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The RMVCA and The Entrepreneur’s Foundation Team Up
This post was written by Seth Levine and cross-posted from his blog.
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At this week’s VCIR Winter the RMVCA will be announcing a partnership with the Entrepreneur’s Foundation of Colorado. In case you’re not familiar with the organization, the mission of EFCo is to encourage entrepreneurs and companies to give back to Colorado by endowing their communities with a gift of stock early in the life of their company. The hope is that this gift will serve as both a seed for a philanthropic culture within member companies and, of course, will mature into a cash gift that will help strengthen community organizations (each company specifies the recipient of their gift).
As a founding Trustee of EFCo, I’ve been involved with helping spread the message about the great work of the organization throughout our community and in encouraging participation by local companies (In support of this, Foundry has pledged a portion of our carry to the foundation).
Starting at VCIR, the RMVCA will begin working more actively to help support the Entrepreneur’s Foundation of Colorado mission in our communities by both helping support EFCo fundraising efforts as well as encouraging companies from around the RMVCA region to make a pledge of their stock in support of their local communities (and helping EFCo expand beyond Colorado). Having been involved in both organizations for years, I couldn’t be more thrilled to see them coming together to help each other out.
As part of this partnership, the RMVCA has encouraged VCIR sponsors to make an additional sponsorship donation, 100% of which will go to support the work of the Entrepreneur’s Foundation. This donation will be recognized at the annual VCIR poker tournament. In addition, the poker tournament will feature a buy-back-in option with a suggested donation of $100, again 100% of which will support EFCo. I’m happy to report that some great firms have stepped up to participate in support of this worthy cause at VCIR - KPMG, Square 1 Bank, Holmes, Roberts and Owens, Silicon Valley Bank, Cooley and Holland and Hart. In addition, the RMVCA itself has also participated in this sponsorship.
I’d encourage you to learn more about what the Entrepreneur’s Foundation is up to. And, as always, if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me directly.
Venture Capital in the Rockies Winter Conference Reveals Selected Early-Growth Companies
Venture Capital in the Rockies Winter Conference Reveals
Selected Early-Growth Companies
28th Annual Conference Features Standouts from Rocky Mountain Region;
Includes Clean Technology Track of Companies
Denver, CO, January 18, 2011 – In its 28th year, the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association and KPMG LLP today announced the lineup of early-growth companies for the annual Venture Capital in the Rockies (VCIR) 2011 Winter conference, including a new track of clean technology companies.
The VCIR Winter 2011 conference will be held at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, Colorado, February 8-10 with promising growth companies participating from the Rocky Mountain region. The highlighted companies come from the clean technology, mobile, healthcare, advertising, telecommunications, and information technology industries.
“Even in a challenging economy, this year’s presenting companies demonstrate that great companies built on innovation are still being started and are growing,” said Michael Bearup, partner, KPMG LLP.
George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks will give this year’s opening keynote. As the company’s longest-tenured top executive, Bodenheimer’s strong focus on creativity, cutting-edge innovation and teamwork continues to be a driving force for success at ESPN and Disney Media Networks.
“The Rocky Mountain region continues to be a excellent place to create and operate new companies,” said Brian Wallace, chairman of VCIR and managing partner of Access Venture Partners, a Denver-based venture capital firm. “The VCIR Winter conference over the past decade has been a launching pad for many early-growth companies to receive funding from investors across the United States.
“A strong clean technology presence has erupted throughout the region and we are excited to be highlighting such an internationally popular industry,” he continued.
Due to an increased attendance of clean technology companies, this year’s conference will dedicate a track to provide clean energy focused attendees a simplified conference experience.
Clean Technology Track
· Albeo Technologies manufactures high quality, long-lasting LED lighting products for commercial and industrial facilities.
· Boulder Ionics creates ionic liquids to enable new classes of ultracapacitors and batteries for electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.
· INOTEC is an environmental biotechnology company providing solutions to remove metals and inorganics from water to deliver cleaner water using more effective systems that represent new, more economical concepts in water treatment.
· Inovus Solar is an outdoor street and area lighting company dedicated to engineering and manufacturing lighting products that utilize renewable energy and innovative technology.
· ITN Energy Systems is an energy company developing new methods and applications of thin-film battery technology for defense and commercial markets.
· Luca Technologies is a next‐generation energy company creating new sources for stable, long-term natural gas production by recycling existing oil and gas infrastructure and applying biotechnologies to access previously unrecoverable energy resources.
· Power Tagging Technologies is an energy technology company dedicated to improving the overall efficiency between energy providers and their end users by providing a real-time, schematic map of the electrical grid.
General Technology Track
· Alianza is a hosted voice platform company that enables wireless broadband operators to quickly deliver voice services and applications to residences, small-medium business, and enterprise customers.
· AventuraHQ is a software company that implements a hardware and software agnostic solution exclusively to hospitals to increase efficiency of EMRs at the point of care.
· Catheter Connections is a company that develops and commercializes innovative vascular access products designed to protect patients from acquiring infections during periods of intravenous infusion therapy.
· Giveo is a developer of the first hosted platform for branded, crowd-sourced cause-marketing campaigns and social fundraising. The SaaS-based marketing and campaign management platform enables highly personalized cause and fundraising campaigns, building greater brand and customer loyalty and creating stronger connections between organizations, their causes and their key audiences.
· GutCheck is a company pioneering a new category of market research by providing businesses with real-time feedback from their target customers through a do-it-yourself, qualitative online platform.
· Accurence is a software solution provider that makes the adjusting of claims more accurate, consistent, intelligent, and efficient using SETTLEASSIST, it’s proprietary on-site inspection and software-based decision-intelligence engine.
