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| June 26, 2008 | Volume 12 Issue 26 |
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Editor: George Lipper | |
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(Please scroll down for the full story) -- Like a Challenge? The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds Needs a CEO -- AeA Unveils Study on Where the Tech Jobs Are -- Massachusetts Shines in Milken Study while California Loses Luster -- Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008 -- Report: California Needs to Boost Biotech Sector -- No 2nd Q IPOs for the Incredibly Shrinking Venture-Capital Industry -- New Angel Capital Assn Chair Says Angels "Bake Out" Risk for VCs -- Connecticut Lags In Tax Credits For 'Angels' -- Bubble Shmubble, Say Clean-Tech Investors -- Maryland Comptroller Proposes State Pension Fund Invest $1Billion in Biotech, 'Green' Firms -- Western Michigan Venture Fund Sees Need for Next Fund-Raising Round -- Wayne State VC Company Raises $1M for Seed-Capital Fund -- University of Arizona, School in Japan Plan Joint Biotech-Research Venture -- University of Washington Hires Entrepreneur to Run Tech Transfer -- University of Minnesota New Medical Devices Center: Incubator for Invention -- Silicon Valley Exec Does His Part to Help Indiana Startups -- Oklahoma Tech Startups to See Orderly Hand-Off in Funding -- How Big Money is Hijacking a Small Business Technology Program -- Non-Compete Pacts Stifle Innovation -- Georgia Initiative Launched to Promote Metro Biotech Industry -- Louisiana Crafts a Huge Increase in Economic Development Funds -- The Increasing Appeal of Starting a Business -- Seminars & Conferences Join Us! The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds Seeks a CEO NASVF is looking for an energetic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with strong organizational, interpersonal, communication, and fundraising skills to lead the association as it grows membership and expands its reach. See the job description attached: NASVF CEO Job Description AeA Unveils Study on Where the Tech Jobs Are The New York metro, Washington, D.C. , and Silicon Valley led the pack among U.S. cities with high-tech jobs, but the U.S. is still not adequately preparing itself to compete in the global marketplace, according to a Tuesday report from the American Electronics Association: PC Magazine There are some data in the statistics for nearly every locale to claim bragging rights. Austin may have lost thousands of high-tech jobs but retained the highest paying ones: Austin American Statesman Kansas City joined the "Cybercities" list at number 25 Kansas City Star Boulder ranked as the No. 2 city in the nation in the percentage of its workforce employed in high-tech. The city also had the sixth-highest high-tech wages: Rocky Mountain News Metro Phoenix ranked seventh among the nation's 60 employment centers for high-tech job growth in 2006, adding 3,800 technology jobs for a total high-tech work force of 91,400 Arizona Republic From 2001 to 2006, Central Indiana added high-tech jobs faster than any other metro area in the Midwest. That doesn't mean Indianapolis is a tech mecca. It's no San Jose, Boston or even Chicago. But it does mean local tech companies are making strides like never before, says Jim Jay, president and CEO of the statewide tech advocacy group Techpoint: Indianapolis Star-News Milwaukee jumped from #55 to 34th, providing a measure of justification for Wisconsin's strenuous efforts in technology based economic development: Wisconsin Technology Network It's the California Bay Area which laid claim to the title of best-paid high-tech workers in the nation: San Francisco Chronicle New York's Capital Region's ranks second in wage growth among the top 60 tech metros nationwide: Albany Times-Union And Fairfax County accounted for half the 270,000 high-tech jobs in Virginia which recorded 4% growth over the past 6 years: Fairfax County EDA And then there's Nevada, the underachieving slacker who hangs out in the back of the classroom and never hands in his homework, trailing all but the deep south: Las Vegas Review-Journal Massachusetts Shines in Milken Study while California Loses Luster Massachusetts remains the "gold standard" for mining economic growth from technology and science while California is losing its luster, according to a study released today. The report by the Milken Institute ranked Massachusetts as the United States' top technology incubator all three times that it has been compiled since 2002: Los Angeles Times Following Massacusets, the Milken report ranked Maryland, Colorado, California and Washington in the top five. Virginia, Connecticut, Utah, New Hampshire and Rhode Island round out the top ten. North Dakota and Hawaii recorded the biggest gains: Milken Institute Index Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008 The Milken Institute was not alone in revealing major studies of the section in conjuction for BIO08. Battelle, BIO, SSTI and PMP Consulting published a comprehensive study of state bioscience initiatives needed to grow a bioscience-driven economy: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008 Report: California Needs to Boost Biotech Sector The state of California needs to do more to produce the talent necessary for keeping life science jobs and companies, according to a new report from Bay Area biotechnology leaders. Each year, California's life science industry creates 12,000 new jobs, said Matt Gardner, president of BayBio, a Northern California life sciences trade association. But last year, in Northern California alone, Gardner said that number could have increased by 3,000: San Francisco Business Times Zero 2nd Quarter IPOs for the Incredibly Shrinking Venture-Capital Industry The second quarter of 2008 is about to go down in history for its record number of VC-backed IPOs. And it won’t be a record high. Not a single venture-backed company has gone public on U.S. exchanges since March, and none are scheduled to do so before Q2 ends Monday: PE Hub There were 844 venture firms investing in U.S. companies last year, 40 