Start-Up Companies Court ‘Angels’ At Investment Fair Event Brings Together Companies Seeking Capital And Investors With Money To Spend

Boats, biological adhesion or something in between investors were tantalized with the prospects for new wealth at a forum concluding today at the Doubletree Hotel Spokane City Center.

Eight companies discussed their business plans and products during a succession of presentations to venture capitalists, specialists in private placement, and “angels” with the personal financial resources that enables them to take a flier on start-up businesses.

Each also had a booth in an adjoining exhibition area and one, Duckworth Boat Co., showed off a couple of its sleek aluminum jetboats in the parking lot.

Organizer Sam Hubbard characterized the meeting as a “festival of entrepreneurship” designed not just to connect new businesses with investors, but also to educate executives on what to expect as they grow their companies.

Economic development officials will get guidance as well on nurturing entrepreneurs, he said.

Hubbard is a principal of Helena-based Interwest Consulting, which provides strategic planning for young companies in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain states.

He said Interwest is an outgrowth of a Montana state government initiative of the mid-1980s to stimulate economic development with seed capital and some assistance with research and development.

The firm has sponsored several investment fairs in that state, but never in Spokane. Hubbard said the area could be fertile for entrepreneurs, despite what some in the area might think.

Companies participating in this week’s forum were selected from those who submitted executive summaries solicited through the mail and economic development groups.

Hubbard said companies had to have credible technology, sound market analysis and the nucleus of a competent management team.

“Add money and stir, that’s all we need,” said Marc Azure, president of Richland-based Redhawk Environmental Inc.

The company markets products with a variety of applications, from coatings to an anti-bacterial compound developed in South Korea.

Redhawk is looking for $400,000 to test, license and demonstrate technology abroad and in the U.S. Azure said the company could do $2 million in sales this year, $8 million in 1998.

Montana ImmunoTech Inc. wants $1.75 million to expand its work with technology based on biological adhesion - the processes that bind or repel cells.

Applications range from reducing inflammation to preventing heart attacks, said Vice President Robert Warwood, a former executive with Honeywell.

For example, he said, tests indicate the company’s flagship product - EL-246 - can cleanse E.Coli bacteria from the colon.

If fed to cattle, the animals could be rid of the disease before they reach the slaughterhouse, preventing incidents like the massive recall of hamburger by a Midwest meat-packer.

President John Jutila said the Spokane forum is the Bozeman company’s first effort to raise outside capital. So far, he said, Montana ImmunoTech has subsisted on fees for testing and other services to larger companies in the industry.

“We develop prototype products that we hand off to the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.

In 10 years, according to company projections, revenues could be $120 million.

, DataTimes