Venture Capital in the Rockies Redux
Although I did not blog about it ahead of time, I was at Venture Capital in the Rockies (aka VCIR) this week. The event is a jam-packed one day conference that brings together VCs, companies and service providers. One of the goals of the event is to bring additional exposure of Colorado/Rockies-based investment opportunities to out of state VCs. VCIR also is a great way to see a lot of regional companies that are either already venture-backed or looking for funding. Great networking opportunity, and the venue is stellar too…
I was already familiar with a number of the companies presenting this year, but it was great to see their updated pitches and hear the Q&A sessions (even if many of the questions were more lobs than zingers). There were 30+ presenting companies and due to the 3 tracks I could not attend all of the sessions so I stuck to the IT/Internet services track primarily. What impressed me the most was that an entire track was filled with Biotech and Pharma companies. They are all local, more or less, and this is a great indicator of the level of activity in this space happening in this region. Who knew Colorado was a hotbed of Biotech!?!
The front range of Colorado is not silicon valley, but there is a broad and sophisticated array of startups in the area that cover everything from stock-video content (Thought Equity Motion) to carbon-fiber jet aircraft (Adam Aircraft). The biggest highlight of the event was the big-picture it provided…that is the fact that there are a healthy number of smart, motivated entrepreneurs starting great companies in this area. So if you are an investor on either coast sitting on your checkbook, take a closer look at the dealflow out here. Better quality of living, lower operational costs and motivated people are a good formula to create great companies!
Some of the more serious bloggers out there have already covered the event in detail for us. Here’s the short list:
- David @ ColoradoStartups.com profiles several of the companies here
- Daniel Primack of PE Week Wire/PE Hub has a VCIR hangover
- Podcast of the media round table discussion held on Tuesday night (thanks David!)
- Brad Feld’s summary (with several links back to ColoradoStartups.com too)
- Seth Levine of Mobius/Foundry Group profiles a few presenters here
