Venture Capital Focus Of Forum Groups Want To Bring Start-Up Businesses And Investors Together
A common complaint from Spokane entrepreneurs concerns the lack of local investment cash for high-tech start-ups.
This month a pair of area forums are scheduled to tackle that issue and try to bring capital-hungry technology companies in touch with regional investors.
The first forum, slated for the evening of Oct. 14 at the Bayou Brewery, is an outgrowth of the Greater Spokane Area Symposium Series - three economic development focus sessions held this summer. A reception to kick off the event starts at 5 p.m.
The event is being organized by two symposium “work groups” and is sponsored by local business organizations including the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.
The event, called “The ABCs of Venture Capital,” will feature a panel discussion with Ron Johnson and Peter Allison, principals of Allison, Johnson Venture Partners; and Ron Anderson, a partner in a new, $1 million investment company called Spokane Regional Venture Associates.
A second investment gathering is scheduled for the evening of Oct. 19 in downtown Spokane. The event is being hosted by TechNet, a local business group, and will be invitation only. Four companies are expected to make investment pitches to accredited investors. Between 50 and 75 have been invited.
Dave Lenartz, co-chairman of TechNet and CEO of Byte Dynamics, a local software developer, said his company will be one of the presenters.
The others, Lenartz said, are World Wide Packets, Bernard Daines’ latest start-up; Advanced Hardware Architecture of Pullman; and Visiontec, a Spokane Valley contract manufacturer.
Jim Simmons, president of ICM Asset Management, a Spokane firm the manages $2 billion in pension and foundation funds, is the event’s main organizer.
“The goal we have is to establish some kind of regularity … a sense that there is an evolution in the Spokane market” with regard to start-up investing, Simmons said.
Simmons wants to hold a venture capital event every two months.