with the two officers of this group.
We spent much of that time discussing the current economic climate
and its impact on investment opportunities.
In the wake of Madoff, economic stimulus earmarks, and AIG bonuses
the public’s trust of financial “experts” has been shattered.
This is...
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“In down economies,
the only thing that’s going to change things is changing
things.”
- Seth Godin
Anthony Ware is a co-founder with Sam Schmutte and me of VentureSpring, LLC, a
consulting and business alliance firm that helps emerging
businesses structure and meet capital requirements and develop
operational efficiencies. Anthony had a
great blog post this week. Here is an
excerpt:
The door is
open.
The time for
complaining about the economy is over… it's time...
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A
friend and client of mine,
Doug Karr, wrote a good post
this week entitled "
Where
to Start a Startup?" I appreciate Doug's candid comments
regarding the climate for private equity investors in
Indiana. Key question - "Starting a business requires
funding. Does Indiana have it?"
Indiana (and its business leaders) needs to continue supporting
innovation and excellence in entrepreneurship - especially if it
wants to remain a market leader in technology industries. As
a funding law /...
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I
purposely never write about politics or religion on this
blog. It is not that I do not have my
convictions, it is more that there is a time and place for such
things… and I have yet to feel like the Business and Culture Blog
is my proper forum. The purpose of this blog is to address
those areas of innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship, technology
and community that lie at the intersection of business and
culture. Last week our House and Senate leaders approved a
bill that lies at this...
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A large part of my business law practice
consists of providing counsel to business owners on raising
capital. These clients are primarily new ventures in Indiana
technology, software licensing, SaaS law and real estate
fields. I assist these businesses in developing strategies
for private equity offerings, drafting private placement
memorandums and related investment documents and identifitying and
presenting the investment opportunties to private equity
investors.
It is about impossible to...
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In
The Art of the Start Guy Kawasaki tells a story of Albert
Einstein on a train: “He couldn’t find his ticket after searching
through all his pockets and bags. The conductor approached
him and said something to the effect of, ‘Dr. Einstein, everyone
knows who you are. We know that Princeton can afford to buy
you another train ticket.’ To which Einstein replied with something
along the lines of, ‘I’m not worried about the money. I need
to find the ticket to figure out where I’m going.’”
As a...
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Like many of my clients, I am an
entrepreneur. About four years ago I got the guts to leave
the large law firm atmosphere, take my few Indiana technology
clients and start my own business law practice (what has now grown
into
Alerding Castor). I
remember dealing with many internal questions at that time about
whether it was the correct moment of my career and life to launch
out on my own.
There is a good article in this month's
Harvard Business Review entitled "Planning a Start-Up? Seize
the...
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My law practice continues to expand into
international business deals. This year my firm has handled
several software licensing and Software as a Service (SaaS law)
transactions in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and several real
estate deals and private equity investments (through angel investor
groups and venture capital law firms) in Africa (see my blog post
on
Alerding Castor in Africa). A client of mine, S4X
Ventures, just recently announced their expansion into southern
Africa (
click
he...
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