fewer than in 2006, according to the latest data from VentureSource, a research unit of VentureWire publisher Dow Jones. That is down 30% from the bubble year of 2000, when there were nearly 1,200 active investors: Wall Street Journal Blog The U.S. venture capital business has been slogging through a rough patch. The first quarter of 2008, according to the National Venture Capital Association, saw just five initial public offerings by venture-backed start-ups. Meanwhile, just 56 venture-backed firms were sold or merged, down from 82 and 104, respectively, in the first quarters of 2007 and 2006. "It was just brutal," says general partner Mark Frantz, of the first quarter. "I don't see a lot of indicators on the horizon that are going to change that," adds Richard Harris, another general partner and RedShift's founder: Forbes It's Baaaack! The U.S. House has voted to boost taxes for executives of investment funds, including venture capitalists, to generate revenue to offset money lost by preventing a tax increase for 25 million American households joining the alternative mininum tax rolls this year: Boston Globe New Angel Capital Assn Chair Says Angels "Bake Out" Risk for VCs John Huston, whose one-year term as the elected chairman of the Angel Capital Association begins July 1, hopes to continue the trade group's impressive growth and raise its visibility. The ACA counts about 170 angel investing groups across North America, nearly quadruple the membership it had four years ago: The Deal Angel investing -- the art of sinking personal money into the tiniest start-ups -- is not for everyone. As a class of investment, it carries enormous risks and it's difficult to get your money out when you want to. Yet, potentially, it offers a substantial payback -- 27 per cent per year on average, according to new research by Robert Wiltbank, professor of strategy & entrepreneurship at Willamette University of Oregon. However, Wiltbank says potential investors need to understand clearly what this superb rate of return means: Ottawa Citizen Connecticut Lags In Tax Credits For 'Angels' For years, "angel" investors — wealthy individuals who invest in early-stage businesses — have clamored for state lawmakers to grant them tax credits for a portion of the money they invest in Connecticut's fledgling businesses. Last month, the General Assembly failed to pass a proposal that would have created a 25 percent tax credit for angel investments in Connecticut startups: Hartford Courant Thanks to the efforts of SEED Dixie and USTAR, entrepreneurs can tap a new funding source in Southern Utah. A new investment group - the Dixie Angels - closed on their first investment deal and anticipate closing on a second sometime in mid-July: Utah Business Local cash-strapped start-ups -- often high on profit potential but lacking in capital -- sometimes turn not just to banks and lenders but to a more omnipotent authority: angels. The typical angel tends to be middle-aged, wealthy and experienced. Angels offer guidance, contacts and, most important, money. In the Capital Region, two dozen angels form a group, overseen and managed by the Center for Economic Growth, called Tech Valley Angel Network: Albany Times-Union Bubble Shmubble, Say Clean-Tech Investors You can't avoid the bubble question when it comes to clean-tech investing. Get used to it: with a massive movement of capital into the sector projected in the future, people are bound to fret. It's understandable. Billions of dollars worth of venture capital have gone into this sector, which wasn't on the radar screens of most Sand Hill Road venture capitalists just a few years ago: CNet News Twenty years ago Monday, James Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA, shook Washington and the world by telling a sweating crowd at a Senate hearing during a stifling heat wave that he was “99 percent” certain that humans were already warming the climate: New York Times Maryland Comptroller Proposes State Pension Fund Invest $1Billion in Biotech, 'Green' Firms Three days after Gov. Martin O'Malley announced a $1.1 billion initiative for the biotechnology industry, Comptroller Peter Franchot announced yesterday that he would advocate that the state pension fund to invest about $1 billion in life sciences and "green" technology such as renewable energy and environmentally sensitive building materials: Baltimore Sun Western Michigan Venture Fund Sees Need for Next Fund-Raising Round An investment in a company developing new drugs for cancer patients and transplant recipients brings the Southwest Michigan Life Sciences Venture Fund closer to a new fund-raising round. Managing Director Patrick Morand expects the $50 million, Kalamazoo-based venture fund to reach full commitment within the next year or so, with 12 to 14 deals total: Western Michigan Business Review Michael DiPiano and Marc Lederman did what investors are supposed to do: they bought low, almost at the bottom of the dot-com bust in 2000. Today, thanks to their nerve back then and a lot of time spent picking over local start-ups, their Radnor-based NewSpring Capital L.P. has grown into a $500 million venture firm with holdings ranging from online technology to food packaging, while staying rooted in a region not known as a venture capital center: Philadelphia Inquirer Wayne State VC Company Raises $1M for Seed-Capital Fund INetworks L.L.C., a Pittsburgh-based venture-capital company that opened an office last fall in TechTown, the Wayne State University-affiliated tech park and business incubator, has raised its first $1 million for a new seed-capital fund and hopes to make its initial investment in a local biotech company in the next few weeks: Crain's Detroit Biotech researchers like to call it the "valley of death" - that is, the gap between the point at which an idea can get funding from the National Institutes of Health and the point at which the technology is ready for venture capital funding. It's a gap that has existed for years and that often presents a problem for cash-strapped startups.The University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute is hoping to eliminate