WSJ

Here's the article that came out this morning:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026438486636577.html

Lest you be confused by the two funds for which I'm associated, I am President of CEI Community Ventures Inc., a for-profit venture capital subsidiary of Coastal Enterprise Inc. and I am Managing General Partner of Clear Venture Partners, a fund-in-formation that is wholly unaffiliated with CEI Community Ventures, CEI or any of its affilaites.) The WSJ piece was done with my CEI identity rather than my Clear identity as the CEI fund was the entity with which Karen Mills was associated.

Media

WSJ called to interview me last week about small business policy. A Business Week's Small Biz Magazine reported called in relation to a panel session that she was leading for a coming ICIC conference "Inner City 100 Summit/Awards Dinner." And Mainebiz TV is interviewing me tomorrow morning for a coming show. This attention is doubtless due to my history with Karen Mills, who was part of my current fund's board since 2006.

New Markets Venture Capital refunding

For the past seven years, I've led a venture capital fund that is one of only six in the US to receive the license and funding from the SBA to operate a New Markets Venture Capital (NMVC) fund. The NMVC program was a Clinton administration initiative designed to drive capital into underserved communities in this country. Six funds were licensed, with more planned, but the Bush administration took away funding (after the 2000/2001 first round) and so, at present, there are only six NMVCs in the US. What's cool about this program is that it attempts to spread the catalytic impact of venture capital to parts of the country that haven't had the benefit of this source of funding. A Federal Reserve Bank of Boston newsletter pointed out that "fully two thirds of US venture capital investment takes place in five concentrated geographic areas (Silicon Valley, New England-primarily metro Boston, metro New York, Texas, and Los Angeles/Orange County), and the economic areas of the Silicon Valley and metro Boston accountfor nearly one-half of all investment." So, this SBA program was trying to address this disparity. Based on my experience running this program, I can say that--while a challenging to uncover opportunities in these markets--I believe that there are hidden gems throughout these so-called underserved markets. On March 12th, two of the original advocates (a democratic congress woman from WI and a republican congress man from KY) for the NMVC program proposed reauthorization and refunding. Seems like the current administration's priorities in light of the current market environment suggests (to me, in any event) that this is going to get a good hearing. If so, I'll be chasing that program for my new fund-in-formation, Clear Venture Partners, which will be targeting New England growth opportunities

New Mass High Tech article

As noted in my first post for this blog, I write for a half dozen or so New England area publications including Mass High Tech. Here's my latest column entitled "Of industry clusters, venture capital and the feds."

Writing

Just finished up a couple of articles, one (which will be out in a week or so) for Mainebiz on looking a New England as a regional economic block and one (which is slated for the Spring issue in May?) for Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Communities and Banking Magazine on a similar subject. Both tie in the notion of industry clusters, as I am unable to shut up about clusters in my writing (these would be my ninth and tenth articles written in the last 3 months for the many papers I write about clusters.)

Karen Mills' confirmation

I watched confirmation hearings for Karen Mills, the Director-elect of SBA. Karen had been part of my fund's board from 2006 prior to getting tapped for the big show. The hearing was nothing more than a gush-fest, a testament to Karen, as she got unanimous support from the committee. If you want to check out the hearing, go to http://www.sbc.senate.gov/hearings/20090401.cfm.

Watch for Karen to strut some of her industry cluster stuff, once she settled into her new office in DC.

Post-note...she was confirmed today.

Inaugural Blog

So, at long last, I'm blogging.



As you'll see from my profile, I'm a venture capital fund manager focused on secondary New England cities; a secondary cities--such as Hartford, Providence, Burlington--see far less capital, yet have real growth opportunities, as I expect to show by the performance of the fund I currently manage. Since 2001, I've been managing a venture capital fund that operates one of only six New Markets Venture Capital funds, an SBA initiative designed to drive capital into underserved communities; that fund--now fully invested--targeted early stage growth opportunities in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. My new fund-in-formation (Clear Venture Partners) is setting out to raise $50--75M to focus on early stage growth opportunities (initially in three sectors: clean tech, health and IT/web/new media) targeting all six New England states.



I've been remiss in not blogging earlier in large part because I spend a lot of time writing regular columns for traditional papers (Mainebiz, New Hampshire Business Review, Providence Business News, Business West, Mass High Tech) and less frequently contributing to other business newspapers and magazines (Worcester Business Journal, Vermont Business Magazine, Business New Haven and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Communities & Banking Magazine.) If you want to see all articles I've written, check out my web site (http://www.clearvcs.com/News/by_team.php.) where I've got the articles organized by theme. I also do a lot of live financing seminars (www.clearvcs.com/events) throughout New England.



In the interest of brevity, I'll highlight some things that interest me, both professionally and personally



- Industry clusters: As you'll see if you check out some of my more recent articles and seminars, I'm a believer in industry cluster theory as a basis for regional economic development. I was inspired to attend to this theory and practice by Karen Mills, who has been part of my fund's board for the past two years and has more recently been nominated is expected to be to confirmed by the Senate Committee on Small Business to head as Director the Small Business Administration. Karen was very active in Maine developing both cluster research and implementation throughout the state; my fund organized a specialty food cluster event, coordinating with Karen (who keynoted the event,) to catalyze a new cluster for this sector. I'm working to promote industry clusters throughout New England's secondary cities (check out the first of my cluster-financing events in Vermont this past February.)

- Mega Regions: I've recently gotten charged on the notion of looking at multi-state economic blocks that can enable many states, working cooperatively, to increase competitiveness of the region. Mega regional focus complements a state's own efforts to grow the economy within its borders.

- Early stage, value-added venture capital: As must be evident from my work, I'm a believer in the early stage venture capital, both to catalyze nascent ventures and to create opportunities for outstanding return for fund investors, not to mention the recipients and the states in which early stage companies reside. But, it's not just about the capital. Early stage venture investment, particularly in secondary cities, requires an active investor engagement. In the fund I've been managing since 2001, my partner and I have been incredibly active investors in a variety of ways: strategy development, business planning, financing strategy and syndication, board and management development, and marketing/branding and positioning for growth and capital access.

That's enough for this first post, so far as professional stuff goes.

Personally, here are a couple of things I care about:
- My family (wife and four, yes four, kids)
- Waldorf Education
- Healthy Living: natural and organic products
- Local living economies especially community supported agriculture
- Music: uptempo jazz, bluegrass, and folk
- Sports: little league baseball and basketball (my sons' interest); old guy basketball (so long as my knees hold up)