Tag Archive for 'georgia'

Angel Lounge Recap

Published on February 2, 2008 in Angels and Events. 2 Comments

I’ve been wrapped up in things lately and haven’t given as much attention to this blog as I did during the first 30 days (of course, this is only day 41 of this blog).  So I was happy to see that Scott Burkett wrote a nice wrap up piece from the recent Angel Lounge event.  It was a great event (thanks Scott, Mike, and Charlie!) and it was interesting to see who was at the table.  Even more interesting was the fact that I was the youngest guy (I think) in the room.  It makes me smile when that happens since it happens less and less nowadays.

I do want to comment on one part of Scott’s post though.  In soapbox mode, Scott says (emphasis is mine)

There was a brief discussion about some past efforts to try and do the same thing we’re shooting for - and that those efforts were not terribly successful. I will simply say this. “We” are not “they”. Whatever happened before us is largely irrelevant to me. Granted, we want to examine the reasons as to why those efforts were not effective, and we have.  But as I tell the folks that I work with professionally, I will almost always choose to look through the windshield, and not in the rear-view mirror.

But then, after soapbox mode, Scott says (again, emphasis is mine)

We will bring Atlanta/Georgia back to where it needs to be. It will take time, but we will do it.

Dangit Scott, you got trapped into the mindset you were just railing against.  The things you and other folks (and myself) are doing aren’t to get back to where things need to be and they definitely aren’t about being “like” the Valley, or Boston, or wherever.  What we’re all doing (at least I think and hope) is to make things better in Atlanta.  There are so many reasons that entrepreneurs should want to stay and start companies in Atlanta.  Heck, I think there are reasons that entrepreneurs should want to move to Atlanta from wherever and start companies.

So let’s not worry about trying to get Atlanta back to what it should have been or could have been or was.  Let’s figure out how we build a vibrant community that reflects the way we all want things to be so that we can all build and finance great companies right here.

Learn To Play Songs With iVideosongs

Published on February 1, 2008 in Startups and Venture Capital. 1 Comment

Here is another story of an Atlanta company that I’ve never heard of. Seriously, there is a lot of stuff going on in Atlanta. I haven’t had a chance to talk to anyone at iVideosongs yet but I thought I’d piece together some information for Bilgistic readers.

iVideosongs is an Alpharetta, Georgia based startup which recently had a presentation at the DEMO show. The service provides a video based medium for individuals to learn how to play popular songs. Most of the lessons that iVideosongs has are centered around an acoustic guitar. There do seem to be some lessons for the drums, electric guitar, piano, and even a few for the banjo! From what I can tell though, there really isn’t a reason why this couldn’t be expanded to other instruments. Although as a cello player (I haven’t touched one in years though), I’m not sure if video instruction would work for me. But it sure would be interesting to be taught (even if only by video) a song by someone like Yo-Yo Ma or Itzhak Perlman (for the violin, not cello). I can definitely see the value for musicians who are a lot more serious about playing music than I am.

The big question though is are musicians going to be willing to pay for video instruction from a site like this. Pricing seems to be around the $5-10 range. Is that a price point that makes this attractive to folks? Only if these tutorials are that much better than buying sheet music (which, I think, are cheaper than this price point - but I haven’t bought sheet music in decades, so I don’t know). But based on some of the comments from the iVideosongs blog (assuming at least a portion aren’t friends/family of the company founders), these guys might be onto something.

This is especially true since I don’t know of anyone offhand doing this although the DEMO site mentions competitors Now Play It and Workshop Live. Note that Now Play It is apparently England based since their prices range from £1.99 to £3.99. On the other hand, Workshop Live is based in Pittsfield, MA and appear to have just done a new funding round (which hasn’t apparently been announced).

Watch the video below (if you’re reading this in a feedreader, you may need to link to the site to see the video) for the presentation that iVideosongs CEO Tim Huffman did at DEMO. Pretty well executed and having John Oates (of Hall & Oates fame) for the wrap up was definitely a winner.

