The Angel Capital Summit Blog

Journalist calls out Sequoia and "stepford wives of Sand Hill road."A former FT journalist questions the wisdom of the widely-circulated RIP Good Times presentation by Sequoia Capital which was widely distributed in the days and weeks following the financial crash.br /br /Tom Foremski says:br /br /p style="margin-left: 40px;"If the sky is falling today it likely isn't falling one or two years out, paradoxically these are good times./p p style="margin-left: 40px;"As a startup you should be investing for that future and working to line your ducks up instead of cutting valuable people and cutting back on outside services such as PR and social media relations./p p style="margin-left: 40px;"The savviest Silicon Valley companies know that you double up your investments in down times because business cycles are cycles: you want to be ready when the upturn comes./ppWe tend to agree.nbsp; Even outside of Silicon Valley, companies know these things.nbsp; That's why we're seeing active entrepreneurial from Albuquerque through Denver to Boise.nbsp;nbsp;/ppa href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"Join/a Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, former Shell International Sustainability Lead Anita M. Burke and a panel of your peers in a Town Hall titled span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"Disrupting the Recession/span, along side presentations from 40 best growth entrepreneurial companies, as judged by angel investors, incubators and other thought leaders.nbsp; a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target="_blank"Angel Capital Summit/a -- November 21, 2008.br //pbr /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2008/10/sequoia_bs_and.php" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Sequoia BS and the Stepford WIves of Sand Hill Road | Silicon Alley Watcher/abr/The Sequoia RIP presentation is bad advice, says former FT journalist./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Join the most influential and impactful early-stage investing conference in Denver/li/ul

Silicon Valley and Manhattan thought leaders with the courage to poke their heads out of the fox holes are suggesting that IPOs could return in early 2009.a href="Silicon Valley and Manhattan thought leaders with the courage to poke their heads out of the fox holes are suggesting that IPOs could return in early 2009."This piece/a in AlwaysOn (a good look at the insiders' network spanning hubs of power from Cambridge to Palo Alto) quotes IPO experts Lise Buyer (San Fracisco startup maven) and Jeff Matthews (Greenwich, CT hedge fund manager) on the doom and gloom lightening in early 2009.br /br / div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40px;"Investors will have more information ndash; such as year-end reports and the extent of hedge-fund losses due to redemptions, or money withdrawals from investors ndash; and feel more equipped to put money back into markets./div div style="margin-left: 40px;"br //div div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40px;"ldquo;Now, theyrsquo;re just sitting on piles of cashrdquo; and riding out the storm, Ms. Buyer described./div div style="margin-left: 40px;"br //div div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40px;"Then, there is likely to be a period of snapping up blue-chip stocks at relatively cheap prices, she said. Investors will thereafter regain some of their appetite for risk and seek ways to distinguish themselves in the herd of money managers./div div style="margin-left: 40px;"br //div div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 40px;"ldquo;When they finish the blue-light special shopping, they have to be willing to take on a little more risk in return for incremental return,rdquo; Ms. Buyer predicted./divbr /The missing issue in this article, which we presume Buyer would corroborate, is the imposing conditions of Sarbanes Oxley, which really dampens the desire for company leaders to take a company public.br /br /Obama advisors are whispering that a SarbOx re-write might be among the quot;hundred dayquot; plan to stimulate the economy.nbsp; br /br /And while the folks at AlwaysOn want you to attend their Silcon Valley Venture Summit, we think a more relevant local discussion will take place during the Angel Capital Summit's a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target="_blank"Town Hall/a meeting.nbsp; br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit Town Hall: Disrupting The Recession/abr/Join thought leaders from the early-stage investing and entreprenurial community to collaborate on creating our economic future./lilia href="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/Silicon%20Valley%20and%20Manhattan%20thought%20leaders%20with%20the%20courage%20to%20poke%20their%20heads%20out%20of%20the%20fox%20holes%20are%20suggesting%20that%20IPOs%20could%20return%20in%20early%202009." target=%quot;_blank%quot;Always On: Coming Soon: High-Value IPOs?/abr/Story on some optimism on both coasts./li/ul

Almost every business is impacted by the cost of oil; an understanding of these connections should shape every decision.If you don't already understand the concept of Peak Oil, drop everything and figure it out.nbsp; Now.nbsp; The future depends on it.nbsp; In fact, as we will hear in much more detail on Nov 21st, at the Angel Capital Summit, we're in an era of Peak Everything.nbsp; Concrete, steel, copper.nbsp; The hyper-wealthy are now buying gold mines, because they can't actually get their hands on very much gold.nbsp; br /br /The Financial Times just released some key information from the International Energy Agency's annual World Energy Outlook, suggesting that a target="_blank" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5e78778-a53f-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1"global oil production is already in decline/a (span style="font-style: italic;"free reg req'd/span).br /br /From the article:br /br /p style="margin-left: 40px;"The agency says even with investment, the annual rate of output decline is 6.4 per cent. /pp style="margin-left: 40px;"The decline will not necessarily be felt in the next few years because demand is slowing down, but with the expected slowdown in investment the eventual effect will be magnified, oil executives say./pp style="margin-left: 40px;".../pp style="margin-left: 40px;"The battle to replace mature oilfieldsrsquo; output could even offset the decline in demand growth, which has given the industry ndash; already struggling to find enough supply to meet needs, especially from China ndash; a reprieve in the past few months. /pThis inexorable march toward much more expensive energy will change the fundamental financials of almost every business.nbsp; Entrepreneurs -- and their early-stage investment partners -- have the benefit of designing business processes and cost models from scratch, and can more easily accommodate this new factor.br /br /a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"Join us on November 21st/a, where former Shell International Sustainability Lead a href="http://www.catalystinstitute.com" target="_blank"Anita Burke/a will share her perspective on how these and other global trends are going to affect investing and entrepreneurism in Colorado in the next decade and beyond.br /br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5e78778-a53f-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1" target=%quot;_blank%quot;FT.com / In depth - World will struggle to meet oil demand/abr/Annual rate of output decline is 9.1%/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/40 of the best early-stage growth companies, plus sustainability thought leader Anita Burke and a Town Hall meeting./li/ul

