And smoked pot I would pay someone to tote it around for me.
No wonder the Falcons can’t put audibles in the playbook.
Preparing for an M&A Exit
In partnership with Morris, Manning and Croft & Bender, the ATDC is putitng on an event called “Preparing for an M&A Exit: Practical Advice for Technology Entrepreneurs from Experienced Executives & Advisors.” Some of Atlanta’s most respected legal advisors, investment banking firms, and entrepreneurs who have recently sold their companies will be part of the program.
Panelists will include Doug Guess, Steve Hufford, Glenn McGonnigle, Said Mohammadioun, and John Yates.
In addition to getting great advice from highly respected entrepreneurs, you will also learn about current M&A trends, including recent technology sector transactions, what you can do to be prepared at all times for an M&A exit, and how to work with M&A advisors to better manage the transaction and maximize the value of your company.
The event is Thursday January 25 from 7:15am to 10:00am in the TSRB auditorium. The official address is 85 Fifth Street, Atlanta 30308
If you are interested in attending please RSVP to events at atdc dot org by Friday, January 19.
It should be a good show!
Open Marriages
One of the not written but much spoken policies at the ATDC is that we do not let competitive companies into the incubator. Since I joined last October I have questioned the wisdom of this from time to time.
Just because a particular entrepreneur comes to us first should not necessarily preclude another with a good concept and plan from joining I have said on more than one occasion. After all our job is to help entrepreneurs launch and build great companies and in the process increase the Georgia technology base. The more the merrier. Right?
Union Square Ventures has explained why they don’t invest in competitive companies.
Their logic has me rethinking mine.
GRA TAG Business Competition
Seems to be the season of the business plan competition.
The Georgia Research Alliance and Technology Association of Georgia have announced the GRA/TAG 2007 Business Launch Competition.
They are awarding a $100,000 cash prize plus a suite of services valued at $150,000. Instructions to apply are here. Applications are due February 19.
I participated last year as an entrepreneur. It was a great experience and this is a great program. GRA and TAG have asked the ATDC to partner with them on this program. As a result I will be judging some of the preliminary submissions. My advice is to use the template on the ATDC web site for your preliminary executive summary.
For reasons that I don’t quite understand, submissions are limited to companies with financial service and supply chain managment technologies. In my mind we should just be looking for the biggest opportunities.
And somebody please remind me to place the disclaimer that the views represented on this blog are my own in one of the side bars real soon.
Long Weekend
Gwinnett Innovation Challenge
The folks up in Gwinnett have put together a nice little business plan competition called the Gwinnett Innovation Challenge 2007.
They have a prize package of over $100,000 that will be split between a seed stage and growth stage company. $45,000 of the prize is cash. Like Marc said “money is money.” I suppose free services are money too.
The only restriction is that the entrant must demonstrate a connection to Gwinnett County, as a result of being located there or having a member of the management or business plan team living, working or attending school in Gwinnett.
It looks pretty easy to enter and the deadline to do so is March 11.
Cisco Suit
According to a blog post by Mark Chandler, Cisco’s general counsel, it is all about interoperability.
This Is Why Technorati Sucks
I, an advanced Internet user of 12 years has to inbed this link in my blog to "claim" it.
Not very a very efficient clean process now is it?
Below are the Technorati advacned instructions:
Template Editing Instructions
If you can (and want to) edit your blog HTML and add a javascript to your blog, please follow the below instructions:
Add the following code to your blog’s homepage template, perhaps in a nice sidebar.
I am quite sure that if I took the time I could, but why should I have to?
Someone please build an automated authority on the Live Web.
One that you do not have to manually ping with every post.
Update: The process returned this error:
Sorry, we could’t connect to your blog host. Please try again later. Need a hand? Visit the FAQ.
When the same thing happened in October I opened a ticket and never heard from Technorati.
Money is Money
Tino Mantella has put together a pretty good series of speakers in 2007 for the TAG Entrepreneurial Forum. This morning Marc Fleury spoke on the Art of a Company Sale.
A little more specifically he talked about the growth of JBoss from being founded in an office at his in-laws to the sale to Red Hat last April for $350 million.
Marc said that the decision to sell was essentially an NPV exercise and offered these words of advice:
1. With SOX the pendulum has swung too far. The cost to get SOX compliant would have cost JBoss $2 million and would have decreased his companies worth by $20 million. Not worth it. He thinks that acquisitions, or going public on a foreign exchange such as London or Dubai are the best ways to go. The mention of DFIX brought a few laughs. Which prompted Marc to say “money is money.” Sure is.
2. While it is hard to do, though becoming more common, take some money off the table in your VC rounds. It helps you to keep your cool in the heat of the deal. Jay Chaudhry has the same philosophy.
3. Going public would have actually decreased Jboss’ ability to invest in growth. They could have gotten out, but they could not have invested the proceeds it in a way to maximize the company’s value.
Update: According to Haynie Mark has left Red Hat.
Tag: My 5 Things
Gee Scott, I thought Hugh killed this thing. : )
The meme is five things you may not know about me. Let me give it a whirl.
1. I have no middle name. Mike McQuary actually gave me a middle nick name some time ago. You see there was this guy named Rick Balter that was a customer of mine. Rick was straight out of The Sapranos. Lived in Jersey. A little emotional. One time Rick asked me for something and I said no. Rick got upset and called me a not so nice word that starts with a C. Ever since McQ would address all notes to me “LCW”. They oughta take the rest of Rick’s story and turn it into a Sopranos episode. You gotta read it. I could be swimming with fishes.
2. I am left handed. My dad actually trained me to be left handed so I would be better at baseball. This only led to really bad handwriting and right brain/left brain balance. I am an analytical creative.
3. I met my wife when my b-school roommate brought her home for dinner.
4. I have been to the Super Bowl four times, nine World Series, and the Final Four twice. I am going to Daytona for the first time this year.
5. I don’t believe in chain letters.
And even though I don’t I am passing this on to:
Dave Coustan the EarthLing
Jeff Haynie of Hakano
Joe Reger at Dneero
SJ the Mom over at Give Me The Booger
Those are all I know that have not been tagged at this point.
Forgive me for my sin.