100th post and celebration of Entreprenuers
January 31, 2009
For my 100th blog post, I’d like to recap the entrepreneurial celebration event the Lexington Venture club put on. The LVC does an annual survey of venture activity in the bluegrass region. Over 150 turned out to hear the following recap for 2008.
68 companies high tech startups were identified who:
Received over $68 million in funding
Employed 532 people…366 full-time and 166 part-time
Hired 230 people in 2008…132 full-time and 98 part-time
Paid an average salary of $65,000 to full-time employees
Produced revenues of $37,800,000…an 18% increase over 2007
Startup Profile: Transposagen
January 30, 2009
The company I work with, Transposagen Bio, received a nice write-up in the Business Lexington CEO spot light.
Here is the link.
New center for renewable energy research
January 27, 2009
The University of Louisville has been chosen to operate Kentucky’s Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship. This was made possible due to a $20 million donation from U of L alumnus Henry Conn. I have written in the past about the fact that Kentucky should be a leader in green energy technologies and startups due to the importance of energy to our economy.
Kentucky Startup Census
January 23, 2009
We are doing a census of tech oriented startups in Kentucky. While their is not hard and fast criteria, the criteria we are using is:
Indutsry: IT & related, Biotech/Pharma, Greentech, Cleantech and other High Tech
Less Than five years old or still pre-revenue
Headquarters located in Kentucky.
The list can be viewed at grouplist.us/kentuckystartups
If you know of any startups that are missing, please add to the list, which is reviewed for accuracy, or leave a comment here.
Hacker CO-OP
January 20, 2009
Their is an organizational meeting thursday night for a Hacker co-op to share co-working space and resources in Lexington. It is open to anyone who is interested. Thursday night at 7pm at Common Grounds Coffee house. Contact @xtoddx if interested
Interview with Mersive’s founder on fundraising
January 19, 2009
We asked Randall Stevens, Co-founder & CEO of Mersive, about the funding round they just closed and what is in store for the future:
You were able to raise a second round of funding during what is considered a difficult time for fundraising. What were the keys to getting this done?
We started the process in the spring of 2008. April and May were spent updating the business plan and preparing the road-show. We hit the road, regionally and the coasts, in June, July & August. What a difference a few months can make! I’m glad we were pitching when we did! Three or four months later and we might have had a tougher time.
There are always funds looking for great opportunities and I think Mersive presented such an opportunity. We were well received by all of the potential investors we met. I credit the work of the team here at Mersive. We have produced innovative products that are being well received in the market and have spent the time to lay the groundwork for many years of continued growth. Chris Jaynes, Mersive co-Founder and CTO, and I spent many weeks hashing through many iterations of the business plan and presentation materials. The Mersive story is compelling and the team we’ve assembled is complementary to that vision. The investor community recognized the potential in that combination.
What did Hopewell ventures bring to the table that made them the right partner?
I think the most important thing is finding partners that you get along with. Bill Sutter, Managing Partner, and Matt McCue, Vice President, of Hopewell Ventures have now joined our board and are already contributing to our success. Besides the funds, we were looking for partners that we thought we could sit across the table with and have rational, constructive conversations about growing the business. Matt and Bill bring a wealth of knowledge from their previous experiences.
What does the next 18 months look like for Mersive? New technology? New products?
Yes and Yes. And continuing to build out the team. We have a great group that we built over the past couple of years but a lot of people have been wearing many hats during that time. Over the next year we’ll continue to build out the core management team to complement the world-class engineering team we’ve assembled.
Success in the market over the past couple of years is increasing the demands on the team. This latest round of financing will ensure that we can continue to fulfill the market demand. We will also continue with the innovative spirit that got us here in the first place and bring innovative new products to market. We see no end in sight of the possibilities for Mersive.
Social Entrepreneurship and Rowan Claypool
January 15, 2009
The concept of social entrepreneurship has become more popular in the last few years as people have taken entrepreneurial principles and applied them to a social issue. Rowan Claypool is one such character who started his social entrepreneurship quest over 10 years ago. Rowan has built two organizations, starting out as insurgent, grass roots groups and the growing one into an offical arm of Yale University. I asked Rowan to talk about his ventures:
Rowan, tell me about Bulldogs in the Bluegrass?
Bulldogs in the Bluegrass was started to accomplish several missions: attract Yale undergrads to a city they would NEVER consider otherwise, give them their first real world job experience, provide our local nonprofits with extraordinary young interns, and put the city on the map. It worked, 10 years and 324 interns later, 32 have moved to town for at least a year after graduation from Yale. I now work for Yale replicating the model across the country. It is a complete novel ALUMNI driven model which now operates in nine cities and places over 140 interns annually.
In addition to this group, you also founded Teach Kentucky?
Teach Kentucky flows from the same general mission to attract bright young folks to the Commonwealth. This time it is multi-institutional and for the purpose of teaching in public schools. We enroll them in an alternative certification/Masters at UofL (University of Louisville) and provide them many connections through civic mentors to the community so they will stay.
What type of success have you had? One hundred percent of those who survive the first Fall complete their 2 yr. commitment and 70% stay on teaching in Kentucky after the commitment. They are reaching high levels of leadership very quickly and will be great educators soon.
One of the reasons for the success of these first time teachers is the second year teachers have written a field guide, The Teachopedia, to help smooth the transition for those just entering the program.
Mersive raise over four million
January 13, 2009
Mersive Technologies, a maker of software that allows projectors to be clustered together to create large, ultra-high-resolution, seamless displays, has raised $4.6 million. $4 million comes from new investor Hopewell Ventures with the balance from exisiting investors, Adena ventures, Kentucky Science and Technology Corp and the Bluegrass Angel Ventures .
Startup Weekend coming to Louisville
January 12, 2009
While final details are still being worked out, I am working with Forge Louisville
to bring Startup Weekend to Louisville sometime this spring. Keep checking back here for more details and if you’d like to attend, leave a comment.
Entrepreneur Article
January 8, 2009
Hers is a link to my column in Business Lexington about entrepreneurial firms and statistics.