Cleantech, web 2.0, biotech sectors are poised to counteract national financial crisis.pIt has been an exciting few weeks, with many high-end networking events around sustainability, investing and clean tech.nbsp; While the global financial crisis remains in full swing, many investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders are looking to the future and charting the course for the next phase in Colorado's economy./p pTrustworthy sources are telling us about multiple 8- and 9-figure funds being raised for clean tech and sustainability investing, as well as rumors of keen interest in that space from private equity.nbsp; The rumor of Kleiner Perkins posting a one-man team at NREL to help spin out investable clean tech companies is confirmed as well -- we met him this week.nbsp; br //ppLeading Boulder Web2.0 companies are even hosting a a href="http://boulder.me/ambassadors/" mce_href="http://boulder.me/ambassadors/" target="_blank"job fair/a to bring more technical talent into town, although there are also rumors of layoffs at weaker firms.nbsp; It's going to be a mixed bag in that space, and the wheat will quickly be separated from the chaff./p pIf you want to escape the doom and gloom for a day, and join a more prosperous and optimistic future, look no further than the a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target="_blank"Angel Capital Summit/a, November 21, in Denver. Highlights include:/p ullia href="http://www.catalystinstitute.org/" mce_href="http://www.catalystinstitute.org/" target="_blank"Anita Burke's/a presentation on how to run a business in a world of Peak Everything (including capital, it seems)./lili40 of Colorado's strongest entrepreneurial growth-oriented businesses presenting investment opportunities./liliA TOWN HALL discussion called a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target="_blank"Disrupting the Recession/a, where a diverse group of thought leaders will talk directly with conference attendees about how we can all come together to build an Entrepreneurial Renaissance in Colorado./liliSurprise visit from one of Colorado's favorite political leaders./li/ul pThis a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target="_blank"TOWN HALL/a has been built with the Colorado community in mind, and it's evolving, so your input will help make it better./p pPlease a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target="_blank"join us/a on November 21st in downtown Denver for this unique moment in history./ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/?q=node/1149" target=%quot;_blank%quot;TOWN HALL @ Angel Capital Summit/abr/Top strategists lead an interactive discussion about how to build strong economic sectors./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/40 of the best local growth-oriented entrepreneurs present their investment opportunities./li/ul

Inventions That Will Shape Our Futurep align="left"emfont color="#006600"strong(Psst!nbsp; Hey Buddy!nbsp; Got an idea?nbsp; Need one?)/strong/font/emnbsp; /ppstrongfont size="4"FYI:nbsp; The a href="http://www.coloradoinventorshowcase.com/page.php?ID=223"Colorado Inventor Showcase/anbsp;h/font/strongstrongfont size="4"appens on font color="#ff0000"Nov. 10, 2008/font/font/strong/ppfont size="2"strongDATE:/strongnbsp;nbsp;Monday, November 10, 2007br /strongTIMES:/strongnbsp;nbsp;3:30 pm - 8:00 pm/font/ppfont size="2"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" q6x3s="0" c16ns="1"strongLOCATION:nbsp;nbsp;The Cable Center, 2000 Buchtel Boulevard,nbsp;Denver, C0 80210/strong/spanbr //fontstrongfont size="2"/font/strong/ppstrongfont size="2"This event is produced by the a href="http://davinciinstitute.com/"DaVinci Institute/a - along with br /some of the finest inventors in the world!nbsp; /font/strong/ppfont size="2"Once again, the CO Inventor Showcase and the Davinci Institute, which is producing the event, arenbsp;Association Partners with the a href="http://angelcapitalsummit.org/"Angel Capital Summit/a.nbsp; Gotta love the synergy!nbsp;nbsp;/font/ppfont size="2"If you're a emvery /emearly stage investor -nbsp;one of those folksnbsp;who likes to catch the inventor as their idea isnbsp;just coming off the cocktail napkin -nbsp;this is the place to be.nbsp;nbsp; We'll have some of these types of entrepreneurs at the ACS, too,nbsp;but their investment opportunities will be structured,nbsp;detailed and standardized,nbsp;as the ACS application process requires it.nbsp; (More on the ACS application process a href="http://angelcapitalsummit.org/node/404"here/a.)/font/ppfont size="2"This year'snbsp;event will mark the 4th annual Colorado Inventor Showcase. Each year the Showcase attracts some of the nation's finest inventors and theirnbsp;incredibly clever inventions. Inventions are judged by a cast of over 50 celebrity judges, and will be on display throughout the afternoon and evening for allnbsp;attendees./font/ppa href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinjohansen"I'll/a be there.nbsp; Why don't you come, too?nbsp; Here's the a href="https://www.davinciinstitute.com/calendar.php"registration info/a. /ppNote, however, that it's only Jay Walker, the Founder of a href="http://www.priceline.com/"Priceline.com/a speaking at the event, and not a title="Yes, Captain Kirk." href="http://www.williamshatner.com/"William Shatner/a.nbsp; Noting that Forbes has Jay tagged as one of the a href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2000/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54passYear=2000uniqueId=AJXHpassListType=Persondatatype=Person"400 richest people/a in the U.S., I guess this is an OK trade.nbsp; /pp /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.coloradoinventorshowcase.com/page.php?ID=223" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Colorado Inventor Showcase/a/lilia href="http://davinciinstitute.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Davinci Institute/abr/"Where great ideas happen!"/lilia href="http://www.williamshatner.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;WilliamShatner.com :: The Official Shatner Website (News)/abr/It's Bill's world. We just live in it.../lilia href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2000/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54passYear=2000uniqueId=AJXHpassListType=Persondatatype=Person" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Jay Walker the Forbe's 400/abr/Editors note: Priceline's stock was trading a little higher when this was written.../li/ul