the gap with a program designed to provide investment funding with a philanthropic bent for its researchers: Ann Arbor Business Review University of Arizona, School in Japan Plan Joint Biotech-Research Venture Tucson's biotechnology industry could soon get a boost as the University of Arizona teams up with scientists from across the Pacific Ocean. The UA and Osaka University in Japan will sign an international memorandum of agreement in coming months that will enable an exchange of professors, students and biotechnology research: Arizona Daily Star Arizona's community colleges rapidly are adding bioscience programs to keep up with the demand in the state's growing life sciences sector. But it's not fast enough for some companies that aren't quite ready to move their headquarters to Arizona because they say the work force is not fully developed: Phoenix Business Journal A group of biotech executives has come together to create a virtual incubator to support fledgling life-science companies in Arizona. Behind the effort is Jeff Morhet, president and CEO of InNexus Biotechnology Inc. The incubator, called ThirdBiotech Research Group, is part of a nonprofit life-sciences network created by Morhet: Phoenix Business Journal University of Washington Hires Entrepreneur to Run Tech Transfer The University of Washington has hired someone with business chops to run the office that transfers university inventions into the business world: Xconomy The appointment of Rhoads as vice provost of the University of Washington's TechTransfer unit may signal a shift in how the state's largest public university goes about commercializing cutting-edge research. John Cook visited with her by phone: Seattle Post-Intelligencer University of Minnesota New Medical Devices Center: Incubator for Invention IUniversity of Minnesota officials say the new $400,000 Medical Devices Center will be a hub for faculty, students, and companies to translate high-concept research into high-paying jobs and a thriving medical industry: Minneapolis Star Tribune Silicon Valley Exec Does His Part to Help Indiana Startups Kent Parker is chief operating officer of a publicly traded Silicon Valley software company. But he happily makes his home in his native Southern Indiana. He's just the kind of guy Indiana officials, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are seeking out as they try to invigorate the state's yet-to-blossom tech economy: Indianapolis Star-News Oklahoma Tech Startups to See Orderly Hand-Off in Funding When Greg Main took the position as chief executive officer of i2E five years ago, he accepted a mission of helping connect Oklahoma's technology-based entrepreneurs to the capital needed to sustain their fledgling businesses. It is the same mission that he now passes on to Tom Walker, his successor who officially will become president and chief executive of i2E on July 1: The Oklahoman How Big Money is Hijacking a Small Business Technology Program Like many high-tech small business proprietors. I've been wearing a black armband since April 23 to mourn the death blow that Congress inflicted on one of the great incubators of technological small businesses: the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. In passing a supposed "renewal" of the bill, the House has opened the program to raiding by financial vultures: American Thinker Non-Compete Pacts Stifle Innovation Employee non-compete agreements have stifled tech startup development according to research from Havard University. The research found that in areas such as Massachusetts, where the pacts are aggressively enforced, the IT industry suffers but failed to hold back the IT industry boom in states like California, where they are mostly unenforceable: Tech World Jeff Bussgang, citing Farid Zakariya’s new book on post-American world order, counters the author's conclusion that America’s corporate, political and military dominance may be waning. Bussgang argues that its entrepreneurial influence is ascending, in an accelerated fashion: Jeff Bussgang Georgia Initiative Launched to Promote Metro Biotech Industry A group of communities and organizations Tuesday announced the launch of Georgia's first regional branding campaign for the state's life sciences corridor, which stretches from metro Atlanta to Athens. The initiative is aimed at providing workforce training for the state's growing biotechnology industry: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Louisiana Crafts a Huge Increase in Economic Development Funds The Louisiana's Department of Economic Devilopment will wield $350 million more in firepower to beat bids from competing states and nations in the state financial year beginning July 1. And LED Secretary Stephen Moret says bigger results should be expected: The Advocate The Increasing Appeal of Starting a Business For years, women have been twice as likely as men to start their own businesses. And even though the current economic downturn has made credit even harder to come by for small-business owners, particularly women, since 2002 there has been an 8.9 percent increase in the number of businesses owned by women, a 2.3 percent increase in employees of companies owned by women, and a 16.6 percent increase in receipts at such companies, according to the women’s business research center: New York Times Investor and Entrepreneur Seminars & Conferences Detroit, MI Sept. 10-12, 2008 - 15th Annual Conference of the National Association of Seed & Venture Funds Early Bird Registration Now Open Offered by Our Friends: Wichita, KS, ID September 4, 2008 -5th Annual Great Plains Capital Conference Great Plains Capital Conference Sun Valley, ID September 9-11, 2008 - Venture Capital in the Rockies Venture Capital in the Rockies Baltimore, MD September 18 2008 - Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Investors Conference Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Investors Conference Sioux Falls, SD October 22, 2008 - South Dakota Innovation Expo South Dakota Enterprise Institute Subscribe to NASVF NetNews Unsubscribe from NASVF NetNews 
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