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Second Venture Press Releases-
To register for the next Florida Venture Capital Breakfast on Wed. September 10th in Fort Lauderdale, please click here:
http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=13&refer=2vweb-efl2
Posted on Mon, May. 12, 2003
Experts at FundingPost.com upbeat about start-ups
BEA GARCIA
It was the same story all over again.
The first-quarter Money Tree survey, done by PricewaterhouseCoopers Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association and released earlier this month, showed more mature companies in Florida picking up the bulk of the $24.9 million doled out by venture funds.
Little trickled down to early-stage players. Only one of the 10 deals done in the first quarter was first-round funding.
Worse yet, the amount raised by Florida companies was the smallest since 1995 when PwC began doing its quarterly surveys.
Still, four experts gathered by the FundingPost.com didn't present an entirely bleak outlook for venture investing.
''There's never been a better time to start a company,'' Bruce Foerster, managing director of South Beach Capital in Miami, an investment bank that works with Florida companies on debt and equity placement.
Foerster says capital is available, but entrepreneurs have to be smart and focused to tap into any source of funds.
Douglas Beekman, a senior associate with Advantage Capital in Tampa, says the ideal investment for a venture fund these days is ''a company that can be self-sustaining at the mom-and-pop level, needing the fresh capital for expansion.''
The four experts, which also included Matthew Cole, a partner with North Bay Equity Partners in Miami Beach and Terry Temescu, a founding partner at Lyric Capital in West Palm Beach, agreed the traditional public offering route probably isn't available to most VCs these days.
The only other exit is the sale of the company.
Foerster expects that many firms might not want to consider going public to raise more capital, even after they've reached a certain level of maturity. He believes more complex securities laws -- such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed last year to crack down on corporate wrongdoing -- might compel some entrepreneurs to keep their firms in the private realm.
Besides, Foerster says there are private equity funds with capital for deals. But they're all chasing too few good deals.
The FundingPost.com, part of the Second Venture family of companies, is a New York-based for-profit group that aims to bring young companies and angel and venture investors together.
The breakfast last week, sponsored by Morgan Lewis Bockius, was the FundingPost.com's first event in the Southeast.
FundingPost was pleased with the more than 100 people who turned out on a bleak, rainy morning to hear what the four funding experts had to say. The group plans to test the Atlanta market next.
FundingPost expects to host another gathering in Florida in early 2004. So far, the FundingPost's events have been held in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Many in the audience were entrepreneurs eager to learn how best to tap investor funding for their early-stage companies.
To register for the next Florida Venture Capital Breakfast on Wed. September 10th in Fort Lauderdale, please click here:
http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=13&refer=2vweb-efl2
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