(Howard puts on a GREAT event!!)p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"bfont face="Arial" color="#000000" size="5"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"font color="#009900"Oct. 15th/font - font color="#009900"The 3rd Annual Investment amp; Finance Cross-Networking Event/font/span/font/b/pp style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"bfont face="Arial" color="#000000"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"font color="#990000"strongI hope to see you there!!nbsp; /strong/font/span/span/font/b/pp style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"bfont face="Arial" color="#000000"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"/spanHere's a href="http://chapters.acg.org/denver/calendar/detail.asp?F_EVENT_CATEGORY_ID=EVENT_ID=3318MONTH_CHOICE=10DAY_CHOICE=15YEAR_CHOICE=2008"the link to register/a./span/font/b/pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"bfont face="Arial" color="#000000" size="3"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"Sponsored by:/span/font/bfont face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"br /Association for Corporate Growth (ACG city w:st="on" /place w:st="on" /Denver/place //city /)br /CTEK (Capital, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Knowledge)/span/fontfont face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"br /Financial Executives International (FEI)br /Turnaround Management Association (TMA)br /br //span/fontbfont face="Arial" color="#990000" size="2"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #990000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"The best networking event you will ever attend!/span/font/bfont face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"br /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"Hosted by Howard H. Potter/span/bbr /br /This event is an exceptional opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences, cross-network with executive peers and to widen your network within associations that focus on growth strategies.br /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"DATE:/span/bbr /Wednesday, October 15thbr /(moved from original date of October 9th)br /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"TIME:/span/bbr /6:00pm - 8:00pmbr /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"LOCATION:/span/bbr /The University of place w:st="on" /placename w:st="on" /Denver/placename / placename w:st="on" /Daniels/placename / placetype w:st="on" /College/placetype //place / of Businessbr /place w:st="on" /placetype w:st="on" /School/placetype / of placename w:st="on" /Hotel/placename //place /, Restaurant amp; Tourism Managementbr /2044 E. Evans, Denver, CObr /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"PRICE:/span/bbr /$50 in advance, $60 at the doorbr /br /bspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"Questions?:/span/bbr /Howard Potterbr /hhp@hhpdenver.combr /720-308-8246/span/font/pp /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://chapters.acg.org/denver/calendar/detail.asp?F_EVENT_CATEGORY_ID=EVENT_ID=3318MONTH_CHOICE=10DAY_CHOICE=15YEAR_CHOICE=2008" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Investment Finance Cross-Networking Event - Registration Link/a/li/ul

Here's a 2-step recovery program for the Colorado entrepreneurial community.p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"It is said that in China, the word for crisis isnbsp;font color="#006600"emstronga href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_translation_of_crisis"weiji/a/strong/em/fontfont color="#000000", and that it contains the characters for both danger/font (strongemfont color="#006600"wei/font/em/strong) andnbsp;opportunity (strongemfont color="#006600"ji/font/em/strong). The etymology of strongemfont color="#006600"weiji /font/em/strongin this context simply means quot;momentquot;.nbsp; So strongemfont color="#006600"weiji/font/em/strong strongemfont color="#006600"=nbsp;danger in the moment/font/em/strong.nbsp;nbsp; /pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"Although it's easy to become cynical about how we sometimes over-concern ourselves with thenbsp;Chinese, the largernbsp;point is that if we let them, our fears willnbsp;constrain us from doing what we know we can and should do.nbsp;nbsp;/pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"As to what we shouldemstrongnbsp;/strong/emdo right now,nbsp;font color="#000000"emget mad/em./fontnbsp; Let's process a title="One of a thousand headlines..." href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081011/D93ODT7O0.html"this mess/a, and in the process, get mad as hell.nbsp; We need to shout out at the top of our lungs that a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(film)"strongwe're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!/strong/anbsp; /pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"strongThat's Step 1/strong.nbsp; strongfont color="#cc0000"Anger./font/strongnbsp; Now's not the time to get zen.nbsp; Get angry./pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"ema href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/"strongquot;Now for wrath, now for ruin and the red dawn...quot;/strong/a/em/pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"There are fires to putnbsp;out.nbsp; (And yes, maybe some to start, too...)nbsp; Zen can come later when you've time tonbsp;fiddle with your morning glories and play with your dogs.nbsp; Right now there's work to do./pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"strongStep 2 is about getting busy./strongnbsp; We need to get busy for a number of reasons, top of which is that there's work to do and we're maybe the only people that can do it.nbsp; We're needed.nbsp; Right now.nbsp; By everyone.nbsp; /pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hawken"Paul Hawken/a says in his book, a href="http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Capitalism-Creating-Industrial-Revolution/dp/0316353000/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8qid=1223764468sr=11-1"Natural Capitalism/a, that business is the only institution large enough to solve the world's problems. Notingnbsp;that entrepreneurs are the foremost problem solvers in the business community, early-stage companies in sectors critical to our future is the smartest, and ultimately best place to put money in this tricky investing cycle. Entrepreneurs can get more done faster than any other subset community within the larger business community or any other community out there, so let's pool some community capital, and set this critical asset to work.nbsp; /pp style="FONT-STYLE: italic; TEXT-ALIGN: left"I know, I know.../pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"We didn't break the economy.nbsp; Even still,nbsp;it's now our job to fix it.nbsp; And while we're doing it, let's all make a few bucks along the way.nbsp; Now is the time -- ahead of the herd -- to find the opportunity (font color="#006600"strongemji/em/strong/font) in this crisis./pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"Please join us, and span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"carpe ji/span at the Town Hall Meeting at the a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/"Angel Capital Summit/a on Nov. 21.nbsp; /pp style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(film)" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Network (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/a/lilia href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)/abr/Directed by Peter Jackson. With Bruce Allpress, Sean Astin, John Bach. Frodo and Sam continue on to Mordor in their mission to destroy the One Ring. Whilst their former companions make new allies and launch an assault on Isengard. Visit IMDb for Photos, Showtimes, Cast, Crew, Reviews, Plot Summary, Comments, Discussions, Taglines, Trailers, Posters, Fan Sites/lilia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hawken" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Paul Hawken - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/a/lilia href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081011/D93OIBDG1.html" target=%quot;_blank%quot;My Way News - Bush, allies seek to calm jittery investors/abr/Bush, allies seek to calm jittery investors/lilia href="http://www.natcap.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Natural Capitalism - the book authors/a/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Angel Capital Summit - the Town Hall Meeting starts around 3 PM/a/li/ul

