When Simpson ventures far afield

Tom Simpson, managing partner, Northwest Venture Associates, a Spokane-based venture-capital firm that invests in software, communications and consumer businesses in the Pacific Northwest. The firm’s Web site is www.nwva.com.

“News sites I visit: Spokesmanreview.com and the Web sites of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times.

“To track events in the venture world, I visit John Cook’s Post-Intelligencer Venture Blog: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/.It provides very up-to-date information on all the emerging companies in the Northwest, the venture funds based in the region and the personalities behind the scenes.

“Other business sites I frequent: AOL Money for business news and to track personal investments. Schwab’s online research; you need an account to access that site.

“Personal fun sites: Ironman.com, just to stay current in the world of triathlons.

“YouTube.com. If a conference call is getting long in the tooth, I visit YouTube.com and watch one or two of the newly featured videos (with volume turned down low).