Event brings entrepreneurs, venture capitalists face to face

During the venture capital conference at the Hyatt in downtown Greenville Thursday, Gov. Mark Sanford, standing, greets from left, Barry Newkirk, of Intellectual Capitol in Greenville, Neil McLean of Columbia, representing Engenuity, and Sigmund Mosley Jr. of Atlanta who is president of Imlay Investments, Inc. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story to a friend

"The organizers need to pat themselves on the back," said Kathy Harris, senior vice president for business development with Noro-Moseley Partners, an Atlanta venture capital firm.

But Harris and other venture capitalists at the InnoVenture 2004 conference also warned that building the infrastructure for successful start-up companies is a long-term process.

"This really is early innings in a long game," Wayne L. Hunter, a managing partner in the Richmond, Va., office of Harbert Management Corp., said during a panel discussion at the close of the conference.

Gov. Mark Sanford delivered the keynote speech, touting what he characterized as South Carolina's pro-business climate.

"I really invite you to look hard at our state," Sanford said to the visiting firms.

For Clemson University student Malay Deshpande, the conference was a learning experience.

Deshpande, 26, has nearly completed a master's degree in bioengineering and plans to enroll in Clemson's master's of business administration program. He wants to work in the biotechnology industry for a few years, then start his own company.

"The presentations, some of them have been very good," Deshpande said. "Some of them I really liked, some of them I didn't. But overall, it's been a very informative conference."

The conference, held at the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown, was designed to match venture capital firms with entrepreneurs in South Carolina and Western North Carolina.

Nine "early stage" companies chosen by a selection committee, including two from Greenville, software maker Vigilix and point-of-sale advertiser World NarrowCasting, made presentations in hopes of drawing investor interest.

Organizers hope the event will help ease what they say is a significant problem for South Carolina entrepreneurs — a dearth of venture capital, compared with some other states. They're planning to repeat the conference next spring and add a second conference next fall to match entrepreneurs with so-called "angel" investors, wealthy individuals willing to invest in startup ventures.

Both conferences will be held annually in Greenville, said local businessman Todd Korahais, chairman of the Upstate Coalition for Entrepreneurial Development. That organization hosted Thursday's conference along with the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce and the South Carolina Investor Network.

Numerous companies, including The Greenville News, sponsored the event. It sold out earlier this week, with 300 people paying $125 each to attend.

Harris said Noro-Moseley Partners is as eager to invest in South Carolina as Georgia, but that most of the companies she saw Thursday are younger than those her firm typically funds.

"But our preference is to get to know companies early, so when that time comes, we will have already gotten up the learning curve," she said. "So it was time well spent."

Harris and other venture capitalists dined with the presidents of South Carolina's three research universities Wednesday evening during a preconference event. There they learned about research at the universities that has the potential to create spin-off companies.