The smart kids are coming to Denver!!ptable cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="80%" align="center" border="0"tbodytrtd valign="top"div align="justify"font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"ldquo;If you want to be informed, go to other conferences. If you want to be challenged, go to Defrag!rdquo;/font/div/td/trtrtd valign="top"div align="right"emfont face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#ff6600" size="1"strongRobin, Headmix/strong/font/em/div/td/tr/tbody/tablebr /table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="80%" align="center" border="0"tbodytrtd valign="top"div align="justify"font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"ldquo;Usually, after a conference I feel compelled to come home and code. After Defrag, I felt compelled to come home and think.rdquo;/font/div/td/trtrtd valign="top"div align="right"strongfont face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#ff6600" size="1"emSteve, ViaWest/em/font/strong/div/td/tr/tbody/table/ppOn Nov. 3rd amp; 4th Denver will once again have the priviledge to host the a href="http://www.defragcon.com/2008/"2008 Defrag Conference/a.nbsp; This is where the smart kids come to play.nbsp; (How do we know this?nbsp; Just read their a href="http://defragcon.com/Blog/"blog/a.)nbsp; /ppfont face="Arial" size="2"strongFrom the Defrag home page:/strongemnbsp; quot;As online data is growing and fragmenting at an exponential pace, individuals, groups and organizations are struggling to discover, assemble, organize, act on and gather feedback from that data.quot;/em/font/ppfont face="Arial" size="2"strongSound about right?nbsp; You feeling this?nbsp; emSo /em/stronga href="http://www.defragcon.com/2008/DEFRAG08Registration.htm"emstrongGO!/strong/em/anbsp; /font/ppfont face="Arial" size="2"Trust me.nbsp; You won't be able to swing a dead cat at Defrag without hitting some sort of guru or another.nbsp; This is almost like a a href="http://cluetrain.com/"Cluetrain /areunion.nbsp; You'll see amp; meet the people you've only had the chance to read about - basically, the people who imagined and built the Internet - and who are still building it today.nbsp; /font/ppfont face="Arial" size="2"And then come to the a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/"Angel Capital Summit/a on Nov. 21st.nbsp; It's here where we're making sense of angel investing and entrepreneurship.nbsp; It's here where we're defragging entrepreneurship.nbsp; And it's here where we draw the line on the economy, put on our 'big boy' pants and start to get things back to right.nbsp; /font/ppfont face="Arial" size="2"Be at the ACS Town Hall Meeting.nbsp; Listen amp; be heard.nbsp; Then go forth and do what entrepreneurs do - make the future.nbsp; /font/ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.defragcon.com/2008/DEFRAG08Registration.htm" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Defrag 2008 Registration/a/lilia href="http://cluetrain.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;the cluetrain manifesto/abr/The Cluetrain Manifesto is ranked #6 on Business Week's list of top books of 2000./lilia href="http://defragcon.com/Blog/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Defrag Blog/a/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Angel Capital Summit - Nov. 21st/abr/Defragging entrepreneurship since 2007!!/li/ul

Blacktie Colorado: Bringing together non-profits and the people that support them.pI've been involved with a title="Join today!" href="http://blacktie-colorado.com/"Blacktie Colorado/a almost since its' inception.nbsp; em(Disclosure:nbsp; I'm on the Blacktienbsp;board.)/emnbsp; It's my appreciation that Blacktie's almost unique on the Internet for what it does.nbsp; Operating in 8 markets - Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Arizona, Kansas City, South Florida,nbsp;Louisiana and a href="http://blacktie-colorado.com/calendarmain/index.cfm?FUSEACTION=ShowCalendarregion=2CFID=33381435CFTOKEN=67856350bc52f129-EDA1D48B-65B8-C4AA-DF3BA984C813CAC4"all over Colorado/a -nbsp;Blacktienbsp;offers a long list of services for non-profit organizations (NPO's), ranging fromnbsp;community calendarsnbsp;fornbsp;charity events tonbsp;on-line ticket salesnbsp;to fund-raisers.nbsp;em (Here's the /ema href="http://blacktie-colorado.com/about_blacktie/nonprofit_tools.cfm"emfull list./em/aem)/em/ppSpecific to the a title="Get in here!" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/"Angel Capital Summit/a, as an ACS Partner Blacktie's also helping us organize the attention we're looking for from thenbsp;NPO'snbsp;that want to apply to present at the ACS.nbsp; To get this done, they've a title="Want to be an ACS Partner? Check this out!" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/node/1112"created an ACS group/a, staffed it with investors amp; advisors and they are now collecting and screeningnbsp;ACS applications from non-profits.nbsp; /ppstrongfont color="#0000ff"Wait a minute.../font/strongnbsp; strongfont color="#ff0000"lt;lt;lt;/fontfont color="#cc0000"REWIND/font./strongnbsp; /ppstrongemY'all didn't know that the ACS also has NPO's presenting, did you?/em/strongnbsp;nbsp; We're presenting 40 organizations on Nov. 21st to the investor amp; entrepreneurial communities.nbsp; 4 of them will benbsp;NPO's, as, like the regular flavor entrepreneurs, a href="http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/social_entrepreneur.cfm"social entrepreneurs/a arenbsp;also an essential part of any successful amp; thriving business ecology.nbsp; nbsp; /ppSo if you're a social entrepreneur running an earned income non-profit and you'renbsp;looking to get more deeply integrated into the larger business ecology, make some great new contacts and maybe even find an investor or some new customers, you'll want to check outnbsp;the ACS!nbsp; To do that, just go to a href="http://businesscatapult.com/refcode/ACS08-1500"Blacktie's ACS group/a and apply!/ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://blacktie-colorado.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Blacktie Colorado/abr/You stick to changing the world. Let Blacktie do the rest./lilia href="http://blacktie-colorado.com/calendarmain/index.cfm?FUSEACTION=ShowCalendarregion=2CFID=33381435CFTOKEN=67856350bc52f129-EDA1D48B-65B8-C4AA-DF3BA984C813CAC4" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Blacktie's Colorado Events Calendar/abr/Check it out! There's something for everyone here.../lilia href="http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/social_entrepreneur.cfm" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Ashoka - Innovators For The Public/a/lilia href="http://businesscatapult.com/refcode/ACS08-1500" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Blacktie's ACS Group - APPLY HERE!/abr/This is where you go if you're an earned income non-profit looking for new talent, investors and customers./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/node/1112" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit Partnership info.../a/li/ul

