The Center for Venture Research reported that in the ifrst half of 2007, total investments were $11.9 billion, a decrease of 6% over one year ago. On the other hand, a survey by the Angel Capital Association found angels believe they are on-track to meet predictions of increaseed investment activity i 2007.
Monthly Archive for September, 2007
According to a Red Herring article, the U.S. is anywhere from 15th to 24th in the world in terms of broadband penetration — and it’s a disadvantage fro Internet startups. We have less broadband regulation than some countries (such as Japan) depending instead on competition. But regulation seems to do a better job of providing universal broadband access.
Patents take a long time to get — there’s a very large backlog. You can read The Oregonian article from last Friday on patent delays on the OregonLive.com site.
Greenlight Greater Portland, a primarily private-sector group devoted to promoting the economic vitality of the greater Portland region, announced earlier this month it has hired its first full-time CEO: Tom Priest. (The press release is here.)
In his Venture Blog yesterday, Seattle’s John Cook wonders: if Web 2.0 companies are so capital efficient, why does a Zillow need $30 million?
Mike Rogoway reported in his Silicon Forest Blog yesterday that IAC/Interactive purchased a majority share in Eugene-based GarageGames.
If you hadn’t heard already, the winners of the OEN Entrepreneurship Awards were:
Development Category:
- Winner: Innovation Asset Group
- Other finalists: Efficere Technologies, Remote Technologies
Growth Category:
- Winner: Jive Software
- Other finalists: Saber Corporation, Snapnames
Working Capital Category:
- Winner: Auctionpay
- Other finalists: Cayuse, Inc., eROI
Individual Category:
- Winner: Nicole, Vogel, Portland Monthly
- Other finalists: Jim Johnson of Tripwire, John Morgan of Hemcon, Judy Johnston of Blue Lake Children’s Publishing
Portland-area startup Lunarr, gave a preview of their web-based collaboration tool earlier this week. Briefly: it’s a way of creating or linking to documents (the “front page”) and being able to flip over to the “back page” which provides an email-based ability to share the document with others, while maintaining a complete audit trail of all the emails relating to that particular collaboration. This Silicon Florist post points to several links with more info (and no doubt many better descriptions than the above!)
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Late addition: The Oregonian featured Lunarr in their “Startup” segment yesterday (Sep. 22).
CNN Money this week provided 10 hints for startup survival. The article has more detail, but here’s the bare-bones list (all of which are pretty sensible!):
1. Market and Sell
2. Have a sense of urgency
3. Hunker down
4. Take nothing for granted
5. Exercise
6. Down with negativity
7. Have a daily business plan
8. Visualize success
9. Remember the alternative
10. Market and Sell some more …
OVP’s quarterly newsletter suggests that although the NVCA reported a 15% drop in the number of VC firms between 2001 and 2006, the more important number may be the drop in active firms — which was closer to 50%.