Okay, So Maybe It Isn’t That Bad

Published on January 17, 2008 in Events and Venture Capital. 0 Comments

Georgia Gov. Sonny PerdueOkay, so I take back some of what I’ve said. I dug into the legislative agenda coming from Governor Purdue (thanks to Georgia Legislative Watch for the file). In terms of the venture capital fund, this is what it says:

Create the Georgia Research Alliance venture capital initiative: add $5M to $5M of existing funds to create the GRA venture capital fund that will be attached to ATDC under the Board of Regents. This fund will help technology that is developed in our research universities become commercialized. In exchange for investing in these companies, Georgia will receive equity in the company. The $10M of state dollars will be matched by $30M of private dollars to create a total of $40M venture capital fund.

ATDCSo the first good thing I see here is the fact that the money will be attached to ATDC. Thank goodness. ATDC has been around for quite some time but lately they’ve revved up their engine and been doing a lot of good things and supporting a lot of great events.

The only bummer that remains is that if you aren’t doing a technology coming out of a research university (so that would be Georgia Tech, Georgia State, UGA, and probably a few others) then this pool of money is out of reach for you. The description doesn’t limit to just life sciences which I thought might be the case based on Governor Perdue’s remarks.

The other interesting thing in the agenda is this tidbit:

Promote Georgia as an internationally known Bioscience hub: $375,000 to fund the state of Georgia sponsorship of BIO 2009, the global event for biotechnology, with an anticipated attendance of more than 20,000.

Well, that’s pretty interesting. I found the local site for the conference (May 17-20, 2009). I’m assuming the official site will go up at some point. This year’s conference is in San Diego (June 17-20, 2008). I don’t know ifthis will really help spur any more innovative development in Georgia but it will help expose the innovation happening here to the rest of the world and expose people here to innovation happening elsewhere. That alone will be a win.

Gov. Perdue’s State of the State

Published on January 17, 2008 in Venture Capital. 1 Comment

Following up on Governor Perdue’s announcement at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to create a venture capital fund for commercializing research coming out of Georgia colleges, here is a relevant snippet from yesterday’s State of the State address.

I announced yesterday that Georgia, along with our private sector partners, will invest $40 million for venture capital to commercialize research in areas like biosciences and medicine coming out of our universities. Friends, Georgia will lead the way as a global center for health.

So from this, it sounds like the focus will not only be solely on research out of Georgia colleges but also with a focus on life sciences.  I guess everything will be a lot clearer once legislation starts making its way through the system but this is turning out to be a bigger bummer than I thought.

GRA’s New Venture Fund

Published on January 16, 2008 in Venture Capital. 4 Comments

Georgia Research AllianceSigh. I read this story and again, I got excited. Until I dug into the details. Don’t get me wrong, I think more investment is a great thing. I just wish this didn’t have and funding restrictions.

The gist of the story is that the Georgia Research Alliance is going to set up a venture fund to provide early stage financing to startups. The state will provide $10 million and be matched by $30 million by the private sector. So a total of $40 million available for investment.

The problem (for me) is this caveat:

“The intent of the fund is to grow sustainable Georgia-based companies,” said Mike Cassidy, GRA’s president. “The technology has to have been originated in one of Georgia’s research universities.”

Gah! The reasoning behind this?

“Georgia starts with a very limited amount of venture capital capacity,” Cooper said. “Our reason for doing this is to encourage research and let the universities and their researchers know that there will be financing for their innovations. That will help create jobs.”

Really? Researchers at our colleges won’t do research if they aren’t sure their ideas won’t get funded? Is that really the reason that researchers do research at colleges - to build funded companies? I mean, the title you’ve given them is “researcher”. What will they do otherwise? I just don’t get it. The first part of the quote is right on track but then everything just derails after that.

The other thing I learned was this tidbit:

This is not the first time the GRA has backed a venture capital fund. In 1994, Alliance Technology Ventures was launched to invest in new Georgia technology companies.

In case you missed it, I recently wrote a post on ATV. I had no idea the GRA was involved in ATV’s formation. What doesn’t make sense is why ATV was allowed to fold when the GRA knew that they were advancing this initiative. That is pretty puzzling.  Perhaps the GRA doesn’t want a traditional VC structure around this fund.  There aren’t any details in the article so it’s hard to tell.

Scott Burkett is a bit more positive than me. Maybe I’m just being grumpy and should be happy for whatever we can get.  My belief is that by artificially restricting access to funding like this will inevitably lead to less than stellar returns and give folks a reason to point and say that you need harsher terms in Georgia and/or there aren’t any good deals in Georgia.  Both of which we know aren’t true.