The Oracle of Omaha knows a good buy when he sees it.Kipling's influential poem, span style="font-style: italic;"If/span, starts thusly:br /br /div style="text-align: center;"If you can keep your head when all about youbr / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...br //divbr /and continues by offering the most inspiring verse for the challenging decisions we all must face:br /br /div style="text-align: center;"If you can meet with Triumph and Disasterbr / And treat those two impostors just the same;br //divbr /finally concluding with the promise:br /br /div style="text-align: center;"If you can fill the unforgiving minutebr / With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,br / Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,br / And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!br //divbr /Charlie Rose's a target="_blank" href="http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/10/01/1/an-exclusive-conversation-with-warren-buffett"brilliant interview/a with quite possibly the world's smartest investor, Warren Buffet, makes the most intelligent sense of how the economic crisis actually happened.nbsp; Any investor with a stake in the American economy is wise to a target="_blank" href="http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/10/01/1/an-exclusive-conversation-with-warren-buffett"pay close attention/a.nbsp; br /br /Speaking to his recent investments in Goldman Sachs ($5 billion) and General Electric ($3 billion), Buffet said, quot;money is not king if it just sits and does nothing.nbsp; Be greedy when people are fearful, and fearful when they are being greedy.quot;br /br /Of course, there a fair bit of tough medicine in his talk,quot;this really is an economic Pearl Harbor, it's never happened before. It's a big mistake to try and mislead people.nbsp; The recession is going to get worse.nbsp;nbsp; Six months or two years.nbsp; Six months is the best case,quot; Buffet suggests. br /br /Although his short term vision for the future is somber, the basic values of the US economy emerge.nbsp; His assessment of the market psychology: quot;confidence is like oxygen.nbsp; You can have it for years, and never notice it, but when it's gone for five minutes...nbsp; That's what happened, the oxygen got sucked out of the credit markets.quot;br /br /quot;Now we've got to inject confidence. The ingredients that helped this country unleash an unprecedented 7-for-1 improvement in the standard of living has anbsp; more productive capacity than ever before.nbsp; All the ingredients for a successful future are in place,quot; Buffet believes.nbsp; br /br /This is even more true of Colorado's entrepreneurial economy.nbsp; There is great promise.nbsp; A more sustainable future is just around the corner.nbsp; And our whole community will have to come together to gather the collective courage, the collective intelligence, the collective wisdom to allow us to connect with the risk-taking ethic of our fore-bearers, and create a prosperous future.nbsp; br /br /This future begins on November 21st in Denver, Colorado at the a target="_blank" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"Angel Capital Summit/a.nbsp; br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Colorado's premeire early-stage funding event./lilia href="http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/10/01/1/an-exclusive-conversation-with-warren-buffett" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Warren Buffett interview | Charlie Rose/abr/An exclusive conversation with one of the world's most successful investors./li/ul

Leaders will convene to build a strong regional economy for 2009 and beyond.pLast week had me thinking about a target="_blank" mce_href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/transcend-and-include-the-financial-crisis/" href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/transcend-and-include-the-financial-crisis/"transcending (and including) the current financial crisis/a.nbsp; The inspiration for that piece was partially grounded in a target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2374" href="http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2374"a column I had written for Colorado Biz magaine/a, which runs today.nbsp; Assuming (as I did in the blog post) that the world continues to operate after the bailout and election, some US economic sectors will be stronger than others.nbsp; And all signs indicate -- and even the New York Times, in a relative a target="_self" mce_href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05marsh.html?scp=1sq=For%20Most%20Cities,%20Recession%20Has%20Arrivedst=cse" href="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/item/213856"comparison of city-by-city economies/a corroborates -- that a strong entrepreneurial trend is sweeping Colorado./p pThe trend is based on what many entreprenurial thought leaders -- from investors to serial entrepreneurs to the lawyers and PR pros who live through the cycles -- recognize as sectors that will thrive, even during a predictably rough national economic period.nbsp; These sectors are technology (and in Colorado, especially IT and web 2.0), energy and other CleanTech / GreenTech / Sustainability companies./p pIn a target="_blank" mce_href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/wp-admin/that%20a%20strong%20entrepreneurial%20trend%20is%20sweeping%20Colorado" href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/wp-admin/that%20a%20strong%20entrepreneurial%20trend%20is%20sweeping%20Colorado"the CoBiz column/a, I propose a few potential local results of the current Wall St. banking crisis:/p blockquotepMany investing quot;truthsquot; have forever changed. The question is: which ones? We suspect mdash; and a quick query of investors this week has quasi-confirmed mdash; that core investing principles are intact, but the situational realities as to who will be an interesting funding candidate are likely to be quite different./p pIntuition suggests that fewer wealthy people will be making investments, but with the investment banking sector suddenly and irreversibly (lets' check that assumption in a few months) extinct, more money and talent could focus on growth sectors like green tech./p pIt's also possible that money will re-localize. Investors will want their money to be a bit more tied to tangible nearby investments as a backlash to the ideological bankruptcy of radical derivatives. Further, as investors take a deep stock of their values, the evolution toward a more holistic investing approach will amplify./p/blockquote pBut that's all speculation.nbsp; What's real is that on November 21st, forty of the strongest Colorado start-up businesses will present to hundreds of venture capitalists and angel investors at the annual a target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"Angel Capital Summit/a.nbsp; And at the end of that day, we will present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to quot;not only learn about but participate in the co-creation the future of our regional business ecology.quot;/p pWith a target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.catalystinstitute.com/" href="http://www.catalystinstitute.com/"Anita Burke/a telling us all how to measure sustainable business practices at lunch, and the as-yet-uncomfirmed special appearance by one of Colorado's favorite political leaders open the day, it promises to be an exciting quot;first day of the rest of your careerquot; type of experience./p pHope to a target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"see you there/a./ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2374" target=%quot;_blank%quot;New Rules For Investing | CoBiz Magazine/abr/column on entrepreneurial renaissance/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Colorado's premeire entrepreneur and angel investing showcase/lilia href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/transcend-and-include-the-financial-crisis/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Transcend (and include) The Financial Crisis | nuance intelligence/abr/Looking beyond the immediacy, and which investing trends will thirve/li/ul