· mediaFORGE is a retargeting company creating measurable lift for online advertisers. We reengage website abandoners with personalized, interactive banner ads, thus creating revenue and results that would have otherwise been lost.
· MOSORO is a stealth company connecting Bluetooth enabled objects through smartphone apps to the Internet enabling new ways to interact with and monetize the objects around us.
· NextGen Storage provides network storage solutions that provide Quality of Service (“QoS”) for virtualized applications utilizing solid-state storage devices.
· Orbotix works with consumer electronics companies and developers to bring phone controlled open devices to market.
· Panoptic Security is a technology security company that specializes in PCI compliance programs for small and mid-size merchants, ISOs, Acquiring Banks and credit card processors.
· Radish Systems is improving the way businesses communicate with smart mobile device users through its ChoiceView technology platform, allowing visual information to be shared during a phone call with smart mobile device users and results in faster, more rewarding mobile communications.
The three-day conference is focused on both new companies and new ideas, as well as giving attendees a chance to network with over 300 investors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and service professionals.
About VCIR
Venture Capital in the Rockies (VCIR) is the region’s oldest and best attended venture capital conference and will hold its 28th annual VCIR Winter edition in Beaver Creek, Colorado in 2011. Along with the annual VCIR Fall conference, the two VCIR conferences encompass the premier venture investing conferences in the Rocky Mountain region and among the most respected venture conferences in the country. Creating a dynamic marketplace for ideas and investment, both editions of VCIR invites 35 to 40 companies seeking investment to present to panels of venture investors, as well as an audience of other entrepreneurs, CEOs and professionals servicing the venture community. More information can be found at www.vcirwinter.com
VCIR 2010 – Technology Showcase Panel Comments (Veverka, Primack, Cohen)
VCIR 2010 – Technology Showcase (BlipSnips and Prieto Battery)
VCIR 2010 – Technology Showcase (Hydraulic Hybrid and Grogger presentations)
VCIR 2010 – Technology Showcase Video (Intro and Pitch Engine)
VCIR 2010 – Dan Caruso’s Keynote Address
VCIR Video and Audio
I’m going to put up a series of posts with video and audio from the 2010 VCIR conference. This is the first year at the conference where we’ve made an effort to capture the sounds and images of the conference in a systematic way. Many thanks to Brian Patrick of On-Site Media for coming up to film the event. You can see Brian around town at various tech events and see many of the videos he captures at ColoradoTechTV. I’m also going to put up some video interviews conducted by VCIR’s media partner 104West who did a great job of helping us increase the media exposure for the event again this year.
The value of VCIR sponsorship
Bill Houston from VCIR sponsor ViaWest wrote us the note below about the value they’ve found in their long time sponsorship of VCIR.
ViaWest has been proud to support VCIR over the years as we see it as a critical component of our regional entrepreneurial community. But truth be told ViaWest has secured multiple partnerships with the presenting companies that have grown significantly with us. Bottom line, the money we have invested in VCIR represents just a very small fraction of what we have gained. Two thumbs up to any company that seeks to sponsor VCIR and desires to foster relationships with our regions brightest up and coming companies.
VCIR 2010 – Cool Energy
Cool Energy has developed an advanced-materials engine that converts heat to electricity. This low temperature engine is primarily used in solar applications (SolarFlow® System) and in waste heat recovery applications. The smart grid connected SolarFlow® System home energy system allows homeowners to cut their energy bills by as much as 75% and provides U.S. homeowners annual returns of up to 20%. Each installation emits zero pollution. The waste heat recovery application can be used with diesel generators, industrial processes and pellet stoves.
Market
Residential/Commercial—Target customers are owners of homes or commercial buildings in cold and reasonably sunny regions. Target regions in the US include the Northeast, Mid–Atlantic, Northern California, Rocky Mountain, Northwest and Midwest. International target markets include Canada, Northern European countries and Japan. The total addressable US residential market for the SolarHeart System is estimated at $1.2B. New home builds, commercial building installations, and exports more than double this total addressable market to exceed $3B.
Waste Heat—Using the wasted heat (exhaust and cooling fluid) from a diesel generator or microturbines, the SolarHeart Engine provides up to a 20% gain in power. For military and remote power applications where the effective fuel price can be as high as $15 per gallon, this new boost in efficiency is extremely valuable. Cool Energy has engaged in preliminary meetings with the Department of Defense and diesel generators manufacturers for validation and estimated market potential is $500M.
Management
¡ Dr. Samuel Weaver (Chairman, founder) has worked in the advanced materials industry for over 40 years and holds nine issued patents in the area of advanced materials. He has completed the sale Millennium Materials to Dyson Group PLC, and previous corporate sale of US Nuclear to Eagle–Picher.
¡ Sam P. Weaver (CEO/President, founder) has valuable sales, product development and engineering management experience (Network Photonics, InPhase Technologies, dBm Optics), as well as co–founding Colorado Photonics, and serves on the State of Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority board.
¡ Glenn Booth (VP, Marketing and Business Development) has deep experience in startup business development, marketing and engineering, bringing products to market with companies such as Boeing, Earthlink, Level 3 Communications, Vivato and Bay Networks/Nortel.
¡ Leslie Weise, (VP, Legal & Policy Affairs), LLM Environmental Law & Policy, has 20 years of business, policy and legal experience in the cleantech and semiconductor industries, including as corporate counsel for companies such as Applied Materials, Redback Networks, Honeywell and Xerox.
Financing
Cool Energy has been funded to date from $2.5M in private investment combined with $880k in grants (SBIR/NSF, DoE and State of Colorado). Cool Energy is seeking $3-5M that will cover beta/FCS units, testing and channel deployment.