NY Times article highlights city-by-city recession measures.In an article over the weekend, the New York Times reported that quot;a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05marsh.html?scp=1sq=For%20Most%20Cities,%20Recession%20Has%20Arrivedst=cse"most cities have officially entered a recession/a.quot;nbsp; Here's the map:br /br /img src="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/docs/Picture%2032.png" /br /br /br /The article also identifies cities that were still showing economic growth, including Denver (and the little spec of Boulder), among other hubs of intellectual capital, as you can see here:br /br /img src="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/docs/Picture%2034.png" /br /br /It's arrogant, bordering on stupid, to think that Colorado will just skate right along, and avoid the whole economic slowdown, but as I've been writing at my own a target="_blank" href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/the-future-of-colorado-investing/"span style="font-style: italic;"nuance intelligence/span blog/a, as well as for a target="_blank" href="http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2374"ColoradoBiz magazine/a, there's a good reason to be optimistic about some creative outcomes for well-positioned sectors.nbsp; br /br /Join us at the a target="_blank" href="http://www.angelcaiptalsummit.org"Angel Capital Summit/a in November to discuss this issue with the investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who can collaborate to build a new Entrepreneurial Renaissance.br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://nuanceintelligence.com/the-future-of-colorado-investing/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Future of Colorado Investing/abr/nuance intelligence weighs in on how Colorado economy will respond./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Captial Summit/abr/The ACS will launch Colorado's entrepreneurial renaissance./lilia href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05marsh.html?scp=1sq=For%20Most%20Cities,%20Recession%20Has%20Arrivedst=cse" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Nation - For Most Cities, Recession Has Arrived - NYTimes.com/abr/Officially, the nation may or may not be in a recession. But measured at the local level, slowdowns are well under way./li/ul

Report from a panel Discussion at Demo Gala 2008pI thoroughly enjoyed myself last Thursday at a href="http://www.csiaonline.com/Events/DEMOgala/tabid/192/Default.aspx" target="_blank"CSIA's DEMOgala/a, looking at all of the cool software companies and talking to company founders. Right after lunch I stopped by a sparsely attended session that was supposed to be a discussion on innovations in investing. It turned out to be quite different: three of the four panelists that were supposed to join David Cohen were replaced an angel and another investor. I was looking forward to hearing about the success of the methods and processes used by a href="http://www.techstars.org/"TechStars/a.nbsp;/ppInstead, the moderator Adeo Ressi of a href="http://www.thefunded.com/"TheFunded.com/a dominated the conversation and proceeded to interject his views on what was broken in VC land. He turned to his panel of angels, told them what was broken with venture capital, and then asked them what they thought was broken. When they tried to explain how they do business, Ressi took control again and espoused his opinions. Sheesh./ppRessi is a controversial figure. TheFunded asks entrepreneurs -- the folks asking for and in some case receiving venture funding -- to rank and review VC firms and individual partners. As a result, the site takes direct aim at the reputations of every VC firm, who are not able to rebut or correct the information presented. This has led to some significant heartburn at some large firms, so much so that his company was recently named in a slander a href="http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20080814/tc_cnet/8301102331001683893"lawsuit/a brought by a firm in Michigan. Unfortunately I couldnrsquo;t listen to much more of this and walked out on the last 10 minutes. br //ppMaybe next year CSIA will have a more rounded view of angel investing in Colorado.nbsp; If you don't want to wait that long, we expect a pretty exciting Town Hall at the a target="_blank" href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org"Angel Capital Summit/a in November./ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.csiaonline.com/Events/DEMOgala/tabid/192/Default.aspx" target=%quot;_blank%quot;CSIA DEMOgala/abr/Colorado's leading technology summit/lilia href="http://www.techstars.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;TechStars/abr/Colorado's web 2.0 incubator par excellance/lilia href="http://www.thefunded.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;TheFunded.com: The Resource for Entrepreneurs./abr/TheFunded.com allows entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review venture capital sources worldwide./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Colorado's premeire angel and venture investing showcase./li/ul

Take a long look at this report, and learn many surprising facts from the SBA.pThe Small Business Administration (SBA) is as focused as anyone on the hard data and information around entrepreneurship and investing as anyone.nbsp; Their a title="Only 49 pages!" href="http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs331tot.pdf"recently released study/a identifies a much bigger universe of investors that most people had thought, and confirms many important details that we quot;knewquot; intuitively, but could not support scientifically.nbsp;nbsp;/ppNote that, as much as we love the SBA, in typical governmental style, much of this data spans the years from 2001 to 2003, so direct correlations to today are suspect.nbsp; For those of us who remember that far back, these were lean years for the economy, being the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the dot-com bust.nbsp; So, take it for what it's worth, and a target="_blank" href="http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs331tot.pdf"read the full report/a to determine your own conclusions.nbsp; br //ppThe first interesting analysis looks at the number of angel investors and investments:/pullibfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"Surveys from the Federal Reserve and other research organizations estimated number of people who made an angel investment between 2001 and 2003 is between 331,100 and 629,000 people, and made investments in between/font/font/font/bbfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2" 50,700 and 57,300/font/font/font/bbfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2" companies.nbsp;nbsp; /font/font/font/bfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT" style="font-style: italic;"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"This is based on extrapolated data, and likely represents the largest possible population of angels./font/font/fontbfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"br / /font/font/font/b/lilibfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"The Angel Capital Association reports that in 2006, the 5,632 accredited angel investors comprise its membership made 947 investments in 512 companies. /font/font/font/bfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT" style="font-style: italic;"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"These are the numbers of self-identified angel investors who joined the known professional organization, and likely represents 'serial' and 'professional' investors./font/font/fontbfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"br //font/font/font/b/li/ulpThe difference between these two sets of numbers begins to identify the confusion and paradox in researching angel investing.nbsp; Next, we are interested in how much money gets invested:nbsp; br //pullibfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"The broader estimates for the years between 2001 and 2003, suggest that font color="#ff0000"angels investednbsp;annbsp;estimated $23 billion per year./font/font/font/font/b/lilibfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"ACA members provided start-ups with a total of $228.8 million in 2006./font/font/font/bbfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font size="2"br //font/font/font/b/li/ulp align="left"Obviously, that's a big range, and it's easy to presume that the truth lies somewhere in between.nbsp; It's clear that the ACA membership is the most sophisticated sub-set of angels.nbsp; Additional information cited in the report indicates that the average ACA investment is just under $35,000, which is more than three times the size of the average investment among the larger set./pp align="left"This report suggest that most angels are unaccredited investors, br //pp align="left"If we relate these numbers to the Colorado population (and assume a direct correlation, which is a questionable proposition), it suggest that there are as many as 10,000 potential angel investors in Colorado, but fewer than 100 who are active, professional angels.nbsp; (Please chime in here -- how do these numbers reflect your knowledge of the state's investing climate?). br //pp align="left"In summary, quantifying and measuring angel investing a difficult science, and even those who are doing this as a profession have questionable data and challenging correlations.nbsp; However, we do know that angel investing is one of the most important drivers of the US economy, and continues to be a major impetus to getting early stage companies up and running./pp align="left"We'll see a big turnout of most of Colorado's professional angels, and probably more of the hidden angels than even we can identify, at the upcoming a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target="_blank"Angel Capital Summit/a on November 21st.nbsp; br //pp align="left"bfont face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"/font/font/b/ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs331tot.pdf" target=%quot;_blank%quot;A Working Paper: The Importance of Angel Investing in Financing the Growth of Entrepreneurial Ventures - by Dr. Scott Shane/a/lilia href="http://sba.gov/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Small Business Administration/abr/Programs and services to help you start, grow and succeed/lilia href="http://weatherhead.case.edu/executive-education/about/instructors/scott-shane.cfm" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The author: Dr. Scott Shane/abr/Dr. Scott Shane is the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University./li/ul

The Mile High Business Alliance: It's a choice...pI'mnbsp;a BIG fan of small business, particularly those that arenbsp;creating new efficiencies.nbsp; So when I see a hybridnbsp;like the a href="http://milehighbiz.org/"Mile High Business Alliance/a - our newest ACS Association Partner - emerge, I want to support it vianbsp;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Nothingness"quot;peaceful self-fulfillment through physical actions and social roles.quot;/anbsp;nbsp; ;-)/ppBesides creating a very cool networking environment, the MHBA is workingnbsp;to standardize the social compact that emall /embusinesses have with the communities they serve.nbsp; It's creating goals amp; systems of measurement.nbsp; And as we all know, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.nbsp; /ppSo check out their means to measure a href="http://beta.coloradolocalfirst.com/"'localness'/a.nbsp; I think they've got something here.nbsp;nbsp;Go for 5 mountains.nbsp; em(quot;The mountains are an indicator of what portion of every dollar you spend at a business will re-circulate in the local economy.quot;) /emnbsp;Pick up '5 Stars' andnbsp;some 'Business Practice Badges'.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/ppAnd think about it.nbsp; This 'localness' thing works.nbsp;nbsp;It always has.nbsp; Given a choice - and we're always given a choice - we'd ideally allnbsp;buy local.nbsp; From people we know.nbsp; From people that know us.nbsp; From people we've shared interests with.nbsp; From people we trust.nbsp; If this is too simple, the good folks at Harvard Business Review can a target="_blank" href="http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0702Dml_action=get-articleprint=true"explain it in much longer words/a.nbsp;nbsp;/ppInvesting isn't far behind.nbsp; Be on the lookout for a column in a href="http://www.cobizmag.com/" target="_blank"Colorado Biz magazine/a, where we suggest that angel investing will quot;re-localizequot; in response to the credit and stock market meltdowns. nbsp; br //ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://milehighbiz.org/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Welcome to the Mile High Business Alliance | Mile High Business Alliance/a/lilia href="http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0702Dml_action=get-articleprint=true" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Cocreating Business?s New Social Compact/abr/From the Harvard Business Review/lilia href="http://orgprints.org/8318/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;An incomplete - but functional - definition of 'localness'/abr/(Someone needs to put something more complete on Wikipedia for this...)/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Colorado's largest gathering of angel, VCs and early-stage entrepreneurs./li/ul

This longstanding debate gets some research attention.In a recent meeting with Northeastern's a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/ste/letterdean.html" target="_blank"Paul Zavracky/a, Dean of the a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/ste/welcome.html" target="_blank"School of Technological Entrepreneurship/a, we talked about the Boston investing community, how to engage NEU's alumni back into the business of starting businesses, and also the results of a recent survey they completed.nbsp; br /br /Here are some of the results: br /br / img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="absmiddle" src="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/docs/Picture%205.png" / br /br /img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="center" src="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/docs/Picture%206.png" / br /br / img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" align="center" src="http://blog.businesscatapult.com/docs/Picture%207.png" /br /br /Does this reflect your experience?nbsp; If you're interested, learn more about NEU's unique a target="_blank" href="http://www.northeastern.edu/ste/welcome.html"School of Technology Entrepreneurship/a, or to see the rest of the results of the survey.br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.northeastern.edu/ste/welcome.html" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Northeastern University STE Overview/abr/School of Technological Entrepreneurship/li/ul

Lies, damned lies, and the statistics Wall St. and the government are using...pnbsp;strongThe below article is by/strong font size="2"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who is also the author of a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-Improbable/dp/1400063515"'The Black Swan'/a.nbsp; /font/ppstrongIt begins thus:/strongnbsp; /pptable cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" width="525" border="0"tbodytrtd valign="top"p align="left"font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"emStatistical and applied probabilistic knowledge is the core of knowledge; statistics is what tells you if something is true, false, or merely anecdotal; it is the quot;logic of sciencequot;; it is the instrument of risk-taking; it is the applied tools of epistemology; you can't be a modern intellectual and not think probabilisticallymdash;but... let's not be suckers. The problem is much more complicated than it seems to the casual, mechanistic user who picked it up in graduate school. Statistics can fool you. In fact it is fooling your government right now. It can even bankrupt the system (let's face it: use of probabilistic methods for the estimation of risks did just blow up the banking system). /em/font/p/td/tr/tbody/table/ppstrongThis is great stuff!nbsp; And I'm now wondering hownbsp;all of this is going to affect the a href="http://www.sba.gov/"SBA/a.nbsp; nbsp;I'll ask.nbsp; Please stay tuned.nbsp; /strong/ppstrongAlso, p/strongstronglease /stronga href="http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/taleb08_index.html"strongread on.../strong/a /ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/taleb08_index.html" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The 4th Quadrant - A Map of the Limits of Statistics/a/lilia href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-Improbable/dp/1400063515" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable/a/lilia href="http://www.sba.gov/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;The Small Business Administration/abr/Programs and services to help you start, grow and succeed/li/ul

How economic networks form - and how we're forming this one...p style="COLOR: rgb(44,44,224); FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"smallspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00" size="2"font color="#000000"umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu/fontnbsp;/font/span/small/pp style="COLOR: rgb(44,44,224); TEXT-ALIGN: center"font color="#000000"font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic"'/spansmallfont size="2"span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"A person is a person through other persons.'/span/font/small/font/font/pp style="COLOR: rgb(44,44,224); TEXT-ALIGN: center"smallspan style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(44,44,224); FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"font size="2"Zulu traditional wisdom/font/span/small/ppValdis Krebs, the founder amp; Chief Scientist @ a href="http://www.orgnet.com/index.html"Orgnet/a, is one of the founders of a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network"social network analysis/a.nbsp; I've been reading his stuff for years.nbsp; You can see Orgnet DNA all over the a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/"Angel Capital Summit/a site and by extension, the a href="http://businesscatapult.com/"Business Catapult/a.nbsp; Add my friend,nbsp;mentor - and our advisor - a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanwork"Duncan Work/a, the former Chief Scientist @ Linkedin - to this mix, and we'd like tonbsp;think we're building something special here.nbsp; em(Find out more about what both Valdis amp; Duncan are up tonbsp;/ema href="http://www.socialcap.net/index.html"emhere/em/aem.)nbsp; /em/ppSpecific to the ACS, we're trying to get the whole of the state of Coloradonbsp;engaged, so that a href="http://www.orgnet.com/BuildingNetworks.pdf"post the event we can better see how the networks ofnbsp;resources for entrepreneurs amp; angel investors are connected, how they work together, and - if possible - how well.nbsp; /a/ppstrongfont color="#000000"The ACS goal:/fontnbsp; Helpnbsp;entrepreneurs and investors get better faster./strongnbsp; /ppHowever,nbsp;there's a critical element to this process that we need more of, and likely always will.nbsp; emstrongfont color="#0000cc"That's you./font/strong/emnbsp; We need you in the network.nbsp; We need your input.nbsp; We need your help.nbsp; And so do others.nbsp; /ppTo help you want to do this,nbsp;note that the goal of our network design is to insure that the more you put into it, the more you get out.nbsp;nbsp; strongSo comenbsp;get findable!/strongnbsp; a href="http://angelcapitalsummit.org/node/1113"Apply to present./anbsp; a href="http://www.rockiesventureclub.org/eventreg.php?eid=13"Register to attend./anbsp; a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org/node/1112"Get your organization involved/a and volunteer tonbsp;help screen deals.nbsp; /ph3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.orgnet.com/" target=%quot;_blank%quot;orgnet.com - Social Network Analysis software services for organizations, communities, and their consultants/abr/InFlow - Social and Organizational Network Mapping Measuring Software Services/lilia href="http://www.orgnet.com/BuildingNetworks.pdf" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Building Local Economic Networks/a/lilia href="http://www.socialcap.net/index.html" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Social Capital Group - Making Organizations More Intelligent/a/li/ul

Colorado's biggest gathering of angel investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs integrates Business Catapult.On Tuesday, September 16, the a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target="_blank" title="Angel Capital Summit"Angel Capital Summit/a launched its a href="http://angelcapitalsummit.org/node/1113" target="_blank"call for presenters/a.nbsp; The conference is hosted by the a href="http://www.rockiesventureclub.com" target="_blank" title="Rockies Venture Club"Rockies Venture Club/a, the longest running organization in Colorado that is focused on supporting entrepreneurism, and connecting investors and entrepreneurs.nbsp; br /br /As supporting partners, Business Catapult provides our entire suite of tools, and provide many new features to what would otherwise be a typical investor fair.nbsp; For instance:br /ullispan style="font-weight: bold;"Investors/span can review deals prior to the conference, and participate in a collective intelligence process that identifies the best companies to present. /lilispan style="font-weight: bold;"Entrepreneurs/span use our Benchmark Survey as one component of the nomination process, and are able to refine their plan, based on the results of the business logic we build into the Benchmark Report./lilispan style="font-weight: bold;"Trusted Advisors/span can contribute to the deal screening process, and gain an insight into the strongest new companies in the region./lilispan style="font-weight: bold;"Organizations/span, including Business Schools, Small Business Development Center (SBDCs), incubators, angel investor networks and entrepreneurial meetup groups can each organize a group on the system, nominate their entrepreneurs and, after the conference is open, see the entirety of the pool of entrepreneurs who nominated themselves./li/ul2008 is our second year partnering with the RVC to build the Angel Capital Summit.nbsp; Last year's results were impressive -- more investors, better presentations and more investment activity than any time since the silly years of the late 90's dot com boom.nbsp; We expect thsi year's event to firmly establish the Angel Capital Summit as not only the leading regional investing forum, but a major national influencer.nbsp; br /br /With an Entrepreneurial Renaissance brewing in Colorado, a wide variety of companies are already nominating themselves, from nano-tech and bio-tech to renewable energy, internet companies and more.nbsp; br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.businesscatapult.com" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Business Catapult/abr/Connecting investors and entrepreneurs./lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/The leading forum for investors and new businesses in the Rocky Mountain West./lilia href="http://www.rockiesventureclub.com" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Rockies Venture Club/abr/Oldest networking organization for investors and entrepreneurs in Colorado./li/ul

An ACS '07 presenter shares his experiences with the Business Catapult, assessment process and the whole experience.We just got an email from Tim Stephens, founder of a href="http://www.toolpax.com/home/default.html" target="_blank"ToolPax/a and one of the entrepreneurs who helped us test the alpha version of Business Catapult in 2007.br /br /div style="margin-left: 40px;"My startup was selected to present at 2007 Angel Capital Summit. It was a great experience for us. The Benchmark Survey alone is priceless. That document is like a visual dashboard to tell us where our business is strong and where it is weak. Most entrepreneurs do not have a point of reference to know whether or not they are on the right path. The Benchmark Survey gave us the validation and confidence that we are on the right path.br /br /The coaching we received from the event organizers was key to our preparation for an effective pitch presentation. We learned how to hone our message not only for the ACS, but for future pitches with other potential investors.br /br /The event was well organized and well managed. We had the opportunity to pitch to a large group of qualified investors that we would normally not be able to reach. Participating in the ACS was productive and a privilege.br //divbr /Care to share this experience?nbsp; a href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target="_blank"Apply/a to be an ACS presenter today.br /h3See Also/h3ullia href="http://www.toolpax.com/home/default.html" target=%quot;_blank%quot;ToolPax | The Online Marketplace for Die Components/abr/ToolPax/lilia href="http://www.angelcapitalsummit.org" target=%quot;_blank%quot;Angel Capital Summit/abr/Colorado's premeier forum for angel investors, venture capitalists and leading entrepreneurs./li/ul